TEXT:
ACT IV - SCENE III. England. Before the King's palace.
Enter MALCOLM and MACDUFF
MALCOLM
Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there
Weep our sad bosoms empty.
MACDUFF
Let us rather
Hold fast the mortal sword, and like good men
Bestride our down-fall'n birthdom: each new morn
New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows
Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds
As if it felt with Scotland and yelled out
Like syllable of dolour.
MALCOLM
What I believe I'll wail,
What know believe, and what I can redress,
As I shall find the time to friend, I will.
What you have spoke, it may be so perchance.
This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,
Was once thought honest: you have loved him well.
He hath not touched you yet. I am young; but something
You may deserve of him through me, and wisdom
To offer up a weak poor innocent lamb
To appease an angry god.
MACDUFF
I am not treacherous.
MALCOLM
But Macbeth is.
A good and virtuous nature may recoil
In an imperial charge. But I shall crave
your pardon;
That which you are my thoughts cannot transpose:
Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell;
Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace,
Yet grace must still look so.
MACDUFF
I have lost my hopes.
NOTES:
Birthdom
This seems to be Shakespeare’s own invention of a word. Akin to fiefdom, or kingdom, it implies the country of Macduff and Malcolm’s birth.
Poor Innocent Lamb
Might the idea of the sacrificial lamb be Malcolm’s way of suggesting he’s like Isaac, the son of Abraham who was almost killed by his father in a test from God? (It seems too far-fetched to suggest that Malcolm is likening himself to Christ, who is also referred to as the Lamb of God…) Isaac, having survived his father’s test, became the father of Jacob, patriarch of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Malcolm III of Scotland was also father to a royal line, which stretched all the way down - you guessed it - to James VI of Scotland, also James I of England.
The Brightest Fell
The brightest angel in heaven was, at one point, Lucifer - the light bearer. As Christian lore would have it, Lucifer fell from heaven like lightning and became the Devil. (Interestingly Lucifer in Latin and Phosphorous in Greek both mean “light bearer”. And phosphorous is a material that flashes rather like lightning!)