Act IV, Scene ii:
Fife. A Room in Macduff's Castle.

[Enter Lady Macduff, her Son, and Ross.]

LADY MACDUFF:

What had he done, to make him fly the land?

ROSS:

You must have patience, madam.

LADY MACDUFF:

He had none:

His flight was madness: when our actions do not,

Our fears do make us traitors.

ROSS:

You know not

Whether it was his wisdom or his fear.

LADY MACDUFF:

Wisdom! to leave his wife, to leave his babes,

His mansion, and his titles, in a place

From whence himself does fly? He loves us not:

He wants the natural touch; for the poor wren,

The most diminutive of birds, will fight,

Her young ones in her nest, against the owl.

All is the fear, and nothing is the love;

As little is the wisdom, where the flight

So runs against all reason.

ROSS:

My dearest coz,

I pray you, school yourself: but, for your husband,

He is noble, wise, Judicious, and best knows

The fits o' the season. I dare not speak much further:

But cruel are the times, when we are traitors,

And do not know ourselves; when we hold rumour

From what we fear, yet know not what we fear,

But float upon a wild and violent sea

Each way and move.—I take my leave of you:

Shall not be long but I'll be here again:

Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward

To what they were before.—My pretty cousin,

Blessing upon you!

LADY MACDUFF:

Father'd he is, and yet he's fatherless.

ROSS:

I am so much a fool, should I stay longer,

It would be my disgrace and your discomfort:

I take my leave at once.

[Exit.]

LADY MACDUFF:

Sirrah, your father's dead;

And what will you do now? How will you live?

SON:

As birds do, mother.

LADY MACDUFF:

What, with worms and flies?

SON:

With what I get, I mean; and so do they.

LADY MACDUFF:

Poor bird! thou'dst never fear the net nor lime,

The pit-fall nor the gin.

SON:

Why should I, mother? Poor birds they are not set for.

My father is not dead, for all your saying.

LADY MACDUFF:

Yes, he is dead: how wilt thou do for father?

SON:

Nay, how will you do for a husband?

LADY MACDUFF:

Why, I can buy me twenty at any market.

SON:

Then you'll buy 'em to sell again.

LADY MACDUFF:

Thou speak'st with all thy wit; and yet, i' faith,

With wit enough for thee.

SON:

Was my father a traitor, mother?

LADY MACDUFF:

Ay, that he was.

SON:

What is a traitor?

LADY MACDUFF:

Why, one that swears and lies.

SON:

And be all traitors that do so?

LADY MACDUFF:

Everyone that does so is a traitor, and must be hanged.

SON:

And must they all be hanged that swear and lie?

LADY MACDUFF:

Every one.

SON:

Who must hang them?

LADY MACDUFF:

Why, the honest men.

SON:

Then the liars and swearers are fools: for there are liars

and swearers enow to beat the honest men and hang up them.

LADY MACDUFF:

Now, God help thee, poor monkey! But how wilt

thou do for a father?

SON:

If he were dead, you'ld weep for him: if you would not, it

were a good sign that I should quickly have a new father.

LADY MACDUFF:

Poor prattler, how thou talk'st!

[Enter a Messenger.]

MESSENGER:

Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known,

Though in your state of honor I am perfect.

I doubt some danger does approach you nearly:

If you will take a homely man's advice,

Be not found here; hence, with your little ones.

To fright you thus, methinks, I am too savage;

To do worse to you were fell cruelty,

Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you!

I dare abide no longer.

[Exit.]

LADY MACDUFF:

Whither should I fly?

I have done no harm. But I remember now

I am in this earthly world; where to do harm

Is often laudable; to do good sometime

Accounted dangerous folly: why then, alas,

Do I put up that womanly defence,

To say I have done no harm?—What are these faces?

[Enter Murderers.]

FIRST MURDERER:

Where is your husband?

LADY MACDUFF:

I hope, in no place so unsanctified

Where such as thou mayst find him.

FIRST MURDERER:

He's a traitor.

SON:

Thou liest, thou shag-haar'd villain!

FIRST MURDERER:

What, you egg!

[Stabbing him.]

Young fry of treachery!

SON:

He has kill'd me, mother:

Run away, I pray you!

[Dies. Exit Lady Macduff, crying Murder, and pursued by theMurderers.]