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Mes. As I did stand my watch upon the hill,

I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought,
The wood began to move.

Mac. Liar, and slave!

250

[Striking him.

Mes. Let me endure your wrath, if't be not so: Within this three mile may you see it coming;

I say, a moving grove.

Mac. If thou speak'st false,

Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive,

*Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth, 260

I care not if thou do'st 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 toward 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,

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

SCENE

SCENE VI.

Drum and Colours. Enter MALCOLM, SIWARD, MACDUFF, and their Army, with Boughs.

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

And shew 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.

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

280

Macd. Make all our trumpets speak;' give them all

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Mac. 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.

Enter

Enter Young SIWARD.

Yo. Siw. What is thy name?

Mac. Thou'lt be afraid to hear it.

Yo. Siw. No; though thou call'st thyself a hotter

Than any

name

is in hell.

Mac. My name's Macbeth.

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Yo. Siw. The devil himself could not pronounce a

title

More hateful to mine ear.

Mac. No, nor more fearful.

Yo. Siw. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with my

sword

I'll prove the lie thou speak'st.

[Fight; and Young SIWARD is slain

Mac, Thou wast born of woman.

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"But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, 299| "Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born." [Exit

Alarums. Enter MACDUFF.

Macd. That way the noise is:-Tyrant, shew 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 sheath again undeeded. There thou should'st be "By this great clatter, one of greatest note

"Seem:

=Seems bruited*:" Let me find him, fortune!" and

More I beg not."

[Exit.

Alarum.

Enter MALCOLM and Old SIWARD.

310

Siw. This way, my lord;-the castle's gently ren.

der'd:

he tyrant's people on both sides do fight; he noble thanes do bravely in the war;

he day almost itself professes yours,

nd little is to do.

Mal. We have met with foes

nat strike beside us.

Siw. Enter, sir, the castle.

[Exeunt. Alarum,

Re-enter MACBETH,

Mac. Why should I play the Roman fool, and die mine own sword? whiles I see lives, the gashes better upon

them.

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Macd. Turn, hell-hound, turn.

Mac. Of all men else I have avoided thee:

t get thee back, my soul is too much charg'd ith blood of thine already.

Macd. I have no words,

y voice is in my sword; thou bloodier villain han terms can give thee out!

Mac. Thou losest labour:

[Fight. Alarum.

330

easy may'st thou the *intrenchant air

ith thy keen sword impress, as make me bleed :

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Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;

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

Macd. Despair thy charm;

And let the angel, whom thou still hast serv'd,
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb
Untimely ripp'd.

Mac. Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,
For it hath cow'd my better part of man!

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And be these juggling fiends no more believ'd,
That *palter with us in a double sense;

Rosse.

only

e whi

he u

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 shew and gaze o' the time.
We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,

Painted upon a pole; and under-writ,

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like

liw.

Rosse.

st no

3ath

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 oppos'd, 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,

I

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[Exeunt, fighting.

enough*.
Alarun

Jal. H

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Re-enw. H

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