Old Siward, with ten thousand warlike men, Now we'll together; and the chance, of goodness, Enter a Doctor. Mal. Well; more anon. Comes the king forth, I pray you? Doct. Ay, sir; there are a crew of wretched souls. Mal. I thank you, doctor. [Exit Doctor. 'Tis call'd the evil : Macd. What's the disease he means? A most miraculous work in this good king: 4 convinces —] i. e. overpowers, subdues. 3 The mere despair of surgery, he cures ;] Dr. Percy, in his notes on The Northumberland Houshold Book, says, " that our ancient kings even in those dark times of superstition, do not seem to have affected the cure of the king's evil. This miraculous gift was left to be claimed by the Stuarts: our ancient Plantagenets were humbly content to cure the cramp." In this assertion, however, the learned editor of the above curious volume has been betrayed into a mistake, by relying too implicitly on the authority of Mr. Anstis. The power of curing the king's evil was claimed by many of the Plantagenets. 4 a golden stamp, &c.] This was the coin called an angel, of the value of ten shillings. Put on with holy prayers: and 'tis spoken, To the succeeding royalty he leaves The healing benediction. With this strange virtue, And sundry blessings hang about his throne, Macd. Enter ROSSE. See, who comes here? 5 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 stranger! Rosse. Sir, Amen. Macd. Stands Scotland where it did? Alas, poor country; 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. O, relation, What is the newest grief? Rosse. That of an hour's age doth hiss the speaker; Each minute teems a new one. Macd. Rosse. Why, well. How does my wife? 5 My countryman; but yet I know him not.] Malcolm discovers Rosse to be his countryman, while he is yet at some distance from him, by his dress. This circumstance loses its propriety on our stage, as all the characters are uniformly represented in English habits. STEEVENS. Macd. Rosse. And all my children? Well too. 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 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 distresses. 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, Where hearing should not latch them." Macd. What concern they? No mind, that's honest, The general cause? or is it a fee-grief, 7 Rosse. 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. 6 of it. 7 should not latch them.] To latch any thing, is to lay hold -fee-grief,] A peculiar sorrow; a grief that hath a single owner. The expression is, at least to our ears, very harsh. It must be allowed that, in both the foregoing instances, the attorney has been guilty of a flat trespass on the poet. 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,8 To add the death of you. Mal. Merciful heaven! What, man! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows; 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?" Mal. Dispute 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, And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff, They were all struck for thee! naught that I am, 8 Were, on the quarry of these murder'd deer,] Quarry is a term used both in hunting and falconry. In both sports it means the game after it is killed. 9 At one fell swoop?] Swoop is the descent of a bird of prey on his quarry. 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. Macd. O, I could play the woman with mine eyes, And braggart with my tongue! —— But, gentle heaven, Cut short all intermission'; front to front, Bring thou this fiend of Scotland, and myself; Within my sword's length set him: if he 'scape, This tune goes manly. Mal. Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above 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 Physick, 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 3, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her night-gown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write 2 1 Cut short all intermission ;] i. e. all pause, all intervening time. if he 'scape, Heaven forgive him too!] That is, if he escape my vengeance, let him escape that of Heaven also. 3 Since his majesty went into the field,] This is one of Shakspeare's oversights. He forgot that he had shut up Macbeth in Dunsinane, and surrounded him with besiegers. |