E2BN Gallery

home register and login search teachers' pages help
E2BN Gallery
Asset 1 of 1 Previous Asset [ 1 ] Next Asset   [Slideshow]

Act 5 Scene 4

Show/Hide_Details
Unique Id:

58028

This item is saved in one of your albums. Click to remove it.. My Albums

SCENE IV. Country near Birnam wood. (Both the upper photographs show this area).
Drum and colours. Enter MALCOLM, SIWARD and YOUNG SIWARD, 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

(28) Where there's advantage to be given. On account of the word "given" in the next line, the "given" in this line has been variously changed to 'gone,' 'gain'd,' 'got,' 'ta'en,' &c: but we think the near repetition of the word hardly makes against its being the one used by Shakespeare; and as a sense is to be obtained from the passage as it originally stands, we leave it untouched in our text.
(29) Both more and less. 'Both those of higher and those of lower rank.'
(30) Let our just censures attend the true event. 'Let us defer giving our opinion upon these things until the event we are expecting has actually taken place.'
(31) What we shall say we have, and what we owe. 'What we shall be able to say we have gained, and what we really shall then possess.' "Owe" is almost always used by Shakespeare for 'own,' 'possess.'

Added:
21st Jun 2005

Subjects:
English

Key Stages:
Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4, Key Stage 4+


E2B® and E2BN® are registered trade marks and trading names of East of England Broadband Network (Company Registration No. 04649057) | Terms and Conditions