Macbeth — Act 5, Scene 4in modern English, side by side
Country near Dunsinane: a Wood in view · Malcolm, Siward, Young Siward, Macduff, Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, Ross, Soldiers
Malcolm's combined English and Scottish army has reached Birnam Wood, the landmark from the witches' prophecy that Macbeth cannot fall until the wood itself comes to Dunsinane. Malcolm now gives the order that will unknowingly make the impossible prophecy come true.
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Enter, with drum and colours 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.
Cousins, I hope the days are close at hand when people will be safe in their own bedrooms.
Menteith
We doubt it nothing.
We don't doubt it at all.
Siward
What wood is this before us?
What wood is this in front of us?
Menteith
The wood of Birnam.5
The wood of Birnam.
Malcolm
Let every soldier hew him down a bough,
And bear’t before him.
Have every soldier cut himself a branch and carry it in front of him.
Thereby shall we shadow
The numbers of our host, and make discovery
Err in report of us.
That way we'll hide the true numbers of our army, and Macbeth's scouts will report us wrongly.
Soldiers
It shall be done.10
It will be done.
Siward
We learn no other but the confident tyrant
Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure
Our setting down before’t.
All we hear is that the confident tyrant is staying put in Dunsinane and will let us settle in for a siege in front of it.
Malcolm
’Tis his main hope;
That's his main hope
For where there is advantage to be given,15
Both more and less have given him the revolt,
— because wherever men have had any opening to do it, both the great and the humble have deserted him.
And none serve with him but constrained things,
Whose hearts are absent too.
No one serves him now but conscripts, and their hearts aren't in it either.
Macduff
Let our just censures
Attend the true event, and put we on20
Industrious soldiership.
Let's hold off passing judgment until the actual outcome, and in the meantime apply ourselves to hard, disciplined soldiering.
Siward
The time approaches,
That will with due decision make us know
What we shall say we have, and what we owe.
The time is approaching that will settle the account and show us what we can truly claim to have and what we still owe.
Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate,25
But certain issue strokes must arbitrate;
Speculating only tells us our shaky hopes; actual blows must decide the certain result
Towards which advance the war.
— so advance the army toward it.
_Exeunt, marching._
Famous lines in this scene
“Let every soldier hew him down a bough, / And bear’t before him.” line 6
Malcolm orders every soldier to carry a branch cut from Birnam Wood, camouflaging the army's true size. Without realizing it, he fulfills the witches' 'impossible' prophecy — Birnam Wood really is coming to Dunsinane. The moment shows how the supernatural predictions come true through completely ordinary, human means.
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