Macb.

Take thy face hence. [Exit Servant.]
Seyton! I am sick at heart,

When I behold-Seyton, I say! This push
Will chair me ever, or disseat me now.
I have liv'd long enough: my way of life
Is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf;
And that which should accompany old age,
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have; but, in their stead,
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath,
Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare

Sey. All is confirm'd, my lord, which was re

ported.

Macb. I'll fight till from my bones my flesh be hack'd.

Give me my armour.

Sey.

Macb. I'll put it on.

'Tis not needed yet.

Send out more horses, skirr the country round;

Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine ar

mour.

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.

Cure her of that:

Macb.
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, dispatch. — If thou could'st, Doctor, cast The water of my land, find her disease,

And purge it to a sound and pristine health,

I would applaud thee to the very echo,

That should applaud again. — Pull 't off, I say.

What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug,

Would scour these English hence? Hear'st thou of them?

Doct. Ay, my good lord: your royal preparation Makes us hear something.

Macb.

I will not be afraid of death and bane,

Bring it after me.

[Exit.

Doct. Were I from Dnnsinane away and clear,

Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane.

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, MENTEITH, 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.

Siward. What wood is this before us?

The wood of Birnam.

Ment. 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.

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;

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, And beat them backward home. What is that noise? [A cry within of women. Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord.

[Exit SEYTON.

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 hor

rors:

Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, Cannot once start me. Wherefore was that cry?

Enter SEYTON.

Sey. The Queen, my lord, is dead.

Macb. She should have di'd hereafter :
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

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't.

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!

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.

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..

I pull in resolution, and begin

To doubt th' equivocation of the fiend,

That lies like truth: "Fear not, till Birnam wood

Do come to Dunsinane; and now a wood

Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out!
If this, which he avouches, does appear,

There is nor flying hence, nor tarrying here.
I'gin to be a-weary of the sun,

And wish th' estate o' th' world were now

done.

Ring the alarum ! Blow, wind! come, wrack!

At least we'll die with harness on our back.

un

F F 2

[Exeunt.