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Macbeth - Act 5, scene 8
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Macbeth - Act 5, scene 8Act 5, scene 8
⌜Scene 8⌝
Synopsis:
Macduff finds Macbeth, who is reluctant to fight with him because Macbeth has already killed Macduff’s whole family and is sure of killing Macduff too if they fight. When Macduff announces that he is not, strictly speaking, a man born of woman, having been ripped prematurely from his mother’s womb, then Macbeth is afraid to fight. He fights with Macduff only when Macduff threatens to capture him and display him as a public spectacle. Macduff kills Macbeth, cuts off his head, and brings it to Malcolm. With Macbeth dead, Malcolm is now king and gives new titles to his loyal supporters.
Enter Macbeth.MACBETH
2366 Why should I play the Roman fool and die
2367 On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes
2368 Do better upon them.
Enter Macduff.
MACDUFF 2369 Turn, hellhound, turn!
MACBETH
2370 5 Of all men else I have avoided thee.
2371 But get thee back. My soul is too much charged
2372 With blood of thine already.
MACDUFF 2373 I have no words;
2374 My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain
2375 10 Than terms can give thee out.Fight. Alarum.
MACBETH 2376 Thou losest labor.
2377 As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air
2378 With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed.
2379 Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;
2380 15 I bear a charmèd life, which must not yield
2381 To one of woman born.
MACDUFF 2382 Despair thy charm,
2383 And let the angel whom thou still hast served
2384 Tell thee Macduff was from his mother’s womb
2385 20 Untimely ripped.
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187
MACBETH 2386 Accursèd be that tongue that tells me so,
2387 For it hath cowed my better part of man!
2388 And be these juggling fiends no more believed
2389 That palter with us in a double sense,
2390 25 That keep the word of promise to our ear
2391 And break it to our hope. I’ll not fight with thee.
MACDUFF 2392 Then yield thee, coward,
2393 And live to be the show and gaze o’ th’ time.
2394 We’ll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,
2395 30 Painted upon a pole, and underwrit
2396 “Here may you see the tyrant.”
MACBETH 2397 I will not yield
2398 To kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet
2399 And to be baited with the rabble’s curse.
2400 35 Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane
2401 And thou opposed, being of no woman born,
2402 Yet I will try the last. Before my body
2403 I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,
2404 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
2405 40 I would the friends we miss were safe arrived.
SIWARD
2406 Some must go off; and yet by these I see
2407 So great a day as this is cheaply bought.
MALCOLM
2408 Macduff is missing, and your noble son.
ROSS
2409 Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier’s debt.
2410 45 He only lived but till he was a man,
p.
189
2411
The which no sooner had his prowess confirmed2412 In the unshrinking station where he fought,
2413 But like a man he died.
SIWARD 2414 Then he is dead?
ROSS
2415 50 Ay, and brought off the field. Your cause of sorrow
2416 Must not be measured by his worth, for then
2417 It hath no end.
SIWARD 2418 Had he his hurts before?
ROSS
2419 Ay, on the front.
SIWARD 2420 55 Why then, God’s soldier be he!
2421 Had I as many sons as I have hairs,
2422 I would not wish them to a fairer death;
2423 And so his knell is knolled.
MALCOLM
2424 He’s worth more sorrow, and that I’ll spend for
2425 60 him.
SIWARD 2426 He’s worth no more.
2427 They say he parted well and paid his score,
2428 And so, God be with him. Here comes newer
2429 comfort.
Enter Macduff with Macbeth’s head.
MACDUFF
2430 65 Hail, King! for so thou art. Behold where stands
2431 Th’ usurper’s cursèd head. The time is free.
2432 I see thee compassed with thy kingdom’s pearl,
2433 That speak my salutation in their minds,
2434 Whose voices I desire aloud with mine.
2435 70 Hail, King of Scotland!
ALL 2436 Hail, King of Scotland!Flourish.
MALCOLM
2437 We shall not spend a large expense of time
2438 Before we reckon with your several loves
2439 And make us even with you. My thanes and
2440 75 kinsmen,
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191
2441
Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland2442 In such an honor named. What’s more to do,
2443 Which would be planted newly with the time,
2444 As calling home our exiled friends abroad
2445 80 That fled the snares of watchful tyranny,
2446 Producing forth the cruel ministers
2447 Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen
2448 (Who, as ’tis thought, by self and violent hands,
2449 Took off her life)—this, and what needful else
2450 85 That calls upon us, by the grace of grace,
2451 We will perform in measure, time, and place.
2452 So thanks to all at once and to each one,
2453 Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone.
Flourish. All exit.