Mal.
Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there
Weep our sad bosoms empty.

Macd.
^{3 note}

As if it felt with Scotland, ^{5 note}
and yell'd out
Like syllables of dolour.

Mal.
What I believe, I'll wail;
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 lov'd him well,
He hath not touch'd you yet. I'm young; but something
^{6 note}
You may deserve of him through me, and wisdom
To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb,
T' appease an angry God.

Macd.
I am not treacherous.

Mal.
But Macbeth is.
^{7 note}
A good and virtuous nature may recoil
In an imperial Charge. I crave your pardon:
That which you are, my thoughts cannot transpose;
Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell,
^{8 note}Though all things foul would bear the brows of Grace,
Yet Grace must look still so.

Macd.
I've lost my hopes.

Mal.
Perchance, ev'n there, where I did find my doubts.
^{9 note}Why in that rawness left you wife and children,
Those precious motives, those strong knots of love,
Without leave-taking?—I pray you,
Let not my jealousies be your dishonours,
But mine own safeties. You may be rightly just,
Whatever I shall think.

Macd.
Bleed, bleed, poor Country!
Great Tyranny, lay thou thy Basis sure,
For goodness dares not check thee!—* ^noteWear thou thy wrongs—
^{1 note}His title is affear'd.—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,
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 yoak;
It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash
Is added to her wounds. I think withal,
There would be hands up-lifted 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.
^{2 note}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 harms.

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,
^{3 note}

Macd.
Boundless intemperance
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,
And yet seem cold, the time you may so hoodwink.
We've 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; ^{4 note}

Mal.
But I have none; the King-becoming graces,
As justice, verity, temp'rance, stableness,
Bounty, persev'rance, 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.
Oh 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 accurst,
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,
Dy'd every day she liv'd. Oh, fare thee well!

These evils, thou repeat'st upon thyself,
Have banish'd me from Scotland. Oh, 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. Develish Macbeth
By many of these trains hath sought to win me
Into his pow'r, 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
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,
^{6 note}

Be like our warranted quarrel! Why are you silent?

Macd.
Such welcome, and unwelcome things at once,
'Tis hard to reconcile.

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