would not, it were a good sign that I should quickly have a new father. L. Macd. Poor prattler! how thou talk'st. Enter a Messenger. Mess. Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known, Though in your state of honour I am perfect. I doubt, some danger does approach you nearly: you will take a homely man's advice, If Be not found here; hence, with your little ones. L. Macd. Whither should I fly? Heaven preserve you! [Exit Messenger. I have done no harm. But I remember now Accounted dangerous folly: Why then, alas! To say, I have done no harm ?-What are these faces? Mur. Where is your husband? L. Macd: I hope, in no place so unsanctified, Where such as thou may'st find him. Mur. He's a traitor. Son. Thou ly'st, thou shag-ear'd villain. Mur. What, you egg? Young fry of treachery? Son. He has killed me, mother: Run away, I pray you. [Stabbing him. [Dies. [Ex. L. MACD. crying murder, and pursued SCENE III. by the Murderers. England. A Room in the King's Palace. Enter MALCOLM and MACDUff. Mal. Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there Weep our sad bosoms empty. Macd. Let us rather Hold fast the mortal sword; and, like good men, [8] To do worse is to let her and her children be destroyed without warning. JOHNSON. Bestride our down-fall'n birthdom:9 Each new morn, As if it felt with Scotland, and yell'd out Mal. What I believe, I'll wail; What know, believe; and, what I can redress, What you have spoke, it may be so, perchance. You may deserve of him through me; and wisdom To appease an angry god. Macd. I am not treacherous. Mal. But Macbeth is. A good and virtuous nature may recoil, In an imperial charge. But 'crave your pardon; Macd. I have lost my hopes. Mal. Perchance, even there, where I did find my doubts, Why, in that rawness* left you wife, and child, (Those precious motives, those strong knots of love,) Without leave-taking ?-I pray you, Let not my jealousies be your dishonours, [9] The allusion is to a man from whom something valuable is about to be taken by violence, and who, that he may defend it without incumbrance, lays it on the ground, and stands over it with his weapon in his hand. Our birthdom, or birthright, says he, lies on the ground; let us, like men who are to fight for what is dearest to them, not abandon it, but stand over it and defend it. This is a strong picture of obstinate resolution." JOHNSON. [1] The portents and prodigies in the skies, of which mention is made before, showed that heaven sympathised with Scotland. WARBURTON. [2] That is, and 'tis wisdom. HEATH. [3] The meaning perhaps is this:-My suspicions cannot injure you, if you be virtuous, by supposing that a traitor may put on your virtuous appearance. I do not say that your virtuous appearance proves you a traitor; for virtue must wear its proper form, though that form be counterfeited by villany. JOHNSON. [4] Rawness-without previous provision, without due preparation, without maturity of counsel. JOHNSON But mine own safeties :-You may be rightly just, Macd. Bleed, bleed, poor country! Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure, For goodness dares not check thee! wear thou thy wrongs, Thy title is affeer'd !-Fare thee well, lord: I would not be the villain that thou think'st Mal. Be not offended: I speak not as in absolute fear of you. Macd. What should he be ? Mal. It is myself I mean: in whom I know That, when they shall be open'd, black Macbeth Macd. Not in the legions Of horrid hell, can come a devil more damn'd Mal. I grant him bloody, [5] Affeer'd, a law term for confirm'd. POPE. To affeer (for so it should be written) is to assess, or reduce to certainty. All amerciaments-that is, judgments of any court of justice, upon a presentment or other proceeding, that a party shall be amerced, or in mercy, are by Magna Charta to be affeered by lawful men, sworn to be impartial. This is the ordinary practice of a Court Leet, with which Shakespeare seems to have been intimately acquainted, and where he might have occasionally acted as an affeerer. RITSON. [6] This conference of Malcolm with Macduff is taken out of the chronicles of Scotland. POPE. That has a name: But there's no bottom, none, All continent impediments would o'er-bear, Macd. Boundless imtemperance In nature is a tyranny; it hath been As will to greatness dedicate themselves, Mal. With this, there grows, I king, Macd. This avarice Sticks deeper; grows with more pernicious root Of your mere own: All these are portable, Mal. But I have none: The king-becoming graces, [7] The allusion is to plants: and the sense is," Avarice is a perennial weed: it has a deeper and more pernicious root than lust, which is but a mere annual, and BLACKSTONE. lasts but for a summer, when it sheds its seed and decays." [8] Foysons, plenty. POPE. Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, All unity on earth. Macd. O Scotland! Scotland! Mal. If such a one be fit to govern, speak : I am as I have spoken. Macd. Fit to govern! No, not to live.-O nation miserable, When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again? By his own interdiction stands accurs'd, And does blaspheme his breed?-Thy royal father Died every day she lived. Fare thee well! Mal. Macduff, this noble passion, Child of integrity, hath from my soul Wip'd the black scruples, reconcil'd my thoughts No less in truth, than life: my first false speaking Now we'll together; And the chance, of goodness, |