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MACDUFF And I must be from thence!
My wife killed too?
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MACDUFF And I had to be away! My wife was killed too?
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ROSS I have said.
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ROSS I said she was.
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MALCOLM Be comforted.
220Let’s make us med'cines of our great revenge,
To cure this deadly grief.
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MALCOLM Take comfort. Let’s cure this awful grief by taking
revenge on Macbeth.
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MACDUFF He has no children. All my pretty ones?
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
225At one fell swoop?
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MACDUFF He doesn’t have children. All my pretty little children?
Did you say all? Oh, that bird from hell! All of them? What, all my
children and their mother dead in one fell swoop?
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MALCOLM Dispute it like a man.
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MALCOLM Fight it like a man.
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MACDUFF I shall do so,
But I must also feel it as a man.
I cannot but remember such things were
230That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on,
And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff,
They were all struck for thee! Naught that I am,
Not for their own demerits, but for mine,
Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now.
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MACDUFF I will. But I also have to feel it like a man. I can’t
help remembering the things that were most precious to me. Did
heaven watch the slaughter and not send down any help? Sinful
Macduff, they were killed because of you! As wicked as I am, they
were slaughtered because of me, not because of anything they did.
May God give their souls rest.
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MALCOLM
235Be this the whetstone of your sword. Let grief
Convert to anger. Blunt not the heart, enrage it.
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MALCOLM Let this anger sharpen your sword. Transform your grief into
anger. Don’t block the feelings in your heart; let them
loose as rage.
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MACDUFF Oh, I could play the woman with mine eyes
And braggart with my tongue! But, gentle heavens,
Cut short all intermission. Front to front
240Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself.
Within my sword’s length set him; if he ’scape,
Heaven forgive him too.
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MACDUFF I could go on weeping like a woman and bragging about how I will
avenge them! But gentle heavens, don’t keep me waiting.
Bring me face to face with Macbeth, that devil of Scotland. Put him
within the reach of my sword, and if he escapes, may heaven forgive
him as well!
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