Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence The life o'the building.
What is't you say? the life? Len. Mean you his majesty? Macd. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight
With a new Gorgon :-Do not bid me speak; See, and then speak yourselves.-Awake! Awake!- [Exeunt Macbeth and Lenox. Ring the alarum-bell:-Murder! 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! [Bell rings.
Enter Lady Macbeth. Lady M. What's the business, That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley The sleepers of the house? speak, speak,- Macd.
'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak: The repetition, in a woman's ear,
Would murder as it fell.-O Banquo! Banquo!
Ban. Too cruel, any where.- Dear Duff, I pr'ythee, contradict thyself, And say, it is not so.
Re-enter Macbeth and Lenox. Macb. Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had liv'd 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. Don. What is amiss?
Macb. You are, and do not know it: The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood Is stopp'd; the very source of it is stopp'd. Macd. Your royal father's murder'd." Mal. O, by whom? Len. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done't:
Their hands and faces were all badg'd with blood,| So were their daggers, which, unwip'd, we found Upon their pillows:
They star'd, and were distracted; no man's life Was to be trusted with them.
Macb. O, yet I do repent me of my fury,
That I did kill them.
Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man: The expedition of my violent love
Out-ran the pauser reason.-Here lay Duncan, His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood; And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature, For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murderers, Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers Unmannerly breech'd with gore: Who could re- frain,
That had a heart to love, and in that heart Courage, to make his love known?
(1) Covered with blood to their hilt.
To show an unfelt sorrow, is an office
Which the false man does easy: I'll to England. Don. 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.
Mal. This murderous 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.-Without the castle. Enter Rosse and an Old Man.
Old M. 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.
Ah, good father, Thou see'st, the heavens, as troubled with man's act,
Threaten his bloody stage; by the clock, 'tis day, And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp: Is't night's predominance, or the day's shame, That darkness does the face of earth intomb, When living light should kiss it? Old M. 'Tis unnatural, Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last, A falcon, tow'ring in her pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at, and kill'd.
Rosse. 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 M. 'Tis said, they eat each other. Rosse. They did so; to the amazement of mine eyes,
That look'd upon't.-Here comes the good Macduff:
'Gainst nature still: Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up Thine own life's means!-Then 'tis most like, The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth. Macd. He is already nam'd; and gone to Scone, To be invested. Rosse.
Where is Duncan's body? Macd. Carried to Colmes-kill; The sacred storehouse of his predecessors, And guardian of their bones.
Will you to Scone? Macd. No, cousin, I'll to Fife. Rosse.
Macd. Well, may you see things well done there;-adicu!-
Lest our old robes sit easier than our new! Resse. Father, farewell.
Old M. God's benison go with you; and with
That would make good of bad, and friends of foes!
SCENE I.-Fores. A room in the palace. ter Banquo.
Ban. Thou hast it now, King, Cawdor, Glamis, all,
As the weird's women promis'd; and, I fear, Thou play'dst most foully for't: yet it was said, It should not stand in thy posterity;
Ban. As far, my lord, as will fill up the time Twixt this and supper: go not my horse the better must become a borrower of the night, For a dark hour, or twain. Macb.
Ban. My lord, I will not.
Macb. 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? Ban. Ay, my good lord: our time does call
Macb. I wish your horses swift, and sure of foot; And so I do commend2 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: Attend those men our pleasure? Allen. They are, my lord, without the palace-_ gate.
Macb. Bring them before us.-[Exit Atten.] 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, Mark Antony's was by Cæsar. He chid the sisters, My genius is rebuk'd; as, it is said, 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 it 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! Senet sounded. Enter Macbeth, as king; Lady Rather than so, come, fate, into the list. Macbeth, as queen; Lenox, Rosse, Lords, La-And champion me to the utterance !dies, and attendants.
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.
Macb. Here's our chief guest. Lady M.
If he had been forgotten, It had been as a gap in our great feast, And all things unbecoming. Macb. To-night we hold a solemn supper, sir, And I'll request your presence. Ban.
Let your highness Command upon me; to the which, my duties Are with a most indissoluble tie For ever knit.
Macb. Ride you this afternoon? Ban.
Ay, my good lord. Macb. We should have else desir'd your good
(Which still hath been both grave and prosperous,) In this day's council; but we'll take to-morrow. Is't far you ride?
(1) Intend to themselves. (2) Commit. (2) Nobleness. (4) For defiled.
Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers. Now to the door, and stay there till we call. [Exit Attendant. Was it not yesterday we spoke together? 1 Mur. It was, so please your highness. Macb. 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 the
To half a soul, and a notion craz'd, Say, Thus did Banquo.
I'll come to you anon. 2 Mur. We are resolv'd, my lord. You made it known to us. Macb. I'll call upon you straight; abide within. Macb. I did so; and went further, which is now It is concluded:--Banquo, thy soul's flight, 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,1 To pray for that good man, and for his issue, Whose heavy hand hath bow'd you to the grave, And beggar'd yours for ever?
We are men, my liege. Macb. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men ; As hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,
Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are cleped' All by the name of dogs: the valued 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, And not in 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.
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.
So weary with disasters, tugg'de with fortune, That I would set my life on any chance,
To mend it, or be rid on't. Macb.
Both of you Know, Banquo was your enemy. 2 Mur. True, my lord. Macb. So is he mine: and in such bloody dis- 7 tance,
That every minute of his being thrusts Against my near'st of life: And though I could With bare-fac'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 Whom 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. We shall, my lord,
Perform what you command us. 1 Mur. Though our lives- Macb. 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;
(1) Are you so obedient to the precept of the Gospel. (3) Called.
(2) Wolf-dogs. (4) Title, description. (6) Worried.
(8) Because of.
(5) Careless. (7) Mortal enmity. (9) Most melancholy.
If it find heaven, must find it out to-night. [Exe. SCENE II.-The same. Another room. Enter Lady Macbeth, and a Servant.
Lady M. Is Banquo gone from court? - Serv. Ay, madam, but returns again to-night.), Lady M. Say to the king, I would attend his leisure For a few words. Serv. Madam, I will. [Exit. Lady M. 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 remedy, Should be without regard: what's done, is done.
Macb. 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 place, have sent to peace, Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstasy. 10 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!
Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks; Be bright and jovial 'mong your guests to-night. Macb. 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 honours in these flattering streams; And make our faces vizards to our hearts, Disguising what they are.
Lady M. You must leave this. Macb. O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! Thou know'st, that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives. Lady M. But in them nature's copy's not eterne. 12 Macb. 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 sum-
The shard-borne beetle, 13 with his drowsy hums, Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done A deed of dreadful note. Lady M.
What's to be done? Macb. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,14
Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling's night, Skarf up the tender eye of pitiful day; And, with thy bloody and invisible hand,
(10) Agony. (11) Do him the highest honours.
(12) The copy, the lease, by which they hold
their lives from nature, has its time of termination. (13) The beetle borne in the air by its shards o scaly wings.
(14) A term of endearment.
Cancel, and tear to pieces, that great bond
Both sides are even: Here I'll sit i'the midst:
Which keeps me pale!-Light thickens; and the Be large in mirth; anon, we'll drink a measure
Makes wing to the rooky wood:
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse; Whiles night's black agents to their prey 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.
The table round.-There's blood upon thy face. Mur. 'Tis Banquo's then.
Macb. 'Tis better thee without, than he within.
Mur. My lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him.
Macb. Thou art the best o'the cut-throats: Yet he's good,
SCENE III.-The same. A park or lawn, with That did the like for Fleance: if thou didst it, a gate leading to the palace. Enter three Mur-Thou art the nonpareil.
Ban. [Within.] Give us a light there, ho! 2 Mur.
Then it is he; the rest That are within the note of expectation,' Already are i'the court.
3 Mur. Almost a mile: but he does usually, So all men do, from hence to the palace gate
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, 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-mor
We'll hear, ourselves again.
[Exit Murderer. Lady M. 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;
Enter Banquo and Fleance, a servant with a torch From thence, the sauce to meat is ceremony:
Ban. O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly,
fly; Thou may'st revenge.- -O slave! [Dies. Fleance and servant escape. 3 Mur. Who did strike out the light? 1 Mur. Was't not the way? 3 Mur. There's but one down; the son is fled. 2 Mur. We have lost best half of our affair. 1 Mur. Well, let's away, and say how much is [Exeunt. 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
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?
Macb. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that Which might appal the devil.
(1) i. e. They who are set down in the list of (2) Continues in her chair of state. guests, and expected to supper.
(3) As quick as thought. (4) Prolong his suffering.
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. [Ghost disappears. Stones have been known to move, and trees to Lady M. What! quite unmann'd in folly? Macb. If I stand here, I saw him. Lady M. Fie, for shame! Macb. Blood hath been shed ere now, i'the 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, With twenty mortal murders on their crowns, And push us from our stools: This is more strange Than such a murder is.
Your noble friends do lack you. Macb.
I do forget:- Do not muse2 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
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
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; Thou hast no speculation in those eyes Which thou dost glare with! Lady M.
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 M. Almost at odds with morning, which is which.
Macb. How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person, At our great bidding? Lady M.
Did you send to him, sir? Macb. I hear it by the way; but I will send : There's not a one of them, but in his house keep a servant feed. I will to-morrow (Betimes I will,) unto 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 Stept 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 M. You lack the season of all natures, sleep. Macb. 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 Hecate, meeting the three Witches.
1 Witch. Why, how now, Hecate? you look angerly.
Hec. Have I not reason, bedlams, as you are
Think of this, good peers, Saucy, and overbold? How did you dare
But as a thing of custom: 'tis no other; Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
Macb. 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 inhibit thee, protest me The baby of a girl. 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,
(1) Sudden gusts. (2) Wonder. (3) i. e. All good wishes to all. (4) Forbid. (5) Pass over. (6) Possess. (7) Magpies.
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 every thing beside: I am for the air; this night I'll spend Unto a dismal-fatal end.
Great business must be wrought ere noon. Upon the corner of the moon
There hangs a vaporous drop profound;10
(8) An individual. (9) Examined nicely. (10) i. e. A drop that has deep or hidden quali ties.
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