Come, go we to the king: our power is ready;
Our lack is nothing but our leave: Macbeth
Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above

Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may;

1985

The night is long, that never finds the day.

[Exeunt.

200

1990

1995

2000

ACT V. SCENE I.

Dunsinane. A Room in the Castle.

Enter a Doctor of Physic, and a waiting Gentlewoman.

Doct. I have two nights watch'd with you, but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walk'd?

Gent. Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her night-gown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon 't, 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 ac-
tual performances, what, at any time, have you heard her
say?

Gent. That, Sir, which I will not report after her.
Doct. You may, to me; and 'tis most meet you should.

201

201

20

tence being, not that the music of the spheres | relation to harmony, must necessarily have pos-
seems inharmonious, or out of tune, by compa- sessed a degree of peculiarity, a more de-
rison with her notes, but that the motion of cided reference to measure rather than to tone
the spheres is out of course or due season; they or expression,-that would have constituted it
being at once arrested or delayed in their befit- unsuitable to the figurative application of the
ting or accustomed action, by rapture at her
song. And even admitting these terms ever to
have been technically synonymous, yet time, in

text.

7. 1984. PUT ON their instruments.] To put on is here to urge on, or put forward.

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 are shut.
Doct. What is it she does now?

Look, how she rubs her hands.

Gent. It is an accustom'd 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 !—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?

9. Ay, but their sense ARE shut.] Sense
in this place, as a plural noun. So, in
h Sonnet of Shakespeare:

so profound abysm I throw all care
others' voices, that my adder's sense
critic and to flatterer stopped are."
5. Yet here's a spot.] Lady Macbeth
■ represented as hitherto unchangingly
in cruelty, and unrepentant in crime;
1 that which would at last awaken her
was foreshown in the third act:

"nought's had, all's spent,

When our desire is got without content."

She has attained the crown she desired, but not the contentment she expected with it. The kingdom is in rebellion; the love and homage due to royalty," and all the large effects that troop with majesty," fly from her command; and because, during the absence of her husband, she has no longer anything to divert her gaze from the wickedness of her life, her hardihood has given way.

SCENE II.

The Country near Dunsinane.

Enter, with Drum and Colours, MENTETH, CATHNESS, ANGUS,
LENOX, 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

Would, to the bleeding, and the grim alarm,

Excite the mortified man.

Ang. 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
Protest their first of manhood.

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 distemper'd cause
Within the belt of rule.

Ang. Now does he feel

His secret murders sticking on his hands:
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach;
Those he commands, move only in command,
Nothing in love: now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.

Would, to the bleeding, and the grim | the bloody and grim call to arms, even one who

alarm,

Excite the MORTIFIED MAN.] i. e. their es of revenge would excite to answer

had mortified the deeds or members of the body. The expression is derived from the writings of St. Paul, Rom. viii. 13; Col. iii. 5.

7. 2094.

the MED'CIN] i. c. the physician. So Florizel, in "The Winter's

Tale," calls Camillo "the medecin of our house."—Steevens.

sin

in