And bear't before him; thereby shall we shadow
The numbers of our host, and make discovery

Siw. We learn no other, but the confident 316) tyrant Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure

Our setting down before't.

'Tis his main hope;

Mal.
For where there is advantage to be given 317),
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 318):
Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate:

But certain issue strokes must arbitrate 319);

Towards which, advance the war.

SCENE Y

[Exeunt, marching.]

Dunsinane. Within the Castle.

Enter, with drums and colours, Macbeth, Seyton and Soldiers.
Mach. 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:

A

316) He was confident of success; so confident that he would not fly, but endure their setting down before his castle. John317) Advantage or 'vantage, in the time of Shakspeare, signified opportunity. He shut up bimself and his soldiers (says Malcolm) in the castle, because when there is an opportunity to be gone, they all desert him. More and less is the same with greater and less. Johnson. 318) What we have, and what we owe i. e. property and allegiance. Warburton, When we are governed by legal kings, we shall know the limits of their claim i. e, shall know what we have of our own, and what they have a right to take from us. Steevens. 319) arbitrate i. e. determine. Johnson.

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.
Macb. 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 320)
Would at a dismal treatise rouse, and stir

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

Macb. She should have die'd hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word 321).
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time 322);
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 com'st to use thy tongue; thy story quickly.

Mes. As I did stand my watch upon the hill,

320) fell of hair my hairy part, my capillitium. Fell is skin. John's on. 321) There would have been a more convenient time for such a word, for such intelligence. We say we send word when we give intelligence. Johnson. 322) Recorded is probably here used for recording or recordable; one participle for the other, of which there are many instances both in Shakspeare and other English writers. Steevens. By recorded time, Shakspeare means not only the time that has been, but also that which shall be recorded. M. Mason.

I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought,

The wood began to move.'

Macb.

Liar, and slave!

[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.

Macb.

If thou speak'st false,

Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive,

Till famine cling 323) thee: if thy speech bę sooth,

1 care not if thou dost for me as much.

I pull in 324) resolution: and begin

To doubt the equivocation of the fiend,

That lies like truth: Fear not, till Birnam wood

Do come to Dunsinane;

Comes toward Dunsinane.

and now a wood

Arm, arm, and out!

If this, which he avouches, does appear,

There is nor flying hence, nor tarrying here.

I 'gin to be a-weary of the sun,

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 325) on our back.

SCENE VI.

The same. A Plain before the Castle.

[Exeunt.]

Enter, with drum and colours, Malcolm, old Siward, Macduff, etc. 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 us what else remains to do,
According to our order.

Do we but find the tyrants power to-night,
Let us be beaten, if we cannot fight.

324) He had per

323) To cling is to dry up. Whalley. mitted his courage (like a fiery horse) to carry him to the brink of a precipice, but, seeing his danger, resolves to check that confidence to which he had given the rein before. Steevens. 325) Harness an old word for armour. Henderson.

Macd. Make all your trumpets speak; give them all breath, 'Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death,

[Exeunt. Alarums continued.]

SCENE VII.

The same. Another part of the Plain.

Enter Macbeth."

Macb. They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly,

But, bear-like, I must fight the course 326).
That was not born of woman? Such a one
Am I to fear, or none.

Enter young Siward.
Yo. Siw. What is thy name?
Mach.

What's ho

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

Macb.

My name's Macbeth.

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'st.

Macb.

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

[Exit.]

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

Macd. That way the noise is.

Tyrant, show 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 sheathe again undeeded. There thou should'st be;
By this great clatter, one of greatest note

Seems bruited 327). Let me find him, fortune!
And more I beg not.

[Exit. Alarum.]

326) I must fight the course; a phrase taken from bearbaiting. Steevens. 37) bruited from bruit, Fr. To bruit is to report with clamour; to noise. Steevens.

Enter Malcolm and old Siward.

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

Mach. Why should I play the Roman fool, and die On mine own sword 328)? whiles I see lives, the gashes Do better upon them.

Re-enter Macduff.

Macd.

Turn, hell-hound, turn.

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

I have no words,

Macd.
My voice is in my sword; thou bloodier villain,

Than terms can give thee out!

Mach.

[They fight.]

Thou losest labour:

As easy may'st thou the intrenchant air 329)
With thy keen sword impress, as make me bleed:
Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;

I bear a charmed life 330), which must not yield
Tó one of woman born.

Macd.

Despair thy charm;

And let the angel, whom thou still hast serv'd,
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb
Untimely ripp'd.

Macb. Accursed be that tongue, that tells me so,
For it hath cow'd my better part of man!

428) Alluding, perhaps, to the suicide of Cato Ulticensis, which our author must have read of in the old translation of Plutarch. Steevens. 329) Intrenchant air, that is, air which cannot be cut. Johnson. 330) In the days of chivalry, the champions' arms being ceremoniously blessed, each took an oath, that he used no charmed weapons. Macbeth, according to the law of arms, or perhaps only in allusion to this custom, tells Macduff of the security he had in the prediction of the spirit. Steevens.