this. Your lion, that holds his poleaxe sitting on a close-stool, will be given to Ajax. He will be the ninth Worthy. A conqueror and afeard to speak! Run away for shame, Alisander. [Sir Nathaniel retires] There, an’t shall please you, a foolish mild man; an honest man, look you, and soon dash’d. He is a marvellous good neighbour, faith, and a very good bowler; but for Alisander- alas! you see how ’tis- a little o’erparted. But there are Worthies a-coming will speak their mind in some other sort. PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Stand aside, good Pompey.
Enter HOLOFERNES, for JUDAS; and MOTH, for HERCULES
HOLOFERNES. Great Hercules is presented by this imp, Whose club kill’d Cerberus, that three-headed canus; And when be was a babe, a child, a shrimp, Thus did he strangle serpents in his manus. Quoniam he seemeth in minority,
Ergo I come with this apology.
Keep some state in thy exit, and vanish. [MOTH retires] Judas I am-
DUMAIN. A Judas!
HOLOFERNES. Not Iscariot, sir.
Judas I am, ycliped Maccabaeus.
DUMAIN. Judas Maccabaeus clipt is plain Judas. BEROWNE. A kissing traitor. How art thou prov’d Judas? HOLOFERNES. Judas I am-
DUMAIN. The more shame for you, Judas! HOLOFERNES. What mean you, sir?
BOYET. To make Judas hang himself. HOLOFERNES. Begin, sir; you are my elder. BEROWNE. Well followed: Judas was hanged on an elder. HOLOFERNES. I will not be put out of countenance. BEROWNE. Because thou hast no face.
HOLOFERNES. What is this?
BOYET. A cittern-head.
DUMAIN. The head of a bodkin.
BEROWNE. A death’s face in a ring. LONGAVILLE. The face of an old Roman coin, scarce seen. BOYET. The pommel of Coesar’s falchion. DUMAIN. The carv’d-bone face on a flask. BEROWNE. Saint George’s half-cheek in a brooch. DUMAIN. Ay, and in a brooch of lead.
BEROWNE. Ay, and worn in the cap of a tooth-drawer. And now, forward; for we have put thee in countenance. HOLOFERNES. You have put me out of countenance. BEROWNE. False: we have given thee faces. HOLOFERNES. But you have outfac’d them all. BEROWNE. An thou wert a lion we would do so. BOYET. Therefore, as he is an ass, let him go. And so adieu, sweet Jude! Nay, why dost thou stay? DUMAIN. For the latter end of his name. BEROWNE. For the ass to the Jude; give it him- Jud-as, away. HOLOFERNES. This is not generous, not gentle, not humble. BOYET. A light for Monsieur Judas! It grows dark, he may stumble. [HOLOFERNES retires] PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Alas, poor Maccabaeus, how hath he been baited!
Enter ARMADO, for HECTOR
BEROWNE. Hide thy head, Achilles; here comes Hector in arms. DUMAIN. Though my mocks come home by me, I will now be merry. KING. Hector was but a Troyan in respect of this. BOYET. But is this Hector?
DUMAIN. I think Hector was not so clean-timber’d. LONGAVILLE. His leg is too big for Hector’s. DUMAIN. More calf, certain.
BOYET. No; he is best indued in the small. BEROWNE. This cannot be Hector.
DUMAIN. He’s a god or a painter, for he makes faces. ARMADO. The armipotent Mars, of lances the almighty, Gave Hector a gift-
DUMAIN. A gilt nutmeg.
BEROWNE. A lemon.
LONGAVILLE. Stuck with cloves.
DUMAIN. No, cloven.
ARMADO. Peace!
The armipotent Mars, of lances the almighty, Gave Hector a gift, the heir of Ilion; A man so breathed that certain he would fight ye, From morn till night out of his pavilion. I am that flower-
DUMAIN. That mint.
LONGAVILLE. That columbine.
ARMADO. Sweet Lord Longaville, rein thy tongue. LONGAVILLE. I must rather give it the rein, for it runs against Hector.
DUMAIN. Ay, and Hector’s a greyhound. ARMADO. The sweet war-man is dead and rotten; sweet chucks, beat not the bones of the buried; when he breathed, he was a man. But I will forward with my device. [To the PRINCESS] Sweet royalty, bestow on me the sense of hearing.
[BEROWNE steps forth, and speaks to COSTARD]
PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Speak, brave Hector; we are much delighted. ARMADO. I do adore thy sweet Grace’s slipper. BOYET. [Aside to DUMAIN] Loves her by the foot. DUMAIN. [Aside to BOYET] He may not by the yard. ARMADO. This Hector far surmounted Hannibal- COSTARD. The party is gone, fellow Hector, she is gone; she is two months on her way.
ARMADO. What meanest thou?
COSTARD. Faith, unless you play the honest Troyan, the poor wench is cast away. She’s quick; the child brags in her belly already; ’tis yours.
ARMADO. Dost thou infamonize me among potentates? Thou shalt die. COSTARD. Then shall Hector be whipt for Jaquenetta that is quick by him, and hang’d for Pompey that is dead by him. DUMAIN. Most rare Pompey!
BOYET. Renowned Pompey!
BEROWNE. Greater than Great! Great, great, great Pompey! Pompey the Huge!
DUMAIN. Hector trembles.
BEROWNE. Pompey is moved. More Ates, more Ates! Stir them on! stir them on!
DUMAIN. Hector will challenge him. BEROWNE. Ay, if ‘a have no more man’s blood in his belly than will sup a flea.
ARMADO. By the North Pole, I do challenge thee. COSTARD. I will not fight with a pole, like a Northern man; I’ll slash; I’ll do it by the sword. I bepray you, let me borrow my arms again.
DUMAIN. Room for the incensed Worthies! COSTARD. I’ll do it in my shirt.
DUMAIN. Most resolute Pompey!
MOTH. Master, let me take you a buttonhole lower. Do you not see Pompey is uncasing for the combat? What mean you? You will lose your reputation.
ARMADO. Gentlemen and soldiers, pardon me; I will not combat in my shirt.
DUMAIN. You may not deny it: Pompey hath made the challenge. ARMADO. Sweet bloods, I both may and will. BEROWNE. What reason have you for ‘t?
ARMADO. The naked truth of it is: I have no shirt; I go woolward for penance.
BOYET. True, and it was enjoined him in Rome for want of linen; since when, I’ll be sworn, he wore none but a dishclout of Jaquenetta’s, and that ‘a wears next his heart for a favour.
Enter as messenger, MONSIEUR MARCADE
MARCADE. God save you, madam!
PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Welcome, Marcade; But that thou interruptest our merriment. MARCADE. I am sorry, madam; for the news I bring Is heavy in my tongue. The King your father- PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Dead, for my life!
MARCADE. Even so; my tale is told. BEROWNE. WOrthies away; the scene begins to cloud. ARMADO. For mine own part, I breathe free breath. I have seen the day of wrong through the little hole of discretion, and I will right myself like a soldier. Exeunt WORTHIES KING. How fares your Majesty?
PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Boyet, prepare; I will away to-night. KING. Madam, not so; I do beseech you stay. PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Prepare, I say. I thank you, gracious lords, For all your fair endeavours, and entreat, Out of a new-sad soul, that you vouchsafe In your rich wisdom to excuse or hide
The liberal opposition of our spirits, If over-boldly we have borne ourselves In the converse of breath- your gentleness Was guilty of it. Farewell, worthy lord. A heavy heart bears not a nimble tongue. Excuse me so, coming too short of thanks For my great suit so easily obtain’d.
KING. The extreme parts of time extremely forms All causes to the purpose of his speed; And often at his very loose decides
That which long process could not arbitrate. And though the mourning brow of progeny Forbid the smiling courtesy of love
The holy suit which fain it would convince, Yet, since love’s argument was first on foot, Let not the cloud of sorrow justle it
From what it purpos’d; since to wail friends lost Is not by much so wholesome-profitable As to rejoice at friends but newly found. PRINCESS OF FRANCE. I understand you not; my griefs are double. BEROWNE. Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief; And by these badges understand the King. For your fair sakes have we neglected time, Play’d foul play with our oaths; your beauty, ladies, Hath much deformed us, fashioning our humours Even to the opposed end of our intents; And what in us hath seem’d ridiculous, As love is full of unbefitting strains, All wanton as a child, skipping and vain; Form’d by the eye and therefore, like the eye, Full of strange shapes, of habits, and of forms, Varying in subjects as the eye doth roll To every varied object in his glance;
Which parti-coated presence of loose love Put on by us, if in your heavenly eyes Have misbecom’d our oaths and gravities, Those heavenly eyes that look into these faults Suggested us to make. Therefore, ladies, Our love being yours, the error that love makes Is likewise yours. We to ourselves prove false, By being once false for ever to be true To those that make us both- fair ladies, you; And even that falsehood, in itself a sin, Thus purifies itself and turns to grace. PRINCESS OF FRANCE. We have receiv’d your letters, full of love; Your favours, the ambassadors of love; And, in our maiden council, rated them At courtship, pleasant jest, and courtesy, As bombast and as lining to the time;
But more devout than this in our respects Have we not been; and therefore met your loves In their own fashion, like a merriment. DUMAIN. Our letters, madam, show’d much more than jest. LONGAVILLE. So did our looks.
ROSALINE. We did not quote them so. KING. Now, at the latest minute of the hour, Grant us your loves.
PRINCESS OF FRANCE. A time, methinks, too short To make a world-without-end bargain in. No, no, my lord, your Grace is perjur’d much, Full of dear guiltiness; and therefore this, If for my love, as there is no such cause, You will do aught- this shall you do for me: Your oath I will not trust; but go with speed To some forlorn and naked hermitage,
Remote from all the pleasures of the world; There stay until the twelve celestial signs Have brought about the annual reckoning. If this austere insociable life
Change not your offer made in heat of blood, If frosts and fasts, hard lodging and thin weeds, Nip not the gaudy blossoms of your love, But that it bear this trial, and last love, Then, at the expiration of the year,
Come, challenge me, challenge me by these deserts; And, by this virgin palm now kissing thine, I will be thine; and, till that instant, shut My woeful self up in a mournful house, Raining the tears of lamentation
For the remembrance of my father’s death. If this thou do deny, let our hands part, Neither intitled in the other’s heart. KING. If this, or more than this, I would deny, To flatter up these powers of mine with rest, The sudden hand of death close up mine eye! Hence hermit then, my heart is in thy breast. BEROWNE. And what to me, my love? and what to me? ROSALINE. You must he purged too, your sins are rack’d; You are attaint with faults and perjury; Therefore, if you my favour mean to get, A twelvemonth shall you spend, and never rest, But seek the weary beds of people sick. DUMAIN. But what to me, my love? but what to me? A wife?
KATHARINE. A beard, fair health, and honesty; With threefold love I wish you all these three. DUMAIN. O, shall I say I thank you, gentle wife? KATHARINE. No so, my lord; a twelvemonth and a day I’ll mark no words that smooth-fac’d wooers say. Come when the King doth to my lady come; Then, if I have much love, I’ll give you some. DUMAIN. I’ll serve thee true and faithfully till then. KATHARINE. Yet swear not, lest ye be forsworn again. LONGAVILLE. What says Maria?
MARIA. At the twelvemonth’s end
I’ll change my black gown for a faithful friend. LONGAVILLE. I’ll stay with patience; but the time is long. MARIA. The liker you; few taller are so young. BEROWNE. Studies my lady? Mistress, look on me; Behold the window of my heart, mine eye, What humble suit attends thy answer there. Impose some service on me for thy love. ROSALINE. Oft have I heard of you, my Lord Berowne, Before I saw you; and the world’s large tongue Proclaims you for a man replete with mocks, Full of comparisons and wounding flouts, Which you on all estates will execute
That lie within the mercy of your wit. To weed this wormwood from your fruitful brain, And therewithal to win me, if you please, Without the which I am not to be won,
You shall this twelvemonth term from day to day Visit the speechless sick, and still converse With groaning wretches; and your task shall be, With all the fierce endeavour of your wit, To enforce the pained impotent to smile. BEROWNE. To move wild laughter in the throat of death? It cannot be; it is impossible;
Mirth cannot move a soul in agony. ROSALINE. Why, that’s the way to choke a gibing spirit, Whose influence is begot of that loose grace Which shallow laughing hearers give to fools. A jest’s prosperity lies in the ear
Of him that hears it, never in the tongue Of him that makes it; then, if sickly ears, Deaf’d with the clamours of their own dear groans, Will hear your idle scorns, continue then, And I will have you and that fault withal. But if they will not, throw away that spirit, And I shall find you empty of that fault, Right joyful of your reformation.
BEROWNE. A twelvemonth? Well, befall what will befall, I’ll jest a twelvemonth in an hospital. PRINCESS OF FRANCE. [ To the King] Ay, sweet my lord, and so I take my leave.
KING. No, madam; we will bring you on your way. BEROWNE. Our wooing doth not end like an old play: Jack hath not Jill. These ladies’ courtesy Might well have made our sport a comedy. KING. Come, sir, it wants a twelvemonth an’ a day, And then ’twill end.
BEROWNE. That’s too long for a play.
Re-enter ARMADO
ARMADO. Sweet Majesty, vouchsafe me- PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Was not that not Hector? DUMAIN. The worthy knight of Troy.
ARMADO. I will kiss thy royal finger, and take leave. I am a votary: I have vow’d to Jaquenetta to hold the plough for her sweet love three year. But, most esteemed greatness, will you hear the dialogue that the two learned men have compiled in praise of the Owl and the Cuckoo? It should have followed in the end of our show.
KING. Call them forth quickly; we will do so. ARMADO. Holla! approach.
Enter All
This side is Hiems, Winter; this Ver, the Spring- the one maintained by the Owl, th’ other by the Cuckoo. Ver, begin.
SPRING
When daisies pied and violets blue And lady-smocks all silver-white
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight, The cuckoo then on every tree
Mocks married men, for thus sings he: ‘Cuckoo;
Cuckoo, cuckoo’- O word of fear, Unpleasing to a married ear!
When shepherds pipe on oaten straws, And merry larks are ploughmen’s clocks; When turtles tread, and rooks and daws, And maidens bleach their summer smocks; The cuckoo then on every tree
Mocks married men, for thus sings he: ‘Cuckoo;
Cuckoo, cuckoo’- O word of fear, Unpleasing to a married ear!
WINTER
When icicles hang by the wall,
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail, And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk comes frozen home in pail, When blood is nipp’d, and ways be foul, Then nightly sings the staring owl: ‘Tu-who;
Tu-whit, Tu-who’- A merry note, While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
When all aloud the wind doth blow, And coughing drowns the parson’s saw, And birds sit brooding in the snow, And Marian’s nose looks red and raw, When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl, Then nightly sings the staring owl: ‘Tu-who;
Tu-whit, To-who’- A merry note, While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
ARMADO. The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo. You that way: we this way. Exeunt
THE END
<
1606
THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH
by William Shakespeare
Dramatis Personae
DUNCAN, King of Scotland
MACBETH, Thane of Glamis and Cawdor, a general in the King’s army LADY MACBETH, his wife
MACDUFF, Thane of Fife, a nobleman of Scotland LADY MACDUFF, his wife
MALCOLM, elder son of Duncan
DONALBAIN, younger son of Duncan
BANQUO, Thane of Lochaber, a general in the King’s army FLEANCE, his son
LENNOX, nobleman of Scotland
ROSS, nobleman of Scotland
MENTEITH nobleman of Scotland
ANGUS, nobleman of Scotland
CAITHNESS, nobleman of Scotland
SIWARD, Earl of Northumberland, general of the English forces YOUNG SIWARD, his son
SEYTON, attendant to Macbeth
HECATE, Queen of the Witches
The Three Witches
Boy, Son of Macduff
Gentlewoman attending on Lady Macbeth An English Doctor
A Scottish Doctor
A Sergeant
A Porter
An Old Man
The Ghost of Banquo and other Apparitions Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murtherers, Attendants, and Messengers
<
SCENE: Scotland and England
ACT I. SCENE I.
A desert place. Thunder and lightning.
Enter three Witches.
FIRST WITCH. When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
SECOND WITCH. When the hurlyburly’s done, When the battle’s lost and won.
THIRD WITCH. That will be ere the set of sun. FIRST WITCH. Where the place?
SECOND WITCH. Upon the heath.
THIRD WITCH. There to meet with Macbeth. FIRST WITCH. I come, Graymalkin.
ALL. Paddock calls. Anon!
Fair is foul, and foul is fair.
Hover through the fog and filthy air. Exeunt.
SCENE II.
A camp near Forres. Alarum within.
Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant.
DUNCAN. What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt The newest state.
MALCOLM. This is the sergeant
Who like a good and hardy soldier fought ‘Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend! Say to the King the knowledge of the broil As thou didst leave it.
SERGEANT. Doubtful it stood,
As two spent swimmers that do cling together And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald- Worthy to be a rebel, for to that
The multiplying villainies of nature Do swarm upon him -from the Western Isles Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied; And Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, Show’d like a rebel’s whore. But all’s too weak; For brave Macbeth -well he deserves that name- Disdaining Fortune, with his brandish’d steel, Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like Valor’s minion carved out his passage Till he faced the slave,
Which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, Till he unseam’d him from the nave to the chaps, And fix’d his head upon our battlements. DUNCAN. O valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman! SERGEANT. As whence the sun ‘gins his reflection Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break, So from that spring whence comfort seem’d to come Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark. No sooner justice had, with valor arm’d, Compell’d these skipping kerns to trust their heels, But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage, With furbish’d arms and new supplies of men, Began a fresh assault.
DUNCAN. Dismay’d not this
Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo.? SERGEANT. Yes,
As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. If I say sooth, I must report they were As cannons overcharged with double cracks, So they
Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe. Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, Or memorize another Golgotha,
I cannot tell-
But I am faint; my gashes cry for help. DUNCAN. So well thy words become thee as thy wounds; They smack of honor both. Go get him surgeons. Exit Sergeant, attended. Who comes here?
Enter Ross.
MALCOLM The worthy Thane of Ross.
LENNOX. What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look That seems to speak things strange.
ROSS. God save the King!
DUNCAN. Whence camest thou, worthy Thane? ROSS. From Fife, great King,
Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky And fan our people cold.
Norway himself, with terrible numbers, Assisted by that most disloyal traitor The Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict, Till that Bellona’s bridegroom, lapp’d in proof, Confronted him with self-comparisons,
Point against point rebellious, arm ‘gainst arm, Curbing his lavish spirit; and, to conclude, The victory fell on us.
DUNCAN. Great happiness!
ROSS. That now
Sweno, the Norways’ king, craves composition; Nor would we deign him burial of his men Till he disbursed, at Saint Colme’s Inch, Ten thousand dollars to our general use. DUNCAN. No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death, And with his former title greet Macbeth. ROSS. I’ll see it done.
DUNCAN. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won. Exeunt.
SCENE III.
A heath. Thunder.
Enter the three Witches.
FIRST WITCH. Where hast thou been, sister? SECOND WITCH. Killing swine.
THIRD WITCH. Sister, where thou?
FIRST WITCH. A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap, And mounch’d, and mounch’d, and mounch’d. “Give me,” quoth I. “Aroint thee, witch!” the rump-fed ronyon cries. Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master the Tiger; But in a sieve I’ll thither sail,
And, like a rat without a tail,
I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.
SECOND WITCH. I’ll give thee a wind. FIRST WITCH. Thou’rt kind.
THIRD WITCH. And I another.
FIRST WITCH. I myself have all the other, And the very ports they blow,
All the quarters that they know
I’ the shipman’s card.
I will drain him dry as hay:
Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang upon his penthouse lid;
He shall live a man forbid.
Weary se’nnights nine times nine
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine; Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-toss’d.
Look what I have.
SECOND WITCH. Show me, show me.
FIRST WITCH. Here I have a pilot’s thumb, Wreck’d as homeward he did come. Drum within. THIRD WITCH. A drum, a drum!
Macbeth doth come.
ALL. The weird sisters, hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land,
Thus do go about, about,
Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, And thrice again, to make up nine.
Peace! The charm’s wound up.
Enter Macbeth and Banquo.
MACBETH. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. BANQUO. How far is’t call’d to Forres? What are these So wither’d and so wild in their attire, That look not like the inhabitants o’ the earth, And yet are on’t? Live you? or are you aught That man may question? You seem to understand me, By each at once her choppy finger laying Upon her skinny lips. You should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so.
MACBETH. Speak, if you can. What are you? FIRST WITCH. All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! SECOND WITCH. All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! THIRD WITCH. All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter! BANQUO. Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair? I’ the name of truth, Are ye fantastical or that indeed
Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner You greet with present grace and great prediction Of noble having and of royal hope,
That he seems rapt withal. To me you speak not. If you can look into the seeds of time, And say which grain will grow and which will not, Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear Your favors nor your hate.
FIRST WITCH. Hail!
SECOND WITCH. Hail!
THIRD WITCH. Hail!
FIRST WITCH. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. SECOND WITCH. Not so happy, yet much happier. THIRD WITCH. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none. So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!
FIRST WITCH. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail! MACBETH. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more. By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis; But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives, A prosperous gentleman; and to be King Stands not within the prospect of belief, No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence You owe this strange intelligence, or why Upon this blasted heath you stop our way With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you. Witches vanish. BANQUO. The earth hath bubbles as the water has, And these are of them. Whither are they vanish’d? MACBETH. Into the air, and what seem’d corporal melted As breath into the wind. Would they had stay’d! BANQUO. Were such things here as we do speak about? Or have we eaten on the insane root
That takes the reason prisoner?
MACBETH. Your children shall be kings. BANQUO. You shall be King.
MACBETH. And Thane of Cawdor too. Went it not so? BANQUO. To the selfsame tune and words. Who’s here?
Enter Ross and Angus.
ROSS. The King hath happily received, Macbeth, The news of thy success; and when he reads Thy personal venture in the rebels’ fight, His wonders and his praises do contend Which should be thine or his. Silenced with that, In viewing o’er the rest o’ the selfsame day, He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks, Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make, Strange images of death. As thick as hail Came post with post, and every one did bear Thy praises in his kingdom’s great defense, And pour’d them down before him.
ANGUS. We are sent
To give thee, from our royal master, thanks; Only to herald thee into his sight,
Not pay thee.
ROSS. And for an earnest of a greater honor, He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor. In which addition, hail, most worthy Thane, For it is thine.
BANQUO. What, can the devil speak true? MACBETH. The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me In borrow’d robes?
ANGUS. Who was the Thane lives yet, But under heavy judgement bears that life Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined With those of Norway, or did line the rebel With hidden help and vantage, or that with both He labor’d in his country’s wreck, I know not; But treasons capital, confess’d and proved, Have overthrown him.
MACBETH. [Aside.] Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor! The greatest is behind. [To Ross and Angus] Thanks for your pains.
[Aside to Banquo] Do you not hope your children shall be kings, When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me Promised no less to them?
BANQUO. [Aside to Macbeth.] That, trusted home, Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, Besides the Thane of Cawdor. But ’tis strange; And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s In deepest consequence-
Cousins, a word, I pray you.
MACBETH. [Aside.] Two truths are told, As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme-I thank you, gentlemen. [Aside.] This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success, Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor. If good, why do I yield to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, Against the use of nature? Present fears Are less than horrible imaginings:
My thought, whose murther yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man that function Is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is But what is not.
BANQUO. Look, how our partner’s rapt. MACBETH. [Aside.] If chance will have me King, why, chance may crown me
Without my stir.
BANQUO. New honors come upon him,
Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould But with the aid of use.
MACBETH. [Aside.] Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. BANQUO. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. MACBETH. Give me your favor; my dull brain was wrought With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains Are register’d where every day I turn
The leaf to read them. Let us toward the King. Think upon what hath chanced, and at more time, The interim having weigh’d it, let us speak Our free hearts each to other.
BANQUO. Very gladly.
MACBETH. Till then, enough. Come, friends. Exeunt.
SCENE IV.
Forres. The palace.
Flourish. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, and Attendants.
DUNCAN. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not Those in commission yet return’d?
MALCOLM. My liege,
They are not yet come back. But I have spoke With one that saw him die, who did report That very frankly he confess’d his treasons, Implored your Highness’ pardon, and set forth A deep repentance. Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it; he died As one that had been studied in his death, To throw away the dearest thing he owed As ’twere a careless trifle.
DUNCAN. There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face: He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.
Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, and Angus.
O worthiest cousin!
The sin of my ingratitude even now Was heavy on me. Thou art so far before, That swiftest wing of recompense is slow To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved, That the proportion both of thanks and payment Might have been mine! Only I have left to say, More is thy due than more than all can pay. MACBETH. The service and the loyalty lowe, In doing it, pays itself. Your Highness’ part Is to receive our duties, and our duties Are to your throne and state, children and servants, Which do but what they should, by doing everything Safe toward your love and honor.
DUNCAN. Welcome hither.
I have begun to plant thee, and will labor To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo, That hast no less deserved, nor must be known No less to have done so; let me infold thee And hold thee to my heart.
BANQUO. There if I grow,
The harvest is your own.
DUNCAN. My plenteous joys,
Wanton in fullness, seek to hide themselves In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes, And you whose places are the nearest, know We will establish our estate upon
Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter The Prince of Cumberland; which honor must Not unaccompanied invest him only,
But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine On all deservers. From hence to Inverness, And bind us further to you.
MACBETH. The rest is labor, which is not used for you. I’ll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful The hearing of my wife with your approach; So humbly take my leave.
DUNCAN. My worthy Cawdor!
MACBETH. [Aside.] The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step On which I must fall down, or else o’erleap, For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires. The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. Exit. DUNCAN. True, worthy Banquo! He is full so valiant, And in his commendations I am fed;
It is a banquet to me. Let’s after him, Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome. It is a peerless kinsman. Flourish. Exeunt.
SCENE V.
Inverness. Macbeth’s castle.
Enter Lady Macbeth, reading a letter.
LADY MACBETH. “They met me in the day of success, and I have learned by the perfectest report they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the King, who all-hailed me ‘Thane of Cawdor’; by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me and referred me to the coming on of time with ‘Hail, King that shalt be!’ This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell.”
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature. It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great; Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou’ldst have, great Glamis, That which cries, “Thus thou must do, if thou have it; And that which rather thou dost fear to do Than wishest should be undone.” Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear, And chastise with the valor of my tongue All that impedes thee from the golden round, Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem To have thee crown’d withal.
Enter a Messenger.
What is your tidings?
MESSENGER. The King comes here tonight. LADY MACBETH. Thou’rt mad to say it!
Is not thy master with him? who, were’t so, Would have inform’d for preparation.
MESSENGER. So please you, it is true; our Thane is coming. One of my fellows had the speed of him, Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more Than would make up his message.
LADY MACBETH. Give him tending;
He brings great news. Exit Messenger. The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood, Stop up the access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose nor keep peace between The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts, And take my milk for gall, your murthering ministers, Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature’s mischief! Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell That my keen knife see not the wound it makes Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark To cry, “Hold, hold!”
Enter Macbeth.
Great Glamis! Worthy Cawdor!
Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter! Thy letters have transported me beyond This ignorant present, and I feel now
The future in the instant.
MACBETH. My dearest love,
Duncan comes here tonight.
LADY MACBETH. And when goes hence? MACBETH. Tomorrow, as he purposes.
LADY MACBETH. O, never
Shall sun that morrow see!
Your face, my Thane, is as a book where men May read strange matters. To beguile the time, Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue; look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under it. He that’s coming Must be provided for; and you shall put This night’s great business into my dispatch, Which shall to all our nights and days to come Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom. MACBETH. We will speak further.
LADY MACBETH. Only look up clear;
To alter favor ever is to fear.
Leave all the rest to me. Exeunt.
SCENE VI.
Before Macbeth’s castle. Hautboys and torches.
Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Angus, and Attendants.
DUNCAN. This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses.
BANQUO. This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve By his loved mansionry that the heaven’s breath Smells wooingly here. No jutty, frieze, Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle; Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed The air is delicate.
Enter Lady Macbeth.
DUNCAN. See, see, our honor’d hostess! The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you How you shall bid God ‘ield us for your pains, And thank us for your trouble.
LADY MACBETH. All our service
In every point twice done, and then done double, Were poor and single business to contend Against those honors deep and broad wherewith Your Majesty loads our house. For those of old, And the late dignities heap’d up to them, We rest your hermits.
DUNCAN. Where’s the Thane of Cawdor? We coursed him at the heels and had a purpose To be his purveyor; but he rides well, And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess, We are your guest tonight.
LADY MACBETH. Your servants ever
Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt, To make their audit at your Highness’ pleasure, Still to return your own.
DUNCAN. Give me your hand;
Conduct me to mine host. We love him highly, And shall continue our graces towards him. By your leave, hostess. Exeunt.
SCENE VII
Macbeth’s castle. Hautboys and torches.
Enter a Sewer and divers Servants with dishes and service, who pass over the stage. Then enter Macbeth.
MACBETH. If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well It were done quickly. If the assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch, With his surcease, success; that but this blow Might be the be-all and the end-all -here, But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, We’ld jump the life to come. But in these cases We still have judgement here, that we but teach Bloody instructions, which being taught return To plague the inventor. This even-handed justice Commends the ingredients of our poison’d chalice To our own lips. He’s here in double trust: First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, Who should against his murtherer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels trumpet-tongued against The deep damnation of his taking-off,
And pity, like a naked new-born babe Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin horsed Upon the sightless couriers of the air, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself And falls on the other.
Enter Lady Macbeth.
How now, what news?
LADY MACBETH. He has almost supp’d. Why have you left the chamber? MACBETH. Hath he ask’d for me?
LADY MACBETH. Know you not he has? MACBETH. We will proceed no further in this business: He hath honor’d me of late, and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people, Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, Not cast aside so soon.
LADY MACBETH. Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dress’d yourself? Hath it slept since? And wakes it now, to look so green and pale At what it did so freely? From this time Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valor As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life And live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would” Like the poor cat i’ the adage?
MACBETH. Prithee, peace!
I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more is none.
LADY MACBETH. What beast wast then That made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man, And, to be more than what you were, you would Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place Did then adhere, and yet you would make both. They have made themselves, and that their fitness now Does unmake you. I have given suck and know How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me- I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums And dash’d the brains out had I so sworn as you Have done to this.
MACBETH. If we should fail?
LADY MACBETH. We fail?
But screw your courage to the sticking-place And we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep- Whereto the rather shall his day’s hard journey Soundly invite him- his two chamberlains Will I with wine and wassail so convince That memory, the warder of the brain, Shall be a fume and the receipt of reason A limbeck only. When in swinish sleep
Their drenched natures lie as in a death, What cannot you and I perform upon
The unguarded Duncan? What not put upon His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt Of our great quell?
MACBETH. Bring forth men-children only, For thy undaunted mettle should compose Nothing but males. Will it not be received, When we have mark’d with blood those sleepy two Of his own chamber and used their very daggers, That they have done’t?
LADY MACBETH. Who dares receive it other, As we shall make our griefs and clamor roar Upon his death?
MACBETH. I am settled and bend up
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. Away, and mock the time with fairest show: False face must hide what the false heart doth know. Exeunt.
<
ACT II. SCENE I.
Inverness. Court of Macbeth’s castle.
Enter Banquo and Fleance, bearing a torch before him.
BANQUO. How goes the night, boy?
FLEANCE. The moon is down; I have not heard the clock. BANQUO. And she goes down at twelve.
FLEANCE. I take’t ’tis later, sir. BANQUO. Hold, take my sword. There’s husbandry in heaven, Their candles are all out. Take thee that too. A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers, Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature Gives way to in repose!
Enter Macbeth and a Servant with a torch.
Give me my sword.
Who’s there?
MACBETH. A friend.
BANQUO. What, sir, not yet at rest? The King’s abed. He hath been in unusual pleasure and
Sent forth great largess to your offices. This diamond he greets your wife withal, By the name of most kind hostess, and shut up In measureless content.
MACBETH. Being unprepared,
Our will became the servant to defect, Which else should free have wrought.
BANQUO. All’s well.
I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters: To you they have show’d some truth.
MACBETH. I think not of them;
Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve, We would spend it in some words upon that business, If you would grant the time.
BANQUO. At your kind’st leisure.
MACBETH. If you shall cleave to my consent, when ’tis, It shall make honor for you.
BANQUO. So I lose none
In seeking to augment it, but still keep My bosom franchised and allegiance clear, I shall be counsel’d.
MACBETH. Good repose the while.
BANQUO. Thanks, sir, the like to you. Exeunt Banquo. and Fleance. MACBETH. Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. Exit Servant. Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshal’st me the way that I was going, And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o’ the other senses, Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still, And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, Which was not so before. There’s no such thing: It is the bloody business which informs Thus to mine eyes. Now o’er the one half-world Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse The curtain’d sleep; witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecate’s offerings; and wither’d Murther, Alarum’d by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, With Tarquin’s ravishing strides, towards his design Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth, Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear Thy very stones prate of my whereabout, And take the present horror from the time, Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives; Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. A bell rings.
I go, and it is done; the bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven, or to hell. Exit.
SCENE II.
The same.
Enter Lady Macbeth.
LADY MACBETH. That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold; What hath quench’d them hath given me fire. Hark! Peace! It was the owl that shriek’d, the fatal bellman, Which gives the stern’st good night. He is about it: The doors are open, and the surfeited grooms Do mock their charge with snores. I have drugg’d their possets That death and nature do contend about them, Whether they live or die.
MACBETH. [Within.] Who’s there’ what, ho! LADY MACBETH. Alack, I am afraid they have awaked And ’tis not done. The attempt and not the deed Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready; He could not miss ’em. Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done’t.
Enter Macbeth,
My husband!
MACBETH. I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise? LADY MACBETH. I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Did not you speak?
MACBETH. When?
LADY MACBETH. Now.
MACBETH. As I descended?
LADY MACBETH. Ay.
MACBETH. Hark!
Who lies i’ the second chamber?
LADY MACBETH. Donalbain.
MACBETH. This is a sorry sight. [Looks on his hands. LADY MACBETH. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight. MACBETH. There’s one did laugh in ‘s sleep, and one cried, “Murther!”
That they did wake each other. I stood and heard them, But they did say their prayers and address’d them Again to sleep.
LADY MACBETH. There are two lodged together. MACBETH. One cried, “God bless us!” and “Amen” the other, As they had seen me with these hangman’s hands. Listening their fear, I could not say “Amen,” When they did say, “God bless us!”
LADY MACBETH. Consider it not so deeply. MACBETH. But wherefore could not I pronounce “Amen”? I had most need of blessing, and “Amen” Stuck in my throat.
LADY MACBETH. These deeds must not be thought After these ways; so, it will make us mad. MACBETH. I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murther sleep” -the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravel’d sleave of care, The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, Chief nourisher in life’s feast-
LADY MACBETH. What do you mean?
MACBETH. Still it cried, “Sleep no more!” to all the house; “Glamis hath murther’d sleep, and therefore Cawdor Shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more.” LADY MACBETH. Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy Thane, You do unbend your noble strength, to think So brainsickly of things. Go, get some water And wash this filthy witness from your hand. Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must lie there. Go carry them, and smear The sleepy grooms with blood.
MACBETH. I’ll go no more.
I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on’t again I dare not.
LADY MACBETH. Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead Are but as pictures; ’tis the eye of childhood That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal, For it must seem their guilt. Exit. Knocking within. MACBETH. Whence is that knocking?
How is’t with me, when every noise appals me? What hands are here? Ha, they pluck out mine eyes! Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
Re-enter Lady Macbeth.
LADY MACBETH. My hands are of your color, but I shame To wear a heart so white. [Knocking within.] I hear knocking At the south entry. Retire we to our chamber. A little water clears us of this deed. How easy is it then! Your constancy
Hath left you unattended. [Knocking within.] Hark, more knocking. Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us And show us to be watchers. Be not lost So poorly in your thoughts.
MACBETH. To know my deed, ’twere best not know myself. Knocking within. Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst! Exeunt.
SCENE III.
The same.
Enter a Porter. Knocking within.
PORTER. Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of Hell Gate, he should have old turning the key. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there, i’ the name of Belzebub? Here’s a farmer that hanged himself on th’ expectation of plenty. Come in time! Have napkins enow about you; here you’ll sweat fort. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock! Who’s there, in th’ other devil’s name? Faith, here’s an equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God’s sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven. O, come in, equivocator. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there? Faith, here’s an English tailor come hither, for stealing out of a French hose. Come in, tailor; here you may roast your goose. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock! Never at quiet! What are you? But this place is too cold for hell. I’ll devil-porter it no further. I had thought to have let in some of all professions, that go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire. [Knocking within.] Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the porter.
Opens the gate.
Enter Macduff and Lennox.
MACDUFF. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed, That you do lie so late?
PORTER. Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock; and drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things. MACDUFF. What three things does drink especially provoke? PORTER. Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes and unprovokes: it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance. Therefore much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him and disheartens him; makes him stand to and not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and giving him the lie, leaves him. MACDUFF. I believe drink gave thee the lie last night. PORTER. That it did, sir, i’ the very throat on me; but requited him for his lie, and, I think, being too strong for him, though he took up my legs sometime, yet I made shift to cast him. MACDUFF. Is thy master stirring?
Enter Macbeth.
Our knocking has awaked him; here he comes. LENNOX. Good morrow, noble sir.
MACBETH. morrow, both.
MACDUFF. Is the King stirring, worthy Thane? MACBETH. Not yet.
MACDUFF. He did command me to call timely on him; I have almost slipp’d the hour.
MACBETH. I’ll bring you to him.
MACDUFF. I know this is a joyful trouble to you, But yet ’tis one.
MACBETH. The labor we delight in physics pain. This is the door.
MACDUFF I’ll make so bold to call, For ’tis my limited service. Exit. LENNOX. Goes the King hence today?
MACBETH. He does; he did appoint so. LENNOX. The night has been unruly. Where we lay, Our chimneys were blown down, and, as they say, Lamentings heard i’ the air, strange screams of death, And prophesying with accents terrible
Of dire combustion and confused events New hatch’d to the woeful time. The obscure bird Clamor’d the livelong night. Some say the earth Was feverous and did shake.
MACBETH. ‘Twas a rough fight.
LENNOX. My young remembrance cannot parallel A fellow to it.
Re-enter Macduff.
MACDUFF. O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart Cannot conceive nor name thee.
MACBETH. LENNOX. What’s the matter? MACDUFF. Confusion now hath made his masterpiece. Most sacrilegious murther hath broke ope The Lord’s anointed temple and stole thence The life o’ the building.
MACBETH. What is’t you say? the life? LENNOX. Mean you his Majesty?
MACDUFF. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak; See, and then speak yourselves.
Exeunt Macbeth and Lennox. Awake, awake!
Ring the alarum bell. Murther and treason! Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm, awake!
Shake off this downy sleep, death’s counterfeit, And look on death itself! Up, up, and see The great doom’s image! Malcolm! Banquo! As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites To countenance this horror! Ring the bell. Bell rings.
Enter Lady Macbeth.
LADY MACBETH. What’s the business,
That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley The sleepers of the house? Speak, speak! MACDUFF. O gentle lady,
‘Tis not for you to hear what I can speak: The repetition in a woman’s ear
Would murther as it fell.
Enter Banquo.
O Banquo, Banquo!
Our royal master’s murther’d.
LADY MACBETH. Woe, alas!
What, in our house?
BANQUO. Too cruel anywhere.
Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself, And say it is not so.
Re-enter Macbeth and Lennox, with Ross.
MACBETH. Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had lived a blessed time, for from this instant There’s nothing serious in mortality.
All is but toys; renown and grace is dead, The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees Is left this vault to brag of.
Enter Malcolm and Donalbain.
DONALBAIN. What is amiss?
MACBETH. You are, and do not know’t. The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood Is stopped, the very source of it is stopp’d. MACDUFF. Your royal father’s murther’d. MALCOLM. O, by whom?
LENNOX. Those of his chamber, as it seem’d, had done’t. Their hands and faces were all badged with blood; So were their daggers, which unwiped we found Upon their pillows.
They stared, and were distracted; no man’s life Was to be trusted with them.
MACBETH. O, yet I do repent me of my fury, That I did kill them.
MACDUFF. Wherefore did you so?
MACBETH. Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious, Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man. The expedition of my violent love
Outrun the pauser reason. Here lay Duncan, His silver skin laced with his golden blood, And his gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in nature For ruin’s wasteful entrance; there, the murtherers, Steep’d in the colors of their trade, their daggers Unmannerly breech’d with gore. Who could refrain, That had a heart to love, and in that heart Courage to make ‘s love known?
LADY MACBETH. Help me hence, ho!
MACDUFF. Look to the lady.
MALCOLM. [Aside to Donalbain.] Why do we hold our tongues, That most may claim this argument for ours? DONALBAIN. [Aside to Malcolm.] What should be spoken here, where our fate,
Hid in an auger hole, may rush and seize us? Let’s away,
Our tears are not yet brew’d.
MALCOLM. [Aside to Donalbain.] Nor our strong sorrow Upon the foot of motion.
BANQUO. Look to the lady.
Lady Macbeth is carried out. And when we have our naked frailties hid, That suffer in exposure, let us meet
And question this most bloody piece of work To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us. In the great hand of God I stand, and thence Against the undivulged pretense I fight Of treasonous malice.
MACDUFF. And so do I.
ALL. So all.
MACBETH. Let’s briefly put on manly readiness And meet i’ the hall together.
ALL. Well contented.
Exeunt all but Malcolm and Donalbain. MALCOLM. What will you do? Let’s not consort with them. To show an unfelt sorrow is an office
Which the false man does easy. I’ll to England. DONALBAIN. To Ireland, I; our separated fortune Shall keep us both the safer. Where we are There’s daggers in men’s smiles; the near in blood, The nearer bloody.
MALCOLM. This murtherous shaft that’s shot Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way Is to avoid the aim. Therefore to horse; And let us not be dainty of leave-taking, But shift away. There’s warrant in that theft Which steals itself when there’s no mercy left. Exeunt.
SCENE IV.
Outside Macbeth’s castle.
Enter Ross with an Old Man.
OLD MAN. Threescore and ten I can remember well, Within the volume of which time I have seen Hours dreadful and things strange, but this sore night Hath trifled former knowings.
ROSS. Ah, good father,
Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man’s act, Threaten his bloody stage. By the clock ’tis day, And yet dark night strangles the traveling lamp. Is’t night’s predominance, or the day’s shame, That darkness does the face of earth entomb, When living light should kiss it?
OLD MAN. ‘Tis unnatural,
Even like the deed that’s done. On Tuesday last A falcon towering in her pride of place Was by a mousing owl hawk’d at and kill’d. ROSS. And Duncan’s horses-a thing most strange and certain- Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, Turn’d wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, Contending ‘gainst obedience, as they would make War with mankind.
OLD MAN. ‘Tis said they eat each other. ROSS. They did so, to the amazement of mine eyes That look’d upon’t.
Enter Macduff.
Here comes the good Macduff.
How goes the world, sir, now?
MACDUFF. Why, see you not?
ROSS. Is’t known who did this more than bloody deed? MACDUFF. Those that Macbeth hath slain. ROSS. Alas, the day!
What good could they pretend?
MACDUFF. They were suborn’d:
Malcolm and Donalbain, the King’s two sons, Are stol’n away and fled, which puts upon them Suspicion of the deed.
ROSS. ‘Gainst nature still!
Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up Thine own life’s means! Then ’tis most like The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth. MACDUFF. He is already named, and gone to Scone To be invested.
ROSS. Where is Duncan’s body?
MACDUFF. Carried to Colmekill,
The sacred storehouse of his predecessors And guardian of their bones.
ROSS. Will you to Scone?
MACDUFF. No, cousin, I’ll to Fife. ROSS. Well, I will thither.
MACDUFF. Well, may you see things well done there. Adieu,
Lest our old robes sit easier than our new! ROSS. Farewell, father.
OLD MAN. God’s benison go with you and with those That would make good of bad and friends of foes! Exeunt.
<
ACT III. SCENE I.
Forres. The palace.
Enter Banquo.
BANQUO. Thou hast it now: King, Cawdor, Glamis, all, As the weird women promised, 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 sounds. 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. Tonight 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
Forever knit.
MACBETH. Ride you this afternoon?
BANQUO. Ay, my good lord.
MACBETH. We should have else desired your good advice, Which still hath been both grave and prosperous In this day’s council; but we’ll take tomorrow. 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 tomorrow, 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 all but Macbeth and an Attendant. 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 valor To act in safety. There is none but he Whose being I do fear; and under him
My genius is rebuked, 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 placed 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 filed my mind, For them the gracious Duncan have I murther’d, Put rancors 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 Murtherers.
Now go to the door, and stay there till we call. Exit Attendant. Was it not yesterday we spoke together? FIRST MURTHERER. 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 crazed Say, “Thus did Banquo.”
FIRST MURTHERER. 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 gospel’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 MURTHERER. We are men, my liege. MACBETH. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men, As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, Shoughs, waterrugs, and demi-wolves are clept All by the name of dogs. The valued file Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle, The housekeeper, the hunter, every one According to the gift which bounteous nature Hath in him closed, 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 MURTHERER. I am one, my liege, Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world Have so incensed that I am reckless what I do to spite the world.
FIRST MURTHERER. 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 MURTHERERS. 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 barefaced 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 MURTHERER. We shall, my lord, Perform what you command us.
FIRST MURTHERER. 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; fort must be done tonight 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 MURTHERERS. We are resolved, my lord. MACBETH. I’ll call upon you straight. Abide within. Exeunt Murtherers. It is concluded: Banquo, thy soul’s flight, If it find heaven, must find it out tonight. Exit.
SCENE II.
The palace.
Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant.
LADY MACBETH. Is Banquo gone from court? SERVANT. Ay, madam, but returns again tonight. LADY MACBETH. Say to the King I would attend his leisure For a few words.
SERVANT. Madam, I will. Exit. LADY MACBETH. Nought’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,
Gentle my lord, sleek o’er your rugged looks; Be bright and jovial among your guests tonight. 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 marvel’st at my words, but hold thee still: Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill. So, prithee, go with me. Exeunt.
SCENE III.
A park near the palace.
Enter three Murtherers.
FIRST MURTHERER. But who did bid thee join with us? THIRD MURTHERER. Macbeth.
SECOND MURTHERER. He needs not our mistrust, since he delivers Our offices and what we have to do
To the direction just.
FIRST MURTHERER. Then stand with us. The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day; Now spurs the lated traveler apace
To gain the timely inn, and near approaches The subject of our watch.
THIRD MURTHERER. Hark! I hear horses. BANQUO. [Within.] Give us a light there, ho! SECOND MURTHERER. Then ’tis he; the rest That are within the note of expectation Already are i’ the court.
FIRST MURTHERER. His horses go about. THIRD MURTHERER. Almost a mile, but he does usually- So all men do -from hence to the palace gate Make it their walk.
SECOND MURTHERER. A light, a light!
Enter Banquo, and Fleance with a torch.
THIRD MURTHERER. ‘Tis he.
FIRST MURTHERER. Stand to’t.
BANQUO. It will be rain tonight.
FIRST MURTHERER. Let it come down. They set upon Banquo. BANQUO. O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly! Thou mayst revenge. O slave! Dies. Fleance escapes. THIRD MURTHERER. Who did strike out the light? FIRST MURTHERER. Wast not the way?
THIRD MURTHERER. There’s but one down; the son is fled. SECOND MURTHERER. We have lost
Best half of our affair.
FIRST MURTHERER. Well, let’s away and say how much is done. Exeunt.
SCENE IV.
A Hall 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.
Enter first Murtherer to the door.
MACBETH. See, they encounter thee with their hearts’ thanks. Both sides are even; here I’ll sit i’ the midst. Be large in mirth; anon we’ll drink a measure The table round. [Approaches the door.] There’s blood upon thy face.
MURTHERER. ‘Tis Banquo’s then.
MACBETH. ‘Tis better thee without than he within. Is he dispatch’d?
MURTHERER. 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.
MURTHERER. Most royal sir,
Fleance is ‘scaped.
MACBETH. [Aside.] 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? MURTHERER. 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. Tomorrow We’ll hear ourselves again.
Exit Murtherer. LADY MACBETH. My royal lord,
You do not give the cheer. The feast is sold That is not often vouch’d, while ’tis amaking, ‘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 enters and sits in Macbeth’s place.
MACBETH. Here had we now our country’s honor roof’d, Were the graced 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 reserved, 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 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,
Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself! Why do you make such faces? When all’s done, You look but on a stool.
MACBETH. Prithee, 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. Exit Ghost. 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 purged the gentle weal; Ay, and since too, murthers 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 murthers on their crowns, And push us from our stools. This is more strange Than such a murther 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.
Re-enter Ghost.
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! Exit Ghost. 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 admired disorder.
MACBETH. Can such things be,
And overcome us like a summer’s cloud, Without our special wonder? You make me strange