SCENE I. Forres. A Room in the
Palace.
[Enter Banquo.]
BANQUO.
Thou hast it now,--king, Cawdor,
Glamis, all,
As the weird women promis'd;
and, I fear,
Thou play'dst most foully for't;
yet it was said
It should not stand in thy posterity;
But that myself should be the
root and father
Of many kings. If there come
truth from them,--
As upon thee, Macbeth, their
speeches shine,--
Why, by the verities on thee
made good,
May they not be my oracles as
well,
And set me up in hope? But hush;
no more.
[Sennet sounded. Enter Macbeth
as King, Lady Macbeth
as Queen; Lennox, Ross, Lords,
Ladies, and Attendants.]
MACBETH.
Here's our chief guest.
LADY MACBETH.
If he had been forgotten,
It had been as a gap in our great
feast,
And all-thing unbecoming.
MACBETH.
To-night we hold a solemn supper,
sir,
And I'll request your presence.
BANQUO.
Let your highness
Command upon me; to the which
my duties
Are with a most indissoluble
tie
For ever knit.
MACBETH.
Ride you this afternoon?
BANQUO.
Ay, my good lord.
MACBETH.
We should have else desir'd your
good advice,--
Which still hath been both grave
and prosperous,--
In this day's council; but we'll
take to-morrow.
Is't far you ride?
BANQUO.
As far, my lord, as will fill
up the time
'Twixt this and supper: go not
my horse the better,
I must become a borrower of the
night,
For a dark hour or twain.
MACBETH.
Fail not our feast.
BANQUO.
My lord, I will not.
MACBETH.
We hear our bloody cousins are
bestow'd
In England and in Ireland; not
confessing
Their cruel parricide, filling
their hearers
With strange invention: but of
that to-morrow;
When therewithal we shall have
cause of state
Craving us jointly. Hie you to
horse: adieu,
Till you return at night. Goes
Fleance with you?
BANQUO.
Ay, my good lord: our time does
call upon's.
MACBETH.
I wish your horses swift and
sure of foot;
And so I do commend you to their
backs.
Farewell.--
[Exit Banquo.]
Let every man be master of his
time
Till seven at night; to make
society
The sweeter welcome, we will
keep ourself
Till supper time alone: while
then, God be with you!
[Exeunt Lady
Macbeth, Lords, Ladies, &c.]
Sirrah, a word with you: attend
those men
Our pleasure?
ATTENDANT.
They are, my lord, without the
palace gate.
MACBETH.
Bring them before us.
[Exit Attendant.]
To be thus is nothing;
But to be safely thus:--our fears
in Banquo.
Stick deep; and in his royalty
of nature
Reigns that which would be fear'd:
'tis much he dares;
And, to that dauntless temper
of his mind,
He hath a wisdom that doth guide
his valour
To act in safety. There is none
but he
Whose being I do fear: and under
him,
My genius is rebuk'd; as, it
is said,
Mark Antony's was by Caesar.
He chid the sisters
When first they put the name
of king upon me,
And bade them speak to him; then,
prophet-like,
They hail'd him father to a line
of kings:
Upon my head they plac'd a fruitless
crown,
And put a barren sceptre in my
gripe,
Thence to be wrench'd with an
unlineal hand,
No son of mine succeeding. If't
be so,
For Banquo's issue have I fil'd
my mind;
For them the gracious Duncan
have I murder'd;
Put rancours in the vessel of
my peace
Only for them; and mine eternal
jewel
Given to the common enemy of
man,
To make them kings, the seed
of Banquo kings!
Rather than so, come, fate, into
the list,
And champion me to the utterance!--Who's
there?--
[Re-enter Attendant, with two
Murderers.]
Now go to the door, and stay
there till we call.
[Exit Attendant.]
Was it not yesterday we spoke
together?
FIRST MURDERER.
It was, so please your highness.
MACBETH.
Well then, now
Have you consider'd of my speeches?
Know
That it was he, in the times
past, which held you
So under fortune; which you thought
had been
Our innocent self: this I made
good to you
In our last conference, pass'd
in probation with you
How you were borne in hand, how
cross'd, the instruments,
Who wrought with them, and all
things else that might
To half a soul and to a notion
craz'd
Say, "Thus did Banquo."
FIRST MURDERER.
You made it known to us.
MACBETH.
I did so; and went further, which
is now
Our point of second meeting.
Do you find
Your patience so predominant
in your nature,
That you can let this go? Are
you so gospell'd,
To pray for this good man and
for his issue,
Whose heavy hand hath bow'd you
to the grave,
And beggar'd yours forever?
FIRST MURDERER.
We are men, my liege.
MACBETH.
Ay, in the catalogue ye go for
men;
As hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels,
spaniels, curs,
Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves
are clept
All by the name of dogs: the
valu'd file
Distinguishes the swift, the
slow, the subtle,
The house-keeper, the hunter,
every one
According to the gift which bounteous
nature
Hath in him clos'd; whereby he
does receive
Particular addition, from the
bill
That writes them all alike: and
so of men.
Now, if you have a station in
the file,
Not i' the worst rank of manhood,
say it;
And I will put that business
in your bosoms,
Whose execution takes your enemy
off;
Grapples you to the heart and
love of us,
Who wear our health but sickly
in his life,
Which in his death were perfect.
SECOND MURDERER.
I am one, my liege,
Whom the vile blows and buffets
of the world
Have so incens'd that I am reckless
what
I do to spite the world.
FIRST MURDERER.
And I another,
So weary with disasters, tugg'd
with fortune,
That I would set my life on any
chance,
To mend it or be rid on't.
MACBETH.
Both of you
Know Banquo was your enemy.
BOTH MURDERERS.
True, my lord.
MACBETH.
So is he mine; and in such bloody
distance,
That every minute of his being
thrusts
Against my near'st of life; and
though I could
With barefac'd power sweep him
from my sight,
And bid my will avouch it, yet
I must not,
For certain friends that are
both his and mine,
Whose loves I may not drop, but
wail his fall
Who I myself struck down: and
thence it is
That I to your assistance do
make love;
Masking the business from the
common eye
For sundry weighty reasons.
SECOND MURDERER.
We shall, my lord,
Perform what you command us.
FIRST MURDERER.
Though our lives--
MACBETH.
Your spirits shine through you.
Within this hour at most,
I will advise you where to plant
yourselves;
Acquaint you with the perfect
spy o' the time,
The moment on't; for't must be
done to-night
And something from the palace;
always thought
That I require a clearness; and
with him,--
To leave no rubs nor botches
in the work,--
Fleance his son, that keeps him
company,
Whose absence is no less material
to me
Than is his father's, must embrace
the fate
Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves
apart:
I'll come to you anon.
BOTH MURDERERS.
We are resolv'd, my lord.
MACBETH.
I'll call upon you straight:
abide within.
[Exeunt Murderers.]
It is concluded:--Banquo, thy
soul's flight,
If it find heaven, must find
it out to-night.
[Exit.]
SCENE II. The same. Another
Room in the Palace.
[Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant.]
LADY MACBETH.
Is Banquo gone from court?
SERVANT.
Ay, madam, but returns again
to-night.
LADY MACBETH.
Say to the king, I would attend
his leisure
For a few words.
SERVANT.
Madam, I will.
[Exit.]
LADY MACBETH.
Naught's had, all's spent,
Where our desire is got without
content:
'Tis safer to be that which we
destroy,
Than, by destruction, dwell in
doubtful joy.
[Enter Macbeth.]
How now, my lord! why do you
keep alone,
Of sorriest fancies your companions
making;
Using those thoughts which should
indeed have died
With them they think on? Things
without all remedy
Should be without regard: what's
done is done.
MACBETH.
We have scotch'd the snake, not
kill'd it;
She'll close, and be herself;
whilst our poor malice
Remains in danger of her former
tooth.
But let the frame of things disjoint,
Both the worlds suffer,
Ere we will eat our meal in fear,
and sleep
In the affliction of these terrible
dreams
That shake us nightly: better
be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our peace, have
sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind
to lie
In restless ecstasy. Duncan is
in his grave;
After life's fitful fever he
sleeps well;
Treason has done his worst: nor
steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy,
nothing,
Can touch him further.
LADY MACBETH.
Come on;
Gently my lord, sleek o'er your
rugged looks;
Be bright and jovial 'mong your
guests to-night.
MACBETH.
So shall I, love; and so, I pray,
be you:
Let your remembrance apply to
Banquo;
Present him eminence, both with
eye and tongue:
Unsafe the while, that we
Must lave our honors in these
flattering streams;
And make our faces vizards to
our hearts,
Disguising what they are.
LADY MACBETH.
You must leave this.
MACBETH.
O, full of scorpions is my mind,
dear wife!
Thou know'st that Banquo, and
his Fleance, lives.
LADY MACBETH.
But in them nature's copy's not
eterne.
MACBETH.
There's comfort yet; they are
assailable;
Then be thou jocund: ere the
bat hath flown
His cloister'd flight, ere to
black Hecate's summons,
The shard-borne beetle, with
his drowsy hums,
Hath rung night's yawning peal,
there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.
LADY MACBETH.
What's to be done?
MACBETH.
Be innocent of the knowledge,
dearest chuck,
Till thou applaud the deed. Come,
seeling night,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful
day;
And with thy bloody and invisible
hand
Cancel and tear to pieces that
great bond
Which keeps me pale!--Light thickens;
and the crow
Makes wing to the rooky wood:
Good things of day begin to droop
and drowse;
Whiles night's black agents to
their preys do rouse.--
Thou marvell'st at my words:
but hold thee still;
Things bad begun make strong
themselves by ill:
So, pr'ythee, go with me.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE III. The same. A Park
or Lawn, with a gate leading
to the
Palace.
[Enter three Murderers.]
FIRST MURDERER.
But who did bid thee join with
us?
THIRD MURDERER.
Macbeth.
SECOND MURDERER.
He needs not our mistrust; since
he delivers
Our offices and what we have
to do
To the direction just.
FIRST MURDERER.
Then stand with us.
The west yet glimmers with some
streaks of day:
Now spurs the lated traveller
apace,
To gain the timely inn; and near
approaches
The subject of our watch.
THIRD MURDERER.
Hark! I hear horses.
BANQUO.
[Within.] Give us a light there,
ho!
SECOND MURDERER.
Then 'tis he; the rest
That are within the note of expectation
Already are i' the court.
FIRST MURDERER.
His horses go about.
THIRD MURDERER.
Almost a mile; but he does usually,
So all men do, from hence to
the palace gate
Make it their walk.
SECOND MURDERER.
A light, a light!
THIRD MURDERER.
'Tis he.
FIRST MURDERER.
Stand to't.
[Enter Banquo, and Fleance with
a torch.]
BANQUO.
It will be rain to-night.
FIRST MURDERER.
Let it come down.
[Assaults Banquo.]
BANQUO.
O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance,
fly, fly, fly!
Thou mayst revenge.--O slave!
[Dies. Fleance escapes.]
THIRD MURDERER.
Who did strike out the light?
FIRST MURDERER.
Was't not the way?
THIRD MURDERER.
There's but one down: the son
is fled.
SECOND MURDERER.
We have lost best half of our
affair.
FIRST MURDERER.
Well, let's away, and say how
much is done.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE IV. The same. A Room of
state in the Palace. A banquet
prepared.
[Enter Macbeth, Lady Macbeth,
Ross, Lennox, Lords, and
Attendants.]
MACBETH.
You know your own degrees: sit
down. At first
And last the hearty welcome.
LORDS.
Thanks to your majesty.
MACBETH.
Ourself will mingle with society,
And play the humble host.
Our hostess keeps her state;
but, in best time,
We will require her welcome.
LADY MACBETH.
Pronounce it for me, sir, to
all our friends;
For my heart speaks they are
welcome.
MACBETH.
See, they encounter thee with
their hearts' thanks.--
Both sides are even: here I'll
sit i' the midst:
[Enter first Murderer to the
door.]
Be large in mirth; anon we'll
drink a measure
The table round.--There's blood
upon thy face.
MURDERER.
'Tis Banquo's then.
MACBETH.
'Tis better thee without than
he within.
Is he despatch'd?
MURDERER.
My lord, his throat is cut; that
I did for him.
MACBETH.
Thou art the best o' the cut-throats;
yet he's good
That did the like for Fleance:
if thou didst it,
Thou art the nonpareil.
MURDERER.
Most royal sir,
Fleance is 'scap'd.
MACBETH.
Then comes my fit again: I had
else been perfect;
Whole as the marble, founded
as the rock;
As broad and general as the casing
air:
But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd,
confin'd, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears. But
Banquo's safe?
MURDERER.
Ay, my good lord: safe in a ditch
he bides,
With twenty trenched gashes on
his head;
The least a death to nature.
MACBETH.
Thanks for that:
There the grown serpent lies;
the worm that's fled
Hath nature that in time will
venom breed,
No teeth for the present.--Get
thee gone; to-morrow
We'll hear, ourselves, again.
[Exit Murderer.]
LADY MACBETH.
My royal lord,
You do not give the cheer: the
feast is sold
That is not often vouch'd, while
'tis a-making,
'Tis given with welcome; to feed
were best at home;
From thence the sauce to meat
is ceremony;
Meeting were bare without it.
MACBETH.
Sweet remembrancer!--
Now, good digestion wait on appetite,
And health on both!
LENNOX.
May't please your highness sit.
[The Ghost of Banquo rises,
and sits in Macbeth's place.]
MACBETH.
Here had we now our country's
honor roof'd,
Were the grac'd person of our
Banquo present;
Who may I rather challenge for
unkindness
Than pity for mischance!
ROSS.
His absence, sir,
Lays blame upon his promise.
Please't your highness
To grace us with your royal company?
MACBETH.
The table's full.
LENNOX.
Here is a place reserv'd, sir.
MACBETH.
Where?
LENNOX.
Here, my good lord. What is't
that moves your highness?
MACBETH.
Which of you have done this?
LORDS.
What, my good lord?
MACBETH.
Thou canst not say I did it:
never shake
Thy gory locks at me.
ROSS.
Gentlemen, rise; his highness
is not well.
LADY MACBETH.
Sit, worthy friends:--my lord
is often thus,
And hath been from his youth:
pray you, keep seat;
The fit is momentary; upon a
thought
He will again be well: if much
you note him,
You shall offend him, and extend
his passion:
Feed, and regard him not.--Are
you a man?
MACBETH.
Ay, and a bold one, that dare
look on that
Which might appal the devil.
LADY MACBETH.
O proper stuff!
This is the very painting of
your fear:
This is the air-drawn dagger
which, you said,
Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws,
and starts,--
Impostors to true fear,--would
well become
A woman's story at a winter's
fire,
Authoriz'd by her grandam. Shame
itself!
Why do you make such faces? When
all's done,
You look but on a stool.
MACBETH.
Pr'ythee, see there! behold!
look! lo! how say you?--
Why, what care I? If thou canst
nod, speak too.--
If charnel houses and our graves
must send
Those that we bury back, our
monuments
Shall be the maws of kites.
[Ghost disappears.]
LADY MACBETH.
What, quite unmann'd in folly?
MACBETH.
If I stand here, I saw him.
LADY MACBETH.
Fie, for shame!
MACBETH.
Blood hath been shed ere now,
i' the olden time,
Ere humane statute purg'd the
gentle weal;
Ay, and since too, murders have
been perform'd
Too terrible for the ear: the
time has been,
That, when the brains were out,
the man would die,
And there an end; but now they
rise again,
With twenty mortal murders on
their crowns,
And push us from our stools:
this is more strange
Than such a murder is.
LADY MACBETH.
My worthy lord,
Your noble friends do lack you.
MACBETH.
I do forget:--
Do not muse at me, my most worthy
friends;
I have a strange infirmity, which
is nothing
To those that know me. Come,
love and health to all;
Then I'll sit down.--Give me
some wine, fill full.--
I drink to the general joy o'
the whole table,
And to our dear friend Banquo,
whom we miss:
Would he were here! to all, and
him, we thirst,
And all to all.
LORDS.
Our duties, and the pledge.
[Ghost rises again.]
MACBETH.
Avaunt! and quit my sight! let
the earth hide thee!
Thy bones are marrowless, thy
blood is cold;
Thou hast no speculation in those
eyes
Which thou dost glare with!
LADY MACBETH.
Think of this, good peers,
But as a thing of custom: 'tis
no other,
Only it spoils the pleasure of
the time.
MACBETH.
What man dare, I dare:
Approach thou like the rugged
Russian bear,
The arm'd rhinoceros, or the
Hyrcan tiger;
Take any shape but that, and
my firm nerves
Shall never tremble: or be alive
again,
And dare me to the desert with
thy sword;
If trembling I inhabit then,
protest me
The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible
shadow!
Unreal mockery, hence!
[Ghost disappears.]
Why, so;--being gone,
I am a man again.--Pray you,
sit still.
LADY MACBETH.
You have displaced the mirth,
broke the good meeting,
With most admir'd disorder.
MACBETH.
Can such things be,
And overcome us like a summer's
cloud,
Without our special wonder? You
make me strange
Even to the disposition that
I owe,
When now I think you can behold
such sights,
And keep the natural ruby of
your cheeks,
When mine are blanch'd with fear.
ROSS.
What sights, my lord?
LADY MACBETH.
I pray you, speak not; he grows
worse and worse;
Question enrages him: at once,
good-night:--
Stand not upon the order of your
going,
But go at once.
LENNOX.
Good-night; and better health
Attend his majesty!
LADY MACBETH.
A kind good-night to all!
[Exeunt all Lords and Atendants.]
MACBETH.
It will have blood; they say,
blood will have blood:
Stones have been known to move,
and trees to speak;
Augurs, and understood relations,
have
By magot-pies, and choughs, and
rooks, brought forth
The secret'st man of blood.--What
is the night?
LADY MACBETH.
Almost at odds with morning,
which is which.
MACBETH.
How say'st thou, that Macduff
denies his person
At our great bidding?
LADY MACBETH.
Did you send to him, sir?
MACBETH.
I hear it by the way; but I will
send:
There's not a one of them but
in his house
I keep a servant fee'd. I will
to-morrow,
(And betimes I will) to the weird
sisters:
More shall they speak; for now
I am bent to know,
By the worst means, the worst.
For mine own good,
All causes shall give way: I
am in blood
Step't in so far that, should
I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as
go o'er:
Strange things I have in head,
that will to hand;
Which must be acted ere they
may be scann'd.
LADY MACBETH.
You lack the season of all natures,
sleep.
MACBETH.
Come, we'll to sleep. My strange
and self-abuse
Is the initiate fear that wants
hard use:--
We are yet but young in deed.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE V. The heath.
[Thunder. Enter the three Witches,
meeting Hecate.]
FIRST WITCH.
Why, how now, Hecate? you look
angerly.
HECATE.
Have I not reason, beldams as
you are,
Saucy and overbold? How did you
dare
To trade and traffic with Macbeth
In riddles and affairs of death;
And I, the mistress of your charms,
The close contriver of all harms,
Was never call'd to bear my part,
Or show the glory of our art?
And, which is worse, all you
have done
Hath been but for a wayward son,
Spiteful and wrathful; who, as
others do,
Loves for his own ends, not for
you.
But make amends now: get you
gone,
And at the pit of Acheron
Meet me i' the morning: thither
he
Will come to know his destiny.
Your vessels and your spells
provide,
Your charms, and everything beside.
I am for the air; this night
I'll spend
Unto a dismal and a fatal end.
Great business must be wrought
ere noon:
Upon the corner of the moon
There hangs a vaporous drop profound;
I'll catch it ere it come to
ground:
And that, distill'd by magic
sleights,
Shall raise such artificial sprites,
As, by the strength of their
illusion,
Shall draw him on to his confusion:
He shall spurn fate, scorn death,
and bear
His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace,
and fear:
And you all know, security
Is mortals' chiefest enemy.
[Music and song
within, "Come
away, come away" &c.]
Hark! I am call'd; my little
spirit, see,
Sits in a foggy cloud and stays
for me.
[Exit.]
FIRST WITCH.
Come, let's make haste; she'll
soon be back again.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE VI. Forres. A Room in
the Palace.
[Enter Lennox and another Lord.]
LENNOX.
My former speeches have but hit
your thoughts,
Which can interpret further:
only, I say,
Thing's have been strangely borne.
The gracious Duncan
Was pitied of Macbeth:--marry,
he was dead:--
And the right valiant Banquo
walk'd too late;
Whom, you may say, if't please
you, Fleance kill'd,
For Fleance fled. Men must not
walk too late.
Who cannot want the thought,
how monstrous
It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain
To kill their gracious father?
damned fact!
How it did grieve Macbeth! did
he not straight,
In pious rage, the two delinquents
tear
That were the slaves of drink
and thralls of sleep?
Was not that nobly done? Ay,
and wisely too;
For 'twould have anger'd any
heart alive,
To hear the men deny't. So that,
I say,
He has borne all things well:
and I do think,
That had he Duncan's sons under
his key,--
As, an't please heaven, he shall
not,--they should find
What 'twere to kill a father;
so should Fleance.
But, peace!--for from broad words,
and 'cause he fail'd
His presence at the tyrant's
feast, I hear,
Macduff lives in disgrace. Sir,
can you tell
Where he bestows himself?
LORD.
The son of Duncan,
From whom this tyrant holds the
due of birth,
Lives in the English court and
is receiv'd
Of the most pious Edward with
such grace
That the malevolence of fortune
nothing
Takes from his high respect:
thither Macduff
Is gone to pray the holy king,
upon his aid
To wake Northumberland, and warlike
Siward:
That, by the help of these,--with
Him above
To ratify the work,--we may again
Give to our tables meat, sleep
to our nights;
Free from our feasts and banquets
bloody knives;
Do faithful homage, and receive
free honours,--
All which we pine for now: and
this report
Hath so exasperate the king that
he
Prepares for some attempt of
war.
LENNOX.
Sent he to Macduff?
LORD.
He did: and with an absolute "Sir,
not I,"
The cloudy messenger turns me
his back,
And hums, as who should say, "You'll
rue the time
That clogs me with this answer."
LENNOX.
And that well might
Advise him to a caution, to hold
what distance
His wisdom can provide. Some
holy angel
Fly to the court of England,
and unfold
His message ere he come; that
a swift blessing
May soon return to this our suffering
country
Under a hand accurs'd!
LORD.
I'll send my prayers with him.
[Exeunt.]
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