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?

Well, march we on,

Caith.
To give obedience where 'tis truly owed:
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. 30 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 pronounced 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 faced loon!

3. taint, become tainted

ΤΟ

Where got'st thou that goose look?

Serv. There is ten thousand

Macb.

Serv.

Geese, villain ?

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 cheeks of thine
Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?
Serv. The English force, so please you.
Macb. Take thy face hence.

[Exit Servant.

Seyton I am sick at heart, When I behold-Seyton, I say!-This push Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now. I have lived 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.

Macb. I'll put it on.

'Tis not needed yet.

Send out moe horses; skirr the country round; Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine

armour.

15. patch, fool.

35. skirr, scour.

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30

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 diseased,
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.

40

Come, sir, dispatch.-If thou couldst, doctor, cast 50 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?

of them?

Hear'st thou

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.

Doct. [Aside] Were I from Dunsinane away and clear,

Profit again should hardly draw me here. [Exeunt.

43. oblivious, inducing forgetfulness.

50, 54, 58. In his disturbed

60

state Macbeth puts on and takes off his armour.

4

55. senna. So F1 for F1 ' cyme.'

SCENE IV. Country near Birnam wood.

Drum and colours. Enter MALCOLM, old SI-
WARD and his Son, MACDUFF, MENTEITH,
CAITHNESS, ANGUS, Lennox, Ross, and Sol-
diers, 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.

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 MACBETH, SEYTON, and Soldiers, with
drum and colours.

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 forced with those that should be ours,
We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,
And beat them backward home.

[A cry of women within.
What is that noise?

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

[Exit.

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.

Mach. 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,

5. forced, reinforced.
6. dareful, defiantly.
II. fell, skin; here' scalp.'

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