Act V, Scene 8.

That keep the word of promise to our ear,

And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee.

Macd. Then yield thee, coward,

And live to be the show and gaze o' the time:
We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,
Painted upon a pole, and underwrit,

'Here may you see the tyrant.'

Macb.

I will not yield, To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet,

29

And to be baited with the rabble's curse.
Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane,
And thou opposed, being of no woman born,
Yet I will try the last: before my body

I throw my warlike shield: lay on, Macduff;
And damn'd be him that first cries 'Hold,
enough!'

[Exeunt, fighting. Alarums.

Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colors, Malcolm, old Siward, Ross, the other Thanes, and Soldiers.

Mal. I would the friends we miss were safe ar rived.

34. "Hold, enough"; to cry hold! was the word of yielding, that is, when one of the combatants cries so. To cry hold! when persons were fighting, was an authoritative way of separating them, according to the old military laws. This is shown by a passage in Bellay's Instructions for the Wars, declaring it to be a capital offense "Whosoever shall strike stroke at his adversary, either in the heat or otherwise, if a third do cry hold, to the intent to part them." This illustrates the passage in Act i. sc. 5, of this play: "Nor heav'n peep through the blanket of the dark to cry Hold! hold!”— H. N. H.

Siw. Some must go off: and yet, by these I see,

So great a day as this is cheaply bought. Mal. Macduff is missing, and your noble son. Ross. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt: He only lived but till he was a man;

Sir.

40

The which no sooner had his prowess confirm'd
In the unshrinking station where he fought,
But like a man he died.

Then he is dead?

Ross. Aye, and brought off the field: your cause of sorrow

Sir.

Must not be measured by his worth, for then
It hath no end.

Had he his hurts before?

Ross. Aye, on the front.

Siw.

Why then, God's soldier be he!

Had I as many sons as I have hairs,
I would not wish them to a fairer death:
And so his knell is knoll'd.

Mal.

Sir.

He's worth more sorrow, 50

He's worth no more:

And that I'll spend for him.

They say he parted well and paid his score: And so God be with him! Here comes newer comfort.

Re-enter Macduff, with Macbeth's head.

49. The same incident is related in Camden's Remains, from Henry of Huntingdon: "When Siward, the martial Earl of Northumberland, understood that his son, whom he had sent against the Scotchmen, was slain, he demanded whether his wounds were in the fore part or hinder part of his body. When it was answered, ‘in the fore part,' he replied, 'I am right glad; neither wish I any other death to me or mine."—H. N. H.

Macd. Hail, king! for so thou art: behold, where stands

All.

The usurper's cursed head: the time is free:

I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl,
That speak my salutation in their minds;
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine:
Hail, King of Scotland!

Hail, King of Scotland!

[Flourish.

Mal. We shall not spend a large expense of time 60
Before we reckon with your several loves,
And make us even with you. My thanes and
kinsmen,

Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland
In such an honor named. What's more to do,
Which would be planted newly with the time,
As calling home our exiled friends abroad
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny,
Producing forth the cruel ministers

Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen,
Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands
Took off her life; this, and what needful else 71
That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace
We will perform in measure, time and place:
So thanks to all at once and to each one,
Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone.

56. "thy kingdom's pearl"; the flower of thy nobles.-C. H. H. 63. "Henceforth be earls"; "Malcolm, immediately after his coronation, called a parliament at Forfair; in the which he rewarded them with lands and livings that had assisted him against Macbeth. Manie of them that were before thanes were at this time made earles; as Fife, Menteith, Atholl, Lennox, Murrey, Caithness, Rosse, and Angus" (Holinshed).-H. N. H.