Macbeth
Act V, Scene 2
The country near Dunsinane.
Illustration to William Rolfe's 1903 edition of Macbeth
W. J. Rolfe
- Drum and Colors. Enter Menteth, Cathness, Angus, Lennox,
- Soldiers.
Menteth
1 - 5- The English pow’r 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
6 - 7- Near Birnan wood
- Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming.
Cathness
8- Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?
Lennox
9 - 12- 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.
Menteth
13- What does the tyrant?
Cathness
14 - 18- 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
19 - 25- 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.
Menteth
26 - 29- Who then shall blame
- His pester’d senses to recoil and start,
- When all that is within him does condemn
- Itself for being there?
Cathness
30 - 34- Well, march we on
- To give obedience where ’tis truly ow’d.
- Meet we the med’cine of the sickly weal,
- And with him pour we, in our country’s purge,
- Each drop of us.
Lennox
35 - 37- Or so much as it needs
- To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds.
- Make we our march towards Birnan.
- Exeunt marching.
Cover of the Coburn Acting Edition of Macbeth
Coburn Players, 1912