.

Enter Seyton, with the King's Truncheon, and a Gentleman, with his Armour.

Macb. Throw physic to the dogs, I'll none of it. Give me my staff:—

Seyton, send out:—Doctor, the thanes fly from me:—
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.―

What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug, Would scour these English hence?—Hearest thou of them?

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

Macb. Bring it after me.—

I will not be afraid of death and bane,
Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane.

[Flourish of Trumpets and Drums.—Exeunt.

Scene III.

Birnam Forest.—A March.

Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, Lenox, RossE, and Soldiers.

Mai. Cousins, I hope, the days are near at hand, That chambers will be safe.

Macd. We doubt it nothing.

Siw. What wood is this before us?

Len. 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.

Len, It shall be done.

Rosse. We learn no other, but the confident tyrant Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure Our setting down before't.

Macd. 'Tis his main hope:

For where there is advantage to be gone,

Both more and less have given him the revolt;
And none serve with him but constrained things,
Whose hearts are absent too.

Siw. Let our just censures

Attend the true event, and put we on
Industrious soldiership.

Macd. 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.

[March.—Exeunt into the Wood.

SCENE IV.

The Ramparts of the Castle at Dunsinane.

Flourish of Trumpets and Drums.

Enter Macbeth, Seyton, and Attendants. 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.

[A cry within, of Women.

What is that noise?

Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord.

[Exit Seytok.

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.

Enter Seyton.

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.
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 ideot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Enter First Officer.

Thou com'st to use thy tongue: thy story quickly. 1 Off. Gracious my lord,

I should report that which, I say, I saw,
But know not how to do't.

Macb. Well, say, sir,

the hill,

1 Off. As I did stand my watch upon I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought, The wood began to move.

Macb. Liar and slave!

1 Off. 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 the equivocation of the fiend,

That lies like truth :- "Fear not, till Birnam wood
Do come to Dunsinane :"—and now a wood
Comes towards Dunsinane.—Arm, arm, and out!—
If this, which he avouches, does appear,
There is no flying hence, nor tarrying here.
I'gin to be a-weary of the sun,

And wish the state o'the world were now undone.—
Ring the alarum bell :—Blow, wind! come, wrack!
At least, we'll die with harness on our back!

[Flourish of Trumpets and Drums.—Exeunt

Scene v.

A Plain before the Castle at Dunsinane.

Flourish of Trumpets and Drums.

Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, Lenox, and Soldiers, with Boughs, discovered.

Mal. Now near enough; your leavy screens throw down,

And show like those you are :—You, worthy uncle,
Shall, wish my cousin, your right noble son,
Lead our first battle: worthy Macduff, and we,
Shall take upon us what else remains to do,
According to our order.

Len. This way, my lord, the castle's gently render'd.

Siw. Do we but find the tyrant's power to-night, Let us be beaten, if we cannot fight.

Macd. Make all our trumpets speak: give them all breath,

Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.

[Alarums.—Exeunt.

SCENE VI.

A Court in the Castle at Dunsinane.

Alarums.

Enter Macbeth.

Macb. They have ty'd 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.

[Alarums.—Exit.

Enter Macduff and Soldiers.

Macd. That way the noise is :—Tyrant, show thy face;

If thou be'st slain, and with no stroke of mine,
My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still.
I cannot strike at wretched kernes, whose arms
Are hir'd to bear their staves; either thou, Macbeth,
Or else my sword, with an unbatter'd edge,

I sheathe again undeeded.

Let me find him, fortune! and

More I beg not.

[Alarums.—Exeunt.