I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms
Are hired to bear their staves: either thou, Macbeth,
Or else my sword with an unbatter'd edge

I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be;
By this great clatter, one of greatest note
Seems bruited. Let me find him, fortune!
And more I beg not.

20

[Exit. Alarums.

(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;
The noble thanes do bravely in the war;
The day almost itself professes yours,

And little is to do.

Mal:

That strike beside us.

Siw.:

25

We have met with foes

Enter, sir, the castle.

[Exeunt. Alarums.

SCENE VIII.-Another part of the field.

(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.

Macd.:

(Enter MACDUFF.)

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.

17. kerns, light-armed Irish soldiers. See I. ii. 13. Here used contemptuously by Macduff for common soldiers.

18. hired. They fight only because they are paid to fight.

18-20. either thou, etc. Either thou (Macbeth) must be my opponent, or I will sheathe my sword without a stroke. Either has here one syllable.

22. bruited,noised, announced. 24. gently, without opposition, without the necessity for breaking in.

27, 28. almost itself, etc.

5

Victory is practically assured for our side, and there is little left for us to do.

29. beside us, on our side.

SCENE VIII.

1. Roman fool. An allusion to the suicides of Cato and Brutus.

2. whiles, the genitive form of whilst.

2. lives, living people.

4. Of all men else, above all

men.

5. charged, burdened. Cf. V. i. 45.

I have no words:

My voice is in my sword: thou bloodier villain
Than terms can give thee out!

Thou losest labour:

As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air

With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed:
Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;

I bear a charméd life, which must not yield
To one of woman born.

Despair thy charm;
And let the angel whom thou still hast served
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb
Untimely ripp'd.

Macb.: Accurséd 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,

That palter with us in a double sense;

That keep the word of promise to our ear,

And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee. Macd. Then yield thee, coward,

And live to be the show and gaze o' the time:
We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,

Painted upon a pole, and underwrit,

"Here may you see the tyrant."

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. Alarums.

(Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colours, MALCOLM, old SIWARD, Ross, the other Thanes, 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.

Ross: 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

In the unshrinking station where he fought,

But like a man he died.

Ross: Ay, and brought off the field: your cause of sorrow Must not be measured by his worth, for then

It hath no end.

35

40

45

He's worth more sorrow,

He's worth no more:

And that I'll spend for him.

Siw.:

They say he parted well, and paid his score:

35. we miss, who are not with

us, who are missing.

36. must go off, must die.

41. The which. For the "the" see Introduction-"Language.

41. prowess, one syllable.

42. unshrinking station, in the spot where he fought unflinchingly. An example of Hypallage.

44, 45. cause of sorrow, etc. You must not make your sorrow equal to the worth of him who causes it.

46. It hath, it (your sorrow) would have.

46. before, in front (as a soldier should).

49. I would not wish them, etc. Old Siward's last speech

well bears out these words:

"Lift me up, that I may die standing like a soldier, and not grovelling like a cow. Put on my coat of mail, cover my head with my helmet, put my buckler on my left arm, and my gilded axe in my right hand, that I may expire in

arms."

50. knell is knoll'd, the la mentations over his death are

over.

52. parted, departed.

52. paid his score, paid what he owed. Young Siward has done everything that could be expected of him. An allusion to the departure from an inn of a guest who pays on leaving the bill scored up against him. Accounts were formerly kept by making cuts or scores on pieces of wood.