Original Text |
Translated Text |
| Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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Enter Malcolm and Macduff. MALCOLM
Let us seek out some desolate shade and there
Weep our sad bosoms empty. MACDUFF Let us rather
Hold fast the mortal sword and, like good men,
Bestride our downfall’n birthdom. Each new morn 5
New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows
Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds
As if it felt with Scotland, and yelled out
Like syllable of dolor. | In England, Malcolm and Macduff brainstorm about Scotland's plight under the tyrannous Macbeth. Malcolm suggests finding a nice shady spot where they can cry their eyes out. Macduff's got a better idea: maybe they should whip out their swords and fight like "men" against the good-for-nothing Macbeth. |
MALCOLM What I believe, I’ll wail; 10
What know, believe; and what I can redress,
As I shall find the time to friend, I will.
What you have spoke, it may be so, perchance.
This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,
Was once thought honest. You have loved him well. 15
He hath not touched you yet. I am young, but
something
You may deserve of him through me, and wisdom
To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb
T’ appease an angry god. 20 MACDUFF
I am not treacherous. MALCOLM But Macbeth is.
A good and virtuous nature may recoil
In an imperial charge. But I shall crave your
pardon. 25
That which you are, my thoughts cannot transpose.
Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.
Though all things foul would wear the brows of
grace,
Yet grace must still look so. 30 MACDUFF I have lost my hopes. MALCOLM
Perchance even there where I did find my doubts.
Why in that rawness left you wife and child,
Those precious motives, those strong knots of love,
Without leave-taking? I pray you, 35
Let not my jealousies be your dishonors,
But mine own safeties. You may be rightly just,
Whatever I shall think. MACDUFF Bleed, bleed, poor country!
Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure, 40
For goodness dare not check thee. Wear thou thy
wrongs;
The title is affeered.—Fare thee well, lord.
I would not be the villain that thou think’st
For the whole space that’s in the tyrant’s grasp, 45
And the rich East to boot. | Sure, that's an okay idea, says Malcolm; but he's worried Macduff might have something to gain by turning on him, (Malcolm) and betraying him to Macbeth. Besides, Macduff doesn't seem like a loyal guy these days, having abandoned his family back in Scotland and all. No man, Macduff says; I'm totally loyal. |
MALCOLM 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 50
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 55
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. MACDUFF What should he be? 60 MALCOLM
It is myself I mean, in whom I know
All the particulars of vice so grafted
That, when they shall be opened, black Macbeth
Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state
Esteem him as a lamb, being compared 65
With my confineless harms. | Still, Malcolm's a little paranoid so he decides to test Macduff by suggesting that even he, Malcolm, might make a poor king, were they to defeat Macbeth. Scotland would suffer, he says, under his own bad habits. In fact, compared to Malcolm, Macbeth would seem pure as snow. Malcolm is suggesting he has some pretty serious vices. |
MACDUFF Not in the legions
Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned
In evils to top Macbeth. MALCOLM I grant him bloody, 70
Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful,
Sudden, 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 75
The cistern of my lust, and my desire
All continent impediments would o’erbear
That did oppose my will. Better Macbeth
Than such an one to reign. | Macduff thinks that's highly unlikely. So Malcolm tells him that he (Malcolm) has "an impossible lust" that would only get worse as he devoured all of the maidens of Scotland. |
MACDUFF Boundless intemperance 80
In nature is a tyranny. It hath been
Th’ 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 85
And yet seem cold—the time you may so hoodwink.
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 inclined. 90 | Macduff at first insists there are plenty of maidens in Scotland, and Malcolm would be satisfied. |
MALCOLM With this there grows
In my most ill-composed 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; 95
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. MACDUFF This avarice 100
Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root
Than summer-seeming lust, and it hath been
The sword of our slain kings. Yet do not fear.
Scotland hath foisons to fill up your will
Of your mere own. All these are portable, 105
With other graces weighed. MALCOLM
But I have none. The king-becoming graces,
As justice, verity, temp’rance, stableness,
Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,
Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude, 110
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 115
All unity on earth. | But Malcolm won't let up talking about how bad a king he'd be. He says that in addition to the whole lust problem, he's also super greedy, to the point that he'd steal from his subjects and destroy them in the name of wealth. Oh, and he has no good qualities at all. So there's that, too. |
MACDUFF O Scotland, Scotland! MALCOLM
If such a one be fit to govern, speak.
I am as I have spoken. MACDUFF Fit to govern? 120
No, not to live.—O nation miserable,
With an untitled tyrant bloody-sceptered,
When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again,
Since that the truest issue of thy throne
By his own interdiction stands accursed 125
And does blaspheme his breed?—Thy royal father
Was a most sainted king. The queen that bore thee,
Oft’ner upon her knees than on her feet,
Died every day she lived. Fare thee well.
These evils thou repeat’st upon thyself 130
Hath banished me from Scotland.—O my breast,
Thy hope ends here! | Macduff finally gives up and admits that Scotland's pretty much doomed. He says Malcom's parents, the former King and Queen, were saints. How could they have produced a son so depraved as Malcolm? Madcuff's torn up with the hopelessness he feels for his beloved Scotland. |
MALCOLM Macduff, this noble passion,
Child of integrity, hath from my soul
Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts 135
To thy good truth and honor. Devilish Macbeth
By many of these trains hath sought to win me
Into his power, and modest wisdom plucks me
From overcredulous haste. But God above
Deal between thee and me, for even now 140
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, 145
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 150
Is thine and my poor country’s to command—
Whither indeed, before thy here-approach,
Old Siward with ten thousand warlike men,
Already at a point, was setting forth.
Now we’ll together, and the chance of goodness 155
Be like our warranted quarrel. Why are you silent? | Once Malcolm sees that Macduff is truly devoted to Scotland rather than just a political alliance, Malcolm goes "psych!": not only is he not lustful, he's never even "known" a woman. And he's got plenty of good qualities. Boo-yah. |
MACDUFF
Such welcome and unwelcome things at once
’Tis hard to reconcile. | Macduff is happy to hear that, but he's still having a little trouble getting over all the nasty stuff Malcolm just told him. Even if it wasn't true. |
Enter a Doctor. MALCOLM Well, more anon.—
Comes the King forth, I pray you? 160 DOCTOR
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 his hand)
They presently amend. 165 MALCOLM I thank you, doctor. Doctor exits. MACDUFF
What’s the disease he means? MALCOLM ’Tis called the evil:
A most miraculous work in this good king,
Which often since my here-remain in England 170
I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven
Himself best knows, but strangely visited people
All swoll’n and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye,
The mere despair of surgery, he cures,
Hanging a golden stamp about their necks, 175
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 180
That speak him full of grace. | A doctor shows up (rather unexpectedly) and talks about how King Edward is tending to a crew of poor souls afflicted by a nasty disease called "scrofula," which the King heals with his touch. Brain Snack: Scrofula was also called the "King's Evil," and it was thought to be cured by a little something called the "Royal Touch," a kind of laying on of hands ceremony that was performed by monarchs in France and England as far back as the middle ages. The healing ceremony was supposedly started in England by King Edward the Confessor, Macbeth's ideal king. |
Enter Ross. MACDUFF See who comes here. MALCOLM
My countryman, but yet I know him not. MACDUFF
My ever-gentle cousin, welcome hither. MALCOLM
I know him now.—Good God betimes remove 185
The means that makes us strangers! ROSS Sir, amen. MACDUFF
Stands Scotland where it did? ROSS Alas, poor country,
Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot 190
Be called 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 marked; where violent sorrow seems
A modern ecstasy. The dead man’s knell 195
Is there scarce asked for who, and good men’s lives
Expire before the flowers in their caps,
Dying or ere they sicken. MACDUFF
O relation too nice and yet too true! MALCOLM What’s the newest grief? 200 ROSS
That of an hour’s age doth hiss the speaker.
Each minute teems a new one. MACDUFF How does my wife? ROSS Why, well. MACDUFF And all my children? 205 ROSS Well too. MACDUFF
The tyrant has not battered at their peace? ROSS
No, they were well at peace when I did leave ’em. | Ross shows up and chats with Malcolm and Macduff about how Scotland is in a bad way. When Macduff asks after his family, Ross says they were fine when he left them. |
MACDUFF
Be not a niggard of your speech. How goes ’t? ROSS
When I came hither to transport the tidings 210
Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumor
Of many worthy fellows that were out;
Which was to my belief witnessed the rather
For that I saw the tyrant’s power afoot.
Now is the time of help. Your eye in Scotland 215
Would create soldiers, make our women fight
To doff their dire distresses. | Macduff tells Ross not to be stingy with his words. It feels like he's holding back. So Ross tells him that the rumor is that if Macduff were to return to Scotland, a whole lot of men—and women—would be willing to take up arms against Macbeth. |
MALCOLM Be ’t their comfort
We are coming thither. Gracious England hath
Lent us good Siward and ten thousand men; 220
An older and a better soldier none
That Christendom gives out. | Malcolm promises when they finally arrive in Scotland, ten thousand English soldiers will come, too. |
ROSS Would I could answer
This comfort with the like. But I have words
That would be howled out in the desert air, 225
Where hearing should not latch them. MACDUFF What concern
they—
The general cause, or is it a fee-grief
Due to some single breast? 230 ROSS No mind that’s honest
But in it shares some woe, though the main part
Pertains to you alone. MACDUFF If it be mine,
Keep it not from me. Quickly let me have it. 235 ROSS
Let not your ears despise my tongue forever,
Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound
That ever yet they heard. MACDUFF Hum! I guess at it. ROSS
Your castle is surprised, your wife and babes 240
Savagely slaughtered. To relate the manner
Were on the quarry of these murdered deer
To add the death of you. MALCOLM Merciful heaven!—
What, man, ne’er pull your hat upon your brows. 245
Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak
Whispers the o’erfraught heart and bids it break. MACDUFF My children too? ROSS
Wife, children, servants, all that could be found. | Ross then announces he has some bad news, actually. Macduff offers to guess at it, but before he does Ross blurts out that, oops, actually Macduff's family has been gruesomely murdered. |
MACDUFF
And I must be from thence? My wife killed too? 250 ROSS I have said. MALCOLM Be comforted.
Let’s make us med’cines of our great revenge
To cure this deadly grief. MACDUFF
He has no children. All my pretty ones? 255
Did you say “all”? O hell-kite! All?
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop? MALCOLM Dispute it like a man. | It takes a bit for this news to sink in. Macduff asks multiple times if Ross is sure that his wife and kids are all dead. |
MACDUFF I shall do so, 260
But I must also feel it as a man.
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, 265
Not for their own demerits, but for mine,
Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now. | Macduff blames himself for leaving. This is all his fault. |
MALCOLM
Be this the whetstone of your sword. Let grief
Convert to anger. Blunt not the heart; enrage it. | Malcolm recommends that Macduff take his own advice and get his feelings out by murdering rather than weeping. |
MACDUFF
O, I could play the woman with mine eyes 270
And braggart with my tongue! But, gentle heavens,
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. 275 MALCOLM This tune goes manly.
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 280
may.
The night is long that never finds the day. They exit. | Macduff vows to slay Macbeth without further delay. He prays for heaven to put him face to face with Macbeth, STAT. Malcolm agrees with this suitably "manly" approach and tells everyone to cheer up: their day will come. |