I would not be the villain that thou think'st
For the whole space that's in the tyrant's grasp,
And the rich East to boot..

Mal.

Be not offended:
I speak not as in absolute fear of you.

I think our country sinks beneath the yoke;
It weeps, it bleeds; and each new day a gash
Is added to her wounds: I think, withal,
There would be hands uplifted in my right;
And here, from gracious England, have I offer
Of goodly thousands: But, for all this,
When I shall tread upon the tyrant's head,
Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country
Shall have more vices than it had before;
More suffer, and more sundry ways than ever,
By him that shall succeed.

Macd.

What should he be?

Mal. It is myself I mean: in whom I know All the particulars of vice so grafted,

That, when they shall be open'd, black Macbeth Will seem as pure as snow; and the poor state Esteem him as a lamb, being compar'd

With my confineless harms8.

Macd.

Not in the legions

Of horrid hell, can come a devil more damn'd
In evils, to top Macbeth.

Mal.
I grant him bloody,
Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful,
Sudden10, malicious, smacking of every sin
That has a name: But there's no bottom, none,
In my voluptuousness: your wives, your daughters,
Your matrons, and your maids, could not fill up

dares not check thee! Then, addressing Malcolm, Macduff says, "Wear thou thy wrongs,-the title to thy crown is now confirmed to the usurper he would probably have added, but that he interrupts himself with angry impatience, at being suspected of traitorous double dealing.

Thus in The Merry Wives of

8 i. e. immeasurable evils. Windsor, Act ii. Sc. 2, we have:

-thou unconfinable baseness."

9 Luxurious, lascivious, 10 Sudden, passionate.

The cistern of my lust; and my desire

54

All continent impediments would o'erbear, 10 d-
That did oppose my will: Better Macbeth,
Than such a one to reign.

Macd.

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.

d

Mal. With this, there grows, In my most ill compos'd affection, such A staunchless 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. hob

This avariced du Sticks deeper; grows with more pernicious root Than summer-seeming lust1: and it hath been The sword of our slain kings: Yet do not fear; Scotland hath foysons12 to fill up your will, Of your mere own: All these are portable 13, With other graces weigh'd.

Mal. But I have none: The king-becoming graces,

11 Sir W. Blackstone proposed to read summer-seeding, which was adopted by Steevens; but there appears no reason for change. The meaning of the epithet may be, 'lust as hot as summer.' Donne's Poems Malone has pointed out its opposite-winterseeming.

12 Foysons, plenty.

13 Portable answers exactly to a phrase now in use. failings may be borne with, or are bearable.

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.

Macd.

O Scotland! Scotland!

Mal. If such a one be fit to govern, speak: I am as I have spoken.

Macd.one

visFit to govern! No, not to live. O nation miserable,

With an untitled14 tyrant bloody-sceptred, or
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,
Oftener upon her knees than on her feet,
Died every day she lived15. 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 Maebeth By many of these trains hath sought to win me Into his power; and modest wisdom plucks me From over-credulous haste16; But God above

14 'With an untitled tyrant. Thus in Chaucer's Manciple's Tale:

'Right so betwix a titleles tiraunt

And an outlawe.'

15 Died every day she lived.' The expression is derived from the Sacred Writings: I protest by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ Jesus, die daily.'

16 Credulus haste, overhasty credulity.

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
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 convinces1 The great assay of art; but, at his touch, Such sanctity hath heaven given 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,

1 i. e. overcomes it. We have before seen this word used in the same Latin sense, at p. 222, Act i. Sc. 7, of this play. To convince or convicte, to vanquish and overcome. Evinco.' BARET.

How he solicits heaven,

I have seen him do.
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 stamp18 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;

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 rent19 the

air,

Are made, not mark'd; where violent sorrow seems
A modern ecstasy20; the dead man's knell

Is there scarce ask'd, for who; and good men's lives
Expire before the flowers in their caps,
Dying, or ere they sicken.de alhamd

18 A golden stamp, the coin called an angel; the value of which was ten shillings.

To rent is an ancient verb, which has been long disused,' say the editors: in other words it is the old orthography of the verb to rend.

20 It has been before observed that Shakspeare ses ecstasy for every species of alienation of mind, whether proceeding from sorrow, joy, wonder, or any other exciting cause. Modern is generally used by him in the sense of common. A modern ecstasy is therefore a common grief. Vide Act iii. Sc. 2, p. 248.