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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.

Mac. *'Tis better thee without, than he within.
Is he dispatch'd?

260

Mur. My lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him. Mac. 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 non-pareil."

Mur. Most royal sir,

Fleance is 'scaped.

Mac. 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 :

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But now, I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd, bound in

To saucy doubts and fears.

Mur. Ay, my good lord:

But Banquo's safe?

safe in a ditch he bides,

With twenty trenched gashes* on his head ;

The least a death to nature.

Mac. 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. My royal lord,

[Exit Murderer. *281

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

From thence, the sauce to meat is ceremony;
Meeting were bare without it.

Enter the Ghost of BANQUO*, and sits in MACBETH'S

Place.

Mac. Sweet remembrancer!

Now, good digestion wait on appetite,

And health on both

290

Len. May it please your highness sit.

Mac. 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. His absence, sir,

Lays blame upon his promise. Please it your highness

To grace us with your royal company?

Mac. The table's full.

Len. Here is a place reserv'd, sir.

Mac. Where?

T

300

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

your highness?

Mac. Which of you have done this?

Lords. What, my good lord?

Mac. Thou can'st not say, I did it: never shake Thy goary locks at me.

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

310

You

You shall offend him, and extend his passion;
Feed, and regard him not.-Are you a man ?
Mac. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
Which might apall the devil.

Lady. O proper stuff!

This is the very painting of your fear:

This is the air-drawn-dagger, which, you said,

Led you to Duncan. *Oh, these flaws, and starts, T (Impostors to true fear) would well become

A woman's story, at a winter's fire,

Authoriz'd by her grandam. Shame itself!

7

320

"Why do you make such faces ?" When all's done, You look but on a stool.

Mac. Pr'ythee, see there! behold! look! lo! how

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Why, what care I? If thou cans't 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. What quite unmann'd in folly ?

Mac. If I stand here, I saw him.

Lady. Fie, for shame!

330

Mac. Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden

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*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 dit,
And there an end: but now, they rise again,
With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,

And

And push us from our stools: this is more strange

Than such a murder is.

Lady. My worthy lord,

Your noble friends do lack you.

Mac. I do forget:

Do not muse at me*, my most worthy friends; }; I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing

341

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 of the whole table,

Re-enter Ghoft.

And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss ; Would he were here to all, and him, we thirst, 851 *And all to all.

Lords. Our duties and the pledge.

Mac. Avant! 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 !

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Lady. Think of this, good peers,

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

:

Mac. What man dare, I dare:
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tyger*,
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;

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If

*If trembling I inhabit, then protest me
The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow !
Unreal mockery, hence!-Why, so ;-being gone,
I am a man again.-Pray you, sit still.

37°

Lady. You have displac'd the mirth, broke the good meeting,

With most admir'd disorder..

Mat. *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 cheek,

When mine is blanch'd with fear*. '

Rosse. What sights, my lord?

380

Lady. I pray you, speak' not; he grows worse and

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Question enrages him : at once, good night:
Stand not upon the order of your going, on
But go at once.

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Len. Good night, and better health,b red do Attend his majesty, bodd o dniał Lady. A kind good night to allb to [Exeunt Lords. Mac. It will have blood, they say, blood will have

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Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak; *Augurs, and understood relations, chave b By magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks, brought

forth

The secret'st man of blood.-What is the night?

390

Lady.

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