READ STUDY GUIDE: Act V, scenes i–xi |
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Act V, Scene ii:
The Country near Dunsinane.
The Country near Dunsinane.
| [Enter. with drum and colours, 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 causes |
| Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm |
| Excite the mortified man. |
| 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 |
| Of all the gentry: there is Siward's son |
| And many unrough youths, that even now |
| Protest their first of manhood. |
| MENTEITH: |
| What does the tyrant? |
| CAITHNESS: |
| 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. |
| ANGUS: |
| 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. |
| MENTEITH: |
| Who, then, shall blame |
| His pester'd 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 ow'd: |
| Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal; |
| And with him pour we, in our country's purge, |
| Each drop of us. |
| LENNOX: |
| Or so much as it needs, |
| To dew the sovereign flower, and drown the weeds. |
| Make we our march towards Birnam. |
| [Exeunt, marching.] |
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