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Mach. She should have died hereafter; SCENE IV. Country near Birnam wood. There would have been a time for such a word. Drum and colours. Enter MALCOLM, old SI-To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, WARD and his Son,_ MACDUFF, MENTEITH, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day CAITHNESS, ANGUS, LENNOX, Ross, and Sol-To the last syllable of recorded time, diers, marching. And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! 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.

Mal. Cousins, I hope the days are near at Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
hand

That chambers will be safe.
Ment.
We doubt it nothing.
Siz. 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.

Enter a Messenger.

Thou comest to use thy tongue; thy story quickly.
Mess. Gracious my lord,

30

I should report that which I say I saw, Siw. We learn no other but the confident But know not how to do it. tyrant Macb. 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.

Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure
Our setting down before 't.

Mal.

'Tis his main hope: 10
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.

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Macb.

Liar and slave!

Mess. Let me endure your wrath, if't be

not so:

Within this three mile may you see it coming;
I say, a moving grove.
Macb.

If thou speak'st false,
Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive,
Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth, 40
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

[Exeunt, marching. 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.
And wish the estate o' the world were now un-
done.

SCENE V. Dunsinane. Within the castle.
Enter MACBETH, SEYTON, and Soldiers, with I gin to be aweary of the sun,

drum and colours.

Macb. 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

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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, old SIWARD, MACDUFF, and their Army, with boughs.

Mal. Now near enough: your leavy 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.

Siw.
Fare you well.
Do we but find the tyrant's power to-night,
Let us be beaten, if we cannot fight.

Macd. Make all our trumpets speak; give
them all breath,

9 Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death. [Exeunt.

SCENE VII. Another part of the field.

Alarums. Enter MACBETH.

Macb. 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.

Yo. Siw. What is thy name?
Macb.

Thou'lt be afraid to hear it. Yo. Siw. No; though thou call'st thyself a hotter name

My name's Macbeth.

Macd. Macb.

Macd.

Enter MACDUFF.

Turn, hell-hound, turn! Of all men else I have avoided thee: But get thee back; my soul is too much charged With blood of thine already. I have no words: My voice is in my sword: thou bloodier villain Than terms can give thee out! [They fight. Macb. 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. Macd. Despair thy charm; And let the angel whom thou still hast served Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb

Than any is in hell.
Macb.
Yo. Siw. The devil himself could not pro- Untimely ripp'd.

nounce a title

More hateful to mine ear.

No, nor more fearful.

Mach. Yo. Siw. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with my sword

I'll prove the lie thou speak'st.

ΙΟ

[They fight and young Siward is slain. Macb. Thou wast born of woman. But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born.

Alarums. Enter MACDUFF.

[Exit.

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Macb. 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.
Macd. 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 upon a pole, and underwrit,
'Here may you see the tyrant."

Macb.

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, 30 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, e

nough!' Exeunt, fighting. Alarms.

Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colours, MALCOLM, old SIWARD, Ross, the other Thanes, and Soldiers.

Mal. I would the friends we miss were safe arrived.

Siw. Some must go off: and yet, by these I see,
So great a day as this is cheaply bought.
Mal. 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.

Then he is dead?

40

Siw.
Ross. Ay, and brought off the field: your

cause of sorrow

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Had he his hurts before?
Ross. Ay, on the front.
Siw.

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.
Mal.

He's worth more sorrow, 50

And that I'll spend for him. Sir.

He's worth no more:

122

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. Macd. 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. Mal. We shall not spend a large expense of time 60

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 70
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:
So, thanks to all at once and to each one,
Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone.
[Flourish. Exeunt.

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ACT I.

SCENE I. Elsinore. A platform before the

castle.

FRANCISCO at his post. Enter to him BERNARDO.

Ber. Who's there?

Fran. Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold
yourself.

Ber. Long live the king!
Fran. Bernardo?

Ber. He.

Fran. You come most carefully upon your
hour.

Ber. 'Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed,
Francisco.

Fran. For this relief much thanks: 'tis bitter
cold,

And I am sick at heart.

Ber. Have you had quiet guard?
Fran.
Not a mouse stirring. 10
Ber. Well, good night.

If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,
The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste,
Fran. I think I hear them. Stand, ho! Who's
there?

Enter HORATIO and MARcellus.
Hor. Friends to this ground.
Mar.
Fran. Give you good night.
Mar.
Who hath relieved you?
Fran.

And liegemen to the Dane.

O, farewell, honest soldier:

Give you good night.

Mar.

Bernardo has my place. [Exit. Holla! Bernardo !

Ber.

Say,

What, is Horatio there?

Hor.

A piece of him.

Mar. What, has this thing appear'd again tonight?

Ber. I have seen nothing.

Mar. Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy,
And will not let belief take hold of him
Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us:
Therefore I have entreated him along
With us to watch the minutes of this night;
That if again this apparition come,
He may approve our eyes and speak to it.
Hor. Tush, tush, 'twill not appear.
Ber.
Sit down awhile; 30

And let us once again assail your ears,
That are so fortified against our story
What we have two nights seen.

Hor.
Well, sit we down,
And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.
Ber. Last night of all,

When yond same star that's westward from the
pole

Had made his course to illume that part of heaven
Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,
The bell then beating one,-

Enter Ghost.

Mar. Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again! 40

Ber. In the same figure, like the king that's
dead.

Mar. Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.
Ber. Looks it not like the king? mark it,
Horatio.

Hor. Most like: it harrows me with fear and
wonder.

Ber. It would be spoke to.

Mar.

Question it, Horatio. Hor. What art thou that usurp'st this time of night,

Ber. Welcome, Horatio: welcome, good Mar- Together with that fair and warlike form : cellus.

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Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, Is the main motive of our preparations, speak!

Mar. It is offended.
Ber.

See, it stalks away!

50

Hor. Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee,
speak!
[Exit Ghost.

Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer.

Ber. How now, Horatio! you tremble and
look pale:

Is not this something more than fantasy?
What think you on't?

Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe
Without the sensible and true avouch

Of mine own eyes.

Mar.

Is it not like the king?
Hor. As thou art to thyself:
Such was the very armour he had on

When he the ambitious Norway combated;
So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,
He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.

'Tis strange.

The source of this our watch and the chief head
Of this post-haste and romage in the land.
Ber. I think it be no other but e'en so:
Well may it sort that this portentous figure
Comes armed through our watch; so like the
king

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That was and is the question of these wars.
Hor. A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye.
In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets:
As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
Disasters in the sun; and the moist star
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands
60 Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse:
And even the like precurse of fierce events,
As harbingers preceding still the fates
And prologue to the omen coming on,
Have heaven and earth together demonstrated
Unto our climatures and countrymen.-
But soft, behold! lo, where it comes again!
Re-enter Ghost.

Mar. Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour,

With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.
Hor. In what particular thought to work I
know not;

But in the gross and scope of my opinion,
This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he
that knows,

70

Why this same strict and most observant watch
So nightly toils the subject of the land,
And why such daily cast of brazen cannon,
And foreign mart for implements of war;
Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task
Does not divide the Sunday from the week;
What might be toward, that this sweaty haste
Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day:
Who is't that can inform me?

That can I;

Hor.
At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king, 80
Whose image even but now appear'd to us,
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,
Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Ham-
let-

For so this side of our known world esteem'd
him-

Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd com-
pact,

Well ratified by law and heraldry,
Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands
Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror:
Against the which, a moiety competent
Was gaged by our king; which had return'd
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

90

Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same covenant,

And carriage of the article design'd,

His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,
Of unimproved mettle hot and full,
Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there
Shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes,
For food and diet, to some enterprise
That hath a stomach in't; which is no other-
As it doth well appear unto our state-
But to recover of us, by strong hand
And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands
So by his father lost: and this, I take it,

ΙΟΙ

120

I'll cross it, though it blast me. Stay, illusion!
If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
Speak to me:
If there be any good thing to be done,
130
That may
to thee do ease and grace to me,
Speak to me:
[Cock crows.
If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,
O, speak!

Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,
Speak of it: stay, and speak! Stop it, Marcellus.
Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partisan?
Hor. Do, if it will not stand.
Ber.
Hor.

Mar. 'Tis gone!

'Tis here!

141

'Tis here! [Exit Ghost.

We do it wrong, being so majestical,
To offer it the show of violence;
For it is, as the air, invulnerable,
And our vain blows malicious mockery.
Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock

crew.

150

Hor. And then it started like a guilty thing
Upon a fearful summons. I have heard,
The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
Awake the god of day; and, at his warning,
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
The extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confine and of the truth herein
This present object made probation.

Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock.
Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long: 160
And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad:
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

Hor. So have I heard and do in part believe it.
But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill:

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