William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition (447 page)
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Authors: William Shakespeare
Tags: #Drama, #Literary Criticism, #Shakespeare
BOOK: William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition
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MENTEITH
What does the tyrant?
CAITHNESS
Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies.
Some say he’s mad, others that lesser hate him
Do call it valiant fury; but for certain
He cannot buckle his distempered cause
Within the belt of rule.
Some say he’s mad, others that lesser hate him
Do call it valiant fury; but for certain
He cannot buckle his distempered 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.
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 pestered senses to recoil and start
When all that is within him does condemn
Itself for being there?
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.
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.
Make we our march towards Birnam.
Exeunt, marching
Enter Macbeth, the Doctor of Physic, 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,
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.
The mind I sway by and the heart I bear
Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.
Enter Servant
The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon!
Where gott’st thou that goose look?
Where gott’st thou that goose look?
SERVANT There is ten thousand-
MACBETH Geese, villain?
SERVANT
Soldiers, sir. 15
MACBETH
Go prick thy face and over-red thy fear,
Thou lily-livered boy. What soldiers, patch?
Death of thy soul, those linen cheeks of thine
Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?
Thou lily-livered 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 sere, 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!
Will cheer me ever or disseat me now.
I have lived long enough. My way of life
Is fall’n into the sere, 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’s your gracious pleasure?
MACBETH
What news more?
SEYTON
All is confirmed, my lord, which was reported.
MACBETH
I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hacked.
Give me my armour.
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?
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.
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 fraught bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the fraught 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.
(To
an attendant)
Come, put mine armour on. Give me
my staff.
(To
an attendant)
Come, put mine armour on. Give me
my staff.
Seyton, send out. Doctor, the thanes fly from me.
(To
an attendant)
Come, sir, dispatch.—If thou couldst,
doctor, cast
(To
an attendant)
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. (To
an attendant)
Pull’t off,
I say.
And purge it to a sound and pristine health,
I would applaud thee to the very echo,
That should applaud again. (To
an attendant)
Pull’t off,
I say.
(To the Doctor) What rhubarb, cyme, or what
purgative drug
purgative drug
Would scour these English hence? Hear’st thou of
them?
them?
DOCTOR
Ay, my good lord. Your royal preparation
Makes us hear something.
Makes us hear something.
MACBETH (To
an attendant)
Bring it after me.
an attendant)
Bring it after me.
I will not be afraid of death and bane
Till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane.
Till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane.
DOCTOR (aside)
Were I from Dunsinane away and clear,
Profit again should hardly draw me here.
Exeunt
5.4Profit again should hardly draw me here.
Exeunt
Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, Siward’s Son, Menteith, Caithness, Angus, and soldiers, marching, with a drummer and colours
MALCOLM
Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand
That chambers will be safe.
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.
And bear’t before him. Thereby shall we shadow
The numbers of our host, and make discovery
Err in report of us.
A SOLDIER
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.
Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure
Our setting down before’t.
MALCOLM
’Tis his main hope,
For where there is advantage to be gone,
Both more and less have given him the revolt,
And none serve with him but constrained things,
Whose hearts are absent too.
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.
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
5.5What 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
Enter Macbeth, Seyton, and soldiers, with a drummer 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.
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 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 cooled
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 supped full with horrors.
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,
Cannot once start me.
The time has been my senses would have cooled
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 supped full with horrors.
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,
Cannot once start me.
⌈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.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
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.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
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
Messenger
Thou com’st 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’t.
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.
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.
Within this three mile may you see it coming.
I say, a moving grove.
Within this three mile may you see it coming.
I say, a moving grove.
MACBETH
If thou speak’st false
Upon the next tree shall 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 th‘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 th‘estate o’th’ world were now undone.
Ring the alarum bell.
Alarums
Blow wind, come wrack,
At least we’ll die with harness on our back. Exeunt
5.6Till 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 th‘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 th‘estate o’th’ world were now undone.
Ring the alarum bell.
AlarumsBlow wind, come wrack,At least we’ll die with harness on our back. Exeunt
Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, and their army with boughs, with a drummer and colours
MALCOLM
Now near enough. Your leafy screens throw down,
And show like those you are.
And show like those you are.
They throw down theboughs
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