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100 Macbeth [Act IV 

Macduff. And I must be from thence ! 

My wife kill'd too? 

Ross. I have said. 

Malcolm. Be comforted; 

Let's make us medicines of our great revenge, 
To cure this deadly grief. 

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 
At one fell swoop? 

Malcolm. Dispute it like a man. 

Macduff. I shall do so; 220 

But I must also feel it as a man : 
I cannot but remember such things were, 
That 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 \ 

Malcolm. Be this the whetstone of your sword : 
let grief 
Convert to anger ; blunt not the heart, enrage it. 

Macduff. O, I could play the woman with mine 
eyes, '230 

And braggart with my tongue ! But, gentle heavens, 
Cut short all intermission ; front to front 
Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself; 

216. He has no children. Explain. 
222. Explain the force of were here. 



Scene III]