Your matrons, and your maids, could not fill up
The cistern of my lust; and my desire

All continent impediments would o'er-bear,
That did oppose my will:

Than such a one to reign.
Macd.

Better Macbeth,

Boundless intemperance
In nature is a tyranny; it hath been
The untimely emptying of the happy throne,
And fall of many kings. But fear not yet
To take upon you what is yours: you may
Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty,
And yet seem cold, the time you may so hood-wink.
We have willing dames enough; there cannot be
That vulture in you, to devour so many

As will to greatness dedicate themselves,
Finding it so inclin'd.

Mal.

With this, there grows,

In my most ill-compos'd affection, such
A stanchless avarice, that, were I king,
I should cut off the nobles for their lands;
Desire his jewels, and this other's house:
And my more-having would be as a sauce
To make me hunger more; that I should forge
Quarrels unjust against the good, and loyal,
Destroying them for wealth.

Macd.

This avarice

Sticks deeper; grows with more pernicious root
Than summer-seeming lust :P and it hath been
The sword of our slain kings: Yet do not fear;
Scotland hath foysons 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 justice, verity, temperance, stableness,
Bounty, perséverance, mercy, lowliness,
Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude,

P

summer-seeming―] i. e. Having the appearance of summer. Applied to lust it means, that passion is the indication of the summer-time of life. In Johnson's and Steevens' text, the emendation of Sir W. Blackstone, summerseeding is admitted.

foysons-] i. e. Harvests.

portable,] i. e. Bearable.

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.

Macd.

O Scotland! Scotland!

Mal. If such a one be fit to govern, speak:

I am as I have spoken.

Macd.

Fit to govern!

No, not to live.-O nation miserable,

With an untitled tyrant bloody-scepter'd,

When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again?
Since that the truest issue of thy throne

By his own interdiction stands accurs'd,

And does blaspheme his breed?—Thy royal father Was a most sainted king: the queen, that bore thee, Oftner upon her knees than on her feet,

Died every day she lived. Fare thee well!

These evils, thou repeat'st upon thyself,

Have banish'd me from Scotland.-O, my breast,

Thy hope ends here!

Mal.

Macduff, this noble passion, Child of integrity, hath from my soul

Wip'd the black scruples, reconcil'd my thoughts
To thy good truth and honour. Devilish Macbeth
By many of these trains hath sought to win me
Into his power; and modest wisdom plucks me
From over-credulous haste: But God above
Deal between thee and me! for even now
I put myself to thy direction, and
Unspeak mine own detraction; here abjure
The taints and blames I laid upon myself,
For strangers to my nature. I am yet
Unknown to woman; never was forsworn;
Scarcely have coveted what was mine own;
At no time broke my faith; would not betray
The devil to his fellow; and delight

No less in truth, than life: my first false speaking s From over-credulous haste:] From over-hasty credulity.

Was this upon myself: What I am truly,·
Is thine, and my poor country's, to command:
Whither, indeed, before thy here-approach,
Old Siward, with ten thousand warlike men,
All ready at a point, was setting forth :

Now we'll together; and the chance, of goodness,*
Be like our warranted quarrel! Why are you silent?
Macd. Such welcome and unwelcome things at once,
"Tis hard to reconcile.

Enter a Doctor.

Mal. Well; more anon.-Comes the king forth, I pray you?

Doct. Ay, sir: there are a crew of wretched souls, That stay his cure: their malady convinces"

The great assay of art; but, at his touch,

Such sanctity hath heaven given in his hand,

They presently amend.

Mal.

I thank you, doctor.

[Exit Doctor.

'Tis call'd the evil:

Macd. What's the disease he means?
Mal.

A most miraculous work in this good king:
Which often, since my here-remain in England,
I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven,
Himself best knows: but strangely-visited people,
All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye,
The mere despair of surgery, he cures ;*
Hanging a golden stamp about their necks,
Put on with holy prayers: and 'tis spoken,
To the succeeding royalty he leaves

The healing benediction. With this strange virtue,
He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy;

t

and the chance, of goodness,] Dr. Johnson proposes to read-and the chance, O goodness. The sense will be, "And, O thou sovereign goodness, to whom we now appeal, may our fortune answer to our cause.

u

convinces-] i. e. Overpowers, subdues.

رو

* The mere despair of surgery, he cures ;] The practice of curing the king's evil by the royal touch, was begun by Edward the Confessor. Queen Elizabeth, we are informed by Laneham, cured nine persons so afflicted during her visit to Kenilworth Castle.

a golden stamp, &c.] This was the coin called an angel, of the value of ten shillings.

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. Macd. My ever-gentle cousin, welcome hither. Mal. I know him now: Good God, betimes remove The means that make us strangers!

Rosse.

Sir, Amen.

Macd. Stands Scotland where it did?
Rosse.

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; where violent sorrow seems
A modern ecstacy; the dead man's knell

Is there scarce ask'd, for who; and good men's lives
Expire before the flowers in their caps,

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 peace? Rosse. No; they were well at peace, when I did leave

them.

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 rumour

of use.

rent] This old verb, which has the sense of rend, has been long out

a A modern ecstacy ;] i. e. A trivial affection. The old sense of modern is trivial, worthless.

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 soldiers, make our women fight,
To doff their dire distress.

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 soldier, none

That Christendom gives out.

Rosse.

'Would I could answer

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

Macd.

What concern they?

The general cause? or is it a fee-grief,d
Due to some single breast?

Rosse.

No mind, that's honest,

But in it shares some woe; though the main part

Pertains to you alone.

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 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 of these murder'd deer,

To add the death of you.

Mal.

Merciful heaven!

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

b doff-] i. e. Put off, do off.

c

d

latch- i. e. Lay hold of. A north country expression.

fee-grief,] A peculiar sorrow; a grief that hath a single owner. This technical expression is, at least to our ears, very harsh.-JOHNSON.

e

quarry-] This is a term used both in hunting and falconry. In both sports it means the game after it is killed.-STEEVENS.