Page:Macbeth (1918) Yale.djvu/79

Macbeth, IV. iii.

Macd. Bleed, bleed, poor country!

Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure,

For goodness dare not check thee! wear thou thy wrongs;

The title is affeer'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 yoke;

It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash

Is added to her wounds: I think withal,

There would be hands uplifted 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. 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,

 34 title: i.e., Macbeth's right to the crown

affeer'd: made sure

57 top: surpass

