And push us from our stools: This is more strange Than such a murder is. Lady M. Your noble friends do lack you. Macb. My worthy lord, I do forget:- all; Come, love and health to Then I'll sit down:-Give me some wine, fill full:I drink to the general joy of the whole table, Ghost rises. And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss; Lords. Our duties, and the pledge. Mach. Avaunt! and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee! Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; Lady M. Think of this, good peers, Fut as a thing of custom: 'tis no other; Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, Lady M. You have displac'd the mirth, broke With most admir'd disorder. 'Much. * Wonder. + Forbid. Can such things be, tie. All good wishes to all And overcome* us like a summer's cloud, Without our special wonder? You make me strange Even to the disposition that I owe,t When now I think you can behold such sights, And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, When mine are blanch'd with fear. Rossè. What sights, my lord? Lady M. I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse; Question enrages him: at once, good night: Stand not upon the order of your going, But go at once. Len. Attend his majesty! Lady M. Good night and better health A kind good night to all! [Exeunt Lords and Attendants. Macb. It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood: Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak Augars, and understood relations, have By magot-piest and choughs, and rooks, brought forth The secret'st man of blood. ACT IV. THE POWER OF WITCHES. I conjure you, by that which you profess, Though bladed corn be lodg'd|| and trees blown down; Though castles topple on their warders' heads; Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure * Pass over. † Possess. + Magpies. Laid flat by wind or rain. ** Seeds which have begun to sprout. § Frothy. T Tumble. Even till destruction sicken, answer me MALCOLM'S CHARACTER OF HIMSELF. Mal. But I have none: The king-becoming graces As justice, verity, temperance, stableness, Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude, I have no relish of them; but abound In the division of each several crime, Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, Uproar the universal peace, confound All unity on earth. Macb. O Scotland! Scotland! Mal. If such a one be fit to govern, speak: I am as I have spoken. Macb. Fit to govern! No, not to live.-O nation miserable, With an untitled tyrant, bloody-sceptred, When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again? By his own interdiction stands accurs'd, And does blaspheme his breed?-Thy royal father Died every day she lived. Fare thee well! Have banish'd me from Scotland.-O, my breast, Mal. Wip'd the black scruples, reconcil'd my thoughts * Over-hasty credulity For strangers to my nature. I am yet No less in truth, than life: my first false speaking Is thine, and my poor country's, to command. AN OPPRESSED COUNTRY. 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: were violent sorrow seems Is there scarce ask'd, for who; and good men's lives MACDUFF'S BEHAVIOUR ON THE MURDER OF HIS Rosse. 'Would I could answer This comfort with the like! But I have words Macd. Rosse. What concern they? No mind, that's honest, But in it shares some wo; though the main part 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 heavest sound, * Common distress of mind. A grief that has a single owner. † Catch. Macd. Humph! I guess at it. Rosse. Your castle is surpris'd; your wife and babes, Savagely slaughter'd: to relate the manner, Mal. Rosse. That could be found. Wife, children, servants, all And I must be from thence! 1 Macd. My wife kill'd too? Rosse. I have said. Be comforted: Mal. Let's nake us med'cines of our great revenge, 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, Mal. Dispute it like a man. Macd. 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 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 it. |