MACBETH Bring it after me.
I will not be afraid of death and bane61
Till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane.
Exeunt [all but the Doctor].
DOCTOR
Were I from Dunsinane away and clear,
Profit again should hardly draw me here.
[Exit.]
V.4Drum and Colors. Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, Siward's Son, Menteith, Caithness, Angus, [Lennox, Ross,] and Soldiers, marching.
MALCOLM
Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand
2 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
5 And bear't before him. Thereby shall we shadow 6 The numbers of our host and make discovery Err in report of us.
SOLDIER It shall be done.
SIWARD
We learn no other but the confident tyrant
Keeps still in Dunsinane and will endure
10 Our setting down before't.
MALCOLM 'Tis his main hope,
11 For where there is advantage to be given 12 Both more and less have given him the revolt, And none serve with him but constrained things
14 Whose hearts are absent too.
MACDUFF Let our just censures
Attend the true event, and put we on15
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-20
Towards which advance the war.
Exeunt, marching.21
V.5Enter Macbeth, Seyton, and Soldiers, with Drum and Colors.
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.4
Were they not forced with those that should be ours,5
We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,6
And beat them backward home.
A cry within of women. 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 time has been my senses would have cooled10
To hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair11
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir12
As life were in't. I have supped full with horrors.
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,14
Cannot once start me.15
[Enter Seyton.] Wherefore was that cry?
SEYTON
The queen, my lord, is dead.
MACBETH
She should have died hereafter:
18 There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
20 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 com'st to use thy tongue: thy story quickly.
MESSENGER
30 Gracious my lord, 31 I should report that which I say I saw, But know not how to do't.
MACBETH Well, say, sir.
MESSENGER
As I did stand my watch upon the hill,
I looked 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.
I say, a moving grove.
MACBETH If thou speak'st false,
Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive
40 Till famine cling thee. If thy speech be sooth, I care not if thou dost for me as much.
I pull in resolution, and begin42
To doubt th' equivocation of the fiend43
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,47 There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here. I 'gin to be aweary of the sun, And wish th' estate o' th' world were now undone.50
Ring the alarum bell! Blow wind, come wrack, At least we'll die with harness on our back.
Exeunt.52
V.6Drum and Colors. 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 we4
Shall take upon's what else remains to do,
According to our order.6
SIWARD Fare you well.
Do we but find the tyrant's power tonight,7
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.10
Exeunt. Alarums continued.
V.7Enter Macbeth.
MACBETH
They have tied me to a stake. I cannot fly,
2 But bearlike 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
10 Thou liest, abhorred tyrant! With my sword I'll prove the lie thou speak'st.
Fight, and Young Siward slain.
MACBETH Thou wast born of woman.
But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn,
Brandished by man that's of a woman born.
Exit [with Young Siward's body].
Alarums. Enter Macduff.
MACDUFF
That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy face!
If thou beest slain and with no stroke of mine,
My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still.
17 I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms 18 Are hired to bear their staves. Either thou, Macbeth, Or else my sword with an unbattered edge
I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be-20
By this great clatter one of greatest note21
Seems bruited. Let me find him, Fortune,22
And more I beg not.
Exit. Alarums.
Enter Malcolm and Siward.
SIWARD
This way, my lord. The castle's gently rendered:24
The tyrant's people on both sides do fight,
The noble thanes do bravely in the war,
The day almost itself professes yours27
And little is to do.
MALCOLM We have met with foes
That strike beside us.29
SIWARD Enter, sir, the castle.
Exeunt. Alarum.
V.8Enter Macbeth.
MACBETH
Why should I play the Roman fool and die
On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes2
Do better upon them.
Enter Macduff.
MACDUFF Turn, hellhound, turn!
MACBETH
Of all men else I have avoided thee.
But get thee back. My soul is too much charged5
With blood of thine already.
MACDUFF I have no words;
My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain
8 Than terms can give thee out.
Fight. Alarum.
MACBETH Thou losest labor.
9 As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air 10 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
13 To one of woman born.
MACDUFF Despair thy charm,
14 And let the angel whom thou still hast served Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb
Untimely ripped.
MACBETH
Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,
18 For it hath cowed my better part of man; 19 And be these juggling fiends no more believed, 20 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
23 Then yield thee coward, And live to be the show and gaze o' th' time.
25 We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are, 26 Painted upon 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.
30 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 damned be him that first cries "Hold, enough!"
Exeunt fighting. Alarums.
[Re]enter fighting, and Macbeth slain.
[Exit Macduff with Macbeth's body.]
Retreat and flourish. Enter, with Drum and Colors, Malcolm, Siward, Ross, Thanes, and Soldiers.
MALCOLM
I would the friends we miss were safe arrived.
SIWARD
Some must go off; and yet, by these I see,36
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,40
The which no sooner had his prowess confirmed
In the unshrinking station where he fought42
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.46
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 knolled.50
MALCOLM He's worth more sorrow, And that I'll spend for him.
SIWARD He's worth no more.
52 They say he parted well and paid his score, And so, God be with him. Here comes newer comfort.
Enter Macduff, with Macbeth's head.
MACDUFF
Hail, king, for so thou art. Behold where stands
Th' usurper's cursed head. The time is free.
56 I see thee compassed 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
60 We shall not spend a large expense of time 61 Before we reckon with your several loves 62 And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen, Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland
In such an honor named. What's more to do
65 Which would be planted newly with the time-As calling home our exiled friends abroad That fled the snares of watchful tyranny,
68 Producing forth the cruel ministers Of this dead butcher and his fiendlike queen,
70 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
73 We will perform in measure, time, and place.
So thanks to all at once and to each one,
Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone.
Flourish. Exeunt omnes.
I.1 An open field
3hurly-burly turmoil
9Graymalkin gray cat (her familiar spirit)
10Paddock toad
11Anon at once
I.2 Duncan's camp s.d.within offstage
3sergeant (generic term for a military officer; he ranks as a captain)
10to that to that end
12Western Isles the Hebrides and Ireland
13kerns and galloglasses Irish mercenary soldiers
19minion darling
22nave navel; chaps jaws
31surveying vantage seeing an opportunity
37cracks explosives
39Except unless
40memorize another Golgotha make as memorable as Calvary (where the Crucifixion took place)
45Thane (a Scottish lord, equivalent to the English earl)
46looks through appears in
47seems to is ready to
51Norway the King of Norway
53dismal ominous
54Bellona the goddess of war; lapped in proof (1) protected by experience, (2) wearing proven armor
55self-comparisons power comparable with his own
56Point sword
60composition terms of surrender
62Saint Colme's Inch Inchcolm, an island near Edinburgh (Inch means "island")
63dollars (the German thaler was a pan-European silver currency)
65bosom interest heart's trust; present immediate
I.3 A heath
6Aroint thee get thee gone; rump-fed runnion fat-rumped slut
7master captain; Tiger (name of his ship)
15ports they blow safe havens they afflict with storms
17shipman's card nautical chart
20penthouse lid eyelid (what overhangs the eye)
21forbid accursed
23peak waste away
32weird (two syllables: from Old English "wyrd," "fate," hence "supernatural," associated with fate, with an overtone of the uncanny, suggested by F's spelling "weyward")
33Posters swift travelers
39is't called do they say it is
44choppy chapped
48Glamis (one syllable)
53fantastical imaginary, hallucinations
55grace honor
57rapt withal spellbound at the thought
58seeds of time sources of future events
66happy fortunate
67get beget
70imperfect incomplete
71Finel or Finley, Macbeth's father (see Note on the Text)
81corporal corporeal
84insane inducing insanity
90reads considers
92-93His wonders...or his i.e., dumbstruck admiration makes him keep your praises to himself
97thick as tale fast as they can be counted
98post with post messenger after messenger
106addition title
111combined leagued
112line support
113vantage assistance
117behind still to come
120home all the way
126deepest consequence the crucial sequel
127Cousins i.e., f
ellow lords
128swelling act developing drama
136seated fixed
137use normal habit
139fantastical imaginary
140single state of man both undivided and weak human condition; function the power to act
145strange new
147Time...day i.e., the worst day comes to an end
149favor pardon
155free hearts thoughts freely
I.4 Duncan's camp
2in commission commissioned to carry out the execution
9studied rehearsed
10owed owned
16before ahead in deserving
19proportion satisfactory apportioning
27Safe fitting
28plant nurture
34Wanton unrestrained
39Prince of Cumberland (equivalent to the English Prince of Wales, the designated heir to the throne)
52wink at the hand disregard what the hand does
I.5 Within Macbeth's castle at Inverness
2perfect'st report most reliable evidence
6missives messengers
17catch...way take the most direct route
19illness wickedness
27round crown
28metaphysical supernatural