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Drum and colors. Enter MALCOLM,
SIWARD, MACDUFF, Siward’s
SON, MENTEITH,
CAITHNESS, ANGUS,
LENNOX, ROSS, and
SOLDIERS, marching
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MALCOLM, old SIWARD and his
SON, MACDUFF,
MENTEITH, CAITHNESS,
ANGUS, LENNOX,
ROSS, and SOLDIERS enter marching,
with a drummer and flag.
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MALCOLM Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand
That chambers will be safe.
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MALCOLM Kinsmen, I hope the time is coming when people will be safe in
their own bedrooms.
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MENTEITH We
doubt it nothing.
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MENTEITH We don’t doubt it.
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SIWARD What wood is this before us?
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SIWARD What’s the name of this forest behind us?
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MENTEITH The
wood of Birnam.
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MENTEITH Birnam Wood.
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MALCOLM Let every soldier hew him down a bough
5And bear ’t before him. Thereby shall we shadow
The numbers of our host and make discovery
Err in report of us.
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MALCOLM Tell every soldier to break off a branch and hold it in front of
him. That way we can conceal how many of us there are, and
Macbeth’s spies will give him inaccurate reports.
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SOLDIERS It
shall be done.
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SOLDIERS We’ll do it.
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SIWARD We learn no other but the confident tyrant
Keeps still in Dunsinane and will endure
10Our setting down before ’t.
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SIWARD We have no news except that the overconfident Macbeth is still in
Dunsinane and will allow us to lay siege to the castle.
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MALCOLM 'Tis
his main hope:
For, where there is advantage to be given,
Both more and less have given him the revolt,
And none serve with him but constrainèd things
Whose hearts are absent too.
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MALCOLM He wants us to lay siege. Wherever his soldiers have an
opportunity to leave him, they do, whatever rank they are. No one
fights with him except men who are forced to, and their hearts
aren’t in it.
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MACDUFF Let
our just censures
15Attend the true event, and put we on
Industrious soldiership.
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MACDUFF We shouldn’t make any judgments until we achieve our
goal. Let’s go fight like hardworking soldiers.
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