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 rumor Of many worthy fellows that were out; Which was to my belief witnessed the rather, Mal. Be it their comfort, We are coming thither. Gracious England hath That Christendom gives out. Rosse. 'Would I could answer This comfort with the like! but I have words, Macd. What concern they? The general cause? or is it a fee-grief, Rosse. No mind, that's honest, But in it shares some woe; though the main part Keep it not from me; If it be mine, Rosse. Let not your ears despise my tongue for ever, Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound That ever yet they heard. Macd. Humph! I guess at it. Rosse. Your castle is surprised; your wife, and babes, Savagely slaughtered: to relate the manner, 1 To latch (in the north) signifies the same as to catch. Thus also Golding, in his translation of the first book of Ovid's Metamorphoses:"As though he would, at everie stride, betweene his teeth hir latch." 2 "Or is it a fee-grief," a peculiar sorrow, a grief that hath but a single owner. Were, on the quarry' of these murdered deer, Mal. Rosse. That could be found. Wife, children, servants, all Let's make us med'cines of our great revenge, To cure this deadly grief. Macd. He has no children.-All my pretty ones? Did you say, all ?—O, hell-kite !—All? What, all my pretty chickens, and their dam, At one fell swoop?2 Mal. Dispute it like a man.3 But I must also feel it as a man. I shall do so; I cannot but remember such things were, That were most precious to me.-Did Heaven look on, 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 it. 1 Quarry, the game after it is killed; it is a term used both in hunting and falconry. The old English term querre, is used for the square spot wherein the dead game was deposited. Quarry is also used for the game pursued. 2 "At one fell swoop." Swoop, from the verb to swoop or sweep, is the descent of a bird of prey on his quarry. 3 i. e. contend with your present sorrow like a man. Cut short all intermission: front to front, Mal. Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may; The night is long that never finds the day. [Exeunt. 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 nightgown 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 slumbry 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. 1 All intermission, all pause, all intervening time. 2 The old copy reads time. The emendation is Rowe's. 3 i. e. encourage, thrust us, their instruments, forward against the tyrant. 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. Enter LADY MACBETH, with a taper. Lo you, here she comes! 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. Gent. Ay, but their sense is shut. Doct. What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands. 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 !2 -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 -What, will these hands ne'er be clean ?— she now? 1 "Ay, but their sense is shut." The old copy reads "Ay, but their sense are shut." Malone has quoted other instances of the same inaccurate grammar. 2 Lady Macbeth, in her dream, imagines herself talking to her husband, who (she supposes) had just said Hell is murky (i. 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, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard?" No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that; you mar all with this starting.1 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, Gent. 'Pray God, it be, sir. Doct. This disease is beyond my practice. Yet I have known those which have walked in their sleep, who have died holily in their beds. Lady M. 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 M. 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 MAcbeth. Doct. Will she go now to bed? Gent. Directly. Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad; unnatural deeds Do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. annoyance, 1 "You mar all with this starting." She is here again alluding to the terrors of Macbeth when the ghost broke in on the festivity of the banquet. |