Macbeth (15 page)
Authors: William Shakespeare
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
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
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
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?