Gent. I would not have such a heart in my bosom for 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 died holily in their beds. Lady M. 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 70 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.

Doct. Will she go now to bed?

Gent. Directly.

[Exit.

Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad: unnatural deeds

Do breed unnatural troubles: infected minds 80
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 and amazed my sight:
I think, but dare not speak.

Gent.

Good night, good doctor.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II

The country near Dunsinane.

Drum and colors. Enter Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, and Soldiers.

Ment. 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.

Ang.

Near Birnam wood

Shall we well meet them; that way are they

coming.

Caith. 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 10
Protest their first of manhood.

Ment.

What does the tyrant?

Caith. 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

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.

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?

Caith.

20

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.

Len.

Or so much as it needs

To dew the sovereign flower and drown the

weeds.

Make we our march towards Birnam.

30

[Exeunt, marching.

Dunsinane.

SCENE III

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

1. "them," i. e. the thanes.-I. G.

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:

9

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 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! Death of my soul! those linen cheeks of thine Are counselors to fear. What soldiers, wheyface!

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 20 Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now.

11. "cream-faced loon"; this word, which signifies a base abject fellow, is now only used in Scotland; it was formerly common in England, but spelled lown, and is justly considered by Horne Tooke as the past participle of to low or abase. Lout has the same origin. -H. N. H.

21. "cheer"; Percy conj., adopted by Dyce, "chair": ; "disseat," Jennens and Capell conj., adopted by Steevens; F. 1, “dis

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 honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have; but, in their stead,
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath,
Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare
not.

Seyton!

Enter Seyton.

Sey. What's your gracious pleasure?

Macb.

What news more? 30

Sey. All is confirm'd, my lord, which was reported. Macb. I'll fight, till from my bones my flesh be

Sey.

hacked.

Give me my armor.

Macb. I'll put it on.

'Tis not needed yet.

Send out moe horses, skirr the country round;
Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine

armor.

How does your patient, doctor?

eate"; Ff. 2, 3, 4, "disease"; Bailey conj. "disseize"; Daniel conj. "defeat"; Furness, "dis-ease"; Perring conj. "disheart."-I. G.

22. "way of life"; Johnson proposed the unnecessary emendation "May of life," and several editors have accepted the conjecture.— 1. G.

For "way of life" Johnson and others would read "May of life," which will not go at all with the context; for Macbeth is not in the spring, but in the autumn of life; and the cause of his distress is not that his old age is premature, but that it is without its proper accompaniments. Gifford in his edition of Massinger says,—“Way of life is neither more nor less than a simple peraphrasis for life"; and he makes it good by many examples.-H. N. H.