Don. What should be spoken here, Where our fate, hid within an augre-hole,

May rush, and seize us? Let's away, our tears
Are not yet brew'd.

Mal. Nor our strong sorrow

Upon the foot of motion.

Ban. Look to the lady:

And when we have our naked frailties' hid,
That suffer an 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 undivulg'd pretence I fight.
Of treasonous malice.

[Exeunt.

[That darkness does the face of earth intomb, When living light should kiss it?

Old Man. "Tis unnatural,

Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last, 5 A faulcon, towring in her pride of place3, 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, 10 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. [eyes, Rosse. They did so; to the amazement of mine 15 That look'dupon't. Here comes the goodMacduff:Enter Macduff.

Mal. What will you do? Let's not consort with 20 To shew an unfelt sorrow is an office [them: 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 ieave-taking,
But shift away: There's warrant in that theft
Which steals itself, when there's no mercy left.

[Exeunt.

Rosse. Is't known, who did this more than bloody
Macd. Those that Macbeth hath slain.
Rosse. Alas, the day!

What good could they pretend*?

Macd. They were suborn'd:

25 Malcolm, and Donalbain, the king's two sons, Are stol'n away and fled; which puts upon them Suspicion of the deed.

Rosse. 'Gainst nature still :

Thriftless aimbition, that wilt ravin up

30 Thine own life's means !-Then 'tis most like, The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.

35

Within the volume of which time, I have seen
Hours dreadful, and things strange; but this sore 40
Hath trifled former knowings.

[night

[act,

Rosse. Ah, good father,
Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's
Threaten his bloody stage: by the clock, 'tis day,
And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp: 45
Is it night's predominance, or the day's shaine,

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 store-house of his predecessors,
And guardian of their bones.

Rosse. Will you to Scone?

Macd. No, cousin, I'll to Fife.

Rosse. Well, I will thither.

[-adieu!

Macd. Well, may you see things well done there;
Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!
Rosse. Farewel, father.

[those

Old Man. God's benison go with you; and with That would make good of bad, and friends of foes! [Exeunt.

Meaning, our half-drest bodies. i. e. intention, design.

* Meaning, confidence in its quality.

To pretend, means here purpose to themselves. Colmes-hill, or Colm-kill, means Iona, one of the western isles, where most of the ancient kings of Scotland are buried. i. e. prosper,

And

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
5 Only for them; and mine eternal jewel
Given to the common enemy of man3,
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 Servant, with two Murderers.
Now go to the door, and stay there till we call.
[Exit Servant.
Was it not yesterday we spoke together?
Mur. It was, so please your highness.
Macb. Well then, now

Macb. We should have else desir'd your good 10
(Which still hath been both grave and prosperous)
In this day's council; but we'll take to-morrow.
Is't far you ride?

Bun. As far, my lord, as will fill up the time
Twixt this and supper: go not my horse the bet-15
I must become a borrower of the night, [ter',
For a dark hour, or twain.

[stow'd

Macb. Fail not our feast.
Ban. My lord, I will not.
Macb. We hear, our bloody cousins are be-20
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?
Bun. Ay, my good lord: our time does call
upon us.

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, past in probation with you;
How you were borne in hand'; how crost; the
instruments;

Who wrought with them; and all things else,
that might

25 To half a soul, and to a notion craz❜d,
Say, Thus did Banquo.

1 Mur. You made it known to us.

Macb. I did so; and went further, which is now
Our point of second meeting. Do you find
30 Your patience so predominant in your nature,
That you can let this go? Are you so gospell'd',
To pray for this good man, and for his issue,
Whose heavy hand hath bow'd you to the grave,
And beggar'd yours for ever?

Macb. I wish your horses swift, and sure of foot; And so I do commend you to their backs. Farewel.[Exit Banquo. Let every man be master of his time Till seven at night: to make society The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself [you. Till supper-time alone: while then, God be with 35 [Exeunt Lady Macbeth, and Lords. Sirrah, a word with you: Attend those men our pleasure?

Ser. They are, my lord, without the palace gate. Mach. Bring them before us.-To be thus, is 40 nothing; [Exit Servant. But to be safely thus;-Our fears in Banquo Stick deep; and in his royalty of nature Reigns that, which would be fear'd: 'Tis much

he dares;

And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour
To act in safety. There is none, but he,
Whose being I do fear: And, under him,
My genius is rebuk'd; as, it is said,
Mark Antony's was by Cæsar. He chid the sisters,
When first they put the name of King upon me,
And bade them speak to him; then, prophet-like,
They hail'd him father to a line of kings:
Upon my head they plac'd a fruitless crown,
And put a barren scepter in my gripe,
Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand,

1 Mur. We are men, my liege.

Macb. Ay, in the catalogue you go for men;
As hounds,and greyhounds,mungrels,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

45 That writes them all alike: and so of men.
Now, if you have a station in the file,
Not in the worst rank of manhood, say it;
And I will put that business in your bosoms,
Whose execution takes your enemy off;
50 Grapples you to the heart and love of us,
Who wear our health but sickly in his life,
Which in his death were perfect.

2 Mur. I am one, my liege,
Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world
55 Have so incensed, that I am reckless what
I do, to spite the world.

1 Mur. And another, 'the devil.

6

1i. e. If he does not go well. 1i. e. defiled. The word utterance is derived from the French outrance. A challenge or a combat a l'outrance, to extremity, was a fix'd term in the law of arms, used when the combatants engaged with an odium internecinum, an intention to destroy each other. i. e. made to believe what was not true. Meaning, are you of that degree of precise virtue? Gospellers was a name of contempt given by the Papists to the Lollards. Shoughs are probably what we now call shocks. The expression, valued file, seems to mean in this place, a post of honour; the first rank, in opposition to the last. File and list are synonymous

So

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,

Macb. Both of you

Know, Banquo was your enemy.
Mur. True, my lord.

[tance

Macb. So is he mine: and in such bloody dis-
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 comnion eye,
For sundry weighty reasons.
Mur. 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 3,
The moment on't; for't must be done to-night,
And something from the palace; always thought,
That I require a clearness: And with him,
(To leave no rubs, nor botches, in the work)
Fleance his son, that keeps him company,
Whose absence is no less material to me
Than is his father's, must embrace the fate
Of that dark hour: Resolve yourselves apart;
I'll come to you anon.

Mur. We are resolv'd, my lord.

5

Should be without regard: what's done, is done.
Mach. We have scotch'd the snake, not ki:l'd it,
She'll close, and be herself; whilst our poor malice
Remains in danger of her forme: tooth.

But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds
suffer,

Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep
10 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 ecstacy.-Duncan is in his grave;
15 After life's fitiul fever, he sleeps well;

Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
Can touch him further!

Ludy. Come on; Gentle my lord,

20 Sleek o'er your rugged looks; be bright and jovial Among your guests to-night.

Macb. So shail I, love;

And so, I pray, be you: Let your remembrance Apply to Banquo; present him eminence', both 25 With eye and tongue: Unsafe the while, that we Must lave our honours in these flattering stream:s; And make our faces vizards to our hearts, Disguising what they are.

Lady. You must leave this.

[wife!

30 Macb. O, full of scorpions is my mird, dear Thou know'st, that Banquo, and his Fieance, lives.

Macb. I'll call upon you straight; abide within. 35
It is concluded:--Banquo, thy soul's flight,
If it find heaven, must find it out to-night. [Exeunt.

Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant.

Lady. Is Banquo gone from court?

Serv. Ay, madam; but returns again to-night. Lady. Say to the king, I would attend his leisure For a few words,

Serv, Madam, I will.

Lady. 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 doubted joy.
Enter Macbeth.

140

Lady. But in them nature's copy's not eterne. Macb. There's comfort yet, they are assailable; Then be thou jocund: Ere the bat hath flown His cloister'd flight; ere, to black Hecat'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. What's to be done?

Mach. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck 10,

Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling" night, Skarf up the tender eye of pitiful day; And, with thy bloody and invisible hand, [Exit. 45 Cancel, and tear to pieces, that great bond Which keeps me pale!-Light thickens'; and the crow

How now, my lord? why do you keep alone,
Of sorriest' fancies your companions making?
Usingthosethoughts, whichshould indeedhavedy'd

'i. e, worried by fortune.

6

Makes wing to the rooky wood":

Good things of day begin to droop and drowze; 50 While night's black agents to their preys do rouze. Thou marvell'st at my words: but hold thee still; Things, bad begun, make strong themselves by iil; So, pr'ythee, go with me. [Excunt.

* i. e. Always

2 Such a distance as mortal enemies would stand at from each other when their quarrel must be determined by the sword. Meaning, the exact time. remembering, that throughout the whole transaction I must stand clear of suspicion. ' i. e. Worthless, vile. Ecstacy here signifies any violent emotion of the mind, pain, agony. 'i. e. Do him the highest honours. Eterne for eternal ?i. e. according to Mr. Steevens, the beetle burne along the air by its shards or scaly wings; shards signifying scales. But Mr. Tollet says, that shurd born beetle is the beetle born in dung; and that shard signifies dung, is well known in the North of Staffordshire, where cowshard is the word generally used for cow-dung. 10 A term of endearment. "į. e. blinding. 2. e. The light grows dull or muddy. i. e. to a rookery.

SCENE

1 Mur. Let it come down. They assault Banquo.! Ban. Oh,treachery!Fly,goodFleance,fly,fly,tly; 30 Thou may'st revenge.-- slave!

[Dies. Fleance escapes.
3 Mur. Who did strike out the light?
1 Mur. Was't not the way1?

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
done.

Mur. My lord,his throat is cut; that I did for him.[60|Led you to Duncan, Oh, these flaws, and starts,

1 That is, the best means to evade discovery. 2 From trancher, to cut. that which is not given cheerfully, cannot be called a gift,”

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.
[say you?
Macb. Pr'ythee,see there! behold! look! lo! how
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. What! quite unmann'd in folly?
Macb. If I stand here, I saw him.
Lady. Fie, for shame!

[time,

Macb. Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the older
Ere human statute purg'd the gentle weal';
Aye, 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.

Lady. My worthy lord,
Your noble friends do lack you.
Mach. I do forget.—

[all:

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
Then I'll sit down:-Give me some wine, till full:-
I drink to the general joy of the whole table,
Re-enter Ghost.

And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss;
Would he were here! To all, and him, we thirst,
And all to all 3.

5

Macb. Can such things be,

And overcome us' like a summer's cloud, [strange
Without our special wonder? You make me
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?

[and worse; Lady. I pray you, speak not; he grows worse 10 Question enrages him at once, good night :Stand not upon the order of your going, But go at once.

15

Len. Good night, and better health,
Attend his majesty!

have blood:

Lady. A kind good-night to all! [Exeunt Lords. Macb. It will have blood, they say; blood will [speak; Stones have been known to move, and trees to Augurs, and understood relations', have [forth By magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks, brought The secret'st man of blood.-What is the night? Lady. Almost at odds with morning, which is which. [person, Macb. How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his 25 At our great bidding?

20

Lady. Did you send to him, sir?

Macb. I heard it by the way: but I will send:
There's not a one of them, but in his house
I keep a servant fee'd. I will to-morrow
30(And 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. You lack the season of all natures, sleep.
Macb. Come, we'll to sleep: My strange and

Lords. Our duties, and the pledge. [hide thee! 35
Macb. Avaunt! and quit my sight! Let the earth
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
Which thou dost glare with!

Ludy. Think of this, good peers,

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

Lady. You have displac'd the mirth, broke the
With most admir'd disorder. [good meeting,

40

self-abuse

45 Thunder. Enter the three Witches, meeting

Hecate.

1 Witch. Why, how now, Hecat'? you look angerly.

Hec. Have I not reason, beldames as you are,
50 Saucy, and overbold? How did you dare
To trade and traffic with Macbeth,

In riddles, and affairs of death;
And I, the mistress of your charms,
The close contriver of all harms,

'The gentle weal is the peaceable community. 2 i. e. wonder. i. e. all good wishes to all; such as he had named above, love, health, and joy. Pope reads, and we think properly, inhibit; that is, if I refuse, or evade thee. "Meaning, puss over us like a summer's cloud. Mr. Steevens elucidates this passage thus: "You prove to me that I am a stranger even to my own disposition, "when I perceive that the very object which steals the colour from my cheek, permits it to remain "in yours. In other words,- -You prove to me how false an opinion I have hitherto maintained "of my own courage, when yours on the trial is found to exceed it." By relation is here meant the connection of effects with causes. i. e. magpies. Magot-pie is the original name of the bird, from magot, Fr. and hence also the modern abbreviation of mag, applied to pies. ? To scan is to examine nicely. 10 i. e. refreshment.

Was