Macbeth — Act 5, Scene 2in modern English, side by side
The Country near Dunsinane · Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, Soldiers
The English army under Malcolm, Siward, and Macduff is closing in on Macbeth's castle at Dunsinane. A group of Scottish lords — Menteith, Caithness, Angus, and Lennox — have abandoned Macbeth and are marching to join the invaders near Birnam Wood.
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Enter, with drum and colours Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox and
Soldiers
Menteith
The English power is near, led on by Malcolm,
His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff.
The English army is close, led by Malcolm, his uncle Siward, and the good Macduff.
Revenges burn in them; for their dear causes
Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm
Excite the mortified man.5
Revenge burns in them: their causes are so dear that they would rouse even a dead man to answer the bloody, grim call to battle.
Angus
Near Birnam wood
Shall we well meet them.
We'll meet up with them near Birnam Wood
That way are they coming.
— that's the way they're coming.
Caithness
Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?
Does anyone know whether Donalbain is with his brother?
Lennox
For certain, sir, he is not.
He definitely is not, sir.
I have a file
Of all the gentry:10
I have a list of all the gentry in that army.
there is Siward’s son10
And many unrough youths, that even now
Protest their first of manhood.
Siward's son is there, along with many smooth-cheeked boys who are about to prove their manhood for the first time.
Menteith
What does the tyrant?
What is the tyrant doing?
Caithness
Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies.
He's fortifying great Dunsinane heavily.
Some say he’s mad;15
Some say he's mad.
others, that lesser hate him,15
Do call it valiant fury:
Others, who hate him less, call it brave fury.
but, for certain,
He cannot buckle his distemper’d cause
Within the belt of rule.
But this much is certain: his cause is diseased, and he can no longer buckle it inside the belt of self-control.
Angus
Now does he feel
His secret murders sticking on his hands;20
Now he feels his secret murders sticking to his hands.
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach;
Now, minute by minute, fresh revolts throw his broken oaths back in his face.
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love:
The men he commands move only because they're ordered to, not out of any love.
now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.25
Now he feels his royal title hanging loose around him, like a giant's robe on a dwarfish thief.
Menteith
Who, then, shall blame
His pester’d senses to recoil and start,
When all that is within him does condemn
Itself for being there?
Who could blame his tortured nerves for jumping and flinching, when everything inside him condemns itself for being there at all?
Caithness
Well, march we on,30
To give obedience where ’tis truly ow’d:
Well then, let's march on and give our obedience where it's truly owed.
Meet we the med’cine of the sickly weal;
And with him pour we, in our country’s purge,
Each drop of us.
Let's go meet the medicine that will heal our sick nation, and pour out every drop of our own blood alongside him to purge our country clean.
Lennox
Or so much as it needs35
To dew the sovereign flower, and drown the weeds.
Or at least as much of our blood as it takes to water the rightful royal flower and drown the weeds.
Make we our march towards Birnam.
Let's march toward Birnam.
_Exeunt, marching._
Famous lines in this scene
“like a giant’s robe / Upon a dwarfish thief” line 24
Angus says kingship no longer fits Macbeth: he stole the title the way a dwarf might steal a giant's robe, and now it hangs loose and absurd around him. The image caps the play's running clothing metaphor — borrowed titles, like borrowed clothes, expose the man underneath instead of transforming him.
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