RALPH: Welcome back, everybody. I'm joined in the studio by Malcolm, oldest son of Duncan, former King of Scotland. And Macduff, Thane of Fife. Welcome back gentlemen. 

MALCOLM: Thanks for having us Ralph. 

MACDUFF: Good to be here. 

RALPH: I know the two of you have a lot to talk about, but if I can just set the scene for our audience. First of all, we find the two of you in England, not in Scotland. And you, Malcolm, have fled the scene of your father's murder at the Macbeth's castle, and come here to England where the English king has been protecting you. Got it right so far? 

MALCOLM: That's correct. 

RALPH: You, Macduff, have fled Scotland in a hurry without even a word to your wife and children about your departure and you've come here to meet with Malcolm. I think I speak for the audience too when I say, I wonder what the two of you will talk about? 

MALCOLM: I think we're going to have a good cry together. 

RALPH: About how bad things are in Scotland. 

MACDUFF: There is no time for tears. We should grab our swords and defend our fallen kingdom. Things are getting worse and worse. 

MALCOLM: That may be true, but this tyrant, I refuse to even say his name, was once considered an honest man. You, Macduff, left him. So far, he's done nothing to you. And if you gave me up to him, it might be a way of getting on Macbeth's good side. 

RALPH: Like offering an innocent lamb to an angry god. 

MALCOLM: Exactly. 

MACDUFF: I'm not a traitor. 

MALCOLM: But Macbeth is. We once thought he was honest and look at him now. 

RALPH: So people can change. As you point out, even Satan himself was an angel at first. 

MALCOLM: That's right. But that doesn't necessarily mean that all angels are devils. Some things that look good are good. 

RALPH: So if you don't mind my saying, it sounds like you're testing Macduff a bit. You're not sure that you can trust him. 

MACDUFF: And I've lost all hope. How can hope survive when trust is impossible? 

MALCOLM: Well let me ask you this then. Why did you leave your wife and children home alone? Those people you love most in the world? Your family. 

RALPH: Strong knots of love you say. Sorry I just like the image for the family, strong knots of love. Please continue. 

MALCOLM: I'm sorry to be calling you out on this. And you may have your reasons but it's my own safety I'm worried about. 

MACDUFF: Bleed Scotland, bleed. Let tyranny do what it wants. Good people won't stand in its way. I'll leave you now. I wouldn't be the villain you obviously think I am, even if you were to give me all of Scotland and the rest of the world beside. 

MALCOLM: Macduff, come on. Don't be offended. I'm not saying I completely distrust you. I know how much our country suffers. It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day, a gash is added to her wounds. I know there are people that would support my cause, and the King of England has offered me thousands of soldiers for an army. But here's the problem. When I shall tread upon the tyrant's head or wear it on my sword, then Scotland will be in even worse hands than before. More people will suffer and in even worse ways when the next person takes the throne. 

RALPH: But wait—wouldn't the next king be you? 

MALCOLM: Exactly. And I'm a bad man—a very bad man. My dark soul would make Macbeth's look as white as snow. 

MACDUFF: No one can be worse than Macbeth. 

MALCOLM: He's pretty bad. I agree. Bloody, greedy, angry, lecherous—he smacks of every sin that has a name. But there is no bottom—absolutely none—to my lust. 

RALPH: Your lust? You, lustful? 

MALCOLM: That's right. All the women of Scotland—wives, daughters, maids—could not satisfy my lust. And anyone who tried to get in the way of my desires—I would walk right over them. So better Macbeth than someone like me. 

MACDUFF: Then there is a tyranny in your soul. Lust like that has brought down many kings. How can you rule a country if you can't even rule your own desires? But don't let that stop you from taking what is yours. 

RALPH: He should become king, you mean, because he is the rightful heir? 

MACDUFF: Yes. You can still satisfy your desires while appearing good to your people. There are plenty of women who would want to sleep with the king. You can't be so full of lust that you'd run out of willing women once they knew that's what you want. 

MALCOLM: Well, I'm also very greedy. If I were King, I would start killing noblemen to take their land. 

RALPH: Seriously? 

MALCOLM: Yes. And the jewels, and their houses. And the more I take, the more I want. 

MACDUFF: Well, that's a bigger problem than lust. And kings have been killed for taking too much from their subjects. But it's still all right. As king, you'd already have more than I think you realize. And if you wanted to take even more, that would be tolerated if it were balanced out with some goodness in other ways. 

RALPH: This lust and greed would be bearable, you say, with other graces weighed. In other words, the good graces that come from a king would balance out the bad. 

MALCOLM: But I don't have any graces. All of the qualities you would expect a king to have—justice, truthfulness, generosity, mercy, humility—help me out here, Ralph? 

RALPH: Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude. That's a lot of qualities a king should have. 

MALCOLM: And I don't have a single speck of any one of them—quite the opposite. If I were in power, I should pour the sweet milk of Concord into hell, uproar the universal peace, confound all unity on earth. 

RALPH: I'm not sure what all that meant, but it sounds pretty bad. 

MACDUFF: Oh, Scotland. Scotland. 

MALCOLM: I mean, if you think someone like that is fit to govern, then I'm at your service. But just know that with me, that's what you get. 

MACDUFF: Fit to govern? The person you just described isn't fit to live. Oh, nation miserable, with a untitled tyrant bloody sceptered, when shalt thou see thy wholesome days again, since that the truest issue of thy throne by his own interdiction stands accursed and does blaspheme his breed? 

RALPH: Blaspheme his breed? Oh, you mean this description of himself makes his family look bad, too. 

MACDUFF: His father, Duncan—King Duncan—was like a saint. The queen—your mother—lived every day as if she might be taken up to heaven to be judged. She spent more time kneeling in prayer than she spent on her feet. I got to go. If you really are the person you just described, then Scotland could never be my home. Oh my heart, thy hope ends here. 

RALPH: Oh, dear. So what will you do then? You'll be a person without a country. 

MALCOLM: Macduff, you have wiped away my suspicions. This noble anger you have shown us just now is proof that you are a good and honorable man. Macbeth has fooled me many times before, so I had to test you. None of what I just said about myself is true. 

RALPH: Wait, what? All that stuff—that bad stuff that you were saying about yourself—none of that was true? 

MALCOLM: Nope. 

RALPH: Jeez. What about the lust? 

MALCOLM: I'm a virgin, actually. 

RALPH: The greed? 

MALCOLM: I barely even want the things I already have. 

RALPH: Well, but what about lying? I mean, the whole thing you just said was a lie. 

MALCOLM: That was the first time I've told a lie. 

RALPH: The first time? Come on. 

MALCOLM: In my whole life. Very first lie. 

RALPH: That's a little hard to believe. 

MALCOLM: Then now, Macduff, I'm ready to follow your guidance for the good of our country. Old Siward and 10,000 soldiers are ready to attack Macbeth in Scotland. Let us join with them. Why aren't you saying anything? 

MACDUFF: I don't know. That was a bit of a roller coaster ride. 

RALPH: Oh, and I'm sorry gentlemen. It's at this point that a doctor arrives. 

MALCOLM: Yes. That must mean the English king is approaching. 

RALPH: That's right. And the doctor says there's a group of people with incurable diseases which the king can heal with a touch of his hand. 

MALCOLM: That's right. The English king has the power to heal. 

RALPH: Wow. It's quite a contrast with Macbeth, a king who seems to be making his whole country sick. 

MALCOLM: I should thank the doctor for his news. 

RALPH: Oh, you do, and the doctor leaves. 

MACDUFF: What kind of disease are we talking about? 

MALCOLM: They call it the evil. It's horrible. You become all swollen and covered with sores. Nothing helps, but then it's like a miracle. The king hangs a golden medallion around your neck, says a prayer, and you're healed. They say that he passes on the power to heal to his successors. He's truly a gift from God. 

RALPH: Well, I'm sorry to interrupt, Malcolm, , but after the doctor leaves, another Scottish thane arrives. 

MALCOLM: Who is it? 

RALPH: Oh, let's see. Oh, it's Ross. 

MALCOLM: Ah, good. My countryman. 

RALPH: He seems happy to see you, too. 

MACDUFF: Can he tell us how Scotland is doing? 

RALPH: Not good, I'm afraid. Well, actually, really bad—where violent sorrow is a common emotion, he says, and people no longer bother to ask who's died with the death bell tolls. 

MALCOLM: What's the most recent news? 

RALPH: Well, as he says, news even an hour old means something has happened since that's worse. 

MACDUFF: Does he know how my wife is doing? 

RALPH: Your wife? 

MACDUFF: That's right. 

RALPH: Well, he says, well. 

MACDUFF: The tyrant has left my family in peace? 

RALPH: Yes. I'm just going to quote him here. They were well at peace when I did leave them. 

MACDUFF: Why is he being so careful with his words? Just tell me what's happening. 

RALPH: He says he brings some heavy news, but first, he wants to tell you that he's heard a rumor on his way here. Apparently, some men are starting to rebel against Macbeth. And he thinks it's true, since he's seen Macbeth's army on the move. He thinks it's the time to strike and that if Scottish rebels were to catch sight of you, Malcolm, then everyone would rise up against Macbeth. 

MALCOLM: Then they should know that we are on our way with 10,000 English soldiers—the best soldiers in the world. 

RALPH: Yeah, and Ross says that's great news, and he wishes the rest of his news were as good. But he has the kind of news that should be held in the desert where no one would hear it. 

MACDUFF: Is it bad news about Scotland in general, or does it concern a particular person? 

RALPH: Well, he says that any man would be saddened by it, but the news pertains to you in particular, Macduff. 

MACDUFF: If it be mine, then let me have it quickly. 

RALPH: Let your ears not despise my tongue, he says, for it will be the heaviest sound they've ever heard. 

MACDUFF: Then I think I know what it is. 

RALPH: Okay. Here it is. Your castle was surprised. Your wife and children were savagely slaughtered. To tell you any of the details would be to add your death to theirs, because hearing them would kill you. 

MALCOLM: God have mercy. Come on, man. Let it out. Give sorrow words. Grief that does not speak can break the heart. 

MACDUFF: All my children? 

RALPH: Yes. I'm afraid that's right. Wife, children, servants—everyone who could be found. 

MACDUFF: When I wasn't there? And my wife killed two? 

RALPH: That's what he says. 

MALCOLM: Let revenge cure your grief, Macduff. 

MACDUFF: Macbeth doesn't have any children. All my children killed, too? 

RALPH: That's right. 

MACDUFF: The hell-kite! All my pretty chickens and their mother in one fell swoop. 

MALCOLM: Fight it like a man. 

MACDUFF: I will, but I must also feel it like a man. I can't help but remember how precious they were to me. Did heaven watch this happening and not protect them? Sinful Macduff, they were slaughtered for your sins, not for theirs. May they rest in peace. 

MALCOLM: Be this the whetstone of your sword. 

RALPH: So you think he should use this as motivation to sharpen his sword against Macbeth? 

MALCOLM: Yes. Let grief turn into anger. Don't soften the heart, enrage it. 

MACDUFF: I could cry my eyes out and bellow with sorrow, but I don't want to waste any time. Put this fiend of Scotland in front of my sword as soon as possible. And if he escapes, then heaven forgive him as well as me. 

MALCOLM: This sounds more like a man. Come, let's to the king. His army is ready, and we will join him. Take heart if you can. Tomorrow will be here soon enough. 

RALPH: Good luck, gentlemen.