Cut short all intermission: front to front, Mal. Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above Put on their instruments.3 Receive what cheer you may; The night is long that never finds the day. [Exeunt. ACT V. SCENE I. Dunsinane. A Room in the Castle. Enter a Doctor of Physic, and a waiting Gentlewoman. Doct. I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walked? 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 it, 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. In this slumbry 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. 1 All intermission, all pause, all intervening time. 2 The old copy reads time. The emendation is Rowe's. 3 i. e. encourage, thrust us, their instruments, forward against the tyrant. 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 is shut. Doct. What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands. Gent. 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 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!2 -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 ? 1 "Ay, but their sense is shut." The old copy reads "Ay, but their sense are shut." Malone has quoted other instances of the same inaccurate grammar. 2 Lady Macbeth, in her dream, imagines herself talking to her husband, who (she supposes) had just said Hell is murky (i. e. hell is a dismal place to go to in consequence of such a deed), and repeats his words in contempt of his cowardice.-"Hell is murky!-Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard?" No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that; you mar all with this starting.1 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 charged. 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 walked 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 of his 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 LADY MACBETH. Doct. Will she go now to bed? Gent. Directly. Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad; unnatural deeds Do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. 1 "You mar all with this starting." She is here again alluding to the terrors of Macbeth when the ghost broke in on the festivity of the banquet. My mind she has mated,' and amazed my sight: Gent. Good night, good doctor. [Exeunt. SCENE II. The Country near Dunsinane. Enter, with drum and colors, MENTETH, CATHNESS, ANGUS, LENOXx, 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 causes Ang. 3 Near Birnam wood Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming. Cath. Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother? Len. For certain, sir, he is not. I have a file Of all the gentry; there is Siward's son, And many unrough youths, that even now Ment. What does the tyrant? Cath. 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 distempered cause Within the belt of rule. Ang. Now does he feel His secret murders sticking on his hands; 1 "My mind she has mated." Mated, or amated (from matte, old French), signified to overcome, confound, dismay, or make afraid. 2 Duncan had two sons by his wife, who was the daughter of Siward, earl of Northumberland.-Holinshed. 3 By the mortified man is meant a religious man; one who has mortified his passions, is dead to the world; an ascetic. 4" And many unrough youths." This expression means smooth-faced, unbearded. Those he commands, move only in command, Ment. Who then shall blame His pestered senses to recoil, and start, When all that is within him does condemn Cath. 2 Well, march we on, To give obedience where 'tis truly owed; 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 consequence, 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:3 1 i. e. when all the faculties of the mind are employed in self-condemnation. 2 The medecin, the physician. In the Winter's Tale, Camillo is called, by Florizel," the medecin of our house." 3 Shakspeare derived this thought from Holinshed:-"The Scottish people before had no knowledge of nor understanding of fine fare or riotous surfeit; yet after they had once tasted the sweet poisoned bait thereof," &c. "those superfluities which came into the realme of Scotland with Englishmen."-Hist. of Scotland, p. 179. |