Son. Why fhould I, mother? Poor birds they
are not fet for..

My father is not dead, for all your faying. [father?]
L. Macd. Yes, he is dead: how wilt thou do for a
Son. Nay, how will you do for a husband?
L. Macd. Why, I can buy me twenty at any
market.

Son. Then you'll buy 'em to fell again.

L. Macd. Thou speak'st with all thy wit; and yet, i' faith,

With wit enough for thee.

Son. Was my father a traitor, mother?

L. Macd. Ay, that he was.

Son. What is a traitor?

L. Macd. Why, one that swears and liés.
Son. And be all traitors, that do fo?

L. Macd. Every one that does fo, is a traitor, and must be hang'd.

Son. And must they all be hang'd, that fwear and lie?

L. Macd. Every one.

Son. Who must hang them?

L. Macd. Why, the honest men.

Son. Then the liars and fwearers are fools: for there are liars and fwearers enough to beat the 25 honeft 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 30 quickly have a new father.

L. Macd. Poor prattler! how thou talk'st!
Enter a Meffenger.

Mef. Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you
known,

Though in your state of honour I am perfect '.
I doubt fome danger doth approach you nearly:
If you will take a homely man's advice,

Be not found here: hence with your little ones.
To fright you thus, methinks, I am too favage;
To do worse to you 2 were fell cruelty, [you!
Which is too nigh your perfon. Heaven preferve
I dare abide no longer.
[Exit Minger.

L. Mac. 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, fometime,
Accounted dangerous folly: Why then, alas!
Do I put up that womanly defence,

[faces?

What you have spoke, it may be fo, perchance.
This tyrant, whofe fole name blifters our tongues,
Was once thought honest; you have lov'd him well;
He hath not touch'd you yet. I am young; but
fomething
[dom
You may deferve of him through me: and wif-
To offer up a weak, poor innocent lamb,
To appeafe an angry god.

Macd. I am not treacherous.
Mal. But Macbeth is.

[don;

A good and virtuous nature may recoil,
In an imperial charge. But I fhall crave your par-
That which you are, my thoughts cannot transpose:
Angels are bright still, though the brightest tell :
35 Though all things foul would wear the brows of
Yet grace muft ftill look fo.

Macd. I have loft my hopes.

[grace,

Mal. Perchance, even there, where 1 did find

my doubts.

40 Why in that rawness 5 left you wife, and child,
(Thofe precious motives, those strong knots of love)
Without leave-taking?—I pray you,

Let not my jealoufies be your dishonours,
But mine own fafeties:-You may be rightly just,
45 Whatever I fhall think.

To fay, I have done no harm.What are thefe 50
Enter Murderers.

Mur. Where is your husband?

L. Macd. I hope, in no place fo unfanctified, Where fuch as thou may'st find him.

Mur. He's a traitor.

Son. Thou ly'ft, thou fhag-ear'd villain.
Mur. What, you egg?

Young fry of treachery?

Macd. Bleed, bleed, poor country!

Great tyranny, lay thou thy bafis fure,
For goodness dares not check thee!-wear thou
thy wrongs,

His title is affear'd"!-Fare thee well, lord :

I would not be the villain that thou think'st,
For the whole space that's within the tyrant's grafp,
And the rich Eaft to boot.

Mal. Be not offended:

551 fpeak not as in abfolute fear of you.

I think, our country finks beneath the yoke:

It weeps, it bleeds; and each new day a gash
Is added to her wounds: I think, withal,

I That is, though I am perfectly acquainted with your rank. 2 i. e. not to acquaint you with, or give you warning of, your danger. 3 i. e. protect from utter deftruction the privileges of our birth-right. 4 i. e. to befriend. 5 Without previous provifion, without due preparation. 6 Mr. Pope fays affear'd is a law term for confirm'd. Mr. Tollet propofes to read, "The title is affecr'd," and explains the paffage thus: "Poor country, wear thou thy wrongs, the title to them is legally fettled by thofe who had the final judication of it. Affeerers had the power of confirming or moderating fines and amercements."

There

Sticks deeper; grows with more pernicious root 50
Than fummer-feeming luft; and it hath been
The fword of our flain kings: Yet do not fear;
Scotland hath foyfons 2 to fill up your will,
Of your mere own: All these are portable,
With other graces weigh'd.

Mal. But I have none: the king-becoming graces,
As juftice, verity, temperance, ftableness,
Bounty, perfeverance, mercy, lowliness,
Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude,
I have no relifh of them; but abound
In the divifion of each feveral crime,

2 i. e. plenty.

of The Revifal conceives the fenfe of the paffage to be this: And may the fuccefs of that goodness, which '

is about to exert itself in my behalf, be such as may be equal to the juftice of my quarrel.

Macd. Stands Scotland where it did?
Roffe. Alas, poor country;

Almoft afraid to know itfelf! It cannot

Be call'd our mother, but our grave: where nothing,
But who knows nothing, is once feen to smile;
Where fighs,and groans,and fhrieks that rent the air,
Are made, not mark'd; where violent forrow feems
A modern2 ecstacy: the dead man's knell

Is there scarce afk'd, for whom: and good men's lives
Expire before the flowers in their caps,
Dying or ere they ficken.

Macd. Oh, relation,

Too nice, and yet too true!

Mal. What is the newest grief?

Reffe. That of an hour's age doth hiss the speaker: Each minute teems a new one.

Macd. How does my wife?

Roffe. Why, well.

Macd. And all my children?
Roffe. Well too.

What, man! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows;
Give forrow words: the grief that does not speak,
20 Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break.
Macd. My children too?

Roffe. Wife, children, fervants, all
That could be found.

Macd. And I must be from thence!
25 My wife kill'd too?

Roffe. I have faid.

Mal. Be comforted:

Let's make us med'cines of our great revenge,
To cure this deadly grief.

30 Macd. He has no children.-All my pretty ones?
Did you fay, all ?-Oh, hell-kite!-All?

35

Macd. The tyrant has not batter'd at their peace?
Reffe. No; they were all at peace when I did leave
them.
[goes it? 40
Macd. Be not a niggard of your fpeech; How
Roffe. When I came hither to transport the tidings,
Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumour
Of many worthy fellows that were out;
Which was to my belief witness'd the rather,
For that I saw the tyrant's power a-foot :
Now is the time of help; your eye in Scotland
Would create foldiers, make our women fight,
To doff 3 their dire diftreffes.

Mal. Be it their comfort,

We are coming thither: gracious England hath
Lent us good Siward, and ten thousand men;
An older, and a better foldier, none
That Christendom gives out.

Roffe. 'Would I could answer

This comfort with the like! But I have words,
That would be howl'd out in the defert air,
Where hearing should not catch4 them.

What, all my pretty chickens, and their dam,
At one fell fwoop? ?

Mal. Difpute it like a man.

Macd. I fhall do fo;

But I must alfo feel it as a man:

grief

45 Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it.
Macd. Oh, I could play the woman with mine
eyes,
[ven,
And braggart with my tongue !—But, gentle hea-
Cut fhort all intermiffion 9; front to front,
50 Bring thou this fiend of Scotland, and myself;
Within my fword's length fet him; if he 'fcape,
Heaven, forgive him too!

Mal. This tune goes manly.

Come, go we to the king; our power is ready;
55 Our fack is nothing but our leave: Macbeth
Is ripe for fhaking, and the powers above [may;
Put on their inftruments19. Receive what cheer you
The night is long, that never finds the day. [Exeunt.

I Meaning the coin called an angel, the value of which was ten fhillings. 2 i, e. commen. 3 To deff is to do off to put off. 4 The folio reads latch them, and perhaps rightly, as to larch (in the North country dialect) fignifies the fame as to catch. 6 5 A grief that hath a fingle owner. Quarry

is a term used both in bunting and falconry, and in both sports it means either the game that is purfued, or the game after it is killed. 7 Savoup is the defcent of a bird of prey on his game. 8 i. e. contend with your forrow like a man. 9 i, e. all paufe.

against the tyrant.

A i. e. encourage us their inftruments

ACT

can perceive no truth in your report. When was it fhe last walk'd?

5

Gent. Since his majefty went into the field, I have seen her rife from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon it, read it, afterwards feal 10 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 fleep, and do the effects of watching. In this numbry agitation, besides her 15 walking, and other actual performances, what, at any time, have you heard her fay?

Gent. That, fir, which I will not report after her. De. You may, to me; and 'tis most meet you fhould.

Gent. Neither to you, nor any one; having no witness to confirm my speech.

20

Erter Lady Macbeth, with a Taper, Lo you, here he comes! This is her very guife; and, upon my life, faft afleep. Observe her; stand 25

clofe.

Dott. How came the by that light?

Gent. Why, it stood by her; fhe has light by her continually; 'tis her command.

Deft. You fee, her eyes are open.
Gent. Ay, but their sense is shut,

Dot. What is it she does now? Look, how the rubs her hands.

Dot. Go to, go to; you have known what you fhould not.

Gent. She has spoke what she should not, I am fare of that: Heaven knows what she has known. Lady. 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 figh is there? The heart is forely charg'd.

Gent. I would not have such a heart in my bofom, for the dignity of the whole body.

D. Well, well, well,

Gent. Pray God, it be, fir.

Doct. This disease is beyond my practice: Yet I have known those which have walk'd in their fleep, who have died holily in their beds.

Lady. Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not fo pale:-I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he cannot come out of his grave. Doft. Even fo?

Lady. 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.

Dat. Will the go now to bed?
Gent. Directly.

[deeds

Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad: Unnatural
Do breed unnatural troubles: Infected minds
To their deaf pillows will difcharge their fecrets.
30 More needs the the divine, than the phyfician.
God, God, forgive us all! Look after her;
Remove from her the means of all annoyance,
And ftill keep eyes upon her :-So, good-night:
My mind the has mated, and amaz'd my fight:

Gent. It is an accustom'd action with her, to
feem thus washing her hands; I have known her 35I think, but dare not speak.
continue in this a quarter of an hour.

Gent. Good night, good doctor.

SCENE

[Exeunt.

II.
Drum and Colours. Enter Menteth, Cathness, Angus,
Lenox, and Soldiers.

Ment. The English power is near, led on by
His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff. [Malcolm,
Revenges burn in them: for their dear caufes
Would, to the bleeding, and the grim alarm,
Excite the mortified man 3.

Mr. Steevens with great acuteness obferves on this paffage, that Lady Macbeth is acting over in a dream the bufinefs of the murder of Duncan, and encouraging her husband as when awake; and certainly imagines herfelf here talking to Macbeth, who (the supposes) has just said, Hell is murky, (i«. hell is a difmal place to go to in confequence of fuch a deed) and repeats his words in contempt of his 2 i.e. aftonished, confounded, cowardice; Hell is murky !--Fie, fie, my lord, fie! a foldier, and afraid ?

3 By the mortified man, is meant a religious; one who has fubdued his passions, is dead to the world, has abandoned it, and all the affairs of it: an Afcetic- 4i. e. fmooth-faced, unbearded youths.

Menta

2 To fag, or fwag, is to fink down by its own weight, or by an overload. 3 Loon fignifies a base fellow. 4 i. e. fool. 5 The meaning is, they infect others who fee them with cowardice. 6 Sear is dry. 7 To fkirr, fignifies to fcour, to ride haftily. 8 To caft the

water was the phrase in use for finding out diforders by the infpection of urine.