Macb. Geese, villain? Serv. Soldiers, sir. Macb. Go, prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, Macb. Take thy face hence. - Seyton! I am sick at heart, When I behold — Seyton, I say! — This push [Enter Seyton.] Seyton. What is your gracious pleasure? Macb. What news more? Sey. All is confirm'd, my lord, which was reported. Macb. I'll fight, till from my bones my flesh be hack'd. Give me my armor. Sey. 'Tis not needed yet. Macb. I'll put it on. Send out more horses, skirr the country round; Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armor. How does you patient, doctor? Doctor. Not so sick, my lord, As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, That keep her from her rest. Macb. Cure her of that: Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, And with some sweet oblivious antidote, Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff, Doct. Therein the patient Must minister to himself. Macb. Throw physic to the dogs; I'll none of it. Come put mine armor on; give me my staff.— If thou couldst, Doctor, cast The water of my land, find her disease, And purge it to a sound and pristine health, I would applaud thee to the very echo, That should applaud again. What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug, Would scour these English hence? Hear'st thou of them? Doct. Ay, my good lord: your royal preparation Makes us hear something. Macb. I will not be afraid of death and bane, Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane. Macb. Hang out our banners: on the outward walls The cry is, still, "They come ! Our castle's strength Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie, Till famine and the ague eat them up. Were they not forced with those that should be ours, Macb. I have almost forgot the taste of fears. As life were in 't. I have supp'd full with horrors: Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, Wherefore was that cry? Cannot once start me. Sey. The queen, my lord, is dead. Macb. She should have died hereafter : There would have been a time for such a word. Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, [Enter a Messenger.] Thou com'st to use thy tongue; thy story, quickly. Messenger. Gracious my lord, I shall report that which I But know not how to do 't. Macb. Well, say, sir. say I saw, Mess. As I did stand my watch upon the hill, I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought, The wood began to move. Macb. Liar and slave! Mess. Let me endure your wrath, if't be not so. Within this three miles may you see it coming; I say, a moving grove. Macb. If thou speak'st false, Upon the next tree shall thou hang alive, Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth, I care not if thou dost for me as much. I pull in resolution, and begin To doubt th' equivocation of the fiend, That lies like truth: "Fear not, till Birnam wood I 'gin to be aweary of the sun, And wish th' estate o' the world were now undone. At least we 'll die with harness on our back. SHAKSPERE. CORIOLANUS AND AUFIDIUS. Coriolanus. I plainly, Tullus, by your looks perceive, You disapprove my conduct. Aufidius. I mean not to assail thee with the clamor Of loud reproaches, and the war of words: But, pride apart, and all that can pervert The light of steady reason, here to make Cor. Speak, I hear thee. Auf. I need not tell thee, that I have perform'd It still may be in danger from our arms: Y Cor. With safety? - Heavens !—and think'st thou Coriolanus Will stoop to thee for safety? No! my safeguard Is in myself, a bosom void of fear. O, 'tis an act of cowardice and baseness, To seize the very time my hands are fetter'd Auf. Thou speak'st the truth: it had not. If you will bless me, grant it! Know, for that, Cor. Till I have cleared my honor in your council, As quit the station they've assign'd me here. Auf. Thou canst not hope acquittal from the Volscians. Cor. I do :- Nay, more, expect their approbation, Their thanks. I will obtain them such a peace As thou durst never ask; a perfect union Of their whole nation with imperial Rome, In all her privileges, all her rights; By the just gods, I will.— What wouldst thou more? Auf. What would I more, proud Roman? This I would Fire the cursed forest, where these Roman wolves, Haunt and infest their nobler neighbors round them; A false, perfidious people, who, beneath The genuine seed of outlaws and of robbers. |