MACD. And I must be from thence! My wife kill'd too? I have said.

ROSSE.

MAL.

Be comforted:

Let's make us med'cines of our great revenge,

To cure this deadly grief.

MACD. He has no children.-All my pretty ones?
Did you say, all ?-O, hell-kite!-All?

What, all my pretty chickens, and their dam,
At one fell swoop?

MAL. Dispute it like a man.
MACD.

I shall do so;

220

But I must also feel it as a man:

I cannot but remember such things were,

That were most precious to me.-Did heaven look on,
And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff,
They were all struck for thee! naught that I am,
Not for their own demerits, but for mine,

Fell slaughter on their souls: Heaven rest them now.
MAL. Be this the whetstone of your sword: let grief
Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it.

MACD. O, I could play the woman with mine eyes, 230
And braggart with my tongue !-But gentle heavens,
Cut short all intermission; front to front,

Bring thou this fiend of Scotland, and myself;
Within my sword's length set him; if he 'scape,
Heaven forgive him too!

MAL.
This time goes manly.
Come, go we to the king; our power is ready;
Our lack is nothing but our leave: Macbeth

Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above

Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may; The night is long that never finds the day. [Exeunt. 240

216 He has no children. Had Macbeth had children, he could not have done it. Cp. Hen. VI. Act v. Sc. 5"You have no children, butchers: if you had The thought of them would have stirred up remorse.' 225 Naught that I am. Worthless that I am. 235 This time goes manly.

This tune has a manly sound.

ACT V.

SCENE I.-Dunsinane. A Room in the Castle. Enter a Doctor of Physic, and a waiting Gentlewoman. DOCT. I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walked?

GENT. Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon 't, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep.

9

DOCT. A great perturbation in nature! to receive at once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching. -In this slumbery agitation, besides her walking and other actual performances, what, at any time, have you heard her say?

GENT. That, sir, which I will not report after her.

DOCT. You may, to me; and 't is most meet you should. GENT. Neither to you, nor any one; having no witness to confirm my speech.

Enter LADY MACBETH, with a taper.

21

Lo you, here she comes! This is her very guise; and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her: stand close. DOCT. How came she by that light?

GENT. Why, it stood by her: she has light by her continually; 't is her command.

DOCT. You see, her eyes are open.
GENT. Ay, but their sense is shut.

II To receive at . the benefit of sleep. Such sleep is unrefreshing (pace Doctoris).

27 'Tis her command. 'Light must be left beside her continually,' says Dr. Bucknill- 'was this to avert the presence of those sightless substances" once impiously invoked?' (Act i. Sc. 5.) She seems washing her hands, and 'continues in this a quarter of an hour.' What a comment on her former boast, a little water clears us of this deed."

66

28 Her eyes are open. As in Millais' picture of 'the Sleepwalker.'

DOCT. What is it she does now? Look how she rubs her hands.

31

GENT. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands. I have known her continue in

this a quarter of an hour.

LADY M. Yet here's a spot.

DOCT. Hark, she speaks: I will set down what comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly. 38 LADY M. Out, damned spot! out, I say!-One; Two: Why, then 't is time to do't:-Hell is murky !—Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him!

DOCT. Do you mark that?

LADY M. The thane of Fife had a wife; Where is she now?-What, will these hands ne'er be clean?-No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that you mar all with this starting.

50

DOCT. Go to, go to; you have known what you should

not.

GENT. She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that Heaven knows what she has known.

LADY M. Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh! oh! oh!

DOCT. What a sigh is there! charged.

The heart is sorely

60

GENT. I would not have such a heart in my bosom, for the dignity of the whole body.

DOCT. Well, well, well,—

GENT. 'Pray God, it be, sir.

DOCT. This disease is beyond my practice: Yet I have known those which have walked in their sleep who have died holily in their beds.

LADY M. Wash your hands, put on your night-gown; look not so pale :-I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he cannot come out on 's grave.

DOCT. Even so?

71

LADY M. To bed, to bed; there's knocking at the gate.

47 The thane of Fife. Macduff; she thinks of the last murders.

Come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What's done cannot be undone; To bed, to bed, to bed.

DOCT. Will she go now to bed?
GENT. Directly.

[Exit LADY MACBETH.

DOCT. Foul whisperings are abroad: Unnatural deeds Do breed unnatural troubles: Infected minds

To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.
More needs she the divine than the physician.
God, God, forgive us all! Look after her;
Remove from her the means of all annoyance,
And still keep eyes upon her :-So, good night:
My mind she has mated, and amaz'd my sight:
I think, but dare not speak.
GENT.

Good night, good doctor.

80

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-The Country near Dunsinane.

Enter, with drum and colours, MENTETH, CATHNESS, ANGUS, LENOX, and Soldiers.

MENT. The English power is near, led on by Malcolm, His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff.

Revenges burn in them: for their dear causes

Would, to the bleeding and the grim alarm,
Excite the mortified man.

ANG.

Near Birnam wood

Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming.
CATH. Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?
LEN. For certain, sir, he is not: I have a file

Of all the gentry: there is Siward's son,
And many unrough youths, that even now
Protest their first of manhood.

MENT.

What does the tyrant?

IO

86 She has mated-terrified me. The word seems connected with the German 'matt,' meaning nearly 'unstrung:''mated or stark mad,' is used in the Taming of the Shrew.

2 His uncle Siward. According to the chronicle Duncan had married a daughter of Siward, who was therefore Malcolm's grandfather.

5 The mortified man. Their deep-felt injuries would incite the veriest ascetic to face the alarm and blood of war. Love's Labour Lost, i. 1, 28.

CATH. Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies : Some say he 's mad; others, that lesser hate him, Do call it valiant fury: but, for certain,

He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause

Within the belt of rule.

ANG.
Now does he feel
His secret murthers sticking on his hands;
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach;
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love: now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.

MENT.

Who then shall blame
His pester'd senses to recoil, and start,
When all that is within him does condemn
Itself, for being there?

CATH.

Well, march we on,

To give obedience where 't is truly ow'd:

Meet we the medicin of the sickly weal ;
And with him pour we, in our country's purge,
Each drop of us.

LEN.

Or so much as it needs,

20

30

To dew the sovereign flower, and drown the weeds.
Make we our march towards Birnam. [Exeunt, marching.

SCENE III.-Dunsinane. A Room in the Castle.

Enter MACBETH, Doctor, and Attendants.

MACB. Bring me no more reports; let them fly all;
Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane,

I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm ?
Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know
All mortal consequences have pronounc'd me thus :
"Fear not, Macbeth; no man that's born of woman
Shall e'er have power upon thee." Then fly, false thanes,

16 Within the belt of rule. He cannot keep his disaffected partisans to their obedience.

18 Minutely revolts. Revolts every minute.

27 The medicin. The physician; Malcolm. So Winter's Tale, Act iv. Sc. 3

"Camillo .

the medicin of our house." 29 Each drop of us. And let us join here in shedding every drop of our life to purge our country.