Please see the bottom of the page for full explanatory notes and helpful resources.ACT V SCENE VDunsinane. Within the castle.[ Enter MACBETH, SEYTON, and Soldiers, with drum and colours ]MACBETHHang out our banners on the outward walls;The cry is still 'They come:' our castle's strengthWill laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lieTill famine and the ague eat them up:Were they not forced with those that should be ours,We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,And beat them backward home.[A cry of women within] [Enter a Messenger] Thou comest to use thy tongue; thy story quickly. MessengerGracious my lord,30 I should report that which I say I saw, But know not how to do it. MACBETHWell, say, sir. MessengerAs I did stand my watch upon the hill, I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought, The wood began to move. MACBETHLiar and slave! MessengerLet me endure your wrath, if't be not so: Within this three mile may you see it coming; I say, a moving grove. MACBETHIf thou speak'st false, Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive, Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth,40 I care not if thou dost for me as much. I pull 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 aweary of the sun, 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] Video |