Who was’t came by?
LENNOX
’Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word
Macduff is fled to England.
MACBETH Fled to England?
LENNOX
Ay, my good lord.
MACBETH [Aside]
166 Time, thou anticipat’st my dread exploits.
167 The flighty purpose never is o’ertook
Unless the deed go with it. From this moment
169 The very firstlings of my heart shall be
170 The firstlings of my hand. And even now,
To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done:
The castle of Macduff I will surprise,
Seize upon Fife, give to th’ edge o’ th’ sword
His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls
175 That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool;
This deed I’ll do before this purpose cool. But no more sights.
[To Lennox] Where are these gentlemen?
Come, bring me where they are.
Exeunt.
IV.2Enter Macduff’s Wife, her Son, and Ross.
LADY MACDUFF
What had he done to make him fly the land?
ROSS
You must have patience, madam.
LADY MACDUFF He had none.
His flight was madness. When our actions do not,
Our fears do make us traitors.4
ROSS You know not
Whether it was his wisdom or his fear.
LADY MACDUFF
Wisdom? To leave his wife, to leave his babes,
His mansion and his titles in a place7
From whence himself does fly? He loves us not,
He wants the natural touch. For the poor wren,9
The most diminutive of birds, will fight,10
Her young ones in her nest, against the owl.
All is the fear and nothing is the love,
As little is the wisdom, where the flight
So runs against all reason.14
ROSS My dearest coz,
I pray you school yourself. But for your husband,15
He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows16
The fits o’ th’ season. I dare not speak much further,
18 But cruel are the times when we are traitors
19 And do not know ourselves; when we hold rumor
20 From what we fear, yet know not what we fear,
But float upon a wild and violent sea
22 Each way and none. I take my leave of you,
Shall not be long but I’ll be here again.
24 Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward
To what they were before. [To the Son] My pretty cousin,
Blessing upon you.
LADY MACDUFF
Fathered he is, and yet he’s fatherless.
ROSS
I am so much a fool, should I stay longer
29 It would be my disgrace and your discomfort.
30 I take my leave at once.
Exit.
LADY MACDUFF
Sirrah, your father’s dead;
And what will you do now? How will you live?
SON
As birds do, mother.
LADY MACDUFF What, with worms and flies?
SON
With what I get, I mean; and so do they.
LADY MACDUFF
35 Poor bird, thou’dst never fear the net nor lime,
36 The pitfall nor the gin.
SON
Why should I, mother? Poor birds they are not set for.
My father is not dead for all your saying.
LADY MACDUFF
Yes, he is dead. How wilt thou do for a father?
SON Nay, how will you do for a husband?40
LADY MACDUFF Why, I can buy me twenty at any market.
SON Then you’ll buy ’em to sell again.42
LADY MACDUFF
Thou speak’st with all thy wit; and yet, i’ faith,43
With wit enough for thee.
SON Was my father a traitor, mother?
LADY MACDUFF Ay, that he was.
SON What is a traitor?
LADY MACDUFF Why, one that swears and lies.48
SON And be all traitors that do so?
LADY MACDUFF Every one that does so is a traitor and must be hanged.50
SON And must they all be hanged that swear and lie?
LADY MACDUFF Every one.
SON Who must hang them?
LADY MACDUFF Why, the honest men.
SON Then the liars and swearers are fools, for there are liars and swearers enow to beat the honest men and57 hang up them.
LADY MACDUFF Now God help thee, poor monkey! But how wilt thou do for a father?60
SON If he were dead, you’d weep for him. If you would not, it were a good sign that I should quickly have a new father.
LADY MACDUFF Poor prattler, how thou talk’st!
Enter a Messenger.
MESSENGER
Bless you, fair dame. I am not to you known,
Though in your state of honor I am perfect.66
I doubt some danger does approach you nearly.67
If you will take a homely man’s advice,68
Be not found here. Hence with your little ones.
70 To fright you thus methinks I am too savage;
71 To do worse to you were fell cruelty,
72 Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you!
I dare abide no longer.
Exit.
LADY MACDUFF Whither should I fly?
I have done no harm. But I remember now
I am in this earthly world, where to do harm
Is often laudable, to do good sometime
Accounted dangerous folly. Why then, alas,
Do I put up that womanly defense
To say I have done no harm?
Enter Murderers. What are these faces?
MURDERER
80 Where is your husband?
LADY MACDUFF
I hope in no place so unsanctified
Where such as thou mayst find him.
MURDERER He’s a traitor.
SON
83 Thou liest, thou shag-haired villain!
MURDERER What, you egg!
[Stabs him.]
84 Young fry of treachery!
SON He has killed me, mother.
Run away, I pray you!
[Dies.] Exit [Lady Macduff ], crying “Murder”
[pursued by Murderers].
IV.3Enter Malcolm and Macduff.
MALCOLM
Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there
Weep our sad bosoms empty.
MACDUFF Let us rather
Hold fast the mortal sword and, like good men,3
Bestride our downfall birthdom. Each new morn4
New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows
Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds
As if it felt with Scotland and yelled out
Like syllable of dolor.8
MALCOLM What I believe, I’ll wail;
What know, believe; and what I can redress,
As I shall find the time to friend, I will.10
What you have spoke, it may be so perchance.
This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,12
Was once thought honest; you have loved him well;
He hath not touched you yet. I am young, but something
You may deserve of him through me, and wisdom15
To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb
T’ appease an angry god.
MACDUFF
I am not treacherous.
MALCOLM But Macbeth is.
A good and virtuous nature may recoil19
In an imperial charge. But I shall crave your pardon.20
That which you are, my thoughts cannot transpose:21
Angels are bright still though the brightest fell;22
23 Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace,
Yet grace must still look so.
MACDUFF I have lost my hopes.
MALCOLM
Perchance even there where I did find my doubts.
26 Why in that rawness left you wife and child,
Those precious motives, those strong knots of love,
Without leave-taking? I pray you,
29 Let not my jealousies be your dishonors,
30 But mine own safeties. You may be rightly just
Whatever I shall think.
MACDUFF Bleed, bleed, poor country!
32 Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure,
For goodness dare not check thee; wear thou thy wrongs,
34 The title is affeered! Fare thee well, lord.
I would not be the villain that thou think’st
For the whole space that’s in the tyrant’s grasp
And the rich East to boot.
MALCOLM Be not offended.
38 I speak not as in absolute fear of you.
I think our country sinks beneath the yoke,
40 It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash
41 Is added to her wounds. I think withal
There would be hands uplifted in my right;
43 And here from gracious England have I offer
Of goodly thousands. But, for all this,
When I shall tread upon the tyrant’s head
Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country
Shall have more vices than it had before,
More suffer, and more sundry ways than ever,
By him that shall succeed.
MACDUFF What should he be?
MALCOLM
It is myself I mean, in whom I know50
All the particulars of vice so grafted51
That, when they shall be opened, black Macbeth52
Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state
Esteem him as a lamb, being compared
With my confineless harms.55
MACDUFF Not in the legions
Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned
In evils to top Macbeth.
MALCOLM I grant him bloody,
Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful,58
Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin59
That has a name. But there’s no bottom, none,60
In my voluptuousness. Your wives, your daughters,
Your matrons, and your maids could not fill up
The cistern of my lust; and my desire
All continent impediments would o’erbear64
That did oppose my will. Better Macbeth
Than such an one to reign.
MACDUFF Boundless intemperance
In nature is a tyranny. It hath been67
Th’ untimely emptying of the happy throne
And fall of many kings. But fear not yet
To take upon you what is yours.
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