My mind she has mated,' and amazed my sight:
I think, but dare not speak.

Gent.

Good night, good doctor.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. The Country near Dunsinane.

Enter, with drum and colors, MENTETH, CATHNESS, ANGUS, LENOx, and Soldiers.

Ment. The English power is near, led on by Malcolm,

His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff.
Revenges burn in them; for their dear causes
Would, to the bleeding, and the grim alarm,
Excite the mortified man.3

Ang.

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
Of all the gentry; there is Siward's son,

And many unrough youths, that even now
Protest their first of manhood.

Ment.

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 distempered 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;

1 "My mind she has mated." Mated, or amated (from matte, old French), signified to overcome, confound, dismay, or make afraid.

2 Duncan had two sons by his wife, who was the daughter of Siward, earl of Northumberland.-Holinshed.

3 By the mortified man is meant a religious man; one who has mortified his passions, is dead to the world; an ascetic.

4"And many unrough youths." This expression means smooth-faced, unbearded.

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 pestered senses to recoil, and start,
When all that is within him does condemn
Itself, for being there!1

Cath.

2

Well, march we on,

To give obedience where 'tis truly owed;
Meet we the medecin 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 consequence, 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: 3 :3

1 i. e. when all the faculties of the mind are employed in self-condemnation.

2 The medecin, the physician. In the Winter's Tale, Camillo is called, by Florizel," the medecin of our house."

3 Shakspeare derived this thought from Holinshed:-"The Scottish people before had no knowledge of nor understanding of fine fare or riotous surfeit; yet after they had once tasted the sweet poisoned bait thereof," &c. "those superfluities which came into the realme of Scotland with Englishmen."-Hist. of Scotland, p. 179.

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 !2 Where gott'st thou that goose look?

Serv. There is ten thousand

Macb.

Serv.

Geese, villain?
Soldiers, sir.

Macb. Go, prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, Thou lily-livered boy. What soldiers, patch ?3 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.-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 fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf;
And that which should accompany old age,
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have; but, in their stead,
Curses, not loud, but deep, mouth-honor, breath,
Which the poor heart would fain deny, but dare not.
Seyton!

1 To sag, or swag, is to hang down by its own weight, or by an overload.

2 แ -cream-faced loon." This word, which signifies a base, abject fellow, is now only used in Scotland; it was formerly common in England, but spelled lown, and is justly considered by Horne Tooke as the past parciple of to low or abase. Lout has the same origin.

3 Patch, an appellation of contempt, signifying fool or low wretch.

4 i. e. they infect others, who see them, with cowardice.

5 Sear is dry, withered. We have the same expression and sentiment in Spenser's Pastorals:

"Also my lustful leaf is drie and seare."

For "way of life" Johnson would read "May of life;" in which he was followed by Steevens and others. Warburton contended for the original reading, and was followed by Mason. At a subsequent period Steevens acquiesced in the propriety of the old reading, way of life, which he interprets, with his predecessors, course or progress. Malone followed the same track. This phrase is only a simple periphrasis for life.

Enter SEYTON.

Sey. What is your gracious pleasure?
Macb.

What news more?

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

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 armor. How does your patient, doctor?

Not so sick, my lord,

Doct.
As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies,
That keep her from her rest.

Cure her of that.

Macb.
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 stuffed 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 armor 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,

2

That should applaud again.-Pull't off, I say.—
What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug,
Would scour these English hence?-Hearest thou of
them?

1 i. e. scour the country round.

2 "What rhubarb, senna." The old copy reads cyme. The emendation is Rowe's.

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.

[Exit.

[Exeunt.

Doct. Were I from Dunsinane away and clear,

Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane.

Profit again should hardly draw me here.

SCENE IV. Country near Dunsinane; a Wood in

view.

Enter, with drum and colors, 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,1
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 Dunsinane, and will endure

Our setting down before't.

Mal.

'Tis his main hope;

For where there is advantage to be given,

1 A similar incident is recorded by Olaus Magnus, in his Northern History, lib. vii. cap. xx. De Strategemate Hachonis per Frondes.

2 "For where there is advantage to be given." Dr. Johnson thought that we should read:

i. e. where there is an opportunity to be gone, all ranks desert him. We might perhaps read:—

66 where there is advantage to be gained;"

and the sense would be nearly similar, with less violence to the text of the old copy.