Macbeth Read online

  MACBETH Bring it after me.

  I will not be afraid of death and bane61

  Till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane.

  Exeunt [all but the Doctor].

  DOCTOR

  Were I from Dunsinane away and clear,

  Profit again should hardly draw me here.

  [Exit.]

  V.4Drum and Colors. Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, Siward's Son, Menteith, Caithness, Angus, [Lennox, Ross,] and Soldiers, marching.

  MALCOLM

  Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand

  2 That chambers will be safe.

  MENTEITH We doubt it nothing.

  SIWARD

  What wood is this before us?

  MENTEITH The Wood of Birnam.

  MALCOLM

  Let every soldier hew him down a bough

  5 And bear't before him. Thereby shall we shadow 6 The numbers of our host and make discovery Err in report of us.

  SOLDIER It shall be done.

  SIWARD

  We learn no other but the confident tyrant

  Keeps still in Dunsinane and will endure

  10 Our setting down before't.

  MALCOLM 'Tis his main hope,

  11 For where there is advantage to be given 12 Both more and less have given him the revolt, And none serve with him but constrained things

  14 Whose hearts are absent too.

  MACDUFF Let our just censures

  Attend the true event, and put we on15

  Industrious soldiership.

  SIWARD The time approaches

  That will with due decision make us know

  What we shall say we have and what we owe.

  Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate,

  But certain issue strokes must arbitrate-20

  Towards which advance the war.

  Exeunt, marching.21

  V.5Enter Macbeth, Seyton, and Soldiers, with Drum and Colors.

  MACBETH

  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.4

  Were they not forced with those that should be ours,5

  We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,6

  And beat them backward home.

  A cry within of women. What is that noise?

  SEYTON

  It is the cry of women, my good lord.

  [Exit.]

  MACBETH

  I have almost forgot the taste of fears.

  The time has been my senses would have cooled10

  To hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair11

  Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir12

  As life were in't. I have supped full with horrors.

  Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,14

  Cannot once start me.15

  [Enter Seyton.] Wherefore was that cry?

  SEYTON

  The queen, my lord, is dead.

  MACBETH

  She should have died hereafter:

  18 There would have been a time for such a word.

  Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow

  20 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,

  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.

  MESSENGER

  30 Gracious my lord, 31 I should report that which I say I saw, But know not how to do't.

  MACBETH Well, say, sir.

  MESSENGER

  As I did stand my watch upon the hill,

  I looked toward Birnam, and anon methought

  The wood began to move.

  MACBETH Liar and slave!

  MESSENGER

  Let me endure your wrath if't be not so.

  Within this three mile may you see it coming.

  I say, a moving grove.

  MACBETH If thou speak'st false,

  Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive

  40 Till famine cling thee. If thy speech be sooth, I care not if thou dost for me as much.

  I pull in resolution, and begin42

  To doubt th' equivocation of the fiend43

  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,47 There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here. I 'gin to be aweary of the sun, And wish th' estate o' th' world were now undone.50

  Ring the alarum bell! Blow wind, come wrack, At least we'll die with harness on our back.

  Exeunt.52

  V.6Drum and Colors. Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, and their Army, with boughs.

  MALCOLM

  Now near enough. Your leafy 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 we4

  Shall take upon's what else remains to do,

  According to our order.6

  SIWARD Fare you well.

  Do we but find the tyrant's power tonight,7

  Let us be beaten if we cannot fight.

  MACDUFF

  Make all our trumpets speak, give them all breath,

  Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.10

  Exeunt. Alarums continued.

  V.7Enter Macbeth.

  MACBETH

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

  2 But bearlike 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.

  YOUNG SIWARD

  What is thy name?

  MACBETH Thou'lt be afraid to hear it.

  YOUNG SIWARD

  No, though thou call'st thyself a hotter name

  Than any is in hell.

  MACBETH My name's Macbeth.

  YOUNG SIWARD

  The devil himself could not pronounce a title

  More hateful to mine ear.

  MACBETH No, nor more fearful.

  YOUNG SIWARD

  10 Thou liest, abhorred tyrant! With my sword I'll prove the lie thou speak'st.

  Fight, and Young Siward slain.

  MACBETH Thou wast born of woman.

  But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn,

  Brandished by man that's of a woman born.

  Exit [with Young Siward's body].

  Alarums. Enter Macduff.

  MACDUFF

  That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy face!

  If thou beest slain and with no stroke of mine,

  My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still.

  17 I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms 18 Are hired to bear their staves. Either thou, Macbeth, Or else my sword with an unbattered edge

  I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be-20

  By this great clatter one of greatest note21

  Seems bruited. Let me find him, Fortune,22

  And more I beg not.

  Exit. Alarums.

  Enter Malcolm and Siward.

  SIWARD

  This way, my lord. The castle's gently rendered:24

  The tyrant's people on both sides do fight,

  The noble thanes do bravely in the war,

  The day almost itself professes yours27

  And little is to do.

  MALCOLM We have met with foes

  That strike beside us.29

  SIWARD Enter, sir, the castle.

  Exeunt. Alarum.


  V.8Enter Macbeth.

  MACBETH

  Why should I play the Roman fool and die

  On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes2

  Do better upon them.

  Enter Macduff.

  MACDUFF Turn, hellhound, turn!

  MACBETH

  Of all men else I have avoided thee.

  But get thee back. My soul is too much charged5

  With blood of thine already.

  MACDUFF I have no words;

  My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain

  8 Than terms can give thee out.

  Fight. Alarum.

  MACBETH Thou losest labor.

  9 As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air 10 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

  13 To one of woman born.

  MACDUFF Despair thy charm,

  14 And let the angel whom thou still hast served Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb

  Untimely ripped.

  MACBETH

  Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,

  18 For it hath cowed my better part of man; 19 And be these juggling fiends no more believed, 20 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.

  MACDUFF

  23 Then yield thee coward, And live to be the show and gaze o' th' time.

  25 We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are, 26 Painted upon a pole, and underwrit "Here may you see the tyrant."

  MACBETH I will not yield,

  To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet

  And to be baited with the rabble's curse.

  30 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 damned be him that first cries "Hold, enough!"

  Exeunt fighting. Alarums.

  [Re]enter fighting, and Macbeth slain.

  [Exit Macduff with Macbeth's body.]

  Retreat and flourish. Enter, with Drum and Colors, Malcolm, Siward, Ross, Thanes, and Soldiers.

  MALCOLM

  I would the friends we miss were safe arrived.

  SIWARD

  Some must go off; and yet, by these I see,36

  So great a day as this is cheaply bought.

  MALCOLM

  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,40

  The which no sooner had his prowess confirmed

  In the unshrinking station where he fought42

  But like a man he died.

  SIWARD Then he is dead?

  ROSS

  Ay, and brought off the field. Your cause of sorrow Must not be measured by his worth, for then

  It hath no end.46

  SIWARD Had he his hurts before?

  ROSS

  Ay, on the front.

  SIWARD Why then, God's soldier be he.

  Had I as many sons as I have hairs,

  I would not wish them to a fairer death:

  And so his knell is knolled.50

  MALCOLM He's worth more sorrow, And that I'll spend for him.

  SIWARD He's worth no more.

  52 They say he parted well and paid his score, And so, God be with him. Here comes newer comfort.

  Enter Macduff, with Macbeth's head.

  MACDUFF

  Hail, king, for so thou art. Behold where stands

  Th' usurper's cursed head. The time is free.

  56 I see thee compassed with thy kingdom's pearl, That speak my salutation in their minds,

  Whose voices I desire aloud with mine—

  Hail, King of Scotland!

  ALL Hail, King of Scotland!

  Flourish.

  MALCOLM

  60 We shall not spend a large expense of time 61 Before we reckon with your several loves 62 And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen, Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland

  In such an honor named. What's more to do

  65 Which would be planted newly with the time-As calling home our exiled friends abroad That fled the snares of watchful tyranny,

  68 Producing forth the cruel ministers Of this dead butcher and his fiendlike queen,

  70 Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands Took off her life-this, and what needful else

  That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace

  73 We will perform in measure, time, and place.

  So thanks to all at once and to each one,

  Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone.

  Flourish. Exeunt omnes.

  I.1 An open field

  3hurly-burly turmoil

  9Graymalkin gray cat (her familiar spirit)

  10Paddock toad

  11Anon at once

  I.2 Duncan's camp s.d.within offstage

  3sergeant (generic term for a military officer; he ranks as a captain)

  10to that to that end

  12Western Isles the Hebrides and Ireland

  13kerns and galloglasses Irish mercenary soldiers

  19minion darling

  22nave navel; chaps jaws

  31surveying vantage seeing an opportunity

  37cracks explosives

  39Except unless

  40memorize another Golgotha make as memorable as Calvary (where the Crucifixion took place)

  45Thane (a Scottish lord, equivalent to the English earl)

  46looks through appears in

  47seems to is ready to

  51Norway the King of Norway

  53dismal ominous

  54Bellona the goddess of war; lapped in proof (1) protected by experience, (2) wearing proven armor

  55self-comparisons power comparable with his own

  56Point sword

  60composition terms of surrender

  62Saint Colme's Inch Inchcolm, an island near Edinburgh (Inch means "island")

  63dollars (the German thaler was a pan-European silver currency)

  65bosom interest heart's trust; present immediate

  I.3 A heath

  6Aroint thee get thee gone; rump-fed runnion fat-rumped slut

  7master captain; Tiger (name of his ship)

  15ports they blow safe havens they afflict with storms

  17shipman's card nautical chart

  20penthouse lid eyelid (what overhangs the eye)

  21forbid accursed

  23peak waste away

  32weird (two syllables: from Old English "wyrd," "fate," hence "supernatural," associated with fate, with an overtone of the uncanny, suggested by F's spelling "weyward")

  33Posters swift travelers

  39is't called do they say it is

  44choppy chapped

  48Glamis (one syllable)

  53fantastical imaginary, hallucinations

  55grace honor

  57rapt withal spellbound at the thought

  58seeds of time sources of future events

  66happy fortunate

  67get beget

  70imperfect incomplete

  71Finel or Finley, Macbeth's father (see Note on the Text)

  81corporal corporeal

  84insane inducing insanity

  90reads considers

  92-93His wonders...or his i.e., dumbstruck admiration makes him keep your praises to himself

  97thick as tale fast as they can be counted

  98post with post messenger after messenger

  106addition title

  111combined leagued

  112line support

  113vantage assistance

  117behind still to come

  120home all the way

  126deepest consequence the crucial sequel

  127Cousins i.e., f
ellow lords

  128swelling act developing drama

  136seated fixed

  137use normal habit

  139fantastical imaginary

  140single state of man both undivided and weak human condition; function the power to act

  145strange new

  147Time...day i.e., the worst day comes to an end

  149favor pardon

  155free hearts thoughts freely

  I.4 Duncan's camp

  2in commission commissioned to carry out the execution

  9studied rehearsed

  10owed owned

  16before ahead in deserving

  19proportion satisfactory apportioning

  27Safe fitting

  28plant nurture

  34Wanton unrestrained

  39Prince of Cumberland (equivalent to the English Prince of Wales, the designated heir to the throne)

  52wink at the hand disregard what the hand does

  I.5 Within Macbeth's castle at Inverness

  2perfect'st report most reliable evidence

  6missives messengers

  17catch...way take the most direct route

  19illness wickedness

  27round crown

  28metaphysical supernatural