Macbeth (15 page)

Read Macbeth Online

Authors: William Shakespeare

BOOK: Macbeth
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GENTLEWOMAN
    That, sir, which I will not report after her.

DOCTOR
    You may to me, and ’tis most
meet
15
you should.

GENTLEWOMAN
    Neither to you nor anyone, having no witness to
        confirm my speech.

Enter Lady
[
Macbeth
]
, with a
taper

    Lo you, here she comes. This is her very
guise
18
, and, upon my
        life, fast asleep. Observe her: stand
close
19
.
They stand aside

 

DOCTOR
    How came she by that light?

GENTLEWOMAN
    Why, it stood by her. She has light by her
        continually: ’tis her command.

DOCTOR
    You see her eyes are open.

GENTLEWOMAN
    Ay, but their sense are shut.

DOCTOR
    What is it she does now? Look how she rubs her
        hands.

GENTLEWOMAN
    It is an accustomed action with her to seem thus
        washing her hands: I have known her continue in this a
        quarter of an hour.

LADY MACBETH
    Yet here’s a spot.

DOCTOR
    Hark, she speaks. I will
set down
31
what comes from
        her, to
satisfy
32
my
remembrance
the more strongly.

LADY MACBETH
    Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—
One: two
33
: why
        then, ’tis time to do’t.—Hell is murky.—Fie, my lord, fie, a
        soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when
        
none can call our power to account
36
?—Yet who would have
        thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?

DOCTOR
    Do you mark that?

LADY MACBETH
    The
Thane of Fife
39
had a wife: where is she
        now?—What, will these hands ne’er be clean?—No more
        o’that, my lord, no more o’that: you
mar
41
all with this
        
starting
42
.

DOCTOR
    
Go to
43
, go to: you have known what you should not.

GENTLEWOMAN
    She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of
        that: heaven knows what she has known.

LADY MACBETH
    Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the
        perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. O, O, O!

DOCTOR
    What a sigh is there! The heart is
sorely charged
48
.

GENTLEWOMAN
    I would not have such a heart in my bosom for
        the
dignity
50
of the whole body.

DOCTOR
    Well, well, well.

GENTLEWOMAN
    Pray God it
be
52
, sir.

DOCTOR
    This disease is beyond my
practice
53
. Yet I have
        known those which have walked in their sleep who have died
        holily in their beds.

LADY MACBETH
    Wash your hands, put on your nightgown, look
        not so pale. I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried; he cannot
        come out
on’s
58
grave.

DOCTOR
    
Even so?
59

LADY MACBETH
    To bed, to bed. There’s knocking at the gate.
        Come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What’s done
        cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed.
Exit Lady
[
Macbeth
]

DOCTOR
    Will she go now to bed?

GENTLEWOMAN
    Directly.

DOCTOR
    Foul whisp’rings are abroad. Unnatural deeds
        Do breed unnatural troubles: infected minds
        To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.
        More needs she the
divine
68
than the physician.
        God, God forgive us all! Look after her:
        Remove from her the means of all
annoyance
70
,
        And
still
71
keep eyes upon her. So, goodnight.
        My mind she has
mated
72
, and amazed my sight.
        I think, but dare not speak.

GENTLEWOMAN
    Goodnight, good doctor.
Exeunt

Act 5 Scene 2                               
running scene 19

Location: near Dunsinane
  

Drum and Colours
. Enter Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox
[
and
]
Soldiers

MENTEITH
    The English power is near, led on by Malcolm,
        His uncle Siward and the good Macduff.
        Revenges burn in them, for their
dear
3
causes
        Would to the
bleeding
4
and the grim
alarm
        
Excite the mortified man
5
.

ANGUS
    Near Birnam Wood
        Shall we well meet them: that way are they coming.

CAITHNESS
    Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?

LENNOX
    For certain, sir, he is not: I have a
file
9
        Of all the gentry: there is Siward’s son,
        And many
unrough
11
youths that even now
        
Protest
12
their first of manhood.

MENTEITH
    What does the tyrant?

CAITHNESS
    Great
Dunsinane
14
he strongly fortifies.
        Some say he’s mad, others that lesser hate him
        Do call it valiant fury: but for certain
        He cannot
buckle his
distempered
cause
        Within the belt of rule
17
.

ANGUS
    Now does he feel
        His secret murders
sticking
20
on his hands,
        Now
minutely
21
revolts
upbraid
his
faith-breach
.
        Those he commands
move only in command,
        Nothing in love
22
: now does he feel his title
        Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe
        Upon a dwarfish thief.

MENTEITH
    Who then shall blame
        His
pestered
27
senses to recoil and start,
        When all that is within him does condemn
        Itself for being there?

CAITHNESS
    Well, march we on
        To give obedience where ’tis truly owed:
        Meet we the
med’cine
32
of the sickly
weal
,
        And with him pour we in our country’s
purge
33
        Each
drop
34
of us.

LENNOX
    Or so much as it needs
        To
dew
36
the
sovereign
flower and drown the weeds.
        Make we our march towards Birnam.
Exeunt, marching

Act 5 Scene 3                               
running scene 20

Location: Macbeth’s castle at Dunsinane
  

Enter Macbeth, Doctor and Attendants

MACBETH
    Bring me no more reports. Let
them
1
fly all:
        Till Birnam Wood
remove
2
to Dunsinane,
        I cannot
taint
3
with fear. What’s the boy Malcolm?
        Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know
        All
mortal consequences
5
have
pronounced me
thus:
        ‘Fear not, Macbeth: no man that’s born of woman
        Shall e’er have power upon thee.’ Then fly, false thanes,
        And mingle with the English
epicures
8
.
        The mind I
sway by
9
and the heart I bear
        Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.

Enter Servant

    The devil damn thee black, thou
cream-faced
11
loon
!
        Where got’st thou that
goose
12
look?

SERVANT
    There is ten thousand—

MACBETH
    Geese, villain?

SERVANT
    Soldiers, sir.

MACBETH
    Go prick thy face and
over-red
16
thy fear,
        Thou
lily-livered
17
boy. What soldiers,
patch
?
        Death
of
18
thy soul! Those
linen
cheeks of thine
        Are
counsellors to
19
fear. What soldiers,
whey-face
?

SERVANT
    The English force, so please you.

MACBETH
    Take thy face hence.—

[
Exit Servant
]

                    
Seyton
21
!—I am sick at heart,
        When I behold—Seyton, I say!—This
push
22
        Will
cheer
23
me ever, or
disseat
me now.
        I have lived long enough: my
way
24
of life
        Is fall’n into the
sear
25
, the
yellow
leaf,
        And that which should accompany old age,
        
As
27
honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,
        I must not look to have, but in their
stead
28
        Curses, not loud but deep,
mouth-honour
29
, breath,
        Which the poor heart would
fain
30
deny and dare
                    not.—Seyton!

Enter Seyton

SEYTON
    What’s your gracious pleasure?

MACBETH
    What news more?

SEYTON
    All is confirmed, my lord, which was reported.

MACBETH
    I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hacked.
        Give me my armour.

SEYTON
    ’Tis not needed yet.

MACBETH
    I’ll put it on.
        Send out more horses:
skirr
38
the country round:
        Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armour.—
        
Seyton gets the armor

 

        How does your patient, doctor?

DOCTOR
    
Not so sick
41
, my lord,
        As she is troubled with
thick-coming
42
fancies
        That keep her from her rest.

MACBETH
    Cure her of that.
        Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
        Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
        
Raze out
47
the written troubles of the brain,
        And with some sweet
oblivious
48
antidote
        Cleanse the
stuffed
49
bosom of that perilous stuff
        Which weighs upon the heart?

DOCTOR
    Therein the patient
        Must minister to himself.

To Attendants, who arm him

MACBETH
    Throw physic to the dogs, I’ll none of it.—
        Come, put mine armour on: give me my
staff
54
.—
        Seyton,
send out
55
. Doctor, the thanes fly from me.—

        Come, sir,
dispatch
56
.—If thou couldst, doctor,
cast
        The water
of my land, find her disease,
        And purge it to a sound and
pristine
58
health,
        I would applaud thee to the very echo,
        That should applaud again.—
Pull’t off
60
, I say.—
To Attendants

 

        What
rhubarb
61
,
cyme
, or what purgative drug
To Doctor

 

        Would
scour
62
these English hence? Hear’st thou of them?

DOCTOR
    Ay, my good lord: your royal
preparation
63
        Makes us hear something.

MACBETH
    Bring
it
65
after me.—
To Seyton or Attendants

 

        I will not be afraid of death and
bane
66
,
        Till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane.

DOCTOR
    Were I from Dunsinane away and
clear
68
,
Aside

 

        Profit again should
hardly
69
draw me here.
Exeunt

Act 5 Scene 4                               
running scene 21

Location: near Birnam Wood
  

Drum and Colours. Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, Siward’s Son, Menteith, Caithness, Angus and Soldiers, marching

MALCOLM
    Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand
        That
chambers
2
will be safe.

MENTEITH
    We doubt it
nothing
3
.

SIWARD
    What wood is this before us?

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