Scene 5th. Macbeth now trusts to the strength of his castle, and _proclaims_ his confidence by ordering his banners to be hung on the outward walls. When he hears the cry of women, he comments on the _effect of custom_. I have almost forgot the taste of fears. . . . . . . . Direness, _familiar_ to my slaughterous thoughts, Can not once start. When told of the queen’s death, he says it is _unseasonable_: “she should have died hereafter;” and his reflections on life have the same relation to the theme as those on his “way of life” in Scene 3d. It is a tale Told by an idiot, _full of sound and fury_, _Signifying nothing_. He is now told that Birnam wood is coming to Dunsinane; and the rock on which he has heretofore stood so firmly begins to crumble beneath his feet. He begins to pall in resolution, and to “doubt the equivocation of the fiend, that _lies like truth_.” Scene 6th contains less than a dozen lines. The soldiers throw away their leafy screens, and show their true strength. In the next and last scene the remaining promise of the weird sisters is literally kept to the ear, but “broken to the hope”—for it turns out that Macduff was _not_ of woman born. The force of professional habit appears in old Siward’s conduct on hearing of the death of his son. “Had he his hurts before?” he asks; and, being satisfied on that point, ceases to mourn for him. Finally, _ceremony_ is employed by Malcolm in rewarding _substantial merit_; his thanes and kinsmen are created earls; and all other proper forms observed “in measure, time, and place.” The reader will readily perceive that different aspects of the theme predominate in the several stages of the play; and if these stages seem somewhat irregular, it must be borne in mind that the present division into acts and scenes was not the work of Shakspeare, but of his editors. In Macbeth we see a perpetual conflict between the _real_ nature of man, and the _assumed_ character of the usurper. He is “full o’ the milk of human kindness;” loves truth and sincerity; and sets a high value on the good opinions and the sincere friendship of others. But he is also ambitious; he is urged forward by the demoniac spirit of his wife, and entangled in the snare of the weird sisters. Under these influences he endeavors to play the part of a remorseless tyrant; but his kindlier nature is constantly breaking out; and though he strives so hard to maintain his _assumed_ character, that he at length refuses to “scan” his deeds until they have been “acted,” yet we find him in the height of his power mournfully regretting his own blood-guiltiness, and the _hollow-heartedness_ of all around him.