Macb. I'll put it on. Send out more horses, skirr the country round ;' Doc. Not so sick, my lord, As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, That keep her from her rest. Macb. Cure her of that: Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd; Doc. Therein the patient Must minister to himself. Macb. Throw physic to the dogs, I'll none of it.- And purge it to a sound and pristine health, I would applaud thee to the very echo, That should applaud again.--Pull't off, I say. What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug, Would scour these English hence ?-Hearest thou of them? Doc. Ay, my good lord; your royal preparation Makes us hear something. Macb. Bring it after me. I will not be afraid of death and bane, Doc. Were I from Dunsinane away and clear, Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane. Profit again should hardly draw me here. [1] To skirt, I believe, signifies to scour, to ride hastily, [Exit. [Exit. STEEVENS, [2] To cast the water was the phrase in use for finding out disorders by the inspection of urine. STEEVENS. 29 VOL. IV. P SCENE IV. Country near Dunsinane. A Wood in view. Enter, with Drum and Colours, MALCOLM, old SIWARD, and his Son, MACDUFF, MENTETH, CATHNESS, ANGUS, LENOX, ROSSE, and Soldiers, marching. Mal. Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand, That chambers will be safe. Ment. We doubt it nothing. Siw. What wood is this before us? Ment. The wood of Birnam. Mal. Let every soldier hew him down a bough, Sold. It shall be done. Siw. We learn no other, but the confident tyrant Mal. 'Tis his main hope: For where there is advantage to be given, Both more and less have given him the revolt;" And none serve with him but constrained things, Macd. Let our just censures Attend the true event, and put we on Siw. The time approaches, That will with due decision make us know What we shall say we have, and what we owe. Towards which, advance the war. SCENE V. [Exeunt, marching Dunsinane. Within the Castle. Enter, with Drums and Colours, MACBETH, SEYTON, and Soldiers. Macb. Hang out our banners on the outward walls; The cry is still, They come : Our castle's strength [3] Advantage or 'vantage, in the time of Shakespeare, signified opportunity. He shut up himself and his soldiers. (says Malcolm) in the castle, because when there is an opportunity to be gone, they all desert him. JOHNSON. [4] To one here is to possess. STEEVENS. Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie, Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord. Macb. She should have died hereafter; ? There would have been a time for such a word.- The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Told by an ideot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. Enter a Messenger. Thou com'st to use thy tongue; thy story quickly. I shall report that which I say I saw, But know not how to do it. Macb. 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. 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; [5] Recorded time seems to signify the time fixed in the decrees of heaven for the period of life. JOHNSON. [6] The dust of death is an expression used in the 22d Psalm. STEEVENS. 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 pull in resolution; and begin To doubt th' equivocation of the fiend, That lies like truth: Fear not, till Birnam wood I 'gin to be a-weary of the sun, And wish th' estate o' th' world were now undone.- The same. SCENE VI. [Exeunt. A Plain before the Castle. Enter, with Drums and Colours, MALCOLM, old SIWARD, MACDUFF, &c. 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. Alarums continued. [7] Clung, in the Northern counties, signifies any thing that is shrivelled, or shrunk up. To cling likewise signifies, to gripe, to compress, to embrace STEEVENS 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.-What's he, That was not born of woman? Such a one Am I to fear, or none. Enter young SIWARD. Yo. Siw. What is thy name? Macb. Thou'lt be afraid to hear it. Yo. Siw. No; tho' 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. [They fight, and young SIWARD is slain. Macb. 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. [Exil 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, I sheath again undeeded. There thou should'st be ; [Exit. Alarum. 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. [8] A phrase taken from bear-baiting STEEVENS. [9] From bruit, Fr. To bruit is to report with clamour; to noise. STEEVENS, |