76

Let's make us med'cines of our great revenge,
To cure this deadly grief.

Macd. He has no children.-All my pretty ones?
Did you say, all ?-O, hell-kite -All?

445 What, all my pretty chickens and their dam, At one fell swoop?

Mal. Dispute it like a man.

Macd.

I shall do so;

But I must also feel it as a man:

I cannot but remember such things were,

450 That were most precious to me.-Did heaven look on,
And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff,
They were all struck for thee! naught that I am!
Not for their own demerits, but for mine,
Fell slaughter on their souls: Heaven rest them now!
Mal. Be this the whetstone of your sword: let grief,
Convert to anger, blunt not the heart, enrage it.

455

Macd. O, I could play the woman with mine eyes, And braggart with my tongue!-But, gentle heavens, Cut short all intermission; front to front,

460 Bring thou this fiend of Scotland, and myself; Within my sword's length set him; if he 'scape, Heaven forgive him too!

Mal.

This tune goes manly.
Come, go we to the king; our power is ready;
Our lack is nothing but our leave: Macbeth

465 Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above

Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may;
The night is long that never finds the day.

[Exeunt.

ACT V.

SCENE I.-Dunsinane. A Room in the Castle. Enter a Doctor of Physic, and a Waiting Gentlewoman. Doct. I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walked?

Gent. Since his majesty went into the field, I have 5 seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon 't, read it, 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 10 once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching! -In this slumbery agitation, besides her walking and other actual performances, what, at any time, have you heard her say?

15

Gent. That, sir, which I will not report after her. Doct. You may, to me; and 't is most meet you should.

Gent. Neither to you nor any one; having no witness to confirm my speech.-Lo you, here she comes!

Enter LADY MACBETH, with a taper.

This is her very guise; and, 20 upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her: stand close. Doct. How came she by that light?

25

Gent. Why, it stood by her: she has light by her continually; 't is her command.

Doct. You see, her eyes are open.
Gent. Ay, but their sense is shut.

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

Gent. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands. I have known her continue in 30 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. Lady M. Out, damned spot! out, I say!-One; 35 two: Why, then 't is time to do 't:-Hell is murky! -Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?-Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?

40

Doct. Do you mark that?

Lady M. The thane of Fife had a wife; where is she

45

now ?-What, will these hands ne'er be clean ?—No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that: you mar all with this starting.

Doct. Go to, go to; you have known what you should

not.

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

Lady M. Here's the smell of the blood still: all the 50 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 55 the dignity of the whole body. Doct. Well, well, well,—

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 60 died holily in their beds.

65

70

Lady M. Wash your hands, put on your night-gown; look not so pale:-I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he cannot come out on 's grave.

Doct. Even so?

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 LADY MACBETH. Doct. Will she go now to bed?

Gent. Directly.

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;
75 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:
I think, but dare not speak.

Gent.

Good-night, good doctor.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-The Country near Dunsinane.

Enter, with drum and colours, MENTEITH, CAITHNEss, Angus, LENOX, and Soldiers.

Ment. The English power is near, led on by Malcolm, 80 His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff. Revenges burn in them; for their dear causes Would, to the bleeding and the grim alarm, Excite the mortified man.

85

90

Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming.
Cath. Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?
Len. For certain, sir, he is not: I have a file

Of all the gentry: there is Siward's son,

And many unrough youths, that even now
Protest their first of manhood.

Ment.

What does the tyrant?

Cath. 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 distemper'd cause
Within the belt of rule.

Ang.
Now does he feel
95 His secret murthers 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
100 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?

Cath.

Well, march we on,

To give obedience where 't is truly ow'd:
105 Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal;
And with him pour we, in our country's purge,
Each drop of us.

Len.

Or so much as it needs,

110

To dew the sovereign flower, and drown the weeds.
Make we our march towards Birnam.

SCENE III.-Dunsinane.

[Exeunt, marching.

A Room in the Castle.

Enter MACBETH, Doctor, and Attendants.

Macb. 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: 115 "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.

120 The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon; Where gott'st thou that goose look ?

Serv. There is ten thousand

Macb.

Serv.

Geese, villain?

Soldiers, sir.

Macb. Go prick thy face, and over-red thy fear,
Thou lily-liver'd boy. What soldiers, patch!
125 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.-
Seyton!-I am sick at heart,

[Exit. Servant.

When I behold-Seyton, I say!-This push 130 Will chair me ever, or dis-seat me now.

I have lived long enough: my way of life
Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf:
And that which should accompany old age,
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,
135 I must not look to have; but, in their stead,