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Malcolm. Be this the whetstone of your sword: let grief Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it.

Macduff. O, I could play the woman with mine eyes, And braggart with my tongue!

1

But, gentle heavens,

Cut short all intermission; 1 front to front

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

Malcolm.

This tune goes manly.

Come, go we to the king; our power is ready;
Our lack is nothing but our leave.2

Macbeth

Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above

Put on their instruments.3 Receive what cheer you may :
The night is long that never finds the day.

[Exeunt.

ACT V.

Anteroom in the Castle.

SCENE I. Dunsinane.

Enter a Doctor of Physic and a Waiting Gentlewoman.

Doctor. I have two nights watch'd with you, but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walk'd ?

Gentlewoman. Since his majesty went into the field, I have 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.

Doctor. A great perturbation in nature, to receive at 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?

1 Interruption; delay.

3

2 "Our lack," etc., i.e., there is nothing lacking now but to take leave. Powers," etc., i.e., powers above instigate men to the work. 4 Slumberous.

Gentlewoman. That, sir, which I will not report after her. Doctor. You may to me: and 'tis most meet you should. Gentlewoman. Neither to you nor any one; having no witness to confirm my speech.

Enter LADY MACBETH, with a taper.

Lo you, here she comes ! This is her very guise;1 and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand close.2

Doctor. How came she by that light?

Gentlewoman. Why, it stood by her: she has light by her continually; 'tis her command.

Doctor. You see, her eyes are open.

Gentlewoman. Ay, but their sense is shut.

Doctor. What is it she does now? Look how she rubs her hands. Gentlewoman. It is an accustom'd action with her, to seem thus washing her hands: I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour.

Lady Macbeth. Yet here's a spot.

Doctor. Hark! she speaks: I will set down what comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.

Lady Macbeth. Out, damned spot! out, I say ! One: two: why, then 'tis 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!

Doctor. Do you mark that ?

Lady Macbeth. The Thane of Fife had a wife: where is she 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. Doctor. Go to, go to; 3 you have known what you should not.

1 "Very guise," i.e., the dress and manner in which she always appears on these occasions.

2 Quiet.

The

3 "Go to," an exclamation of horror and astonishment here. phrase is used in various senses by Shakespeare, -as an expression of encouragement, of reproach, of contempt, etc.

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

Lady Macbeth. Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh ! Doctor. What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charg'd. Gentlewoman. I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the dignity of the whole body.1

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Gentlewoman. Pray God it be, sir.

Doctor. This disease is beyond my practice : yet I have known those which have walk'd in their sleep who have died holily in their beds.

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

Doctor. Even so?

Lady Macbeth. 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!

Doctor. Will she go now to bed?

Gentlewoman. Directly.2

Doctor. 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;
Remove from her the means of all annoyance,
And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night:
My mind she has mated,3 and amazed my sight.

I think, but dare not speak.

Gentlewoman. Good night, good doctor.

[Exit.

[Exeunt.

1 "Heart," etc., i.e., such a heart in my bosom for all the rank and honors of her state.

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SCENE II. The Country near Dunsinane.

Drum and colors. Enter MENTEITH, CAITHNESS, ANGUS, LENNOX, and

Soldiers.

Menteith. The English power is near, led on by Malcolm,

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.1

Angus.

Near Birnam Wood

Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming.

Caithness. Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother ?
Lennox. For certain, sir, he is not: I have a file

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

And many unrough 2 youths that even now

Protest 3 their first of manhood.

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 distemper'd cause
Within the belt of rule.4

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His secret murders sticking on his hands;

Now minutely 5 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 pester'd senses to recoil and start,

1 "Mortified man," i.e., an ascetic; a man dead to worldly affairs.

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4" He cannot," etc., i.e., he cannot bind his disaffected party to his sway.

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When all that is within him does condemn

Itself for being there?

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To give obedience where 'tis truly ow'd:
Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal,
And with him pour we in our country's purge
Each drop of us.1

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

[Exeunt, marching.

SCENE III. Dunsinane. A Room in the Castle.

Enter MACBETH, Doctor, 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 pronounc'd 2 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 3 and the heart I bear

Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.

Enter a Servant.

The devil damn thee black, thou cream-fac'd loon!

Where got'st thou that goose look ?

Servant. There is ten thousand

Macbeth.

Servant.

Geese, villain ?

Soldiers, sir.

Macbeth. Go prick thy face, and over-red thy fear,

1 "Meet we," etc., i.e., let us join the physician (Malcolm), and with him, to cleanse the sickly commonwealth, shed our blood to the last drop. 3 " 'Sway by," i.e., am governed by.

2 Declared to.

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