Authors: William Shakespeare
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
9
in a place
From whence himself does fly? He loves us not:
He
wants the natural touch
11
, for the poor wren—
The most diminutive of birds—will fight,
Her young ones
in
13
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.
ROSS
My dearest
coz
17
,
I pray you
school
18
yourself: but,
for
your husband,
He is noble, wise,
judicious
19
, and best knows
The
fits o’th’season
20
. I dare not speak much further,
But cruel are the times when
we are traitors
And do not know ourselves
21
, when we
hold rumour
From what we fear
22
, yet know not what we fear,
But float upon a wild and violent sea
Each way and none
25
. I take my leave of you:
Shall not be long but I’ll be here again.
Things at the worst will cease, or else
climb upward
27
To what they were before. My
pretty cousin
28
,
Blessing upon you!
LADY MACDUFF
Fathered he is, and yet he’s fatherless.
ROSS
I am so much a fool, should I stay longer
It would be my disgrace and your discomfort
32
.
I take my leave at once.
Exit Ross
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
Poor
39
bird, thou’dst never fear the net nor
lime
,
the
pitfall
40
nor the
gin
.
SON
Why should I, mother?
Poor birds they are not set
for
41
. 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?
LADY MACDUFF
Why, I can buy me twenty at any market.
SON
Then you’ll buy ’em to sell again.
LADY MACDUFF
Thou speak’st with all thy wit, and yet, i’faith,
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
52
.
SON
And be all traitors that do so?
LADY MACDUFF
Everyone that does so is a traitor, and must be
hanged.
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 enough to beat the honest men and
hang
up
61
them.
LADY MACDUFF
Now, God help thee, poor monkey! But how wilt
thou do for a father?
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
68
, how thou talk’st!
Enter a Messenger
MESSENGER
Bless you, fair dame. I am not to you known,
Though
in your state of honour I am perfect
70
.
I
doubt
71
some danger does approach you
nearly
:
If you will take a
homely
72
man’s advice,
Be not found here: hence with your little ones.
To fright you thus, methinks, I am too savage:
To
do worse to you
75
were
fell
cruelty,
Which is too
nigh your person
76
. Heaven preserve you!
I dare abide no longer.
Exit Messenger
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 defence
To say I have done no harm?—
What are these faces?
Enter Murderers
FIRST MURDERER
Where is your husband?
LADY MACDUFF
I hope in no place so
unsanctified
87
Where such as thou mayst find him.
FIRST MURDERER
He’s a traitor.
SON
Thou liest, thou
shag-eared
90
villain!
FIRST MURDERER
What, you
egg
91
? Young
fry
of
treachery!
Stabs him
SON
He has killed me, mother. Run away, I pray
you!
Dies
Exit
[
Lady Macduff
,]
crying
‘Murder!’ pursued by the Murderers
Location: the English royal court
Enter Malcolm and Macduff
MALCOLM
Let us seek out some
desolate
1
shade
, and there
Weep our sad bosoms empty.
MACDUFF
Let us rather
Hold
fast
4
the
mortal
sword, and like good men
Bestride our downfall birthdom
5
. Each new morn
New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows
Strike heaven on the face,
that
7
it resounds
As if it felt with Scotland and yelled out
Like syllable of dolour
9
.
MALCOLM
What I believe I’ll
wail
10
;
What know, believe; and what I can redress,
As I shall find the time
to friend
12
, I will.
What you have spoke, it may be so,
perchance
13
.
This tyrant, whose
sole name
14
blisters our tongues,
Was once thought
honest
15
. You have loved him well:
He hath not
touched
16
you yet. I am young, but
something
You may discern of him through me
, and
wisdom
17
To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb
T’appease an
angry god
19
.
MACDUFF
I am not treacherous.
MALCOLM
But Macbeth is.
A good and virtuous nature may
recoil
22
In an
imperial charge
23
. But I shall crave your pardon:
That which you are my thoughts cannot transpose
24
;
Angels are bright still, though
the brightest
25
fell:
Though all things
foul
26
would
wear the brows of grace
,
Yet grace must still
look so
27
.
MACDUFF
I have lost my hopes.
MALCOLM
Perchance even
there
29
where I did find my
doubts
.
Why in that
rawness
30
left you wife and child,
Those precious
motives
31
, those strong knots of love,
Without
leave-taking
32
? I pray you,
Let not my jealousies be your dishonours,
But mine own safeties
33
. You may be rightly just,
Whatever I shall think.
MACDUFF
Bleed, bleed, poor country!
Great tyranny, lay thou thy
basis sure
37
,
For goodness dare not
check
38
thee: wear thou thy wrongs,
The
title is affeered
39
!—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
42
.
MALCOLM
Be not offended:
I speak not as in absolute fear of you.
I think our country sinks beneath the
yoke
45
:
It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash
Is added to her wounds. I think
withal
47
There would be hands uplifted in my
right
48
,
And here from gracious
England
49
have I offer
Of goodly
thousands
50
: 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
54
ways than ever,
By him that shall
succeed
55
.
MACDUFF
What
56
should he be?
MALCOLM
It is myself I mean, in whom I know
All the
particulars
58
of vice
so grafted
That, when they shall be
opened
59
, black Macbeth
Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state
Esteem
61
him as a lamb, being compared
With my
confineless
62
harms.
MACDUFF
Not in the
legions
63
Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned
In evils to
top
65
Macbeth.
MALCOLM
I grant him bloody,
Luxurious
67
,
avaricious
, false, deceitful,
Sudden
68
, malicious, smacking of every sin
That has a name, but there’s no bottom, none,
In my
voluptuousness
70
: your wives, your daughters,
Your
matrons
71
and your
maids
, could not fill up
The
cistern
72
of my lust, and my desire
All
continent
73
impediments would
o’erbear
That did oppose my
will
74
. Better Macbeth
Than such an one to reign.
MACDUFF
Boundless intemperance
In nature is a tyranny
76
: it hath been
Th’untimely emptying of the happy throne
And fall of many kings. But fear not yet
To take upon you
what is yours
80
: you may
Convey
81
your pleasures in a spacious plenty,
And yet seem
cold
82
. The time you may so
hoodwink
.
We have willing dames enough: there cannot be
That vulture in you to devour
so many
As will to greatness dedicate themselves,
Finding it so inclined
84
.
MALCOLM
With this there grows
In my most
ill-composed affection
88
such
A
stanchless
89
avarice that, were I king,
I should
cut off
90
the nobles for their lands,
Desire
his
91
jewels and this other’s house:
And my
more-having
92
would be as a sauce
To make me hunger more, that I should
forge
93
Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal,
Destroying them for wealth.
MACDUFF
This avarice
Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root
Than
summer-seeming
98
lust, and it hath been
The
sword of our slain kings
99
. Yet do not fear:
Scotland hath
foisons
100
to fill up your will
Of your mere own
101
. All
these
are
portable
,
With other graces
weighed
102
.