Enter SEYTON. Sey. What is your gracious pleasure? What news more? 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. Macb. I'll put it on. 'Tis not needed yet. Send out more horses, skirr1 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. Macb. Cure her of that: Doct. Must minister to himself. Therein the patient Macb. Throw physick 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 And purge it to a sound and pristine health, That should applaud again.- Pull't off, I say.— Scour. What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug, Would scour these English hence!-Hearest thou of them? Doct. 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. [Exit. [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. The wood of Birnam. Siw. What wood is this before us? 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 Dunsináne, and will endure Our setting down before't. Mal. 'Tis his main hope: For where there is advantage to be given, 2.e. Greater and less. And none serve with him but constrained things, Whose hearts are absent too. Macd. Let our just censures The time approaches, Attend the true event, and put we on Siw. That will with due decision make us know [Exeunt, marching. Dunsinane. SCENE V. Within the Castle. Enter, with Drums 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: noise? 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 [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 fell3 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? 3 Skin. Sey. The queen, my lord, is dead. Macb. She should have died hereafter; There would have been a time for such a word.- And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 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. Macb. If thou speak'st false, Till famine cling4 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 and now a wood + Shrivel. Comes toward Dunsináne. Arm, arm, and out.- And wish the estate of the world were now undone.- [Exeunt. SCENE VI. 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, Shall, with 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. Siw. Fare you well. Macd. Make all our trumpets speak; give them all breath, Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death. [Exeunt. Alarums continued. |