ACT 4
Scene 2

...where they are.
Enter Macduff’s Wife, her Son, and Ross.
What had he done to make him fly the land?

...have patience, madam.
He had none.
His flight was madness. When our actions do not,
Our fears do make us traitors.

...or his fear.
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.

...Blessing upon you.
Fathered he is, and yet he’s fatherless.

...leave at once.
Sirrah, your father’s dead.
And what will you do now? How will you live?

...birds do, mother.
What, with worms and flies?

...so do they.
Poor bird, thou ’dst never fear the net nor lime,
The pitfall nor the gin.

...all your saying.
Yes, he is dead. How wilt thou do for a father?

...for a husband?
Why, I can buy me twenty at any market.

...to sell again.
Thou speak’st with all thy wit,
And yet, i’ faith, with wit enough for thee.

...a traitor, mother?
Ay, that he was.

...is a traitor?
Why, one that swears and lies.

...that do so?
Every one that does so is a traitor
and must be hanged.

...swear and lie?
Every one.

...must hang them?
Why, the honest men.

...hang up them.
Now God help thee, poor monkey! But
how wilt thou do for a father?

...a new father.
Poor prattler, how thou talk’st!

...abide no longer.
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 defense
To say I have done no harm?

Enter Murderers.
What are these faces?

...is your husband?
I hope in no place so unsanctified
Where such as thou mayst find him.

...I pray you.
Lady Macduff exits, crying “Murder!” followed by the Murderers bearing the Son’s body.