SCENE IV.

A Room of State in the Palace.

A Banquet prepared. Enter MACBETH, Lady MACBETH, ROSSE, LENOX, Lords, and Attendants.

Macb. You know your own degrees; sit down: at

first

And last, the hearty welcome.

Lords.

Thanks to your majesty.

Mach. 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 M. Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends; For my heart speaks, they are welcome.

Enter first Murderer, to the door.

Macb. 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.-There's blood upon thy face.
Mur. 'Tis Banquo's then.

Mach. "Tis better thee without, than he within.

Is he despatch'd?

Mur. My lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him. Mach. Thou art the best o' the cut-throats;

Yet he is good, that did the like for Fleance:

If thou didst it, thou art the nonpareil.

Mur.

Most royal sir, Fleance is 'scap'd.

Macb. 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?
Mur. Ay, my good lord, safe in a ditch he bides,
With twenty trenched gashes on his head;
The least a death to nature.

Macb.

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.

Lady M.

[Exit Murderer.

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.

Macb.

Sweet remembrancer!—

Now, good digestion wait on appetite,
And health on both!

Len.

May it please your highness sit? [The Ghost of BANQUO enters, and sits in MACBETH'S place.

Macb. Here had we now our country's honour roof'd, Were the grac'd person of our Banquo present;

Who may I rather challenge for unkindness,

Than pity for mischance!

Rosse.

Lays blame upon his promise.

To grace us with your royal company?

Macb. The table's full.

Len.

Macb.

His absence, sir,

Please it

Please it your highness

Here is a place reserv'd, sir.

Where?

Len. Here, my good lord. What is't that moves

your highness?

Macb. Which of you have done this?

Lords.

What, my good lord?

Macb. Thou canst not say, I did it never shake Thy gory locks at me.

Rosse. Gentlemen, rise; his highness is not well. Lady M. 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?

Mach. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
Which might appal the devil.

Lady M.

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.

Macb. 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.

Lady M.

[Ghost disappears.-

What! quite unmann'd in folly?

Macb. If I stand here, I saw him.

Lady M.

Fie! for shame!

Mach. Blood hath been shed ere now, i' th' olden

time,

Ere human statute purg'd the gentle weal;

Ay, and since too, murders have been perform'd
Too terrible for the ear: the times have been,
That when the brains were out the man would die,
And there an end; but now, they rise again,

VOL. VII.

L

With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,
And push us from our stools. This is more strange

Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends;
I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing
To those that know me.

all;

Come, love and health to

Then, I'll sit down.-Give me some wine: fill full.

Re-enter Ghost".

I drink to the general joy of 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.

Mach. 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.

4 Re-enter Ghost.] It was the opinion of the late Mr. Benjamin Strutt that the Ghost which entered at this point was that of Duncan, and not of Banquo. The folio, 1623, certainly, does not mention whose Ghost made its appearance, but the immediate context, referring again to the absence of Banquo, seems to warrant the ordinary interpretation. Had it been the Ghost of Duncan, the old copies would hardly have failed to give us the information. It merely here states, "Enter Ghost," having before stated, "Enter the Ghost of Banquo." Mr. H. C. Robinson, in communicating to me Mr. B. Strutt's notion, supports it by several later portions of the scene, particularly by the passages, “Thy bones are marrowless," "Thou hast no speculation in those eyes," and "Take any shape but that ;" which are supposed to be applicable to Duncan, who had been long dead, and not to Banquo, who had been very recently murdered. This opinion deserves to be treated with every respect, but it seems rather one of those conjectures in which original minds indulge, than a criticism founded upon a correct interpretation of the text of the author. Macbeth would not address "And dare me to the desert with thy sword" to the shade of the venerable Duncan; and "Thou hast no speculation in those eyes," &c. is the appearance that eyes would assume just after death. Some have maintained, against the positive evidence of all the old copies, that the first Ghost was that of Duncan.

Lady M.

Think of this, good peers,

But as a thing of custom: 'tis no other;
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.

Mach. 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 girls. Hence, horrible shadow!

[Ghost disappears. Unreal mockery, hence !-Why, so;-being gone, I am a man again.-Pray you, sit still.

Lady M. You have displac'd the mirth, broke the

good meeting,

With most admir'd disorder.

Macb.

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.

Rosse.

What sights, my lord?

Lady M. I pray you, speak not: he grows worse and

worse;

Question enrages him. At once, good night:

Stand not upon the order of

the order of your going,

go at once.

But

Len.

Good night; and better health

Attend his majesty.

• If trembling I INHABIT, THEN protest me

The baby of a girl.] This passage has occasioned much dispute; and supposing the arguments equally balanced, we should prefer the reading of all the old copies. Malone would alter "inhabit then," to inhibit thee, or forbid thee, which was the meaning of inhibit: according to what we think the true reading, Macbeth means to say, that he will not refuse to meet the Ghost in the desert.