Gent. Pray God, it be, Sir.

Doct. This disease is beyond my practice: yet I have known those which have walked in their sleep, who have died holily in their beds. Lady M. Wash your hands, put on your night-gown; look not so pale:-I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he cannot come out on's grave.

Doct. Even so?

Lady M. To bed, to bed; there's knocking at the gate: come, come, come, come, give me your hand: what's done, cannot be undone to bed, to bed, to bed.

Doct. Will she go now to bed?

Gent. Directly.

Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad: unnatural deeds
Do breed unnatural troubles: infected minds
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets:
More needs she the divine, than the physician :-
God, God, forgive us all! Look after her;
Remove from her the means of all annoyance,
And still keep eyes upon her :-so, good night:
My mind she has mated, and amaz'd my sight:
I think, but dare not speak.

Gent.

Good night, good doctor.

[Exit.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-The Country near DUNSINANE.

Enter, with drum and colours, MENTETH, CATHNESS, ANGUS, LENOX, and

Soldiers.

Ment. The English power is near, led on by Malcolm,
His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff:

Ang.

Revenges burn in them; for their dear causes
Would, to the bleeding, and the grim alarm,
Excite the mortified man.

Near Birnam wood

Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming. Cath. Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?

Len. For certain, Sir, he is not: I have a file

Ment.

Of all the gentry: there is Siward's son,
And many unrough youths, that even now
Protest their first of manhood.

What does the tyrant?

Cath. Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies :

Some say, he's mad: others, that lesser hate him,
Do call it valiant fury; but, for certain,

He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause

Within the belt of rule.

Ang.

Now does he feel
His secret murders sticking on his hands;
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach;
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love: now does he feel his title.
Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.

Ment.

Who, then, shall blame

His pester'd senses to recoil and start,

When all that is within him does condemn

Itself for being there?

Cath.

Well, march we on,

To give obedience where 'tis truly ow'd:
Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal;
And with him pour we, in our country's purge,
Each drop of us.

Len.

Or so much as it needs,

To dew the sovereign flower, and drown the weeds.
Make we our march towards Birnam.

[Exeunt, marching.

SCENE III.-DUNSINANE. A Room in the Castle.

Enter MACBETH, Doctor, and Attendants.

Macb. Bring me no more reports; let them fly all :
Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane,

I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm?
Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know
All mortal consequences have pronounc'd me thus,-
"Fear not, Macbeth; no man that's born of woman
Shall e'er have power upon thee."-Then fly, false thanes,
And mingle with the English epicures:

The mind I sway by, and the heart I bear,

Shall never sag with doubt, nor shake with fear.

Enter a Servant.

The devil damn thee black, thou cream-fac'd loon

Where gott'st thou that goose look?

Serv. There is ten thousand

Macb.

Geese, villain?

Serv.

Soldiers, Sir.

Mach. Go prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, Thou lily-liver'd boy. What soldiers, patch?

Death of thy soul! those linen cheel of thine
Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?
Serv. The English force, so please you.
Macb. Take thy face hence.—

[Exit Serv.

Seyton -I am sick at heart,

When I behold-Seyton, I say!—This push
Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now.
I have liv'd long enough: my way of life
Is fall'n into the sear, 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 not.—
Seyton!

Enter SEYTON.

Sey. What is your gracious pleasure?

Macb.

What news more?

Sey. All is confirm'd, my lord, which was reported.
Macb. I'll fight, till from my bones my flesh be hack'd.

Give me my armour.

Sey.

'Tis not needed yet.

Macb. I'll put it on.—

Send out more horses, skirr the country round;

Hang those that talk of fear.-Give me mine armour.—
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

Mach. 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 couldst, 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.—

Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane.

[Exeunt all except Doctor.

[Exit.

Doct. Were I from Dunsinane away and clear,
Profit again should hardly draw me here.

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.

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 drum and colours, MACBETH, SEYTON, and Soldiers.
Mach. 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.
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 slaughterous thoughts,
Cannot once start me.-

Re-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 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 should report that which I say I saw,

But know not how to do it.

Well, say, Sir.

Macb.
Mess. As I did stand my watch upon the hill,
I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought,
The wood began to move.

[Exit.