That stay his cure: their malady convinces The great assay of art; but, at his touch, Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand, They presently amend.

Mal.

1 thank you, doctor. [Erit Doctor. Macd. What's the disease he means? Mal. 'Tis call'd the evil: A most miraculous work in this good king; Which often, since my here-remain in England, I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven, Himself best knows: but strangely-visited people,

All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, The mere despair of surgery, he cures : Hanging a golden stamp+ about their necks, Put on with holy prayers: and 'tis spoken, To the succeeding royalty he leaves

The healing benediction. With this strange virtue,

He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy;
And sundry blessings hang about his throne,
That speak him full of grace.

Enter Rosse.

Macd. See, who comes here? Mal. My countryman; but yet I know him not. [hither. Mard. My ever gentle cousin, welcome Mal. I know him now: Good God, betimes The means that make us strangers! [remove Rosse. Sir, Amen. Macd. Stands Scotland where it did? Rosse. Alas, poor country! Almost afraid to know itself! It cannot [thing, Be call'd our mother, but our grave: where noBut who knows nothing, is once seen to smile: Where sighs, and groans, and shrieks that rend the air,

[seems Are made, not mark'd; where violent sorrow A modern ecstasy 1; the dead man's knell Is there scarce ask'd, for who; and good men's Expire before the flowers in their caps, [lives Dying, or ere they sicken. Mucd.

O, relation,

Too nice, and yet too true!
Mul.
What is the newest grief?
Rosse. That of an hour's age doth hiss the
Each minute teems a new one. [speaker;
Macd.
How does my wife?
Rosse. Why, well.
Macd.
And all my children?

Rosse.

Well too. Macd. The tyrant has not batter'd at their peace? [did leave them. Rosse. No; they were well at peace, when I Macd. Be not a niggard of your speech; How goes it? [tidings, Rosse. When I came hither to transport the Which I have heavily borne, there ran a ruOf many worthy fellows that were out; [mour Which was to my belief witness'd the rather, For that I saw the tyrant's power a-foot : Now is the time of help! your eye in Scotland Would create soldiers, make our women fight, To doff their dire distresses. Mul.

Overpowers, subdues.

Be it their comfort,

We are coming thither: gracions England hath
Lent us good Siward, and ten thousand men;
An older, and a better soldier, none
That Christendom gives out.

Rosse.
'Would I could answer
This comfort with the like! But I have words,
That would be howl'd out in the desert air,
Where hearing should not latch them.
Macd.
What concern they?
The general cause? or is it a fee-grief¶,
Due to some single breast?
Rosse.

No mind, that's honest,
But in it shares some woe; though the main
Pertains to you alone.
[part
Mucd.
If it be mine,
Keep it not from me, quickly let me have it.
Rosse. Let not your ears despise my tongue
for ever,
[sound
Which shall possess them with the heaviest
That ever yet they heard.

Macd.
Humph! I guess at it.
Rosse. Your castle is surprised; your wife,

and babes,

My wife kill'd too?

Rosse. Mal.

I have said. Be comforted: Let's make us med'cines of our great revenge, To cure this deadly grief.

Macd. He has no children.-All my pretty
ones ?

Did you say, all?-O, hell-kite!-All?
What, all my pretty chickens, and their dam,
At one fell swoop?

Mal. Dispute it like a man.
Macd.

I shall do so;
But I must also feel it as a man:
I cannot but remember such things were,
That were most precious to me.-Did heaven
look on,
[duff,
And would not take their part? Sinful Mac-
They were all struck for thee! naught that I am,
Not for their own demerits, but for mine,
Fell slaughter on their souls; Heaven rest them
[let grief
Mal. Be this the whetstone of your sword:
Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it.

now!

Macd. O, I could play the woman with

mine eyes,

Put off All pause

Enter MACBETH, Doctor and Attendants. Macb. Bring me no more reports; let them fly all;

woman,

Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane,
I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy
Malcolm!
[know
Was he not born of woman? The spirits that
All mortal consequents, pronounced ine thus:
Fear not, Macbeth: no man, that's born of
[false thanes,
Shall e'er have power on thee.--Then fly,
And mingle with the English epicures:
The mind I sway by, and the heart I bear, [fear.
Shall never sagg+ with doubt nor shake with
Enter a Servant.
The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced
Where got'st thou that goose look? [loon !
Serv. There is ten thousand--
Macb.
Geese, villain?
Serv.

Soldiers, sir. [fear, Macb. Go, prick thy face, and over-red thy Thou lily-liver'd boy. What soldier's, patch §? Death of thy soul! those linen cheeks of thine Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, wheyface ?

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 liv'd 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,
[dare not.
Which the poor heart would fain deny, but
Seyton!---

The physician.

Enter SEYTON.

Sey. What is your gracions pleasure?
Macb
What news more!

Sey. All is confirm'd, my lord, which was reported. [be hack'd. Macb. P'il fight, till from my bones my flesh Give me my armour. Sey. 'Tis not needed yet. Macb. I'll put it on.

[round; Send out more horses, skirr the country Hang those that talk of fear.-Give me mine How does your patient, doctor? [armour. 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 staff, Which weighs upon the heart? Doct. Therein the patient Must minister to himself. [of it:Macb. Throw physic to the dogs, I'll none Come, put mine armour on; give me my [me:

staff:

Seyton, send out.-Doctor, the thanes fly from
Come, sir, despatch:-If thou couldst, doctor,
The water of my land, find her disease, (cast
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?-Hearest
thou of them?
[paration

Doct. Ay, my good lord; your royal preMakes us hear something.

Mac.

Bring it after me.I will not be afraid of death and bane, Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane. [Erit. Doc. Were I from Dunsinaneaway and clear, Profit again should hardly draw me here.

[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 That chambers will be safe. [hand 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 bongh,

[dow And bear't before him; thereby shall we sha The numbers of our host, and make discovery Err in report of us.

Sold. It shall be done. [tyrant Siw. We learn no other but the confident Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure Our setting down before't. 'Tis his main hope:

+ Sink.

An appellation of contempt.

For where there is advantage to be given,
Both more and less have given him the revolt;
And none serve with him but constrained
Whose hearts are absent too.
[things,
Macd.
Let our just censures
Attend the true event, and put we on
Industrious soldiership.
Siw.
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 nust arbitrate +:
Towards which, advance the war.
[Exeunt, marching.
SCENE V. Dunsinane. Within the Castle.
Enter, with Drums and Colours, MACBETH,
SEYTON, and Soldiers.

Mach. Hang out our banners on the outward walls; [strength The cry is still, They come: Our castle's 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, [beard, We might have met them dareful, beard to And beat them backward home. What is that noise? [A cry within, of Women. Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord. Mach. I have almost forgot the taste of fears: The time has been, my senses would have

Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,
Cannot once start.-Wherefore was that cry?
Sey. The queen, my lord, is dead.
Mach. She should have died hereafter;

Mach.

If thou speak st taide,

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.-
I pall 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 a-weary of the sun,
And wish the estate o'the world were now un-

done.

Enter, with Drums and Colours, MALCOLM, old SIWARD, MACDUFF, &c., and their Army, with Boughs.

Mal. Now near enough; your leavy screens

throw down, [uncle, And show like those you are:-Yon, worthy Shail, 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.

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

Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death. [Exeunt. Alarums continued.

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded tiine;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Enter a Messenger.

Thou comest to use thy tongue; thy story quickMess. Gracious my lord,

1 shall report that which I say I saw, But know not how to do it.

[ly.

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.

Mucb. Liar and slave! [Striking him. Mess. Let me endure your wrath, if't be not

the Plain.

Enter MACBETH.

i. e., Greater and less.

+ Determine.

Shrivel

Armour.

+ Skin.

Alarums. Enter MACDUFF. Maed. That way the noise is:-Tyrant, show thy face:

If thou 'be'st stain, and with no stroke of mine, My wife and children's ghost will haunt me still. I cannot strike at wretched kernes*, whose [Macbeth,

arins

Are hired to bear their staves; either thou, Or else my sword, with an unbatter'd edge, I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst By this great clatter, one of greatest note [be; Seems bruited+: Let me find bim, fortune! And more I beg not. [Exit. Alarum.

Enter MALCOLM and old SIWARD. Siw. This way, my lord;-the castle's gently render'd:

The tyrant's people on both sides do fight;
The noble thanes do bravely in the war;
The day almost itself professes yours,
And little is to do.

Mal.

That strike beside us. Siw.

We have met with foes

Enter, sir, the castle.
[Exeunt. Alarum.

Re-enter MACBETH.

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

Re-enter MACDUFF.

Macd. Turn, hell-hound, turn. Mucb. Of all mea else I have avoided thee: But get thee back, my soul is too much charged With blood of thine already.

Macd. I have no words, My voice is in my sword; thou bloodier villain Than terms can give thee out! [They fight, Macb. Thou losest labour: As easy may'st thou the intrenchant air With thy keen sword impress, as make me Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests; [bleed: 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 served, Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb Untimely ripp'd.

[80, Macb. Accursed be that tongue that tells me For it hath cow'd my better part of man! And be these juggling fiends no more believed, That palter with us in a double sense; 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 show and gaze o'the time. We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are, Painted upon a pole; and underwrit, Here may you see the tyrant. Much. I'll not yield, [feet, To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's And to be baited with the rabble's curse. Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane, And thou opposed, being of no woman born, Yet I will try the last: Before my body

• Soldiers. + Reported with clamour.

I throw my warlike shield: lay on, Macduff; And damn'd be him that first cries, Hold, enough. [Exeunt, fighting.

Retreat. Flourish. Re-enter, with Drum and Colours, MALCOLM, old SIWARD, ROSSE, LENOX, ANGUS, CATHNESS, MENTETH, and Soldiers.

Mul. I would, the friends we miss were safe arrived. [see, Siw. Some must go off: and yet, by these I So great a day as this is cheaply bought. Mal. Macduffis missing, and your noble son. Rosse. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt:

He only lived but till he was a man ;
The which no sooner had his prowess confirm'd
In the uushrinking station where he fought,
But like a man he died.

Siw.
Then he is dead?
Rosse. Ay, and brought off the field: your

cause of sorrow

He's worth more sorrow,

And that I'll spend for him.
Snc.

He's worth no more; They say, be parted well, and paid his score: So, God be with him!-Here comes newer comfort.

Re-enter MACDUFF, with MACBETH'S Head on a Pole.

Macd. Hail, king! for so thou art: Behold, where stands

The usurper's cursed head: the time is free: Isce thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl, That speak my santation in their minds; Whose voices I desire aloud with mine,Hail, king of Scotland!

All. King of Scotland, hail! [Flourish. Mal. We shall not spend a large expense of

time,

4

Before we reckon with your several loves, And make us even with you. My thanes and

kinsmen,

[land Henceforth be earls, the first that ever ScotIn such an honour named. What's more to do, Which would be planted newly with the time, As calling home our exiled friends abroad, That fled the snares of watchful tyranny; Producing forth the cruel ministers

Of this dead butcher, and his fiend-like queen;
Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands
Took off her life;-This, and what needful else
That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace,
We will perform in measure, time, and place:
So thanks to all at once, and to each one,
Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone.
[Flourish. Exeunt.