The Complete Works of William Shakespeare In Plain and Simple English (Translated)

by William Shakespeare

  No teeth for the present. Get thee gone: to-morrow

  We'll hear, ourselves, again.

  Thanks for doing that.

  The grown snake is dead, but

  the younger snake has fled.

  In time he will become a threat,

  but not for the time being.

  Go on, then, tomorrow

  you’ll hear from me 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.

  My royal lord,

  You have not given the toast.

  The dinner feels taxing without frequent toasts.

  Toasting makes the guests feel welcome.

  They may as well be eating at home,

  since the pleasure of dining out lies in the ritual of toasting.

  It’s not the same without it.

  MACBETH

  Sweet remembrancer!

  Now, good digestion wait on appetite,

  And health on both!

  It’s sweet of you to remind me!

  Here’s to good digestion after your appetite!

  May both be healthy!

  LENNOX

  May't please your highness sit.

  Please, your highness, sit if you’d like.

  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!

  We would have all of our country’s

  nobility here if Banquo graced

  our presence. I would rather challenge

  him for being rude than hear

  that something bad happened to him.

  ROSS

  His absence, sir,

  Lays blame upon his promise. Please't your highness

  To grace us with your royal company.

  He’s not here because he broke his promise, sir.

  Please, your highness, join us.

  MACBETH

  The table's full.

  The table’s full.

  LENNOX

  Here is a place reserved, sir.

  Here is a place reserved for you, sir.

  MACBETH

  Where?

  Where?

  LENNOX

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

  Here, my good lord. What is wrong, your highess?

  MACBETH

  Which of you have done this?

  Which one of you did this?

  Lords

  What, my good lord?

  Did what, my good lord?

  MACBETH

  Thou canst not say I did it: never shake

  Thy gory locks at me.

  You can not say I did it. Do not shake

  your bloody head at me.

  ROSS

  Gentlemen, rise: his highness is not well.

  Gentlemen, stand up. 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?

  Sit back down, my good friends.

  My lord is frequently like this and

  has been from his youth. Please,

  stay seated. The fit is temporary,

  in a moment he will be well again.

  If you pay too much attention to him,

  you will offend him and it will last longer.

  Eat, and pay no attention to him.

  Are you a man?

  MACBETH

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

  Which might appal the devil.

  Yes, and a brave one that dares to look

  at something that would shock 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.

  Oh, come on! This is a hallucination created by fear.

  This is just like the dagger you said you saw

  in the air—the one that led you to Duncan?

  These sudden and passionate outbursts of yours

  are like imposters of true fear. They would

  be fit for a woman telling a story to her

  grandmother in front of a winter fire.

  It is shameful how you act!

  Why do you have to make such faces?

  When all is said and done, it’s just a stool

  you are looking at.

  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.

  Please, look there! Look at that! See it? Look!

  What do you have to say?

  And why should I care? If you can nod, speak, too.

  If our vaults and graves are going to send back

  those we bury, they will end up in the stomachs of birds.

  GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes

  LADY MACBETH

  What, quite unmann'd in folly?

  What, are you undone by this foolishness?

  MACBETH

  If I stand here, I saw him.

  As I stand here, I saw him.

  LADY MACBETH

  Fie, for shame!

  I’m disappointed in you.

  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.

  In olden times, before laws were made,

  a lot of blood was shed. And even since then,

  murders too terrible to mention

  have been committed. In the past,

  when you beat a man’s brains out,

  he died, and it was over. But now,

  they rise again, with twenty fatal wounds

  to the head, and push us out of our seat.

  This is much more strange than any murder.

  LADY MACBETH

  My worthy lord,

  Your noble friends do lack you.

  My good lord, your friends miss your presence.

  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.

  I forgot about them. Do not pay much attention to me,

  my most worthy friends, I have a strange illness

  which is nothing to those who know me well.

  Come, let’s drink a toast to love and health for all,

  then I’ll sit down. Give me some wine—top it up!

  I drink to the general joy of the whole table,

  and to our dear friend Banquo, who I miss.

  If only he were here! To all of you and to him,

  let’s drink. Everybody, drink!

  Lords

  Our duties, and the pledge.

  We pledge our best.

  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!

  Go away! Leave my sight! Let your grave hold you!

  Your bones have no marrow and your blood is cold.

  You have no life in those eyes that you glare at me 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.

  Think of this, good friends, as a common behavior

  in our house. It is nothing else, but it spoils the

  fun we are having.

  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!

  Whatever man has courage to do, I have courage to do.

  You can approach me looking like a rugged Russian bear,

  a horned rhinoceros, or an ancient Asian tiger.

  Take any shape but the one you have, and my firm nerves

  will not tremble. Come to life again, and dare me

  in the desert to a sword fight. If I show any trembling,

  then call me a child’s doll. Get out of here, horrible shadow!

  Strange imitation, get out of here!

  GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes

  Why, so: being gone,

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

  Now that it is gone, I am myself again.

  Please, stay seated.

  LADY MACBETH

  You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting,

  With most admired disorder.

  You have disrupted the fun and broke up the party

  with most amazing confusion.

  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.

  How can such sights overcome us like a cloud

  on a sunny day without making us stop

  and wonder? You make me feel strange

  and not like myself when I see how you

  can witness such sights and keep the color

  in your face, while mine is white with fear.

  ROSS

  What sights, my lord?

  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.

  I beg you, don’t speak to him. He’s just getting worse,

  and questions will make him angry. Now, good night.

  Do not take the trouble to exit properly,

  just leave.

  LENNOX

  Good night; and better health

  Attend his majesty!

  Good night. I hope his majesty is better soon!

  LADY MACBETH

  A kind good night to all!

  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?

  It will have blood. They say blood will have blood.

  Stones have been known to move and trees to speak.

  Priests and those that understand how to do so

  can bring forth a man’s guilt using birds that talk.

  What time of night is it?

  LADY MACBETH

  Almost at odds with morning, which is which.

  It’s the middle of the night.

  MACBETH

  How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person

  At our great bidding?

  What do you think about Macduff refusing

  to come when requested?

  LADY MACBETH

  Did you send to him, sir?

  Did you ask for 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.

  I hear it through the grapevine, but I will send for him.

  All of them have a servant in their house who is paid by me.

  I will go tomorrow, early in the morning, to talk to the witches.

  I will ask them to tell me more, for now I am determined to know

  what the worst will be in the worst way. I have stepped in blood

  so deep that even if I were to kill no more, not to do so

  would be just as difficult. I have strange things in my head

  that I want to make happen. I must act on them before I

  think about them too much.

  LADY MACBETH

  You lack the season of all natures, sleep.

  You should get some 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.

  Come, let’s get some sleep.

  My strange hallucinations are due to my fear.

  We are new to committing such crimes.

  Exeunt

  A Heath

  Thunder. Enter the three Witches meeting HECATE

  First Witch

  Why, how now, Hecate! you look angerly.

  How are you, Hecate! You look angry.

  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 ot
hers 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.

  I have reason to be angry, you old hags!

  You were disobedient and bold.

  How dare you deal Macbeth

  riddles and matters about death.

  And you never consulted me,

  the mistress of your charms and

  contriver of all harms. You never

  even asked my advice. And, even

  worse, all you have done

  was for a man who is full of spite

  and anger and greed. But you can make

  it better now. Go away now, and meet

  me in the morning at the pit in the river

  Acheron. Macbeth will come there

  to learn his destiny. Bring your vessels