How does your patient, doctor? Doct. Not so sick, my lord, As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, That keep her from her rest. Macb. Cure her of that: Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd; Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow; Raze out the written troubles of the brain; And, with some sweet oblivious antidote, Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff Which weighs upon the heart? Doct. Must minister to himself. Therein the patient Macb. Throw physic to the dogs, I'll none of it.— Come, put mine armour on; give me my staff:Seyton, send out.-Doctor, the thanes fly from me: Come, sir, despatch:-If thou could'st, doctor, cast That should applaud again.-Pull't off, I say.- of them? Doct. Ay, my good lord; your royal preparation Makes us hear something. Macb. [Exit. Bring it after me.—— I will not be afraid of death and bane, Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane. 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 Siward 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? Ment. The wood of Birnam. 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 befor'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. Attend the true event, and put we on Industrious soldiership. Siw. Let our just censures 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:2 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; The cry is still, They come: Our castle's strength Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie, Till famine, and the ague, eat them up: Were they not forc'd with those that should be ours, We might have met them dareful, beard to beard, (1) i. e. Greater and less. (2) Determine. 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 fell1 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; There would have been a time for such a word.- The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle: Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Enter a Messenger. Thou com'st to use thy tongue; thy story quickly Mess. Gracious my lord, I shall report that which I say I saw, But know not how to do it. Macb. Well, say, sir. Mess. 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 Mess. Let me endure your wrath, if't be not so: Within this three mile may you see it coming; I say, a moving grove. (1) Skin. Macb. If thou speak'st false, Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive, Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth, 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. Enter, with drums and colours, Malcolm, Old Siward, Macduff, &c. and their army, with boughs. Mal. Now near enough; your leavy screens throw down, And show 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 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, (2) Armour. (1) Shrivel. 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 hot ter name Than any is in hell. Macb. My name's Macbeth. Yo. Siw. The devil himself could not pronounce a title More hateful to mine ear. I'll Macb. No, nor more fearful. Yo. Siw. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with my sword 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. [Ex. Alarums. Enter Macduff. Macd. That way the noise is:-Tyrant, show thy face: If thou be'st slain, and with no stroke of mine, Enter Malcolm and Old Siward. Siw. This way, my lord;-the castle's gently render'd: (1) Soldiers. (2) Reported with clamour. |