MACBETH, SEYTON, and SOLDIERS enter with a drummer and flag.
MACBETH
Hang our flags on the outer walls. Everyone keeps yelling, "Here they come!" Our castle is strong enough to laugh off their seige. They can sit out there until they die of hunger and disease. If it weren't for the fact that so many of our soldiers revolted and joined them, we could have met them out in front of the castle, man to man, and beaten them back to England.
A sound of women crying offstage.
What's that noise?
SEYTON
It's women crying, my good lord.
SEYTON exits.
MACBETH
I've almost forgotten what fear feels like. There was a time when I would have been terrified by a shriek in the night, and the hair on my skin would have stood up when I heard a ghost story. But now I've had my fill of real horrors. Horrible things are so familiar that they can't startle me.
SEYTON comes back in.
What was that cry for?
SEYTON
The queen is dead, my lord.
MACBETH
She would have died later anyway. That news was bound to come someday. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. The days creep slowly along until the end of time. And every day that's already happened has taken fools that much closer to their deaths. Out, out, brief candle. Life is nothing more than an illusion. It's like a poor actor who struts and worries for his hour on the stage and then is never heard from again. Life is a story told by an idiot, full of noise and emotional disturbance but devoid of meaning.
A MESSENGER enters.
You've come to tell me something. Tell me quickly.
MESSENGER
My gracious lord, I should tell you what I saw, but I don't know how to say it.
MACBETH
Just say it.
MESSENGER
As I was standing watch on the hill, I looked toward Birnam, and I thought I saw the forest begin to move.
MACBETH
Liar and slave!
MESSENGER
Punish me if it's not true. Three miles from here you can see it coming, a moving forest.
MACBETH
If you're lying, I'll hang you alive from the nearest tree until you die of hunger. If what you say is true, you can do the same to me. (to himself) My confidence is failing. I'm starting to doubt the lies the devil told me, which sounded like truth. "Don't worry until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane." And now a wood is coming to Dunsinane. Prepare for battle, and go! If what this messenger says is true, it's no use running away or staying here. I'm starting to grow tired of living, and I'd like to see the world plunged into chaos. Ring the alarms! Blow, wind! Come, ruin! At least we'll die with our armor on.
They exit.