Page:Macbeth (1918) Yale.djvu/44

32

The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood

Is stopp'd; the very source of it is stopp'd.

Macd. Your royal father's murder'd.

Mal. O! by whom?

Len. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done 't:

Their hands and faces were all badg'd with blood;

So were their daggers, which unwip'd we found

Upon their pillows: they star'd, and were distracted;

No man's life was to be trusted with them.

Macb. O! yet I do repent me of my fury,

That I did kill them.

Macd. Wherefore did you so?

Macb. Who can be wise, amaz'd, temperate and furious,

Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:

The expedition of my violent love

Outran the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,

His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood;

And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature

For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,

Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers

Unmannerly breech'd with gore: who could refrain,

That had a heart to love, and in that heart

Courage to make 's love known?

Lady M. Help me hence, ho!

Macd. Look to the lady.

Mal. [Aside to Donalbain.] Why do we hold our tongues,

That most may claim this argument for ours?

Don. [Aside to Malcolm.] What should be spoken

 109 badg'd: labeled (i.e., as murderers)

117 expedition: haste

120 nature; cf. n.

123 breech'd: clothed in breeches

127 argument: topic

