there are liars and swearers enough to beat the honest men, and hang up them. L. Macd. 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. L. Macd. Poor prattler! how thou talk'st. Enter a Messenger. Mess. Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known, Though in your state of honour I am perfect.o Be not found here; hence, with your little ones. you! I dare abide no longer. [Exit Messenger. Whither should I fly? I have done no harm. But I remember now I am in this earthly world; where, to do harm, Accounted dangerous folly: Why then, alas! Do I put up that womanly defence, To say, I have done no harım? - What are these faces? Enter Murderers. Mur. Where is your husband? L. Macd. I hope, in no place so unsanctified, Where such as thou may'st find him. in your siate of honour I am perfect.] i. e. I am perfectly acquainted with your rank of honour. Mur. He's a traitor Son. Thou ly'st, thou shag-ear'd villain. What, you egg? [Stabbing him. Young fry of treachery? Run away, I pray you. He has killed me, mother: [Dies. [Exit Lady MACDUFF, crying murder, and pursued by the Murderers. SCENE III. England. A Room in the King's Palace. Enter MALCOLM and MACDUFF. Mal. Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there Weep our sad bosoms empty. Macd. Let us rather Hold fast the mortal sword; and, like good men, Bestride our down-fall'n birthdom:1 Each new morn, New widows howl; new orphans cry; new sorrows Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds As if it felt with Scotland, and yell'd out Like syllable of dolour. Mal. What I believe, I'll wail; 1 Bestride our down-fall'n birthdom:) The allusion is to a man from whom something valuable is about to be taken by violence, and who, that he may defend it without incumbrance, lays it on the ground, and stands over it with his weapon in his hand. Our birthdom, or birthright, says he, lies on the ground; let us, like men who are to fight for what is dearest to them, not abandon it, but stand over it and defend it. This is a strong picture of obstinate resolution. What you have spoke, it may be so, perchance. something You may deserve of him through me; and wisdom3 To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb, To appease an angry god. Macd. I am not treacherous. Mal. But Macbeth is. A good and virtuous nature may recoil, 4 In an imperial charge. But 'crave your pardon; That which you are, my thoughts cannot transpose: Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell : Though all things fouls would wear the brows of grace, Yet grace must still look so. I have lost my hopes. Mal. Perchance, even there, where I did find my doubts. Why in that rawness left you wife, and child, (Those precious motives, those strong knots of love,) Without leave-taking? - I pray you, Let not my jealousies be your dishonours, But mine own safeties:---- You may be rightly just, Whatever I shall think. 3 Macd. Bleed, bleed, poor country! and wisdom---] That is, and 'tis wisdom. 4 A good and virtuous nature may recoil, In an imperial charge.] A good mind may recede from goodGreat tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure, ness in the execution of a royal commission. JOHNSON. 5 Though all things foul, &c.] This is not very clear. The meaning, perhaps, is this:- My suspicions cannot injure you, if you be virtuous, by supposing that a traitor may put on your virtuous appearance. I do not say that your virtuous appearance proves you a traitor; for virtue must wear its proper form, though that form be counterfeited by villainy. JOHNSON. * Why in that rawness-] Without previous provision, without due preparation, without maturity of counsel. For goodness dares not check thee! wear thou thy wrongs, Thy title is affeer'd!"-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. Mal. Be not offended: I speak not as in absolute fear of you. I think, our country sinks beneath the yoke; More suffer, and more sundry ways than ever, Macd. What should he be? Mal. It is myself I mean: in whom I know All the particulars of vice so grafted, That, when they shall be open'd, black Macbeth Will seem as pure as snow; and the poor state Esteem him as a lamb, being compar'd With my confineless harms. Macd. Not in the legions Of horrid hell, can come a devil more damn'd In evils, to top Macbeth. Mal. I grant him bloody, Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin That has a name: But there's no bottom, none, In my voluptuousness: your wives, your daughters, 7 Thy title is affeer'd!] Affeer'd, a law term for confirm'd. Your matrons, and your maids, could not fill up Than such a one to reign. Macd. Boundless intemperance In nature is a tyranny; it hath been The untimely emptying of the happy throne, Mal. With this, there grows, In my most ill-compos'd affection, such Macd. This avarice Sticks deeper; grows with more pernicious root Of your mere own: All these are portable, S -grows with more pernicious root Than summer-seeding lust;] The allusion is to plants; and the sense is," Avarice is a perennial weed; it has a deeper and more pernicious root than lust, which is a mere annual, and lasts but for a summer, when it sheds its seed and decays." BLACKSTONE. 9 All these are portable,] Portable, i. e. bearable. |