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, hellhound, turn!MACBETH 5 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 villain10 Than terms can give thee out.Fight. Alarum.MACBETH Thou losest labor. As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed. Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;15 I bear a charmèd 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 womb20 Untimely ripped.
MACBETH Accursèd be that tongue that tells me so, For it hath cowed my better part of man! And be these juggling fiends no more believed That palter with us in a double sense,25 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’ th’ time. We’ll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,30 Painted upon 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.35 Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane 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 damned be him that first cries “Hold! Enough!”They exit fighting. Alarums.⌜They⌝ enter fighting, and Macbeth ⌜is⌝ slain. ⌜Macduff
exits carrying off Macbeth’s body.⌝ Retreat and flourish.
Enter, with Drum and Colors, Malcolm, Siward, Ross,
Thanes, and Soldiers.MALCOLM 40 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.45 He only lived but till he was a man,
The which no sooner had his prowess confirmed In the unshrinking station where he fought, But like a man he died.SIWARD Then he is dead?ROSS 50 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 55 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 knolled.MALCOLM He’s worth more sorrow, and that I’ll spend for60 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.Enter Macduff with Macbeth’s head.MACDUFF 65 Hail, King! for so thou art. Behold where stands Th’ usurper’s cursèd head. The time is free. I see thee compassed with thy kingdom’s pearl, That speak my salutation in their minds, Whose voices I desire aloud with mine.70 Hail, King of Scotland!ALL Hail, King of Scotland!Flourish.MALCOLM We shall not spend a large expense of time Before we reckon with your several loves And make us even with you. My thanes and75 kinsmen,
Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland In such an honor named. What’s more to do, Which would be planted newly with the time, As calling home our exiled friends abroad80 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, Took off her life)—this, and what needful else85 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 crowned at Scone.Flourish. All exit.
