And sundry blessings hang about his throne, That speak him full of grace. Macd. Enter Rosse. See, who comes here? Mal. My countryman; but yet I know him not 283). Rosse. Sir, Amen. Alas, poor country; Macd. Stands Scotland where it did? Almost afraid to know itself! It cannot Be call'd our mother, but our grave: where nothing, Where sighs, and groans, and shrieks that rent the air, Is there scarce ask'd', for who: and good men's lives Dying, or ere they sicken. Macd. Too nice, and yet too true! Mal. Oh, relation, What is the newest grief? Rosse. That of an hour's age doth hiss the speaker; Each minute teems a new one. Macd. The tyrant has not batter'd at their place? ,,He used to helpe those that were vexed with the disease commonlie called the king's evil, and left that virtue as it were a portion of inheritance unto his successors, the kings of this realme." Holingshed. Malone. 283) Malcolm discovers Rosse to be his countryman, while he is yet at some distance from him, by his dress. Steevens, 284) Modern is generally used by Shakspeare to signify trite, common. Steevens. Ecstacy is used by Shakspeare for a temporary alienation of mind. Malone. Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumour Mal. 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 287), But in it shares some woe; though the main part 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 heaviest sound, That ever yet they heard. Macd. Humph! I guess at it. Rosse. Your castle is surpriz'd; your wife, and babes Savagely slaughter'd: to relate the manner, Were, on the quarry 288) of these murder'd deer To add the death of you. Mal. Merciful heav'n! What, man! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows; 286) To 285) to doff is to do off, to put off. Steevens. latch (in the North country dialect) signifies the same as to catch. Steevens. 287) A fee-grief, a peculiar sorrow; a grief that hath a single owner. The expression is, at least to our ears, very harsh Johnson. 288) Quarry is a term used both in hunting and falconry. In both sports it means the game after it is killed. Steevens. Give sorrow words: the grief, that does not speak, That could be found. Wife, children, servants, all Let's make us medicines of our great revenge, To cure this deadly grief. All my pretty ones? All? Did you say, all? O, hell-kite! What, all my pretty chickens, and their dam, At one fell swoop 290)? Mal. Dispute 291) it like a man. 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, They were all struck for thee! naught that I am, 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. Macd. O, I could play the woman with mine eyes, And braggart with my tongue! Cut short all intermission 292); front to front, 289) He has no children. The meaning of this may be, either that Macduff could not by retaliation revenge the murder of his children, because Macbeth had none himself, or if he had any, a father's feelings for a father would have prevented him from the deed, I know not from what passage we are to infer that Macbeth had children alive, Holingshed's Chronicle does not, as I remember, mention any. Steevens. 290) Swoop is the descent of a bird of prey on his quarry. Steevens, 291) Dispute it like a man i. e. content with your present sorrow like a man. Steevens. 292) Cut short all intermission i. e. all pauall intervening time. Steevens. 293). That is, if he escape se, 126 Mal. ...This tune goes manly; Come, go we to the king; our power is ready; Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above Put on 294) their instruments. Receive what cheer you may; The night is long, that never finds the day. [Exeunt.] Enter a Doctor of Physick, and a waiting Gentlewoman. I have two nights watch'd with you, but can perDoct. ceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walk'd? Gent. Since his Majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her night-gown 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. In this Doct. A great perturbation in nature! to receive at once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching. 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. Doct. You may, to me; and 'tis most meet you should. Gent. Neither to you, nor any one; having no witness to confirm my speeck. 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. my vengeance, let him escape that of heaven also. M. Mason. 294) Put on, i. e. encourage, thrust forward us their instruments against the tyrant. Steevens. Gent. Ay, but their sense is 'shut. Doct. What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands. Gent. It is an accustom'd 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 295). Why, then 'tis time to do't Hell is murky 296)! Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier and afear'd? 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 she now? What, will these hands ne'er be clean? No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that: you mar all with, this starting 297). not. Doct. Go to, go to; you have known what you should 295) One; Two; Macbeth does not, previously to the murder, mention the hour at which Lady Macbeth is to strike upon the bell, which was to be the signal for his going into Duncan's chamber to execute his wicked purpose; but it seems that Lady Macbeth is now thinking of the moment when she rang the bell; and that two o'clock was the hour when the deed was perpetrated. This agrees with the scene that immediately precedes the murder, but not with that which follows it. Malone. 296) Murky is dark. Lady Macbeth is acting over in a dream, the business of the murder of Duncan, and encouraging her husband as when awake. She, therefore, would not even have hinted the terrors of hell to one whose conscience she saw was too much alarmed already for her purpose. She certainly imagines herself here talking to Macbeth, who (she supposes,) has 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 afear'd? This explanation, I think, gives a spirit to the passage, which has hitherto appeared languid, being perhaps misapprehended by those who placed a full point at the conclusion of it. Steevens. 297) Alluding to the terrors of Macbeth, when the `ghost broke in on the festivity of the banquet. Steevens. |