SEYTON
It is the cry of women, my good lord.

Exit

MACBETH
I have almost forgot the taste of fears;
The time has been, my senses would have cool'd
To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
As life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrors;
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts
Cannot once start me.

Re-enter SEYTON

Wherefore was that cry?

SEYTON
The queen, my lord, is dead.

Notes and Glossary
NOTES ACT 5 Scene 5 Line 2177 Ague. Fever. ACT 5 Scene 5 Line 2178 Forc'd 'Reinforced;' 'provided with forces.' ACT 5 Scene 5 Line 2185 Fell. Scalp -the portion of the skin which produces hair. A dealer ill hides is called a fell- monger. ACT 5 Scene 5 Line 2193 A word Here used for 'a sentence.' See Act I "Richard II." Nothing could serve more fully to show the utter prostration and despairing apathy of Macbeth's mind, after all his miserably fulfilled ambition, than the manner ill which he receives the tidings of his wife's death. His first few words have almost the dullness of insensibility upon them; and he follows them up with a gloomy acquiescence in the universal poorness and nothingness of all things that belong to the utterly disappointed man. No more pregnant lesson upon the worthlessness of fruition in unholy desires was ever penned than Shakespeare's "Macbeth." ACT 5 Scene 5 Line 2195 Creeps. ..day. One day creeps after another in the same trivial way. ACT 5 Scene 5 Line 2197 Lighted fools. Suggests the image of life as a candle flame, which ill turn suggests the shadow of a person carrying a candle. ACT 5 Scene 5 Line 2199 Player. Actor. The metaphor follows on from 'shadow', acting being only a shadow of reality . ACT 5 Scene 5 Line 2200 Struts and frets. Inadequately represents genuine dignity and anger. For an audience watching the players in a theatre, the whole play might suddenly seem to become a symbol of the unreality of his life. ACT 5 Scene 5 Line 2214 Within this three mile. 'Within this distance of three miles.' ACT 5 Scene 5 Line 2218 Cling. A north country word signifying 'shrivel, , 'shrink,' 'wither,' 'dry up.' ACT 5 Scene 5 Line 2218 Sooth. 'Truth. ' See Act I. ACT 5 Scene 5 Line 2220 Pull in. Here used in the sense of 'draw back, , 'rein m, , 'check.' ACT 5 Scene 5 Line 2230 Harness. ' Armour .' See Act I "Timon of Athens."

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MACBETH
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Enter a Messenger

Thou comest to use thy tongue; thy story quickly.

Messenger
Gracious my lord,
I should report that which I say I saw,
But know not how to do it.

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MACBETH
Well, say, sir.

Messenger
As I did stand my watch upon the hill,
I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought,
The wood began to move.

MACBETH
Liar and slave!

Messenger
Let me endure your wrath, if't be not so:
Within this three mile may you see it coming;
I say, a moving grove.

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