[To Lennox] Where are these gentlemen?
Come, bring me where they are.
Exeunt.
IV.2Enter Macduff's Wife, her Son, and Ross.
LADY MACDUFF
What had he done to make him fly the land?
ROSS
You must have patience, madam.
LADY MACDUFF He had none.
His flight was madness. When our actions do not,
Our fears do make us traitors.4
ROSS You know not
Whether it was his wisdom or his fear.
LADY MACDUFF
Wisdom? To leave his wife, to leave his babes,
His mansion and his titles in a place7
From whence himself does fly? He loves us not,
He wants the natural touch. For the poor wren,9
The most diminutive of birds, will fight,10
Her young ones in her nest, against the owl.
All is the fear and nothing is the love,
As little is the wisdom, where the flight
So runs against all reason.14
ROSS My dearest coz,
I pray you school yourself. But for your husband,15
He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows16
The fits o' th' season. I dare not speak much further, 18 But cruel are the times when we are traitors 19 And do not know ourselves; when we hold rumor 20 From what we fear, yet know not what we fear, But float upon a wild and violent sea
22 Each way and none. I take my leave of you, Shall not be long but I'll be here again.
24 Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward To what they were before. [To the Son] My pretty cousin, Blessing upon you.
LADY MACDUFF