SCENE I. ［Dunsinane. Ante-room in the castle］
Enter a DOCTOR of Physic and a Waiting GENTLEWOMAN
DOCT. I have two nights watch’d with you, but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walk’d?
GENT. Since his Majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon ’t, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep.
DOCT. A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching!〖Actions of waking.〗 In this slumb’ry agitation, besides her walking and other actual performances, what, at any time, have you heard her say?
GENT. That, sir, which I will not report after her.
DOCT. You may to me: and ’tis most meet you should.
GENT. Neither to you nor any one; having no witness to confirm my speech.
Enter LADY MACBETH, with a taper
Lo you, here she comes! This is her very guise; and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand close.
DOCT. How came she by that light?
GENT. Why, it stood by her. She has light by her continually; ’tis her command.
DOCT. You see, her eyes are open.
GENT. Ay, but their sense are shut.
DOCT. What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands.
GENT. It is an accustom’d action with her, to seem thus washing her hands. I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour.
LADY M. Yet here’s a spot.
DOCT. Hark! she speaks. I will set down what comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.
LADY M. Out, damned spot! out, I say!—One: two: 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?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?
DOCT. Do you mark that?
LADY M. The thane of Fife 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 all with this starting.
DOCT. Go to, go to; you have known what you should not.
GENT. She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that;
Heaven knows what she has known.
LADY M. Here’s the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!
DOCT. What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charg’d.〖Burdened.〗
GENT. I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the dignity of the whole body.
DOCT. Well, well, well,—
GENT. Pray God it be, sir.
DOCT. This disease is beyond my practice; yet I have known those which have walk’d in their sleep who have died holily in their beds.
LADY M. 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 grave.
DOCT. Even so?
LADY M. 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.
DOCT. Will she go now to bed?
GENT. Directly.
DOCT. 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 than the physician.
God, God, forgive us all! Look after her;
Remove from her the means of all annoyance,〖Injury.〗
And still keep eyes upon her. So, good-night!
My mind she has mated,〖Paralyzed.〗 and amaz’d my sight.
I think, but dare not speak.
GENT. Good-night, good doctor.
Exeunt.
SCENE II. ［The country near Dunsinane］
Drum and colours. Enter MENTEITH, CAITHNESS, ANGUS,
LENNOX, and Soldiers
MENT. The English power is near, led on by Malcolm,
His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff.
Revenges burn in them; for their dear〖Intimately felt.〗 causes
Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm
Excite the mortified man.〖Hermit (?). Dead man (?).〗
ANG. Near Birnam wood
Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming.
CAITH. Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?
LEN. For certain, sir, he is not; I have a file〖List.〗
Of all the gentry. There is Siward’s son,
And many unrough〖Beardless.〗 youths that even now
Protest〖Declare.〗 their first of manhood.
MENT. What does the tyrant?
CAITH. Great Dunsinane 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 distemper’d cause〖Cause of his mad behavior.〗
Within the belt of rule.
ANG. Now does he feel
His secret murders sticking on his hands;
Now minutely〖Occurring every minute.〗 revolts upbraid his faith-breach;
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.
MENT. Who then shall blame
His pester’d〖Perturbed.〗 senses to recoil and start,
When all that is within him does condemn
Itself for being there?
CAITH. Well, march we on
To give obedience where ’tis truly ow’d.
Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal,
And with him pour we in our country’s purge
Each drop of us.
LEN. Or so much as it needs
To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds.
Make we our march towards Birnam. Exeunt, marching.
SCENE III. ［Dunsinane. A room in the castle］
Enter MACBETH, DOCTOR, and Attendants
MACB. Bring me no more reports; let them fly all;
Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane
I cannot taint with fear. What’s the boy Malcolm?
Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know
All mortal〖Affecting men.〗 consequences have pronounc’d 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!
The mind I sway by and the heart I bear
Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.
Enter a SERVANT
The devil damn thee black, thou cream-fac’d loon!〖Fellow, rascal.〗
Where got’st thou that goose look?
SERV. There is ten thousand—
MACB. Geese, villain?
SERV. Soldiers, sir.
MACB. Go prick thy face, and over-red thy fear,
Thou lily-liver’d boy. What soldiers, patch?〖Fool.〗
Death of thy soul! those linen cheeks of thine
Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?
SERV. The English force, so please you.
MACB. Take thy face hence. ［Exit Servant.］
Seyton!—I am sick at heart
When I behold—Seyton, I say!—This push〖Assault.〗
Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now.
I have liv’d long enough. My way of life
Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf;
And that which should accompany old age,
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have; but, in their stead,
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath
Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.
Seyton!
Enter SEYTON
SEY. What’s your gracious pleasure?
MACB. What news more?
SEY. All is confirm’d, my lord, which was reported.
MACB. I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hack’d.
Give me my armour.
SEY. ’Tis not needed yet.
MACB. I’ll put it on.
Send out moe〖More.〗 horses; skirr〖Scour.〗 the country round;
Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armour.
How does your patient, doctor?
DOCT. 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,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious〖Causing forgetfulness.〗 antidote
Cleanse the stuff’d bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weights upon the heart?
DOCT. Therein the patient
Must minister to himself.
MACB. Throw physic to the dogs; I’ll none of it.
Come, put mine armour on; give me my staff.
Seyton, send out. Doctor, the thanes fly from me.
Come, sir, dispatch. If thou couldst, doctor, cast
The water〖Diagnose by inspecting urine.〗 of my land, find her disease,
And purge it to a sound and pristine〖Original.〗 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? Hear’st thou of them?
DOCT. 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,〖Ruin.〗
Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane.
DOCT.［Aside.］ Were I from Dunsinane away and clear,
Profit again should hardly draw me here. Exeunt.