MACBETH                  I will not yield

To kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet

And to be baited with the rabble’s curse.

Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane,

And thou opposed being of no woman born,

Yet I will try the last. Before my body

I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, MacDuff,

And damned be him that first cries ‘Hold, enough!’

Exeunt fighting. Alarums.

Enter [Macbeth and MacDuff] fighting, and Macbeth slain. (5.10.28-35)

One final rally from Macbeth: it’s the thought of being publicly shamed and mocked, of having to abase himself before Malcolm that he can’t, finally, bear: I will not yield to kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet and to be baited with the rabble’s curse. He’d rather die. Even though the prophecies by which he set such store, which fed his delusions of invincibility—that he could not be deposed unless the forest moved from Birnam Wood to Dunsinane; that he could not be killed except by a man not born of woman—and now the trees have come and Macduff is that man—now that those prophecies have turned to dust, been shown to be false and equivocating—no matter. Yet I will try the last, he says—and there has to be grudging admiration from an audience. I’m not giving up, he says, I’m going down fighting, I’m going to do it, do it, do it, do and die. Before my body I throw my warlike shield, and he adopts his final defensive posture, to make one final massive effort (and the sword is heavy, and the shield is heavy, and he’s exhausted, perhaps bleeding already)—but it’s his warrior identity that he clings to, that he asserts at the last.  LAY ON, MACDUFF. Bring. It. On. Just do it, attack, do your worst. I’m ready—for this at least, I’ve always been ready. And damned be him that first cries ‘hold, enough!’, who asks for mercy, who surrenders. Because it won’t be me.

The stage direction instructs them to exeunt fighting—a shortcut in performance, to save the staging (and rehearsing) of a lengthy fight when both actors are exhausted—but in practice, they almost always play it straight through, without exiting and re-entering. A final fight, Macduff deadly, determined, perhaps younger and fresher, Macbeth fierce but defeated, fighting not so much for his life as for a death at least superficially on his own terms.

And Macbeth slain.