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, Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive,

Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth, I care not if thou dost for me as much. 41 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 nor flying hence nor tarrying here.
I 'gin to be aweary of the sun,

And wish the estate o' the world were now undone.

50 Ring the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack!

At least we 'll die with harness on our back. [Exeunt.

Macd. That way the noise is. Tyrant, show 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 kerns, whose arms Are hired to bear their staves: either thou, Macbeth,

SIWARD, MACDUFF, 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,

ead our first battle: worthy Macduff and we

shall take upon 's what else remains to do, According to our order.

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

Macd. Make all our trumpets speak; give them all breath,

9

shouldst be;

20 By this great clatter, one of the greatest note And more I beg not. Seems bruited. Let me find him, fortune! [Exit. Alarums.

Enter MALCOLM and old SIWARD. Sim. This way, my lord; the castle's The tyrant's people on both sides do fight; gently render'd: The noble thanes do bravely in the war, The day almost itself professes yours, And little is to do.

Mal.

We have met with foes

That strike beside us.

Siw.

Enter, sir, the castle. 29 [Exeunt. Alarums.

SCENE VII. Another part of the field.

Alarums. Enter MACBETH.

Macb. They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly,

Fut, bear-like, I must fight the course. What's he

hat was not born of woman? Such a one m I to fear, or none.

Enter young SIWARD.

Yo. Sin. What is thy name?
Macb. Thou 'It be afraid to hear it.
Yo. Sim. No; though thou call'st thyself
a hotter name

SCENE VIII. Another part of the field,

Who hath relieved you?

Fran.

Bernardo has my place.

Give

you good night.

[Exit.

Mar.

Holla! Bernardo!

Ber.

Say,

Hor.

A piece of him.

What, is Horatio there?

Ber. Welcome, Horatio: welcome, good Marcellus.

20

Mar. What, has this thing appear'd again to-night?

Ber. I have seen nothing.

Mar. Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy, And will not let belief take hold of him Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us: Therefore I have entreated him along With us to watch the minutes of this night; That if again this apparition come, He may approve our eyes and speak to it. Hor. Tush, tush, 'twill not appear. Ber. Sit down awhile; 30 And let us once again assail your ears, That are so fortified against our story What we have two nights seen. Hor. Well, sit we down, And let us hear Bernardo speak of this. Ber. Last night of all,

When yond same star that 's westward from

the pole

Had made his course to illume that part of heaven

Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,

The bell then beating one,Enter Ghost.

Mar. Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again! 40

Ber. In the same figure, like the king that's dead.

Mar. Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.

Ber. Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.

Hor. Most like: it harrows me with fear and wonder.

Ber. It would be spoke to.
Mar.

Question it, Horatio. Hor. What art thou that usurp'st this time of night,

Together with that fair and warlike form
In which the majesty of buried Denmark
Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge
thee, speak!

Mar. Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour,

With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. Hor. In what particular thought to work I know not;

But in the gross and scope of my opinion, This bodes some strange eruption to our state. Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows, 70 Why this same strict and most observant watch

So nightly toils the subject of the land,
And why such daily cast of brazen cannon,
And foreign mart for implements of war;
Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore
task

Does not divide the Sunday from the week;
What might be toward, that this sweaty haste

Re-enter Ghost.

I'll cross it, though it blast me. Stay, illusion!
If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
Speak to me:

130

If there be any good thing to be done,
That may to thee do ease and grace to me,
Speak to me:
[Cock crows.
If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,
O, speak!

Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which they say, you spirits oft walk in
death,

Speak of it: stay, and speak! Stop it, Marcellus.

Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partisan? Hor. Do, if it will not stand.

Hor. And then it started like a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons. I have heard, The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, 150 Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat Awake the god of day; and, at his warning, Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, The extravagant and erring spirit hies To his confine: and of the truth herein This present object made probation.

Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock. Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long: 160 And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad; The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,

No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,

So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

Hor. So have I heard and do in part believe it.

But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, Walks o'er the dew, of yon high eastward hill: Break we our watch up; and by my advice, Let us impart what we have seen to-night Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life, 170 This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him. Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it,

ing know

Where we shall find him most conveniently. [Exeunt.

SCENE II. A room of state in the castle. Enter the KING, QUEEN, HAMLET, POLONIUS, LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, Lords, and Attendants.

King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death

The memory be green, and that it us befitted To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom

To be contracted in one brow of woe,
Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature
That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
The imperial jointress to this warlike state,
Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,- 10
With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in
marriage,

In equal scale weighing delight and dole,-
Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd
Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along. For all, our thanks.
Now follows, that you know, young Fortin-
bras,

Holding a weak supposal of our worth,
Or thinking by our late dear brother's death
Our state to be disjoint and out of frame, 20
Colleagued with the dream of his advantage,
He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,
Importing the surrender of those lands
Lost by his father, with all bonds of law,
To our most valiant brother. So much for
him.

Now for ourself and for this time of meeting:
Thus much the business is: we have here writ
To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,--
Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears
Of this his nephew's purpose,-to suppress 30
His further gait herein; in that the levies,
The lists and full proportions, are all made
Out of his subject: and we here dispatch
You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,
For bearers of this greeting to old Norway;
Giving to you no further personal power
To business with the king, more than the scope
Of these delated articles allow.

Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.

Cor. In that and all things will we show
Vol. S
our duty.

40

King. We doubt it nothing: heartily farewell. [Exeunt Voltimand and Cornelius.