Complete Plays, The

by William Shakespeare

  Come on;

  Gentle my lord, sleek o’er your rugged looks;

  Be bright and jovial among your guests to-night.

  Macbeth

  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 Macbeth

  You must leave this.

  Macbeth

  O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!

  Thou know’st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives.

  Lady Macbeth

  But in them nature’s copy’s not eterne.

  Macbeth

  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 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 Macbeth

  What’s to be done?

  Macbeth

  Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,

  Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night,

  Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day;

  And with thy bloody and invisible hand

  Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond

  Which keeps me pale! Light thickens; and the crow

  Makes wing to the rooky wood:

  Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;

  While night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.

  Thou marvell’st at my words: but hold thee still;

  Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.

  So, prithee, go with me.

  Exeunt

  SCENE III. A PARK NEAR THE PALACE.

  Enter three Murderers

  First Murderer

  But who did bid thee join with us?

  Third Murderer

  Macbeth.

  Second Murderer

  He needs not our mistrust, since he delivers

  Our offices and what we have to do

  To the direction just.

  First Murderer

  Then stand with us.

  The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day:

  Now spurs the lated traveller apace

  To gain the timely inn; and near approaches

  The subject of our watch.

  Third Murderer

  Hark! I hear horses.

  Banquo

  [Within] Give us a light there, ho!

  Second Murderer

  Then ’tis he: the rest

  That are within the note of expectation

  Already are i’ the court.

  First Murderer

  His horses go about.

  Third Murderer

  Almost a mile: but he does usually,

  So all men do, from hence to the palace gate

  Make it their walk.

  Second Murderer

  A light, a light!

  Enter Banquo, and Fleance with a torch

  Third Murderer

  ’Tis he.

  First Murderer

  Stand to’t.

  Banquo

  It will be rain to-night.

  First Murderer

  Let it come down.

  They set upon Banquo

  Banquo

  O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!

  Thou mayst revenge. O slave!

  Dies. Fleance escapes

  Third Murderer

  Who did strike out the light?

  First Murderer

  Wast not the way?

  Third Murderer

  There’s but one down; the son is fled.

  Second Murderer

  We have lost

  Best half of our affair.

  First Murderer

  Well, let’s away, and say how much is done.

  Exeunt

  SCENE IV. THE SAME. HALL IN THE PALACE.

  A banquet prepared. Enter Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Ross, Lennox, Lords, and Attendants

  Macbeth

  You know your own degrees; sit down: at first

  And last the hearty welcome.

  Lords

  Thanks to your majesty.

  Macbeth

  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 Macbeth

  Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends;

  For my heart speaks they are welcome.

  First Murderer appears at the door

  Macbeth

  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.

  Approaching the door

  There’s blood on thy face.

  First Murderer

  ’Tis Banquo’s then.

  Macbeth

  ’Tis better thee without than he within.

  Is he dispatch’d?

  First Murderer

  My lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him.

  Macbeth

  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 nonpareil.

  First Murderer

  Most royal sir,

  Fleance is ’scaped.

  Macbeth

  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, confined, bound in

  To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo’s safe?

  First Murderer

  Ay, my good lord: safe in a ditch he bides,

  With twenty trenched gashes on his head;

  The least a death to nature.

  Macbeth

  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.

  Exit Murderer

  Lady Macbeth

  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.

  Macbeth

  Sweet remembrancer!

  Now, good digestion wait on appetite,

  And health on both!

  Lennox

  May’t please your highness sit.

  The Ghost Of Banquo enters, and sits in Macbeth’s place

  Macbeth

  Here had we now our country’s honour roof’d,

  Were the graced person of our Banquo present;

  Who may I rather challenge for unkindness

  Than pity for mischance!

  Ross

  His absence, sir,

  Lays blame upon his promise. Please’t your highness

  To grace us with your royal company.

  Macbeth

  The table’s full.

  Lennox

  Here is a place reserved, sir.

  Macbeth

  Where?

  Lennox

  Here, my good lord. What is’t that moves your highness?

  Macbeth

  Which of you have done this?

  Lords

  What, my good lord?

 
Macbeth

  Thou canst not say I did it: never shake

  Thy gory locks at me.

  Ross

  Gentlemen, rise: his highness is not well.

  Lady Macbeth

  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?

  Macbeth

  Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that

  Which might appal the devil.

  Lady Macbeth

  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,

  Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!

  Why do you make such faces? When all’s done,

  You look but on a stool.

  Macbeth

  Prithee, 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 Of Banquo vanishes

  Lady Macbeth

  What, quite unmann’d in folly?

  Macbeth

  If I stand here, I saw him.

  Lady Macbeth

  Fie, for shame!

  Macbeth

  Blood hath been shed ere now, i’ the olden time,

  Ere human statute purged 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.

  Lady Macbeth

  My worthy lord,

  Your noble friends do lack you.

  Macbeth

  I do forget.

  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 all;

  Then I’ll sit down. Give me some wine; fill full.

  I drink to the general joy o’ 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.

  Re-enter Ghost Of Banquo

  Macbeth

  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!

  Lady Macbeth

  Think of this, good peers,

  But as a thing of custom: ’tis no other;

  Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.

  Macbeth

  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 girl. Hence, horrible shadow!

  Unreal mockery, hence!

  Ghost Of Banquo vanishes

  Why, so: being gone,

  I am a man again. Pray you, sit still.

  Lady Macbeth

  You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting,

  With most admired disorder.

  Macbeth

  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 is blanched with fear.

  Ross

  What sights, my lord?

  Lady Macbeth

  I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse;

  Question enrages him. At once, good night:

  Stand not upon the order of your going,

  But go at once.

  Lennox

  Good night; and better health

  Attend his majesty!

  Lady Macbeth

  A kind good night to all!

  Exeunt all but Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

  Macbeth

  It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood:

  Stones have been known to move and trees to speak;

  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 Macbeth

  Almost at odds with morning, which is which.

  Macbeth

  How say’st thou, that Macduff denies his person

  At our great bidding?

  Lady Macbeth

  Did you send to him, sir?

  Macbeth

  I hear 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,

  And betimes I will, to 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

  Stepp’d 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 Macbeth

  You lack the season of all natures, sleep.

  Macbeth

  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. A HEATH.

  Thunder. Enter the three Witches meeting Hecate

  First Witch

  Why, how now, Hecate! you look angerly.

  Hecate

  Have I not reason, beldams as you are,

  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,

  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 and a fatal end:

  Great business must be wrought ere noon:

  Upon the corner of the moon

  There hangs a vaporous drop profound;

  I’ll catch it ere it come to ground:

  And that distill’d by magic sleights

  Shall raise such artificial sprites

  As by the strength of their
illusion

  Shall draw him on to his confusion:

  He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear

  He hopes ’bove wisdom, grace and fear:

  And you all know, security

  Is mortals’ chiefest enemy.

  Music and a song within: ‘Come away, come away,’ & c

  Hark! I am call’d; my little spirit, see,

  Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me.

  Exit

  First Witch

  Come, let’s make haste; she’ll soon be back again.

  Exeunt

  SCENE VI. FORRES. THE PALACE.

  Enter Lennox and another Lord

  Lennox

  My former speeches have but hit your thoughts,

  Which can interpret further: only, I say,

  Things have been strangely borne. The gracious Duncan

  Was pitied of Macbeth: marry, he was dead:

  And the right-valiant Banquo walk’d too late;

  Whom, you may say, if’t please you, Fleance kill’d,

  For Fleance fled: men must not walk too late.

  Who cannot want the thought how monstrous

  It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain

  To kill their gracious father? damned fact!

  How it did grieve Macbeth! did he not straight

  In pious rage the two delinquents tear,

  That were the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep?

  Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely too;

  For ’twould have anger’d any heart alive

  To hear the men deny’t. So that, I say,

  He has borne all things well: and I do think

  That had he Duncan’s sons under his key —

  As, an’t please heaven, he shall not — they should find

  What ’twere to kill a father; so should Fleance.

  But, peace! for from broad words and ’cause he fail’d

  His presence at the tyrant’s feast, I hear

  Macduff lives in disgrace: sir, can you tell

  Where he bestows himself?

  Lord

  The son of Duncan,

  From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth

  Lives in the English court, and is received

  Of the most pious Edward with such grace

  That the malevolence of fortune nothing

  Takes from his high respect: thither Macduff

  Is gone to pray the holy king, upon his aid

  To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward:

  That, by the help of these — with Him above

  To ratify the work — we may again

  Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights,

  Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives,

  Do faithful homage and receive free honours:

  All which we pine for now: and this report

  Hath so exasperate the king that he

  Prepares for some attempt of war.

  Lennox

  Sent he to Macduff?

  Lord

  He did: and with an absolute ‘sir, not I,’

  The cloudy messenger turns me his back,

  And hums, as who should say ‘You’ll rue the time