Were they not forc'd with those that should be ours,.` We might have met them dareful, beard to beard, And beat them backward home. What is that noise? [A Cry within of Women.

Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord.

Mac. I have almost forgot the taste of fears:
The time has been, my senses would have cool'd
To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse, and stir

As life were in't: I have supt full with horrors; 230
Direness, familiar to my slaught'rous thoughts,
Cannot once start me.-Wherefore was that cry?
Sey. The queen, my lord, is dead.

Mac. She should have dy'd hereafter;

There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! 240
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 ideot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Enter a Messenger.

Thou com'st to use thy tongue: thy story quickly. Mes. Gracious my lord,

I should report that which, I say I saw,

But

But know not how to do`t.

Mac. Well, say, sir.

Mes. As I did stand my watch upon the hill, I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought, The wood began to move.

Mac. Liar, and slave!

250

[Striking him.

Mes. Let me endure your wrath, if't be not so: Within this three mile may you see it coming;

I say, a moving grove.

Mac. If thou speak'st false,

Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive,

'Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth, 260

I care not if thou do'st 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 no flying hence, nor tarrying here.

I gin to be a-weary of the sun,

269

And wish the estate o' the world were now undone.Ring the alarum bell:-Blow, wind! come, wrack! At least we'll die with harness on our back. [Excunt.

SCENE VI.

Drum and Colours. Enter MALCOLM, SIWARD, MACDUFF, and their Army, with Boughs.

Mal. Now near enough; your leavy screens throw down,

And shew 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 us 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.

280

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

Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.

[Exeunt. Alarums continued.

SCENE VII.

Enter MACBETH.

Mac. They have ty'd 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

- Yo. Siw. No; though thou call'st thyself a hotter

name

Than any is in hell.

Mac. My name's Macbeth.

290

Yo. Siw. The devil himself could not pronounce a

title

More hateful to mine ear.

Mac. No, nor more fearful.

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

sword

I'll prove the lie thou speak'st.

[Fight; and Young SIWARD is slain.

Mac. 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.

299

[Exit.

Macd. That way the noise is :-Tyrant, shew thy !face;

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 kernes, whose arms
Are hir'd to bear their staves; either thou Macbeth,
Or else my sword, with an unbatter'd edge,

I sheath again undeeded. There thou should'st be ;
By this great clatter, one of greatest note..

Seems bruited: Let me find him, fortune! and

More I beg not.

[Exit.

Alarum.

310

Enter MALCOLM and Old SIWARD.

Siw. This way, my lord;-the castle's gently ren

der'd:

The tyrant's people on both sides do fight;

The noble thanes do bravely in the war;

The day almost itself professes yours,

And little is to do.

Mal. We have met with foes

That strike beside us.

Siw. Enter, sir, the castle.

[Exeunt. Alarum.

Re-enter MACBETH.

Mac. Why should I play the Roman fool, and die On mine own sword? whiles I see lives, the gashes Do better upon them.

Re-enter MACDUFF.

Macd. Turn, hell-hound, turn.

Mac. Of all men else I have avoided thee:

But get thee back, my soul is too much charg'd
With blood of thine already.

Macd. I have no words,

My voice is in my sword: thou bloodier villain

Than terms can give thee out!

Mac. Thou losest labour:

321

[Fight. Alarum.

339

As easy may'st thou the intrenchant air

With thy keen sword impress, as mąkę me bleed :

Let