Complete Plays, The

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Complete Plays, The Page 116

by William Shakespeare


  He cannot buckle his distemper’d cause

  Within the belt of rule.

  Angus

  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

  Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe

  Upon a dwarfish thief.

  Menteith

  Who then shall blame

  His pester’d senses to recoil and start,

  When all that is within him does condemn

  Itself for being there?

  Caithness

  Well, march we on,

  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.

  Lennox

  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

  Macbeth

  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!

  Where got’st thou that goose look?

  Servant

  There is ten thousand —

  Macbeth

  Geese, villain!

  Servant

  Soldiers, sir.

  Macbeth

  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?

  Servant

  The English force, so please you.

  Macbeth

  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

  Seyton

  What is your gracious pleasure?

  Macbeth

  What news more?

  Seyton

  All is confirm’d, my lord, which was reported.

  Macbeth

  I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hack’d.

  Give me my armour.

  Seyton

  ’Tis not needed yet.

  Macbeth

  I’ll put it on.

  Send out more horses; skirr the country round;

  Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armour.

  How does your patient, doctor?

  Doctor

  Not so sick, my lord,

  As she is troubled with thick coming fancies,

  That keep her from her rest.

  Macbeth

  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?

  Doctor

  Therein the patient

  Must minister to himself.

  Macbeth

  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.

  Come, sir, dispatch. 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,

  That should applaud again.— Pull’t off, I say.—

  What rhubarb, cyme, or what purgative drug,

  Would scour these English hence? Hear’st thou of them?

  Doctor

  Ay, my good lord; your royal preparation

  Makes us hear something.

  Macbeth

  Bring it after me.

  I will not be afraid of death and bane,

  Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane.

  Doctor

  [Aside] Were I from Dunsinane away and clear,

  Profit again should hardly draw me here.

  Exeunt

  SCENE IV. COUNTRY NEAR BIRNAM WOOD.

  Drum and colours. Enter Malcolm, Siward and Young Siward, Macduff, Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, Ross, and Soldiers, marching

  Malcolm

  Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand

  That chambers will be safe.

  Menteith

  We doubt it nothing.

  Siward

  What wood is this before us?

  Menteith

  The wood of Birnam.

  Malcolm

  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.

  Soldiers

  It shall be done.

  Siward

  We learn no other but the confident tyrant

  Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure

  Our setting down before ’t.

  Malcolm

  ’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.

  Macduff

  Let our just censures

  Attend the true event, and put we on

  Industrious soldiership.

  Siward

  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

  Macbeth

  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?

  Seyton

  It is the cry of women, my good lord.

  Exit

  Macbeth

  I have almost forgot the taste of fears;

  The tim
e 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?

  Seyton

  The queen, my lord, is dead.

  Macbeth

  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,

  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 quickly.

  Messenger

  Gracious my lord,

  I should report that which I say I saw,

  But know not how to do it.

  Macbeth

  Well, say, sir.

  Messenger

  As I did stand my watch upon the hill,

  I look’d toward Birnam, and anon, methought,

  The wood began to move.

  Macbeth

  Liar and slave!

  Messenger

  Let me endure your wrath, if’t be not so:

  Within this three mile may you see it coming;

  I say, a moving grove.

  Macbeth

  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.

  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.

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

  At least we’ll die with harness on our back.

  Exeunt

  SCENE VI. DUNSINANE. BEFORE THE CASTLE.

  Drum and colours. Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, and their Army, with boughs

  Malcolm

  Now near enough: your leafy screens throw down.

  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

  Shall take upon ’s what else remains to do,

  According to our order.

  Siward

  Fare you well.

  Do we but find the tyrant’s power to-night,

  Let us be beaten, if we cannot fight.

  Macduff

  Make all our trumpets speak; give them all breath,

  Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.

  Exeunt

  SCENE VII. ANOTHER PART OF THE FIELD.

  Alarums. Enter Macbeth

  Macbeth

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

  But, bear-like, I must fight the course. What’s he

  That was not born of woman? Such a one

  Am I to fear, or none.

  Enter Young Siward

  Young Siward

  What is thy name?

  Macbeth

  Thou’lt be afraid to hear it.

  Young Siward

  No; though thou call’st thyself a hotter name

  Than any is in hell.

  Macbeth

  My name’s Macbeth.

  Young Siward

  The devil himself could not pronounce a title

  More hateful to mine ear.

  Macbeth

  No, nor more fearful.

  Young Siward

  Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with my sword

  I’ll prove the lie thou speak’st.

  They fight and Young Siward is slain

  Macbeth

  Thou wast born of woman

  But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn,

  Brandish’d by man that’s of a woman born.

  Exit

  Alarums. Enter Macduff

  Macduff

  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,

  Or else my sword with an unbatter’d edge

  I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be;

  By this great clatter, one of greatest note

  Seems bruited. Let me find him, fortune!

  And more I beg not.

  Exit. Alarums

  Enter Malcolm and Siward

  Siward

  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.

  Malcolm

  We have met with foes

  That strike beside us.

  Siward

  Enter, sir, the castle.

  Exeunt. Alarums

  SCENE VIII. ANOTHER PART OF THE FIELD.

  Enter Macbeth

  Macbeth

  Why should I play the Roman fool, and die

  On mine own sword? whiles I see lives, the gashes

  Do better upon them.

  Enter Macduff

  Macduff

  Turn, hell-hound, turn!

  Macbeth

  Of all men else I have avoided thee:

  But get thee back; my soul is too much charged

  With blood of thine already.

  Macduff

  I have no words:

  My voice is in my sword: thou bloodier villain

  Than terms can give thee out!

  They fight

  Macbeth

  Thou losest labour:

  As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air

  With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed:

  Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;

  I bear a charmed life, which must not yield,

  To one of woman born.

  Macduff

  Despair thy charm;

  And let the angel whom thou still hast served

  Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb

  Untimely ripp’d.

  Macbeth

  Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,

  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.

  Macduff

  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 on a pole, and underwrit,

  ‘Here may you see the tyrant.’

  Macbeth

  I will not yield,

  To kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet,

  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

  I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,

  And damn’d be him that first cries, ‘Hold, enough!’

  Exeunt, fighting. Alarums

  Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colours, Malcolm, Siward, Ross, the other Thanes, and Soldiers

  Malcolm

  I would the friends we miss were safe arrived.

  Siward

  Some must go off: and yet, by these I see,

  So great a day as this is cheaply bought.

  Malcolm

  Macduff is missing, and your noble son.

  Ross

  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 unshrinking station where he fought,

  But like a man he died.

  Siward

  Then he is dead?

  Ross

  Ay, and brought off the field: your cause of sorrow

  Must not be measured by his worth, for then

  It hath no end.

  Siward

  Had he his hurts before?

  Ross

  Ay, on the front.

  Siward

  Why then, God’s soldier be he!

  Had I as many sons as I have hairs,

  I would not wish them to a fairer death:

  And so, his knell is knoll’d.

  Malcolm

  He’s worth more sorrow,

  And that I’ll spend for him.

  Siward

  He’s worth no more

  They say he parted well, and paid his score:

  And so, God be with him! Here comes newer comfort.

  Re-enter Macduff, with Macbeth’s head

  Macduff

  Hail, king! for so thou art: behold, where stands

  The usurper’s cursed head: the time is free:

  I see thee compass’d with thy kingdom’s pearl,

  That speak my salutation in their minds;

  Whose voices I desire aloud with mine:

  Hail, King of Scotland!

  All

  Hail, King of Scotland!

  Flourish

  Malcolm

  We shall not spend a large expense of time

  Before we reckon with your several loves,

  And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen,

  Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland

  In 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:

 

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