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 ? SERV. There is ten thousandMACB.

Geese, villain ? SERV.

Soldiers, sir. MacB. 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?

Serv. The English force, so please you.
Macb. 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.
Sey. What is your gracious pleasure ?
MACB.

What news more?

G

bones my

Sey. All is confirm’d, my lord, which was re

ported.
Macb. I'll fight till from my

flesh be hack'd. Give me my armour, Sey.

'Tis not needed yet. MacB. 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? Doct.

Not so sick, my lord, As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, That keep her from her rest. МАСв. .

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 stuff4d bosom of that perilous stuff Which weighs upon the heart ? Doct

Therein the patient Must minister to himself.

MacB. 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 ? Doct. Ay, my good lord ; your royal preparation Makes us hear something. МАСв. .

Bring it after me. I will not be afraid of death and bane, Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane. Doct. [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, old SIWARD

and his Son, MACDUFF, MENTEITH, CAITHNESS, ANGUS, LENNOX, Ross, and Soldiers, marching.

MAL. Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand
That chambers will be safe.
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 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. Siw. We learn no other but the confident tyrant Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure Our setting down before 't. MAL.

'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.
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 must arbitrate : Towards which advance the war. [Exeunt, marching.

SCENE V.
Dunsinane. Within the castle.
Enter MACBETH, SEYTON, and Soldiers, with

drum and colours.
MACB. Hang outour 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 beours,
We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,
And beat them backward home.

[A cry of women within.

What is that noise ? Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord.

[Exit.

MacB. I have almost forgot the taste of fears: The time 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? Sey. The queen, my lord, is dead.

MACB, 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
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.

Mess. Gracious
I should report that which I say I saw,
But know not how to do it.
МАСв. .

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.
MACB.

Liar and slave!
Mess. Let me endure your wrath, if't be not so:
Within this three mile may you see it coming ;

G 2

the stage

my lord,