Page 61 - Macbeth Modern Translation

‘While I was standing watch on the hill I looked towards Birnam and suddenly
I thought the wood began to move.’

‘Liar!’ said Macbeth. ‘ Rogue!’

‘Be angry with me if I’m lying. It’s only three miles away. You can see it: a

moving grove.’

‘If you’re lying I’ll string you up on the nearest tree. And you’ll hang there,
alive, until you shrivel up with starvation. If you’re telling the truth I don’t care
if you do the same for me. I’m not so sure anymore. I don’t believe the fiend
that lies with a straight face. ‘Fear not, till Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane!’
And now a wood is coming to Dunsinane.’

He placed his hands on either side of his mouth. ‘To arms! To arms!’ he cried.
A drum began to beat and soldiers took up their positions, ready to march
out to the battlefield.

If what the soldier had told him was true there was nowhere he could go –

nor could he stay. He was thoroughly sick of life and wished the world would
just come to an end.

He buckled his breastplate and pulled on his helmet. ‘ Ring the alarm bell!’
Whatever happened – hurricane or ruin – at least he’d die fighting!

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Macbeth Modern Translation: Act 5, Scene 6

‘This is close enough,’ said Malcolm. ‘ Throw down your branches and reveal
yourselves.’ He called Siward to him. ‘You’ll lead the first onslaught, Uncle –
you and your noble son. We and worthy Macduff will follow up, as planned.’

‘Right,’ said Siward. ‘ If we engage with the tyrant’s troops tonight, let us be
beaten if we don’t fight to the death.’

‘Sound the trumpets!’ cried Macduff.

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