Page 48
Alarums. Enter Macduff.
Macduff:
That way the noise is.—Tyrant, show thy face!
If thou be’st slain and with no stroke of mine,
My wife and children’s ghosts will haunt me still.
I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms
Are hired to bear their staves. Either thou, Macbeth,
Or else my sword, with an unbatter’d edge,
I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be;
By this great clatter, one of greatest note
Seems bruited. Let me find him, Fortune!
And more I beg not.
(Exit. Alarums.)
Enter Malcolm and old Siward.
Siward:
This way, my lord;—the castle’s gently render’d:
The tyrant’s people on both sides do fight;
The noble thanes do bravely in the war,
The day almost itself professes yours,
And little is to do.
Malcolm:
We have met with foes
That strike beside us.
Siward:
Enter, sir, the castle.
(Exeunt. Alarums.)
Scene Eight. The same. Another part of the field.
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, hell-hound, turn!
Macbeth:
Of all men else I have avoided thee:
But get thee back; my soul is too much charg’d
With blood of thine already.
Macduff:
I have no words;
My voice is in my sword: thou bloodier villain
Than terms can give thee out!
(They fight.)
Macbeth:
Thou losest labour:
As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air
With thy keen sword impress, as make me bleed:
Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;
I bear a charmed life, which must not yield
To one of woman born.
Macduff:
Despair thy charm;
And let the angel whom thou still hast serv’d
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb
Untimely ripp’d.
Macbeth:
Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,
For it hath cow’d my better part of man!
And be these juggling fiends no more believ’d,
That palter with us in a double sense;
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,
Painted upon a pole, and underwrit,
“Here may you see the tyrant.”