Himself best knows: but strangely visited people,| The healing benediction. With this strange virtue, And sundry blessings hang about his throne, Enter Rosse. Macd. See, who comes here? Mal. My countryman ; but yet I know him not. Macd. What concern they? The general cause? or is it a fee-grief”, Rosse. No mind, that's honest, 5 But in it shares some woes; though the main part Pertains to you alone. Macd. If it be mine, Keep it not from me, quickly let me have it. Rosse. Let not your ears despise my tongue for ever, 10 Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound, That ever yet they heard. Macd. Hum! I guess at it. [babes, Rosse. Your castle is surpriz'd; your wife, and Savagely slaughter'd: to relate the manner, Mal. I know him now: Good God, betimes re- 15 Were, on the quarry' of these murder'd deer The means that make us strangers! Rosse. Sir, amen. [move Macd. The tyrant has not batter'd at their peace? leave them. [goes it Mal. Be it their comfort, We are coming hither: gracious England hath Rosse. 'Would I could answer This comfort with the like! But I have words, 20 To add the death of you. Mal. Merciful beaven! What, man! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows; Rosse. Wife, children, servants, all Macd. And I must be from thence! |25|My wife kill'd too? Rosse. I have said. Mal. Be comforted: Let's make us med'cines of our great revenge, 30 Macd. He has no children.-All my pretty ones? 35 40 45 Mal. Dispute it like a man. But I must also feel it as a man: Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it. Mal. This tune goes manly. Come, go we to the king; our power is ready; 1 Meaning the coin called an angel, the value of which was ten shillings. i. e. common. * Το doff is to do off, to put off. The folio reads latch them, and perhaps rightly, as to latch (in the North country dialect) signifies the same as to catch. A grief that hath a single owner. • Quarry is a term used both in hunting and falconry, and in both sports it means either the game that is pursued, or the game after it is killed. Swoop is the descent of a bird of prey on his game. i. e. contend with your sorrow like a inan. i. e. all pause. i. e. encourage us their instruments against the tyrant. АСТ SCENE I. ACT 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 it, read it, afterwards seal 10 it, and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep. Doct. A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching.—In this slumbry agitation, besides her 15 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 'tis most meet you should. Gent. Neither to you, nor any one; having no witness to confirm my speech. 201 Enter Lady Macbeth with a Taper. Lo you, here she comes! This is her very guise; and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her; 25 stand close. Doct. How came she by that light? Gent. Why, it stood by her; she has light by her continually; 'tis her command. Doct. You see, her eyes are open. Doct. What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands. 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. 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? the heart is sorely charg'd. 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 walk'd in their sleep, who have died holily in their beds. Lady. Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not so pale:-I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he cannot come out of his grave. Doct. Even so? Lady. To bed, to bed; there's knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come, give me your hand; What's done, cannot be undone: To bed, to bed, to bed. [Exit Lady. Doct. Will she go now to bed? [deeds Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad: Unnatural Gent. It is an accustom'd action with her, to seem thus washing her hands; I have known her 35 continue in this a quarter of an hour. Lady. Yet here's a spot. Doct. Hark, she speaks: I will set down what comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly. 40 Lady. Out, damn'd spot! out, I say!-One; Two; Why, then 'tis time to do't;-Hell is murky'!-Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afraid? what need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?-Yet who would have 45 thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? Doct. Do you mark that? Lady. The thane of File had a wife; Where is she now?-What, will these hands ne'er be 50 clean?-No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that: you mar all with this starting. Gent. Good night, good doctor. [Exeunt. SCENE II. 1 Mr. Steevens with great acuteness observes on this passage, that Lady Macbeth is acting over in a dream the business of the murder of Duncan, and encouraging her husband as when awake; and certainly imagines herself here talking to Macbeth, who (she supposes) has just said, Hell is murky, (t. e. hell is a dismal place to go to in consequence of such a deed) and repeats his words in contempt of his cowardice; Hell is murky!-Fie, fie, my lord, fie! a soldier and afraid? i. e. astonished, confounded. By the mortified man, is meant, a religious; one who has subdued his passions, is dead to the world, has abandoned it, and all the affairs of it: an Ascetic. i. e. smooth-faced, unbearded youths. 3 4 Ang. Now he does feel His secret murders sticking on his hands; Ment. Who then shall blame His pester'd senses to recoil, and start, Cath. Well, march we on, To give obedience where 'tis truly ow'd: And with him pour we, in our country's purge, Len. Or so much as it needs, To dew the sovereign flower, and drown the weeds. Make we our march towards Birnam. [Exeunt, marching. SCENE III. 10 15 How does your patient, doctior? Doct. Not so sick, my lord, As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, Macb. Cure her of that: 20 Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd; Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow; Raze out the written troubles of the brain; And, with some sweet oblivious antidote, Cleanse the foul bosom of that perilous stuff, Which weighs upon the heart? 25 Enter Macbeth, Doctor, and Attendants. 40 [loon! 45 Macb. Go,prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, Are counsellors to fear'. What soldiers whey-face: 50 When I behold-Seyton, I say!-This push 55 60 Doct. Therein the patient Must minister to himself. Mach. Throw physick to the dogs, I'll none of itCome, put mine armour on; give me my staff:Seyton, sendout.--Doctor, the thanes fly from me:Come, sir, dispatch:-If thou could'st, doctor, cast The water of my land, find her disease, And purge it to a sound and pristine health, I would applaud thee to the very echo, That should applaud again.-Pull't off, I say.— What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug, Would scour these English hence?-Hearest thou of them? Doct. Ay, my good lord; your royal preparation Makes us hear something. Macb. Bring it after me. I will not be afraid of death and bane, Doct. Were I from Dunsinane away and clear, Profit again should hardly draw me here. [Ex. SCENE IV. Drum and Colours. Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, Siward's Son, Menteth, Cathness, Angus, and Soldiers marching. Mal. Cousins, I hope, the days are near at hand, That chambers will be safe. Ment. We doubt it nothing, Siw. What wood is this before us? Ment. The wood of Birnam. Mal. Let every soldier hew him down a bough, And bear't before him; thereby shall we shadow The number of our host, and make discovery Err in report of us. Sol. It shall be done. Siw. We learn no other, but the confident tyrant 1i. e. physician. 2 To sag, or swag, is to sink down by its own weight, or by an overload. 'Loon signifies a base fellow, i. e. fool. The meaning is, they infect others who see them with cowardice. "Sear is dry. 'To skirr signifies to scour, to ride hastily, water was the phrase in use for finding out disorders by the inspection of urine. To cast the Keeps Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure Mal. 'Tis his main hope: For where there is advantage to be given' I Both more and less' have given him the revolt; 5 And none serve with him but constrained things, Mes. Let me endure your wrath, if 't be not so: Much. If thou speak'st false, Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive, Till famine cling thee if thy speech be sooth, I care not if thou dost for me as much. I pull in resolution; and begin To doubt the equivocation of the fiend, 10 That lies like truth: Fear not 'till Birnam wood 20 Drum and Colours. Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macb. Hang out our banners on the outward walls; Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord. Macb. She should have dy'd hereafter; The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! 2 30 35 But, bear-like, I must fight the course.-What's he, 40 That was not born of woman? Such a one Am I to fear, or none. 451 50 Yo. Siw. The devil himselt could not pronounce More hateful to mine ear. Macb. No, nor more fearful. [sword Yo. Siw. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with my I'll prove the lie thou speak'st. [Fight; and Young Siward is slain. Macb. Thou wast born of woman.- 55 But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born. [Exit. Alarums. Enter Macduff. Alacd. That way the noise is:-Tyrant, shew thy face; i. e. deter That is, opportunity to be gone. More and less is the same with greater and less. mine. My hairy part, my capillitium. Fell is skin. Recorded is probably here used for recording, or recordable. Clung, in the northern counties, signifies any thing that is shrivelled or shrunk up. By famine, the intestines are, as it were, stuck together. To be clem'd is a Staffordshire expression signifying to be starv'd. To cling likewise siguities to compress, to embrace. If thou be'st slain, and with no stroke of mine, The tyrant's people on both sides do fight; The noble thanes do bravely in the war; And little is to do. Mal. We have met with foes That strike beside us. Siw. Enter, sir, the castle. [Exeunt. Alarum. Macb. Why should I play the Roman fool, and die Re-enter Macduff. Macd. Turn, hell-hound, turn. Macb. Of all men else I have avoided thee: But get thee back, my soul is too much charg'd With blood of thine already. Macd. I have no words, My voice is in my sword; thou bloodier villain As easy may'st thou the intrenchant air2 Re-enter Macduff with Macbeth's head. With thy keen sword impress, as make me bleed: 35 Macd. Hail, king! for so thou art; Behold, Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests; I bear a charmed life, which must not yield Macd. Despair thy charm; And let the angel, whom thou still hast serv'd, Macb. Accursed be that tongue that tells me so, And live to be the shew and gaze o' the time. Here may you see the tyrant. Macb. I will not yield, where stands The usurper's cursed head: the time is free ; 40 Whose voices I desire aloud with mine,- [Fourish. All. Hail, king of Scotland! Of this dead butcher, and his fiend-like queen; To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, 55 That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace, And to be baited with the rabble's curse. Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane, To bruit is to report with clamour; to noise. We will perform in measure, time, and place; 2 i. e. air which cannot be cut. 3 i. e, that shuffle with ambiguous expressions, *See note, p. 367. |