With an untitled tyrant, bloody-scepter'd,
When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again,
Since that the truest issue of thy throne
By his own interdiction stands accurs'd,
And does blaspheme his breed 1-Thy royal father
Was a most sainted king: the queen that bore thee,
Oft'ner upon her knees than on her feet,
Died every day she livd. Fare thee well.
These evils thou repeat'st upon thyself
Have banish'd me from Scotland.-O my breast,
Thy hope ends here !
Mal.

Macduff, this noble passion,
Child of integrity, hath from my soul
Wip'd the black scruples, reconcil'd my thoughts
To thy good truth and honour. Devilish Macbeth
By many of these trains hath sought to win me
Into his power; and modest wisdom plucks me
From over-credulous haste: but God above
Deal between thee and me! for even now
I put myself to thy direction, and
Unspeak mine own detraction; here abjure
The taints and blames I laid upon myself,
For strangers to my nature.

I am yet
Unknown to woman ; never was forsworn;
Scarcely have coveted what was mine own;
At no time broke my faith ; would not betray
The devil to his fellow; and delight
No less in truth, than life : my first false speaking
Was this upon myself what I am truly,
Is thine, and my poor country's, to command :
Whither, indeed, before thy here-approach,
Old Siward, with ten thousand warlike men,
Already at a point, was setting forth :
Now we'll together; and the chance of goodness
Be like our warranted quarrel! Why are you silent?

Macd. Such welcome and unwelcome things at once, 'Tis hard to reconcile.

Enter a Doctor.
Mal. Well; more anon.—Comes the king forth, I pray you ?

Doct. Ay, Sir; there are a crew of wretched souls,
That stay his cure: their malady convinces
The great assay of art; but, at his touch,
Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand,
They presently amend.

Mal.

I thank you, doctor.
,

[Exit Doctor. Macd. What's the disease he means? Mal.

'Tis call'd the evil: A most miraculous work in this good king; Which often, since my here remain in England, I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven, Himself best knows : but strangely-visited people, All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, The mere despair of surgery, he cures ; Hanging a golden stamp about their necks, Put on with holy prayers : and 'tis spoken, To the succeeding royalty he leaves The healing benediction. With this strange virtue, He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy ; And sundry blessings hang about his throne, That speak him full of grace. Macd.

See, who comes here? Mal. My countryman; but yet I know him not.

2;

Enter Rosse.
Macd. My ever-gentle cousin, welcome hither.

Mal. I know him now :-good God, betimes remove
The means that makes us strangers !
Rosse.

Sir, amen.
Macd. Stands Scotland where it did ?
Rosse,

Alas, poor country,
Almost afraid to know itself! It cannot
Be call'd our mother, but our grave: where nothing,
But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile ;
Where sighs, and groans, and shrieks that rent the air,
Are made, not mark'd ; where violent sorrow seems
A modern ecstasy: the dead man's knell
Is there scarce ask’d, for whom; and good men's lives
Expire before the flowers in their caps,
Dying or ere they sicken.
Macd.

O, relation,
Too nice, and yet too true!
Mal.

What is the newest grief?
Rosse. That of an hour's age doth hiss the speaker ;
Each minute teems a new one.
Macd.

How does my wife?
Rosse. Why, well.
Macd.

And all

my

children? Rosse.

Well too. Macd. The tyrant has not batter'd at their peace ? VOL. IV.

D

Rosse. No; they were well at peace, when I did leave them.
Macd. Be not a niggard of your speech : how goes it?

Rosse. When I came hither to transport the tidings,
Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumour
Of many worthy fellows that were out;
Which was to my belief witness'd the rather,
For that I saw the tyrant's power a-foot:
Now is the time of help; your eye in Scotland
Would create soldiers, make our women fight,
To doff their dire distresses.
Mal.

Be it their comfort,
We are coming thither : gracious England hath
Lent us good Siward, and ten thousand men;
An older, and a better soldier, none
That Christendom gives out.
Rosse.

Would I could answer
This comfort with the like! But I have words,
That would be howld out in the desert air,
Where hearing should not latch them.
Macd.

What concern they !
The general cause? or is it a fee-grief,
Due to some single breast ?
Rosse.

No mind that's honest
But in it shares some woe ; 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,
Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound
That ever yet they heard.
Macd.

H’m! I guess at it.
Rosse. Your castle is surpris'd; your wife and babes
Savagely slaughter'd: to relate the manner,
Were, on the quarry of these murder'd deer,
To add the death of you.
Mal.

Merciful heaven ! -
What, man ! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows;
Give sorrow words : the grief, that does not speak,
Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break.

Macd. My children too?
Rosse.

Wife, children, servants, all
7that could be found..
Macd.

And I must be from thence ! My wife kill'd too?

Rosse,

I have said.
Mal.

Be comforted :
Let's make us medicines of our great revenge,

To cure this deadly grief.
Macd. He has no children.—All my pretty ones?

Did you say, all ? 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;
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
Macd. O, I could play the woman with mine eyes,

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 tune 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.

it.

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 night-gown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon it, read it, afterwards seal 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 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 'tis most meet you should.

Gent. Neither to you, nor any one; having no witness to confirm my speech.-Lo you, here she comes!

Enter LADY MACBETH, with a lighted taper.

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; 'tis her command.

Doct. You see, her eyes are open.

Look, how she rubs her hands.

Gent. Ay, but their sense is shut.
Doct. What is it she does now?
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.

Lady M. Out, damned spot! out, I say!-One, two; why, then 'tis 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, you mar all with this starting.

no more o' that

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! The heart is sorely charged.

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

Doct. Well, well, well,

H