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[47]

weighed reply to an earnest and very interesting demand.

In the fourth act of this play, when Macduff, on fire to revenge the slaughter of his wife and children, bursts into the following energetic appeal to divine justice:—

Gentle Heaven,
Cut short all intermission; front to front
Bring thou this Fiend of Scotland, and myself;
Within my sword's length set him; if he 'scape,
Heaven forgive him too![1]

Malcolm, keenly sympathising with his suffering and loyal friend, and earnest to fortify him under the

  1. Macbeth, Act iv. Sc. 3.