Macb. Bring it after me.- I will not be afraid of death and bane, [Exit. Doct. Were I from Dunsinane away and clear, Profit again should hardly draw me here. [Exit. SCENE IV.-Country near Dunsinane: a Wood in view. Enter, with Drum and Colours, MALCOLM, Old S1WARD, and his Son, MACDUFF, MENTETH, CATHNESS, ANGUS, LENOX, RossE, and SOLDIERS, marching. Mal. Cousins, I hope, the days are near at hand, That chambers will be safe. Ment. We doubt it nothing. Siw. What wood is this before us? Mal. Let every soldier hew him down a bough, And bear't before him, thereby shall we shadow The numbers of our host, and make discovery Err in report of us. Sold. It shall be done. Siw. We learn no other, but the confident tyrant Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure Our setting down before't. Mal. 'Tis his main hope: For where there is advantage to be given, Both more and less have given him the revolt; And none serve with him but constrained things, Whose hearts are absent too. Macd. Let our just censures Attend the true event, and put we on Industrious soldiership. Siw. The time approaches, That will with due decision make us know What we shall say we have, and what we owe. Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate; But certain issue strokes must arbitrate +: Towards which, advance the war. [Exeunt marching. SCENE V.-Dunsinane.-Within the Castle. Enter, with Drums and Colours, MACBETH, SEYTON, and SOLDIERS. Macb. Hang out our banners on the outward walls; i. e. Greater and less. + Determine. The cry is still, They come our castle's strength Were they not forced with those that should be. ours, We might have met them dareful, beard to beard, And beat them backward home. What is that noise? [A cry within of Women. Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord. Macb. I have almost forgot the taste of fears: The time has been, my senses would have cool'd To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair Would at a dismal treatise rouse, and stir As life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrors; Direness, familiar to my slaught'rous thoughts, Cannot once start me.-Wherefore was that cry? Sey. The queen, my lord, is dead. Macb. She should have died hereafter; Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Enter a MESSENGER. Thou comest to use thy tongue; thy story quickly. I shall report that which I say I saw, Macb. Well, say, Sir. Mes. As I did stand my watch upon the hill, I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought, The wood began to move. Macb. Liar, and slave! [Striking him. Mes. Let me endure your wrath, if't be not so: Within this three mile may you see it coming: I say, a moving grove. Macb. If thou speak'st false, Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive, Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth, I care not if thou dost for me as much. • Skin. + Shrivel. I pull in resolution; and begin To doubt the equivocation of the fiend, That lies like truth: fear not, till Birnam wood Comes toward Dunsinane.-Arm, arm, and out!- And wish the estate o' the world were now undone. [Exeunt. SCENE VI-The same.-A Plain before the Castle. And shew like those you are:-You, worthy uncle, Siw. Fare you well. Do we but find the tyrant's power to-night, Macd. Make all our trumpets speak; give them all breath, Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death. [Exeunt.-Alarums continued. SCENE VII.-The same.-Another part of the Plain. Enter MACBETH. Macb. They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly But bear-like, I must fight the course.-What's he, That was not born of woman? Such a one Am I to fear, or none. Enter young SIWARD. Yo. Siw. What is thy name? Macb. Thou'lt be afraid to hear it. Yo. Siw. No; though thou call'st thyself a hotter name Than any is in hell. Macb. My name's Macbeth.* • Armour. Yo. Siw. The devil himself could not pronounce a title More hateful to mine ear. Macb. No, nor more fearful. Yo. Siw. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with my sword I'll prove the lie thou speak'st. [They fight, and young Siward is slain. Macb. Thou wast born of woman. But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born. [Exit. Alarums.-Enter MACDUFF. Macd. That way the noise is :-Tyrant, shew thy face: If thou be'st slain, and with no stroke of mine, I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be [Exit Alarum. Enter MALCOLM and old SIWARD. Siw. This way, my lord; the castle's gently render'd: The tyrant's people on both sides do fight; And little is to do. Mal. We have met with foes. That strike beside us. Siw. Enter, Sir, the castle. [Exeunt.-Alarum. Re-enter MACBETH. Macb. Why should I play the Roman fool, and die On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes Do better upon them. Re-enter MACDUFF. Macd. Turn, hell-hound, turn. Macb. Of all men else I have avoided thee: But get thee back, my soul is too much charged With blood of thine already. Macd. I have no words, * Soldiers. + Reported with clamour. My voice is in my sword; thou bloodier villain Macb. Thou losest labour: As éasy may'st thou the intrenchant air [They fight. With thy keen sword impress, as make me bleed: I bear a charmed life, which must not yield Macd. Despair thy charm; And let the angel, whom thou still hast served, Macb. Accursed be that tongue that tells me so, For it hath cow'd my better part of man! And be these juggling fiends no more believed, And live to be the show and gaze o' the time, Macb. I'll not yield, To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, And to be baited with the rabble's curse. Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane, And thou opposed, being of no woman born, Yet I will try the last: before my body I throw my warlike shield: lay on, Macduff; And damn'd be him that first cries, Hold, enough. [Exeunt, fighting. Retreat.-Flourish.-Re-enter with Drum and Colours, MALCOLM, Old SIWARD, ROSSE, LENOX, ANGUS, CATHNESS, MENTETH, and Soldiers. Mal. I would the friends we miss, were safe arrived. Siw. Some must go off: and yet, by these I see, So great a day as this is cheaply bought. Mal. Macduff is missing, and your noble son. Rosse. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt: He only lived but till he was a man; The which no sooner had his prowess confirm'd The air, which cannot be eut. Shuffle. |