Page:Macbeth (1918) Yale.djvu/52

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Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are clept

All by the name of dogs: the valu'd file

Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle,

The housekeeper, the hunter, every one

According to the gift which bounteous nature

Hath in him clos'd; whereby he does receive

Particular addition, from the bill

That writes them all alike: and so of men.

Now, if you have a station in the file,

Not i' the worst rank of manhood, say it;

And I will put that business in your bosoms,

Whose execution takes your enemy off,

Grapples you to the heart and love of us,

Who wear our health but sickly in his life,

Which in his death were perfect.

Sec. Mur. I am one, my liege,

Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world

Have so incens'd that I am reckless what

I do to spite the world.

First Mur. And I another,

So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune,

That I would set my life on any chance,

To mend it or be rid on 't.

Macb. Both of you

Know Banquo was your enemy.

Murderers. True, my lord.

Macb. So is he mine; and in such bloody distance

That every minute of his being thrusts

Against my near'st of life: and though I could

With bare-fac'd power sweep him from my sight

 94 Shoughs, water-rugs: two kinds of poodle

clept: called

95 file: list

116 distance: hostility

118 near'st of life: most vital parts

