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 murder as it fell.
Enter Banquo
O Banquo, Banquo,
Our royal master ’s murder’d!
Lady Macbeth
Woe, alas!
What, in our house?
Banquo
Too cruel any where.
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 stopp’d; the very source of it is stopp’d.
Macduff
Your royal father ’s murder’d.
Malcolm
O, by whom?
Lennox
Those of his chamber, as it seem’d, had done ’t:
Their hands and faces were an 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 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 murderers,
Steep’d in the colours 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 kno wn?
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 pretence 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 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. OUTSIDE MACBETH’S CASTLE.
Enter Ross and 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 travelling 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. Here comes the good Macduff.
Enter 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
<
br /> 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 sounded. 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
To-night 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
For ever 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 to-morrow.
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 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?
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 valour
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 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!
Rather than so, come fate into the list.
And champion me to the utterance! Who’s there!
Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers
Now go to the door, and stay there till we call.
Exit Attendant
Was it not yesterday we spoke together?
First Murderer
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 Murderer
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 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?
First Murderer
We are men, my liege.
Macbeth
Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men;
As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,
Shoughs, water-rugs 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 ’t;
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 Murderer
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 Murderer
And I another
So weary with disasters, tugg’d with fortune,
That I would set my lie on any chance,
To mend it, or be rid on’t.
Macbeth
Both of you
Know Banquo was your enemy.
Both Murderers
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 Murderer
We shall, my lord,
Perform what you command us.
First Murderer
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; 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.
Both Murderers
We are resolved, my lord.
Macbeth
I’ll call upon you straight: abide within.
Exeunt Murderers
It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul’s flight,
If it find heaven, must find it out to-night.
Exit
SCENE II. THE PALACE.
Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant
Lady Macbeth
Is Banquo gone from court?
Servant
Ay, madam, but returns again to-night.
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
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