THE STORY SO FAR: Macduff has fled to England to join up with Duncan's son Malcolm, who is planning to take back Scotland from the murderous Macbeth. But first they are going to get a bit of bad news...
This is really quite a powerful scene. I've seen a lot of different responses from Macduff, ranging from shocked stillness to cold fury to just white hot grief. It's always mesmerizing. There's some fantastic writing going on here:
MALCOLM
Be comforted:
Let's make us medicines of our great revenge,
To cure this deadly grief.
MACDUFF
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?
MALCOLM
Dispute it like a man.
MACDUFF
I shall do so;
But I must also feel it as a man:
That's some powerful stuff there. You can't really make this stuff funny.
Macbeth
Dramatis Personae | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30