Page:Macbethandkingr00kembgoog.djvu/170

 And to be baited with the rabble's curse. Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane, And thou oppos'd, being of no woman born, Yet I will try the last: Before my body I throw my warlike shield: lay on, Macduff, And damn'd be him that first cries,—Hold, enough.

Mr. Steevens allows that, driven to extremity, Macbeth "very naturally prefers a manly and violent death, to a shameful and lingering termination of life." Shakspeare, vol. x. p. 297. True; he does so: but such a preference would not be very natural to him, if he were a coward.