Act 5

Scene IV

Country near Birnam wood.

	Drum and colours. Enter Malcolm, old Siward* and his Son, Macduff, Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, Ross, and Soldiers, marching.*
Malcolm	Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand That chambers will be safe.
Menteith	We doubt it nothing.
Siward	What wood is this before us?
Menteith	The wood of Birnam.
Malcolm	Let every soldier hew him down a bough And bear’t before him: thereby shall we shadow The numbers of our host and make discovery Err in report of us.
Soldiers	It shall be done.
Siward	We learn no other but the confident tyrant Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure Our setting down before’t.
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 constrained things Whose hearts are absent too.
Macduff	Let our just censures Attend the true event, and put we on Industrious soldiership.
Siward	The time approaches That will with due decision make us know What we shall say we have and what we owe. Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate, But certain issue strokes must arbitrate: Towards which advance the war. Exeunt, marching.