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 the stage
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 my lord,

I should report that which I say I saw,

But know not how to do it.

Mach.

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;

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,

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

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.

I gin to be aweary of the sun,

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And wish the estate o' the world were now undone. 50

23. dusty death, death brings backdust to dust.'

40. cling, shrivel.

42. pull in, rein in, curb.

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.

Enter MALCOLM, old SIWARD,

Drum and colours.

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,

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.

That was not born of woman?

Am I to fear, or none.

What's he

Such a one

Enter young SIWARD.

Yo. Siw. What is thy name?

ΤΟ

Yo. Siw. The devil himself could not pronounce

a title

More hateful to mine ear.

Macb.

No, nor more fearful.

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

sword

I'll prove the lie thou speak's..

Macb.

[They fight and young Siward is slain. Thou wast born of woman.

But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, Brandish'd by man that 's of a woman born. [Exit.

Alarums. Enter MACDUFF.

Macd. That way the noise is.

thy face!

Tyrant, show

If thou be'st slain and with no stroke of mine,
My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still.
I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms
Are hired to bear their staves: either thou, Macbeth,
Or else my sword with an unbatter'd edge

I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be;
By this great clatter, one of greatest note
Seems bruited. Let me find him, fortune!
And more I beg not.

Siw.

[Exit. Alarums.

Enter MALCOLM and old SIWARD.

This way, my lord; the castle's gently render'd:

The tyrant's people on both sides do fight;

22. bruited, announced.

24. gently render'd, surrendered without resistance.

ΤΟ

20

The noble thanes do bravely in the war;
The day almost itself professes yours,

Macb. Why should I play the Roman fool, and die

On mine own sword? whiles I see lives, the gashes Do better upon them.

Macd.

Enter MACDUFF.

Turn, hell-hound, turn!

Mach. Of all men else I have avoided thee: But get thee back; my soul is too much charged With blood of thine already.

Macd.

I have no words:

[They fight.

Thou losest labour :

My voice is in my sword: thou bloodier villain
Than terms can give thee out!

Macb.

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
Untimely ripp'd.

Macb. Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,

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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.'

I will not yield,

Macb.
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,
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, enough!'
[Exeunt, fighting. Alarums.

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.

20. palter, equivocate.

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