Macbeth — Act 2, Scene 4in modern English, side by side
The same. Without the Castle · Ross, Old Man, Macduff
King Duncan has been found murdered in Macbeth's castle, and his sons Malcolm and Donalbain have fled the country, drawing suspicion onto themselves. Outside the castle, Ross and an old man trade reports of the unnatural omens that have accompanied the killing — and hear that Macbeth will be crowned.
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Enter Ross and an Old Man
Old Man
Threescore and ten I can remember well,
Within the volume of which time I have seen
Hours dreadful and things strange, but this sore night
Hath trifled former knowings.
I can remember seventy years clearly, and in all that time I've seen dreadful hours and strange things — but this awful night makes everything I knew before look trivial.
Ross
Ha, good father,5
Ah, good old father —
Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man’s act,
Threatens his bloody stage:
you can see how the heavens, as if troubled by what mankind has done, are threatening man's bloody stage below.
by the clock ’tis day,
And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp.
By the clock it's daytime, and yet dark night is strangling the sun, that traveling lamp.
Is’t night’s predominance, or the day’s shame,
That darkness does the face of earth entomb,10
When living light should kiss it?
Is it because night has grown too powerful, or because the day is ashamed, that darkness buries the face of the earth when living light should be kissing it?
Old Man
’Tis unnatural,
Even like the deed that’s done.
It's unnatural — just like the deed that's been done.
On Tuesday last,
A falcon, towering in her pride of place,
Was by a mousing owl hawk’d at and kill’d.15
Last Tuesday, a falcon soaring at the very top of her flight was attacked and killed by an ordinary mouse-hunting owl.
Ross
And Duncan’s horses (a thing most strange and certain)
Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race,
Turn’d wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,
Contending ’gainst obedience, as they would make
War with mankind.20
And Duncan's horses — a thing utterly strange, but certain — beautiful, swift creatures, the finest of their breed, turned wild, broke out of their stalls, and charged loose, fighting against all obedience as if they meant to make war on mankind.
Old Man
’Tis said they eat each other.
They say the horses ate each other.
Ross
They did so; to the amazement of mine eyes,
That look’d upon’t.
They did — I watched it happen, to my own eyes' amazement.
Here comes the good Macduff.
Here comes the good Macduff.
Enter Macduff
Ross
How goes the world, sir, now?25
How goes the world now, sir?
Macduff
Why, see you not?
Why — can't you see for yourself?
Ross
Is’t known who did this more than bloody deed?
Is it known who committed this worse-than-bloody deed?
Macduff
Those that Macbeth hath slain.
The men Macbeth killed.
Ross
Alas, the day!
What a terrible day!
What good could they pretend?30
What could they have hoped to gain by it?
Macduff
They were suborn’d.
They were bribed to do it.
Malcolm and Donalbain, the King’s two sons,
Are stol’n away and fled; which puts upon them
Suspicion of the deed.
Malcolm and Donalbain, the King's two sons, have slipped away and fled — which throws suspicion for the deed onto them.
Ross
’Gainst nature still:35
Against nature yet again!
Thriftless ambition, that will ravin up
Thine own life’s means!—
Wasteful ambition, that devours the very source of your own life!
Then ’tis most like
The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.
Then the crown will most likely fall to Macbeth.
Macduff
He is already nam’d; and gone to Scone
To be invested.40
He's already been named king, and he's gone to Scone to be crowned.
Ross
Where is Duncan’s body?
Where is Duncan's body?
Macduff
Carried to Colmekill,
The sacred storehouse of his predecessors,
And guardian of their bones.
It's been carried to Colmekill, the sacred storehouse of his royal ancestors and the guardian of their bones.
Ross
Will you to Scone?45
Are you going to Scone?
Macduff
No, cousin, I’ll to Fife.
No, cousin — I'm going home to Fife.
Ross
Well, I will thither.
Well, I'll go to Scone.
Macduff
Well, may you see things well done there.
Well, I hope you see things done well there.
Adieu!
Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!
Goodbye — and let's hope our old robes don't turn out to fit more comfortably than our new ones!
Ross
Farewell, father.50
Farewell, father.
Old Man
God’s benison go with you; and with those
That would make good of bad, and friends of foes!
God's blessing go with you — and with anyone who would turn bad into good, and enemies into friends!
_Exeunt._
Famous lines in this scene
“dark night strangles the travelling lamp” line 8
Ross describes an unnatural darkness choking out the sun — the "travelling lamp" — on the morning after the murder. In the play's world, killing a king throws nature itself into rebellion: day, weather, and animals all turn against their proper order. The line is the clearest statement of that disorder motif.
“’Tis unnatural, / Even like the deed that’s done.” line 13
The Old Man makes the scene's logic explicit: the night's omens — an owl killing a falcon, horses devouring each other — are unnatural in exactly the way Duncan's murder is. Shakespeare presents the kingdom as a moral ecosystem, where regicide, the supreme crime against order, infects the natural world itself.
“Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!” line 49
Macduff's parting worry: Scotland's new "clothes" — Macbeth as king — may fit worse than the old ones did. The line extends the play's running clothing imagery, in which titles are garments that may not fit their wearer, and it signals Macduff's early, quiet distrust of Macbeth's sudden rise.
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