The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 1 of 9]

Doct. I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive [4506]
no truth in your report. When was it she last walked?

Gent. Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen
her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock
her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon't, read it, 5
afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this
while in a most fast sleep.

Doct. A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once
the benefit of sleep and do the effects of watching! In this
slumbery agitation, besides her walking and other actual 10
performances, what, at any time, have you heard her say?

Gent. That, sir, which I will not report after her.[4507]

Doct. You may to me, and 'tis most meet you should.

Gent. Neither to you nor any one, having no witness
to confirm my speech.

Lo you, here she comes![4508] 15
This is her very guise, and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe
her; stand close.

Doct. How came she by that light?

Gent. Why, it stood by her: she has light by her continually;
'tis her command. 20

Doct. You see, her eyes are open.

Gent. Ay, but their sense is shut.[4509]

Doct. What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs
her hands.

Gent. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus 25
washing her hands: I have known her continue in this a
quarter of an hour.

Lady M. Yet here's a spot.

Doct. Hark! she speaks: I will set down what comes
from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.[4510] 30

Lady M. Out, damned spot! out, I say! One: two:
why, then 'tis time to do't. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord,[4511]
fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows [4512][4513]
it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who[4513]
would have thought the old man to have had so much 35
blood in him?[4514]

Doct. Do you mark that?

Lady M. The thane of Fife had a wife; where is she [4515]
now? What, will these hands ne'er be clean? No more
o' that, my lord, no more o' that: you mar all with this [4516] 40
starting.

Doct. Go to, go to; you have known what you should [4517]
not.

Gent. She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of
that: heaven knows what she has known. 45

Lady M. Here's the smell of the blood still: all the [4518]
perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh,
oh, oh!

Doct. What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged.

Gent. I would not have such a heart in my bosom for 50
the dignity of the whole body.

Doct. Well, well, well,—[4519]

Gent. Pray God it be, sir.

Doct. This disease is beyond my practice: yet I have
known those which have walked in their sleep who have [4520] 55
died holily in their beds.

Lady M. Wash your hands; put on your nightgown;
look not so pale: I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried;[4521]
he cannot come out on 's grave.[4522]

Doct. Even so? 60

Lady M. To bed, to bed; there's knocking at the gate:
come, come, come, come, give me your hand: what's done
cannot be undone: to bed, to bed, to bed. [Exit.[4523]

Doct. Will she go now to bed?

Gent. Directly. 65

Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad: unnatural deeds
Do breed unnatural troubles: infected minds
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets:
More needs she the divine than the physician.
God, God forgive us all! Look after her;[4524] 70
Remove from her the means of all annoyance,
And still keep eyes upon her. So good night:
My mind she has mated and amazed my sight:[4525]
I think, but dare not speak.

Gent. Good night, good doctor.

Ment. The English power is near, led on by Malcolm,
His uncle Siward and the good Macduff:[4529]
Revenges burn in them; for their dear causes [4530][4531]
Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm[4530][4532]
Excite the mortified man.[4530]

Ang. Near Birnam wood[4530][4533] 5
Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming.

Caith. Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?

Len. For certain, sir, he is not: I have a file [4534]
Of all the gentry: there is Siward's son,
And many unrough youths, that even now [4535] 10
Protest their first of manhood.[4536]

Ment. What does the tyrant?

Caith. Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies:
Some say he's mad; others, that lesser hate him,[4537]
Do call it valiant fury: but, for certain,
He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause [4538] 15
Within the belt of rule.

Ang. Now does he feel
His secret murders sticking on his hands;
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach;
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love: now does he feel his title 20
Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe
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?

Caith. Well, march we on,[4539] 25
To give obedience where 'tis truly owed:
Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal,[4540]
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.[4541]

Macb. Bring me no more reports; let them fly all:
Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane [4543]
I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm?[4544]
Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know [4545]
All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus:[4546] 5
'Fear not, Macbeth; no man that's born of woman
Shall e'er have power upon thee.' Then fly, false thanes,[4547]
And mingle with the English epicures:
The mind I sway by and the heart I bear [4548]
Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.[4549] 10

The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon![4550]
Where got'st thou that goose look?[4551]

Serv. There is ten thousand—[4552]

Macb. Geese, villain?

Serv. Soldiers, sir.

Macb. Go prick thy face and over-red thy fear,
Thou lily-liver'd boy. What soldiers, patch? 15
Death of thy soul! those linen cheeks of thine
Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?[4553]

Serv. The English force, so please you.

Macb. Take thy face hence. [Exit Servant.[4554]
Seyton!—I am sick at heart,[4555][4556]
When I behold—Seyton, I say!—This push[4555] 20
Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now.[4557]
I have lived long enough: my way of life [4558]
Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf,
And that which should accompany old age,
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, 25
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.[4559]
Seyton!

Sey. What's your gracious pleasure?[4560]

Macb. What news more?[4561] 30

Sey. All is confirmed, my lord, which was reported.

Macb. I'll fight, till from my bones my flesh be hack'd.[4562]
Give me my armour.

Sey. 'Tis not needed yet.

Macb. I'll put it on.
Send out moe horses, skirr the country round;[4563] 35
Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armour.[4564]
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.[4565]
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,[4566] 40
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,[4567]
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff [4568]
Which weighs upon the heart?

Doct. Therein the patient 45
Must minister to himself.[4569]

Macb. Throw physic to the dogs, I'll none of it.
Come, put mine armour on; give me my staff.[4570]
Seyton, send out. Doctor, the thanes fly from me.
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,[4571]
I would applaud thee to the very echo,
That should applaud again. Pull't off, I say.
What rhubarb, cyme, or what purgative drug,[4572] 55
Would scour these English hence? Hear'st thou of them?

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.[4573] 60

Doct. [Aside] Were I from Dunsinane away and clear,[4574]
Profit again should hardly draw me here. [Exeunt.[4575]

Mal. Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand [4576]
That chambers will be safe.

Ment. We doubt it nothing.

Siw. What wood is this before us?

Ment. The wood of Birnam.[4577]

Mal. Let every soldier hew him down a bough,
And bear't before him: thereby shall we shadow 5
The numbers of our host, and make discovery
Err in report of us.

Soldiers. It shall be done.

Siw. We learn no other but the confident tyrant [4578]
Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure
Our setting down before 't.

Mal. 'Tis his main hope: 10
For where there is advantage to be given,[4579][4580]
Both more and less have given him the revolt,[4579]
And none serve with him but constrained things
Whose hearts are absent too.

Macd. Let our just censures [4581]
Attend the true event, and put we on[4581] 15
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 must arbitrate: 20
Towards which advance the war. [Exeunt, marching.

Macb. Hang out our banners on the outward walls;[4584]
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,[4585] 5
We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,
And beat them backward home. [A cry of women within.[4586]
What is that noise?

Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord. [Exit.[4587]

Macb. I have almost forgot the taste of fears:
The time has been, my senses would have cool'd [4588] 10
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;[4589]
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,
Cannot once start me.

Wherefore was that cry?[4590] 15

Scy. The queen, my lord, is dead.[4591]

Macb. She should have died hereafter;[4592]
There would have been a time for such a word.[4592][4593]
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,[4594] 20
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools [4595]
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle![4596]
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player [4597]
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage[4597] 25
And then is heard no more: it is a tale[4597]
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Thou comest to use thy tongue; thy story quickly.

Mess. Gracious my lord,[4598] 30
I should report that which I say I saw,[4599]
But know not how to do it.[4600]

Macb. Well, say, sir.

Mess. As I did stand my watch upon the hill,
I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought,[4601]
The wood began to move.

Macb. Liar and slave![4602] 35

Mess. Let me endure your wrath, if't be not so:
Within this three mile may you see it coming;[4603]
I say, a moving grove.

Macb. If thou speak'st false,
Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive,[4604]
Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth,[4605] 40
I care not if thou dost for me as much.
I pull in resolution, and begin [4606]
To doubt the equivocation of the fiend
That lies like truth: 'Fear not, till Birnam wood[4601]
Do come to Dunsinane;' and now a wood 45
Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out![4607]
If this which he avouches does appear,[4608]
There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here.[4608][4609]
I 'gin to be a-weary of the sun,[4608][4610]
And wish the estate o' the world were now undone.[4608][4611] 50
Ring the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack![4612]
At least we'll die with harness on our back. [Exeunt.

Mal. Now near enough; your leavy screens throw down,[4615]
And show like those you are. You, worthy uncle,
Shall, with my cousin, your right noble son,
Lead our first battle: worthy Macduff and we [4616]
Shall take upon 's what else remains to do,[4617] 5
According to our order.

Siw. Fare you well.[4618]
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.[4619]10

ACT V.

Scene I. Dunsinane. Ante-room in the castle.

Scene II. The country near Dunsinane.[4527]

Scene III. Dunsinane. A room in the castle.[4542]

Scene IV. Country near Birnam wood.

Scene V. Dunsinane. Within the castle.[4582]

Scene VI. Dunsinane. Before the castle.[4613]

Scene VII. Another part of the field.[4620]