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Macd.

Let our just censures

The time approaches

Attend the true event, and put we on

Industrious soldiership.

Siw.

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:
Towards which advance the war.

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[Exeunt, marching.

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Enter with drums and colors, MACBETH, SEYTON, and

Soldiers

Macb. Hang out our banners on the outer 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:

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: 10 The time has been, my senses would have cool'd To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir

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

Macb. She should have died hereafter;

There would have been a time for such a word. To-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow 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

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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. Mess. Gracious my lord,

I should report that which I say I saw,

But know not how to do it.

Macb.

Mess. As I did stand my

Well, say, sir. watch upon the hill,

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

The wood began to move.

Macb.

Liar and slave!

[Striking him.

Mess. 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 thee: if thy speech be sooth,

I care not if thou dost for me as much.

I pall in resolution; and begin

To doubt the equivocation of the fiend

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,

There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here.

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

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And wish the estate o' the world were now undone. - 50
Ring the alarum-bell. — Blow, wind! come, wrack!
At least we'll die with harness on our back. [Exeunt.

SCENE VI

The same. A Plain before the Castle

Enter with drums and colors, MALCOLM, Old Siward, MACDUFF, &c., and their Army, with boughs

Mal. 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 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,

10 Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.

[Exeunt. Alarums continued.

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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.

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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, abhorrèd tyrant: with my

sword

I'll prove the lie thou speak'st.

[They fight, and Young SIWARD is slain.

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