That could be found.
Maca. And I must be from thence!
My wife kill’d too?
Ross. I have said.
Mal. Be comforted:
Let’s makes us medicines of our great revenge,
To cure this deadly grief.
Macd. 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?
Mal. Dispute it like a man.
Macd. I shall do so;
But I must also feel it as a man:
I cannot but remember such things were,
That were most precious to me.—
Three interpretations have been offered of the words ‘He has no children.’
(a) They refer to Malcolm, who, if he had children of his own, would not at such a moment suggest revenge, or talk of curing such a grief. Cf. King John, III. iv. 91, where Pandulph says to Constance,
and Constance answers,
(b) They refer to Macbeth, who has no children, and on whom therefore Macduff cannot take an adequate revenge.
(c) They refer to Macbeth, who, if he himself had children, could never have ordered the slaughter of children. Cf. 3 Henry VI. V. v. 63, where Margaret says to the murderers of Prince Edward,
The thought of them would have stirred up remorse.
I cannot think interpretation (b) the most natural. The whole idea of the passage is that Macduff must feel grief first and before he can feel anything else, e.g. the desire for vengeance. As he says directly after, he cannot at once ‘dispute’ it like a man, but must ‘feel’ it as a man; and it is not till ten lines later that he is able to pass to the thought of revenge.
