To turn me wild with thy distemper'd rage, Alic. Stop a minute.— Till my full griefs find passage.-Oh the tyrant! Alic. I cannot speak But I have murder'd thee-Oh! I could tell thee- Time presses, and a thousand crouding thoughts [hand Could thy weak Alic. That, that's my grief-'tis I that urge thee on, Thus hunt thee to the toil, sweep thee from earth, And drive thee down this precipice of death. Hast. Thy reason is grown wild. Bring on this mighty ruin? If it could, What have I done so grievous to thy soul, So deadly, so beyond the reach of pardon, That nothing but my life can pay the forfeit? Alic. Thy cruel scorn had stung me to the heart, And set my burning bosom all in flames: Raving and mad, I flew to my revenge, And writ, I know not what -told the Protector, That Shore's detested wife, by wiles, had won thee To plot against his greatness-He believ'd it, "Hast. Destructive jealousy! O merciless, wild, and unforgiving fiend! 'Blindfold it runs to undistinguish'd mischief, And murders all it meets. Baneful its rage, "None can be found so deadly; unhappy they, • Those easy fools who give the dæmon harbour: < Who turn a monster loose among mankind, Fiercer than famine, war, or spotted pestilence.* Alic. If thou wilt curse, curse rather thine own falshood; The wanton maxims of thy perjur'd sex, Which taught thee first to laugh at faith and justice, And make a jest of a poor woman's ruin: 'And urg'd my vengeance to undo us both.' Alic. Can'st thou-oh cruel Hastings, leave me thus? I would have met it for thee, and made bare My ready, faithful breast to save thee from it. [award; Pursu'd the innocence which never wrong'd thee, * See p. 141. Note *. + The following passages will serve as a Comment upon this and upon each other: in these cases, We still have judgment here; that we but teach Macbeth, A. I. S. VII. "He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which " he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his "violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate." PSALM VII. 15, 16. Bible translation, + [Kneeling. And unremitting anguish be thy portion:* Most righteous doom! for, Oh! while I behold thee And charge thy ruin on me; thy fair fame, Thy spotless beauty, innocence, and youth, Dishonor'd, blasted and betray'd by me. Alic. And does thy heart relent for my undoing? Oh! that inhuman Gloster could be mov'd But half so easily as I can pardon! So Hast. Here, then, exchange we mutually forgiveness, may the guilt of all my broken VOWS, My perjuries to thee be all forgotten, As here my soul acquits thee of my death, As here I leave thee with the softest tenderness, 66 The quarto reads potion. The following verse, however, from Psalm xi. 7. may, perhaps, support the reading of portion: Upon the ungodly he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, storm and tem"pest: this shall be their portion to drink." +"The sorrows of death compassed me, and the overflowings of "ungodliness made me afraid. The pains of hell came about me, the snares of death overtook me." PSALM XVIII, 3, 4. Mourning our guilty loves, and our deep woes, [During this speech a Messenger enters and speaks to Ratcliffe. Ratc. My Lord, dispatch; the Duke has sent to chide For loitering in my duty. Hast. I obey. Alic. Insatiate, savage monster! Is a moment To want that moment he denies thee now. [me: Hast. 'Tis all in vain, this rage that tears thy bosom;: 'Like a poor bird that flutters in its cage, 'Thou beat'st thyself to death.' Retire, I beg thee; To see thee thus, thou know'st not how it wounds me; Thy agonies are added to my own, And make the burthen more than I can bear. [Exit. Alic. How have I strength, under this parting stroke, To live,-to breathe! Hast. [Returning.] One thing I had forgot I charge thee, by our present common miseries, [her, Thou know'st who 'tis I mean; oh! should'st thou wrong As the last warning of a dying man: Farewel, for ever! [The guards conduct Hastings off. + It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood. Macbeth, A. III. S. IV. "And, surely, your blood of your lives will I require; at the "hand of every beast will I require it; and at the hand of man, at "the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man."Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." GENESIS IX. 5, 6 Alic. For ever? oh! for ever! And am I, then, to be a wretch for ever! I rue the hour when such a wretch was born! the torments of the last despair.* [Exit. ACT V. SCENE I. A Street. Enter BELMOUR and DUMONT as SHORE. Shore. You saw her, then? Bel. I met her as returning In solemn penance from the public cross: Proclaim'd the tyrant Gloster's cruel orders. With insolence and loud reproach pursu'd her, Shore. Inhuman dogs! How did she bear it? * I have altered this speech, thinking that the performer might be unwilling to give up altogether a speech, which, being at the end, of an act, commonly (to use a theatrical phrase) tells. But it appears to me that it would have a much better effect, were Alicia to Come in, in this scene, with her two female attendants, as in A. v. and, on Hastings being led off by the guards, to utter a shriek, and faint in the arms of her attendants; it would also vary her exit from other scenes, |