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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 surprised; your wife, and babes, Savagely slaughtered: to relate the manner, Were, on the quarry of these murdered deer 2, 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.
Macd. My children too?

Rosse. Wife, children, servants, all that could be found.
Macd. And I must be from thence! My wife killed too?
Rosse.
I have said.

Mal.

Let's make us medicines of our great revenge,

To cure this deadly grief.

Be comforted:

All my pretty ones?

Macd. He has no children..
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.

Macd.

I shall do so;

But I must also feel it as a man:

I cannot but remember such things were

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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,
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,
Heaven forgive him too!

Mal.

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This tune goes manly.

3 Be changed.

Come, go we to the king; our power is ready;
Our lack is nothing but our leave: Macbeth
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.

EXAMINATION ON ACT IV.

1. Where are the scenes of this act laid?

2. How is Macbeth's character further developed in this act?

66

66

[Exeunt.

3. Explain the terms, "yesty," germins," deftly," "blood-boltered," "affeered," and "foison."

4. Who was the king of England, during the time at which this drama is laid?

5. Describe the dialogue between Malcolm and Macduff in the third scene?

6. Quote some striking passages from this act.

ACT V.

SCENE I.-Dunsinane. A Room in the Castle.

Enter a Doctor of Physic, 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, 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.

Doct. A great perturbation in nature! to receive at once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching. In this 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 speech.

Lo

Enter Lady MACBETH, with a Taper.

you, here she comes! This is my life, fast asleep. Observe her stand close.

her very guise; and, upon

:

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.

Gent. Ay, but their sense is shut.

Doct. What is it she does now? Look how she rubs her hands.

Gent. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands; I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour.

Lady Macb. 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 Macb. Out, spot! out, I say!-One; Two; Why, then 'tis time to do it: -Fye, my lord, fye! a soldier, and afeard? 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 Macb. The thane of Fife had a wife; Where is she now? -What, will these hands ne'er be clean? - No more of that, my lord, no more of that: you mar all with this starting.

Doct. Go to, go to; you have known what you should

not.

Gent. She has spoken what she should not, I am sure of that Heaven knows what she has known.

Lady Macb. 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 sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged. Gent. I would not have such a heart in my bosom, for the dignity of the whole body.

Doct. Well, well, well,
Gent. 'Pray, God, it be, sir.

Doct. This disease is beyond my practice: Yet I have known those which have walked in their sleep, who have died holily in their beds.

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

Doct. Even so?

Lady Macb. 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.

Doct. Will she now go to bed?
Gent. Directly.

Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad.

[Exit Lady Macbeth.

Unnatural deeds

Do breed unnatural troubles: Infected minds
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.
More needs she the divine than the physician.-
God, God, forgive us all! Look after her;
Remove from her the means of all annoyance,
And still keep eyes upon her:-So, good night:
My mind she has mated1, and amazed my sight:
I think, but dare not speak.

Gent.

Good night, good doctor.

SCENE II.- The Country near Dunsinane.

[Exeunt.

Enter, with Drum and Colours, MENTETH, CATHNESS, ANGUS, LENOx, and Soldiers.

Ment. The English power is near, led on by Malcolm, His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff.

Revenges burn in them: for their dear causes

Would, to the bleeding, and the grim alarm,
Excite the mortified man. 2

Ang.

Near Birnam wood

Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming.

Cath. Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?
Len. For certain, sir, he is not: I have a file

Of all the gentry: there is Siward's son,

And many unrough3 youths, that even now
Protest their first of manhood.

Ment.

What does the tyrant?

Cath. Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies.
Some say he's mad; others, that lesser hate him,
Do call it valiant fury; but, for certain,
He cannot buckle his distempered cause
Within the belt of rule.

1 Depressed, subdued.

2 Such a cause would even excite a monkish recluse (mortified man), to fight.

3 Unbearded.

Now does he feel

Ang.
His secret murthers sticking on his hands;
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach;
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love: now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.

Ment.

Who shall then blame

His pestered senses to recoil, and start,

When all that is within him does condemn
Itself, for being there?

Cath.

Well, march we on,

To give obedience where 'tis truly owed:
Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal1;
And with him pour we, in our country's purge,
Each drop of us.

Len.

Or so much as it needs

To dew the sovereign flower, and drown the weeds.

Make we our march towards Birnam. [Exeunt, marching

SCENE III.-Dunsinane.

A Room in the Castle.

Enter MACBETH, Doctor, and Attendants.

Macb. Bring me no more reports; let them fly all;
Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane,

I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm?
Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know
All mortal consequents, pronounced me thus:
"Fear not, Macbeth; no man that's born of woman
Shall e'er have power upon thee." Then fly, false thanes,
And mingle with the English epicures;

The mind I sway by, and the heart I bear,

Shall never sagg 2 with doubt, nor shake with fear.

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Macb. Go, prick thy face, and over-red thy fear,

"The medicine of the sickly

weal," is here Malcolm, who was to bring the country again to a healthy state.

2 Waver.

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