Table of Contents
ACT 5, SCENE 8
Setting: Another part of the field.
[Enter MACBETH]
MACBETH | Why should I play the Roman fool, and die | |
On mine own sword? whiles I see lives, the gashes | ||
Do better upon them. | ||
[Enter MACDUFF] | ||
MACDUFF | Turn, hell–hound, turn! | |
MACBETH | Of all men else I have avoided thee: | |
But get thee back; my soul is too much charged | ||
With blood of thine already. | ||
MACDUFF | I have no words: | |
My voice is in my sword: thou bloodier villain | ||
Than terms can give thee out! | ||
[They fight] | ||
MACBETH | Thou losest labour: | |
As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air | ||
With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed: | 10 | |
Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests; | ||
I bear a charmed life, which must not yield, | ||
To one of woman born. | ||
MACDUFF | Despair thy charm; | |
And let the angel whom thou still hast served | ||
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb | ||
Untimely ripp'd. | ||
MACBETH | Accursed be that tongue that tells me so, | |
For it hath cow'd my better part of man! | ||
And be these juggling fiends no more believed, | ||
That palter with us in a double sense; | 20 | |
That keep the word of promise to our ear, | ||
And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee. | ||
MACDUFF | Then yield thee, coward, | |
And live to be the show and gaze o' the time: | ||
We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are, | ||
Painted on a pole, and underwrit, | ||
Here may you see the tyrant.' | ||
MACBETH | I will not yield, | |
To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, | ||
And to be baited with the rabble's curse. | ||
Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane, | 30 | |
And thou opposed, being of no woman born, | ||
Yet I will try the last. Before my body | ||
I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff, | ||
And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!' | ||
[Exeunt, fighting. Alarums] | ||
[Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colours, MALCOLM, SIWARD, ROSS, the other Thanes, and Soldiers ]
MALCOLM | I would the friends we miss were safe arrived. | |
SIWARD | Some must go off: and yet, by these I see, | |
So great a day as this is cheaply bought. | ||
MALCOLM | Macduff is missing, and your noble son. | |
ROSS | Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt: | |
He only lived but till he was a man; | 40 | |
The which no sooner had his prowess confirm'd | ||
In the unshrinking station where he fought, | ||
But like a man he died. | ||
SIWARD | Then he is dead? | |
ROSS | Ay, and brought off the field: your cause of sorrow | |
Must not be measured by his worth, for then | ||
It hath no end. | ||
SIWARD | Had he his hurts before? | |
ROSS | Ay, on the front. | |
SIWARD | Why then, God's soldier be he! | |
Had I as many sons as I have hairs, | ||
I would not wish them to a fairer death: | ||
And so, his knell is knoll'd. | ||
MALCOLM | He's worth more sorrow, | 50 |
And that I'll spend for him. | ||
SIWARD | He's worth no more | |
They say he parted well, and paid his score: | ||
And so, God be with him! Here comes newer comfort. | ||
[Re–enter MACDUFF, with MACBETH's head]
MACDUFF | Hail, king! for so thou art: behold, where stands | |
The usurper's cursed head: the time is free: | ||
I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl, | ||
That speak my salutation in their minds; | ||
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine: | ||
Hail, King of Scotland! | ||
ALL | Hail, King of Scotland! | |
[Flourish] | ||
MALCOLM | We shall not spend a large expense of time | 60 |
Before we reckon with your several loves, | ||
And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen, | ||
Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland | ||
In such an honour named. What's more to do, | ||
Which would be planted newly with the time, | ||
As calling home our exiled friends abroad | ||
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny; | ||
Producing forth the cruel ministers | ||
Of this dead butcher and his fiend–like queen, | ||
Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands | 70 | |
Took off her life; this, and what needful else | ||
That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace, | ||
We will perform in measure, time and place: | ||
So, thanks to all at once and to each one, | ||
Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone. | ||
[Flourish. Exeunt] |