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About this text

  • Title: Macbeth: Modern (Modern)
  • Editor: Anthony Dawson
  • Coordinating editor: Michael Best
  • Research assistant: Katie Davion
  • ISBN: 978-1-55058-528-5

    Copyright Anthony Dawson. This text may be freely used for educational, non-profit purposes; for all other uses contact the Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Editor: Anthony Dawson
    Not Peer Reviewed

    Modern (Modern)

    THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH.
    Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches.
    1 Witch
    When shall we three meet again?
    In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
    52 Witch
    When the hurly-burly's done,
    When the battle's lost and won.
    3 Witch
    That will be ere the set of sun.
    1 Witch
    Where the place?
    2 Witch
    Upon the heath.
    103 Witch
    There to meet with Macbeth.
    1 Witch
    I come, Graymalkin.
    2 Witch
    Paddock calls.
    3 Witch
    Anon.
    All
    Fair is foul and foul is fair,
    Hover through the fog and filthy air.
    Exeunt.
    15Alarum within. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with attendants, meeting a bleeding [Sergeant].
    Duncan
    What bloody man is that? He can report,
    As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt
    20The newest state.
    Malcolm
    This is the sergeant
    Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought
    'Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend!
    Say to the King the knowledge of the broil
    25As thou didst leave it.
    Sergeant
    Doubtful it stood,
    As two spent swimmers that do cling together
    And choke their art. The merciless Macdonald--
    Worthy to be a rebel, for to that
    30The multiplying villanies of nature
    Do swarm upon him--from the Western Isles
    Of kerns and galloglasses is supplied,
    And Fortune, on his damnèd quarrel smiling,
    Showed like a rebel's whore; but all's too weak,
    35For brave Macbeth--well he deserves that name--
    Disdaining Fortune with his brandished steel,
    Which smoked with bloody execution,
    Like valor's minion carved out his passage
    Till he faced the slave,
    40Which ne'er shook hands nor bade farewell to him,
    Till he unseamed him from the nave to th'chops,
    And fixed his head upon our battlements.
    Duncan
    Oh, valiant cousin, worthy gentleman.
    Sergeant
    As whence the sun 'gins his reflection,
    45Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break,
    So from that spring whence comfort seemed to come,
    Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark,
    No sooner Justice had, with valor armed,
    Compelled these skipping kerns to trust their heels,
    50But the Norwegian lord, surveying vantage,
    With furbished arms and new supplies of men,
    Began a fresh assault.
    Duncan
    Dismayed not this our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?
    55Sergeant
    Yes, as sparrows, eagles, or the hare, the lion.
    If I say sooth, I must report they were
    As cannons overcharged with double cracks,
    So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe.
    60Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds
    Or memorize another Golgotha,
    I cannot tell--
    But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.
    Duncan
    So well thy words become thee as thy wounds:
    65They smack of honor both. Go, get him surgeons.
    [Exit Sergeant with attendants.]
    Enter Ross and Angus.
    Who comes here?
    Malcolm
    The worthy Thane of Ross.
    Lennox
    What a haste looks through his eyes!
    70So should he look that seems to speak things strange.
    God save the King.
    Duncan
    Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane?
    From Fife, great king, where the Norwegian banners
    Flout the sky 75and fan our people cold.
    Norway himself, with terrible numbers,
    Assisted by that most disloyal traitor,
    The Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict,
    Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapped in proof,
    80Confronted him with self-comparisons,
    Point against point, rebellious arm 'gainst arm,
    Curbing his lavish spirit. And to conclude,
    The victory fell on us--
    Duncan
    Great happiness!--
    85Ross
    That now
    Sweno, the Norways' King, craves composition,
    Nor would we deign him burial of his men
    Till he disbursèd at Saint Colm's Inch
    Ten thousand dollars to our general use.
    90Duncan
    No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive
    Our bosom interest. Go, pronounce his present death
    And with his former title greet Macbeth.
    I'll see it done.
    Duncan
    What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.
    95Exeunt.
    Thunder. Enter the three Witches.
    1 Witch
    Where hast thou been, sister?
    2 Witch
    Killing swine.
    1003 Witch
    Sister, where thou?
    1 Witch
    A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap,
    And munched, and munched, and munched. "Give me," quoth I.
    "Aroint thee, witch," the rump-fed runnion cries.
    105Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o'th' Tiger,
    But in a sieve I'll thither sail,
    And like a rat without a tail
    I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do.
    2 Witch
    I'll give thee a wind.
    1101 Witch
    Thou'rt kind.
    3 Witch
    And I another.
    1 Witch
    I myself have all the other,
    And the very ports they blow,
    All the quarters that they know,
    115I'th' shipman's card.
    I'll drain him dry as hay:
    Sleep shall neither night nor day
    Hang upon his penthouse lid;
    He shall live a man forbid;
    120Weary sennights, nine times nine,
    Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.
    Though his bark cannot be lost,
    Yet it shall be tempest-tossed.
    Look what I have.
    1252 Witch
    Show me, show me.
    1 Witch
    Here I have a pilot's thumb,
    Wrecked as homeward he did come.
    Drum within.
    3 Witch
    A drum, a drum--
    Macbeth doth come.
    [They join hands and dance in a circle.]
    The weird sisters, hand in hand,
    Posters of the sea and land,
    Thus do go about, about,
    Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine,
    And thrice again, to make up nine.
    135Peace, the charm's wound up.
    Enter Macbeth and Banquo.
    Macbeth
    So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
    Banquo
    How far is't called to Forres? --What are these,
    So withered and so wild in their attire,
    140That look not like th'inhabitants o'th' earth,
    And yet are on't? --Live you, or are you aught
    That man may question? You seem to understand me,
    By each at once her choppy finger laying
    Upon her skinny lips. You should be women,
    145And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
    That you are so.
    Macbeth
    Speak if you can--what are you?
    1 Witch
    All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis.
    2 Witch
    All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor.
    1503 Witch
    All hail Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter.
    Banquo
    Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear
    Things that do sound so fair? I'th' name of truth
    Are ye fantastical, or that indeed
    Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner
    155You greet with present grace and great prediction
    Of noble having and of royal hope,
    That he seems rapt withal. To me you speak not.
    If you can look into the seeds of time
    And say which grain will grow and which will not,
    160Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
    Your favors nor your hate.
    1 Witch
    Hail.
    2 Witch
    Hail.
    3 Witch
    Hail.
    1651 Witch
    Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
    2 Witch
    Not so happy, yet much happier.
    3 Witch
    Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.
    So all hail Macbeth and Banquo.
    1 Witch
    Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!
    170Macbeth
    Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more.
    By Finel's death, I know I am Thane of Glamis,
    But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives
    A prosperous gentleman. And to be king,
    Stands not within the prospect of belief,
    175No more then to be Cawdor. Say from whence
    You owe this strange intelligence, or why
    Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
    With such prophetic greeting?
    Speak, I charge you.
    Witches vanish.
    180Banquo
    The earth hath bubbles as the water has,
    And these are of them. Whither are they vanished?
    Macbeth
    Into the air, and what seemed corporal
    Melted, as breath into the wind. Would they had stayed.
    185Banquo
    Were such things here as we do speak about?
    Or have we eaten on the insane root
    That takes the reason prisoner?
    Macbeth
    Your children shall be kings.
    Banquo
    You shall be king.
    190Macbeth
    And Thane of Cawdor too, went it not so?
    Banquo
    To th'selfsame tune and words--who's here?
    Enter Ross and Angus.
    The King hath happily received, Macbeth,
    The news of thy success, and when he reads
    195Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight,
    His wonders and his praises do contend
    Which should be thine or his. Silenced with that,
    In viewing o'er the rest o'th' selfsame day,
    He finds thee in the stout Norwegian ranks
    200Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
    Strange images of death. As thick as tale
    Came post with post, and every one did bear
    Thy praises in his kingdom's great defense
    And poured them down before him.
    205Angus
    We are sent
    To give thee from our royal master thanks,
    Only to herald thee into his sight,
    Not pay thee.
    And for an earnest of a greater honor
    210He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor,
    In which addition, hail most worthy thane,
    For it is thine.
    Banquo [Aside]
    What, can the devil speak true?
    Macbeth
    The Thane of Cawdor lives, 215Why do you dress me
    In borrowed robes?
    Angus
    Who was the thane lives yet,
    But under heavy judgment bears that life
    Which he deserves to lose.
    Whether he was combined with those of Norway,
    220Or did line the rebel with hidden help
    And vantage, or that with both he labored
    In his country's wrack, I know not.
    But treasons capital, confessed, and proved,
    Have overthrown him.
    225Macbeth[Aside]
    Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor:
    The greatest is behind. --Thanks for your pains.
    [To Banquo] Do you not hope your children shall be kings
    When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me
    Promised no less to them.
    230Banquo
    That trusted home
    Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
    Besides the Thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange,
    And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
    The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
    235Win us with honest trifles, to betray's
    In deepest consequence.
    [To Ross and Angus] Cousins, a word, I pray you.
    Macbeth
    [Aside] Two truths are told
    As happy prologues to the swelling act
    240Of the imperial theme. --I thank you, gentlemen--
    This supernatural soliciting
    Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill,
    Why hath it given me earnest of success
    Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor.
    245If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
    Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
    And make my seated heart knock at my ribs
    Against the use of nature? Present fears
    Are less than horrible imaginings.
    250My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
    Shakes so my single state of man that function
    Is smothered in surmise, and nothing is
    But what is not.
    Banquo
    Look how our partner's rapt.
    255Macbeth
    If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me
    Without my stir.
    Banquo
    New honors come upon him
    Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mold
    260But with the aid of use.
    Macbeth
    Come what come may,
    Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
    Banquo
    Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.
    265Macbeth
    Give me your favor. My dull brain was wrought
    With things forgotten.
    Kind gentlemen, your pains are registered
    Where every day I turn the leaf to read them.
    270Let us toward the King.
    [To Banquo] Think upon what hath chanced and at more time,
    The interim having weighed it, let us speak
    Our free hearts each to other.
    Banquo
    Very gladly.
    275Macbeth
    Till then, enough. Come, friends.
    Exeunt.
    Flourish. Enter King, Lennox, Malcolm, Donalbain, and Attendants.
    280Duncan
    Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not
    Those in commission yet returned?
    Malcolm
    My liege,
    They are not yet come back; but I have spoke
    With one that saw him die, who did report
    That very frankly he 285confessed his treasons,
    Implored your highness' pardon, and set forth
    A deep repentance. Nothing in his life
    Became him like the leaving it: he died
    As one that had been studied in his death
    290To throw away the dearest thing he owed
    As 'twere a careless trifle.
    Duncan
    There's no art
    To find the mind's construction in the face.
    He was a gentleman on whom I built
    295An absolute trust.
    Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, and Angus.
    O worthiest cousin,
    The sin of my ingratitude even now
    Was heavy on me. Thou art so far before
    300That swiftest wing of recompense is slow
    To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved,
    That the proportion both of thanks and payment
    Might have been mine. Only I have left to say,
    More is thy due than more than all can pay.
    305Macbeth
    The service, and the loyalty I owe
    In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part
    Is to receive our duties, and our duties
    Are to your throne and state, children and servants,
    Which do but what they should 310by doing everything
    Safe toward your love and honor.
    Duncan
    Welcome hither:
    I have begun to plant thee, and will labor
    To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo,
    315That hast no less deserved, nor must be known
    No less to have done so. Let me enfold thee
    And hold thee to my heart.
    Banquo
    There if I grow,
    The harvest is your own.
    320Duncan
    My plenteous joys,
    Wanton in fullness, seek to hide themselves
    In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes,
    And you whose places are the nearest, know
    We will establish our estate upon
    325Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter
    The Prince of Cumberland, which honor must
    Not unaccompanied invest him only,
    But signs of nobleness like stars shall shine
    On all deservers. [To Macbeth] From hence to Inverness
    330And bind us further to you.
    Macbeth
    The rest is labor which is not used for you.
    I'll be myself the harbinger and make joyful
    The hearing of my wife with your approach.
    So humbly take my leave.
    335Duncan
    My worthy Cawdor.
    Macbeth
    [Aside] The Prince of Cumberland--that is a step
    On which I must fall down or else o'erleap,
    For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires,
    Let not light see my black and deep desires;
    340The eye wink at the hand--yet let that be
    Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.
    Exit.
    Duncan
    True, worthy Banquo, he is full so valiant,
    And in his commendations, I am fed;
    It is a banquet to me. Let's after him,
    345Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome.
    It is a peerless kinsman.
    Flourish. Exeunt.
    Enter Macbeth's wife alone, with a letter.
    Lady Macbeth
    They met me in the day of success, and I have 350learned by the perfectest report they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burnt in desire to question them further, they made themselves air into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the King, who all-hailed me Thane of Cawdor, by which title 355before these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on of time with "Hail, king that shalt be." This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay 360it to thy heart, and farewell.
    Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be
    What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature:
    It is too full o'th' milk of human kindness
    To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great,
    365Art not without ambition, but without
    The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly,
    That wouldst thou holily, wouldst not play false,
    And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou'dst have, great Glamis,
    That which cries, 370"Thus thou must do" if thou have it,
    And that which rather thou dost fear to do,
    Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither,
    That I may pour my spirits in thine ear
    And chastise with the valor of my tongue
    375All that impedes thee from the golden round,
    Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
    To have thee crowned withal.
    Enter [Attendant].
    What is your tidings?
    Attendant
    The King comes here tonight.
    380Lady Macbeth
    Thou'rt mad to say it.
    Is not thy master with him, who, were't so,
    Would have informed for preparation?
    Attendant
    So please you, it is true our thane is coming.
    One of my fellows had the speed of him,
    385Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
    Than would make up his message.
    Lady Macbeth
    Give him tending,
    He brings great news.
    Exit [Attendant].
    The raven himself is hoarse
    390That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
    Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
    That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here
    And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
    Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood,
    395Stop up th'access and passage to remorse
    That no compunctious visitings of nature
    Shake my fell purpose nor keep peace between
    Th'effect and it. Come to my woman's breasts
    And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers,
    400Wherever in your sightless substances
    You wait on nature's mischief. Come, thick night,
    And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell
    That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
    Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark
    405To cry, "Hold, hold."
    Enter Macbeth.
    Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor,
    Greater than both by the all-hail hereafter,
    Thy letters have transported me beyond
    This ignorant present and I feel now
    410The future in the instant.
    Macbeth
    My dearest love,
    Duncan comes here tonight.
    Lady Macbeth
    And when goes hence?
    Macbeth
    Tomorrow, as he purposes.
    415Lady Macbeth
    Oh, never
    Shall sun that morrow see.
    Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
    May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
    Look like the time, bear welcome in your eye,
    420Your hand, your tongue. Look like th'innocent flower
    But be the serpent under't. He that's coming
    Must be provided for, and you shall put
    This night's great business into my dispatch,
    Which shall to all our nights and days to come
    425Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
    Macbeth
    We will speak further.
    Lady Macbeth
    Only look up clear,
    To alter favor ever is to fear.
    Leave all the rest to me.
    Exeunt.
    Hautboys and torches. Enter King, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Angus, and attendants.
    Duncan
    This castle hath a pleasant seat; 435the air
    Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
    Unto our gentle senses.
    Banquo
    This guest of summer,
    The temple-haunting martlet, does approve
    By his loved mansionry that the heavens' breath
    440Smells wooingly here. No jutty, frieze,
    Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird
    Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle.
    Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed
    The air is delicate.
    Enter Lady [Macbeth].
    445Duncan
    See, see, our honored hostess. The love
    That follows us sometime is our trouble,
    Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you
    How you shall bid God 'ield us for your pains
    And thank us for your trouble.
    450Lady Macbeth
    All our service
    In every point twice done, and then done double,
    Were poor and single business to contend
    Against those honors, deep and broad, wherewith
    Your majesty loads our house. 455For those of old,
    And the late dignities heaped up to them,
    We rest your hermits.
    Duncan
    Where's the Thane of Cawdor?
    We coursed him at the heels and had a purpose
    To be his purveyor, but he rides well,
    460And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him
    To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess,
    We are your guest tonight.
    Lady Macbeth
    Your servants ever
    Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs in count,
    465To make their audit at your highness' pleasure,
    Still to return your own.
    Duncan
    Give me your hand,
    Conduct me to mine host. We love him highly,
    And shall continue our graces towards him.
    470By your leave, hostess.
    Exeunt.
    Hautboys. Torches. Enter a sewer and divers servants with dishes and service over the stage. Then enter Macbeth.
    475Macbeth
    If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
    It were done quickly. If th'assassination
    Could trammel up the consequence and catch
    With his surcease success, that but this blow
    Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
    480But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
    We'd jump the life to come. But in these cases,
    We still have judgment here, that we but teach
    Bloody instructions which, being taught, return
    To plague th'inventor. This even-handed justice
    485Commends th'ingredience of our poisoned chalice
    To our own lips. He's here in double trust:
    First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
    Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
    Who should against his murderer shut the door,
    490Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
    Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
    So clear in his great office, that his virtues
    Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued against
    The deep damnation of his taking off;
    495And pity, like a naked newborn babe
    Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsed
    Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
    Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye
    That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
    500To prick the sides of my intent, but only
    Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
    And falls on th'other--
    Enter Lady [Macbeth].
    How now, what news?
    Lady Macbeth
    He has almost supped. Why have you left the chamber?
    505Macbeth
    Hath he asked for me?
    Lady Macbeth
    Know you not he has?
    Macbeth
    We will proceed no further in this business.
    He hath honored me of late and I have bought
    Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
    510Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
    Not cast aside so soon.
    Lady Macbeth
    Was the hope drunk
    Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?
    And wakes it now to look so green and pale
    515At what it did so freely? From this time
    Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
    To be the same in thine own act and valor
    As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
    Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
    520And live a coward in thine own esteem,
    Letting "I dare not" wait upon "I would"
    Like the poor cat i'th' adage?
    Macbeth
    Prithee, peace.
    I dare do all that may become a man;
    525Who dares do more is none.
    Lady Macbeth
    What beast was't then
    That made you break this enterprise to me?
    When you durst do it, then you were a man.
    And to be more than what you were, you would
    530Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place
    Did then adhere, and yet you would make both.
    They have made themselves and that their fitness now
    Does unmake you. I have given suck and know
    How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me;
    535I would, while it was smiling in my face,
    Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums
    And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn
    As you have done to this.
    Macbeth
    If we should fail?
    540Lady Macbeth
    We fail.
    But screw your courage to the sticking place
    And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep,
    Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey
    Soundly invite him, his two chamberlains
    545Will I with wine and wassail so convince
    That memory, the warder of the brain,
    Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
    A limbeck only. When in swinish sleep
    Their drenchèd natures lies as in a death,
    550What cannot you and I perform upon
    Th'unguarded Duncan? What not put upon
    His spongy officers who shall bear the guilt
    Of our great quell?
    Macbeth
    Bring forth men-children only:
    555For thy undaunted mettle should compose
    Nothing but males. Will it not be received
    When we have marked with blood those sleepy two
    Of his own chamber, and used their very daggers,
    That they have done't?
    560Lady Macbeth
    Who dares receive it other,
    As we shall make our griefs and clamor roar
    Upon his death?
    Macbeth
    I am settled and bend up
    Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
    565Away, and mock the time with fairest show,
    False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
    Exeunt.
    Enter Banquo, and Fleance with a torch 570before him.
    Banquo
    How goes the night, boy?
    Fleance
    The moon is down, I have not heard the clock.
    Banquo
    And she goes down at twelve.
    575Fleance
    I take't 'tis later, sir.
    Banquo
    Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven:
    Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.
    A heavy summons lies like lead upon me
    580And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers,
    Restrain in me the cursèd thoughts that nature
    Gives way to in repose.
    Enter Macbeth and a servant with a torch.
    Give me my sword.
    Who's there?
    585Macbeth
    A friend.
    Banquo
    What, sir, not yet at rest? The King's abed.
    He hath been in unusual pleasure,
    And sent forth great largesse to your offices.
    This diamond he greets your wife withal,
    590By the name of most kind hostess, and shut up
    In measureless content.
    Macbeth
    Being unprepared,
    Our will became the servant to defect,
    Which else should free have wrought.
    595Banquo
    All's well.
    I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters.
    To you they have showed some truth.
    Macbeth
    I think not of them.
    Yet when we can entreat an hour to serve,
    600We would spend it in some words upon that business,
    If you would grant the time.
    Banquo
    At your kind'st leisure.
    Macbeth
    If you shall cleave to my consent when 'tis,
    It shall make honor for you.
    605Banquo
    So I lose none
    In seeking to augment it, but still keep
    My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,
    I shall be counseled.
    Macbeth
    Good repose the while.
    610Banquo
    Thanks, sir, the like to you.
    Ex[eunt] Banquo[, Fleance, and torch].
    Macbeth[To servant] Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,
    She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.
    Exit [servant].
    Is this a dagger which I see before me,
    The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
    615I have thee not and yet I see thee still.
    Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
    To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
    A dagger of the mind, a false creation
    Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?
    620I see thee yet, in form as palpable
    As this which now I draw.
    Thou marshal'st me the way that I was going,
    And such an instrument I was to use.
    Mine eyes are made the fools o'th' other senses
    625Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still,
    And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
    Which was not so before. There's no such thing!
    It is the bloody business which informs
    Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one half-world
    630Nature seems dead and wicked dreams abuse
    The curtained sleep; witchcraft celebrates
    Pale Hecate's off'rings; and withered murder,
    Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf,
    Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
    635With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
    Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
    Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
    Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
    And take the present horror from the time,
    640Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives;
    Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
    A bell rings.
    I go, and it is done. The bell invites me.
    Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell
    645That summons thee to heaven or to hell.
    Exit.
    Enter Lady [Macbeth].
    Lady Macbeth
    That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold,
    What hath quenched them hath given me fire. 650Hark! Peace!
    It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman
    Which gives the stern'st goodnight. He is about it.
    The doors are open and the surfeited grooms
    Do mock their charge with snores. I have drugged their possets
    655That death and nature do contend about them
    Whether they live or die.
    Enter Macbeth.
    Macbeth
    Who's there? What ho!
    Lady Macbeth
    Alack, I am afraid they have awaked
    660And 'tis not done; th'attempt and not the deed
    Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready,
    He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled
    My father as he slept, I had done't. My husband?
    665Macbeth
    I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?
    Lady Macbeth
    I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.
    Did not you speak?
    Macbeth
    When?
    670Lady Macbeth
    Now.
    Macbeth
    As I descended?
    Lady Macbeth
    Ay.
    Macbeth
    Hark, who lies i'th' second chamber?
    Lady Macbeth
    Donalbain.
    675Macbeth
    This is a sorry sight.
    Lady Macbeth
    A foolish thought to say a sorry sight.
    Macbeth
    There's one did laugh in's sleep, and one cried "Murder,"
    That they did wake each other. I stood and heard them,
    But they did say their prayers 680and addressed them
    Again to sleep.
    Lady Macbeth
    There are two lodged together.
    Macbeth
    One cried "God bless us" and "Amen" the other,
    As they had seen me with these hangman's hands.
    List'ning their fear, I could not say "Amen"
    685When they did say "God bless us."
    Lady Macbeth
    Consider it not so deeply.
    Macbeth
    But wherefore could not I pronounce "Amen"?
    I had most need of blessing, and "Amen"
    Stuck in my throat.
    Lady Macbeth
    These deeds must not be thought
    690After these ways: so, it will make us mad.
    Macbeth
    Methought I heard a voice cry "Sleep no more":
    Macbeth does murder sleep, the innocent sleep,
    Sleep that knits up the raveled sleeve of care,
    The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
    695Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
    Chief nourisher in life's feast.
    Lady Macbeth
    What do you mean?
    Macbeth
    Still it cried "Sleep no more" to all the house,
    Glamis hath murdered sleep and therefore Cawdor
    700Shall sleep no more: Macbeth shall sleep no more.
    Lady Macbeth
    Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane,
    You do unbend your noble strength to think
    So brainsickly of things. Go get some water
    And wash this filthy witness from your hand.
    705Why did you bring these daggers from the place?
    They must lie there. Go carry them and smear
    The sleepy grooms with blood.
    Macbeth
    I'll go no more.
    I am afraid to think what I have done,
    710Look on't again I dare not.
    Lady Macbeth
    Infirm of purpose!
    Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead
    Are but as pictures. 'Tis the eye of childhood
    That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
    715I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal,
    For it must seem their guilt.
    Exit.
    Knock within.
    Macbeth
    Whence is that knocking?
    How is't with me when every noise appalls me?
    720What hands are here? Ha! They pluck out mine eyes.
    Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
    Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
    The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
    Making the green one red.
    725Enter Lady [Macbeth].
    Lady Macbeth
    My hands are of your color, but I shame
    To wear a heart so white.
    Knock.
    I hear a knocking
    At the south entry. Retire we to our chamber;
    730A little water clears us of this deed.
    How easy is it then! Your constancy
    Hath left you unattended.
    Knock.
    Hark, more knocking.
    Get on your nightgown lest occasion call us
    735And show us to be watchers. Be not lost
    So poorly in your thoughts.
    Macbeth
    To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself.
    Knock.
    Wake Duncan with thy knocking--740I would thou couldst.
    Exeunt.
    Enter a Porter. Knocking within.
    Porter
    Here's a knocking indeed. If a man were 745porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key. (Knock.) Knock, knock, knock. Who's there, i'th' name of Beelzebub? Here's a farmer that hanged himself on th'expectation of plenty. Come in time, have napkins enow about you--here you'll sweat for't. (Knock.) 750Knock, knock. Who's there, in th'other devil's name? Faith, here's an equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven. O come in, equivocator. (Knock.) Knock, 755knock, knock. Who's there? Faith, here's an English tailor come hither for stealing out of a French hose. Come in, tailor, here you may roast your goose. (Knock.) Knock, knock. Never at quiet. What are you? But this place is too cold for hell. I'll devil-porter it no further. 760I had thought to have let in some of all professions that go the primrose way to th'everlasting bonfire. (Knock.) Anon, anon. I pray you remember the porter.
    Enter Macduff and Lennox.
    Macduff
    Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed 765that you do lie so late?
    Porter
    Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock. And drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things.
    Macduff
    What three things does drink especially provoke?
    770Porter
    Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes and unprovokes: it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance. Therefore much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him and it mars him, it sets him on 775and it takes him off, it persuades him and disheartens him, makes him stand to and not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep and, giving him the lie, leaves him.
    Macduff
    I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.
    780Porter
    That it did, sir, i'the very throat on me. But I requited him for his lie and, I think, being too strong for him, though he took up my legs sometime, yet I made a shift to cast him.
    785Macduff
    Is thy master stirring?
    Enter Macbeth.
    Our knocking has awaked him: here he comes.
    [Exit Porter.]
    Lennox
    Good morrow, noble sir.
    Macbeth
    Good morrow, both.
    Macduff
    Is the King stirring, worthy thane?
    790Macbeth
    Not yet.
    Macduff
    He did command me to call timely on him;
    I have almost slipped the hour.
    Macbeth
    I'll bring you to him.
    Macduff
    I know this is a joyful trouble to you, 795but yet 'tis one.
    Macbeth
    The labor we delight in physics pain. This is the door.
    Macduff
    I'll make so bold to call, for 'tis my limited service.
    Exit.
    800Lennox
    Goes the King hence today?
    Macbeth
    He does; he did appoint so.
    Lennox
    The night has been unruly: where we lay,
    Our chimneys were blown down, and, as they say,
    Lamentings heard i'th' air, 805strange screams of death,
    And prophesying with accents terrible
    Of dire combustion and confused events,
    New hatched to th'woeful time. The obscure bird
    Clamored the livelong night. 810Some say the earth
    Was feverous and did shake.
    Macbeth
    'Twas a rough night.
    Lennox
    My young remembrance cannot parallel
    A fellow to it.
    815Enter Macduff.
    Macduff
    O horror, horror, horror,
    Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee.
    Macbeth, Lennox
    What's the matter?
    Macduff
    Confusion now hath made his masterpiece:
    820Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope
    The Lord's anointed temple and stole thence
    The life o'th' building.
    Macbeth
    What is't you say, the life?
    Lennox
    Mean you his majesty?
    825Macduff
    Approach the chamber and destroy your sight
    With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak--
    See, and then speak yourselves.
    Exeunt Macbeth and Lennox.
    Awake, awake!
    Ring the alarum bell! Murder and treason!
    830Banquo 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
    835To countenance this horror.
    Bell rings. Enter Lady [Macbeth and attendants].
    Lady Macbeth
    What's the business
    That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley
    The sleepers of the house? Speak, speak.
    840Macduff
    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.
    845O Banquo, Banquo,
    Our royal master's murdered.
    Lady Macbeth
    Woe, alas!
    What, in our house?
    Banquo
    Too cruel anywhere.
    Dear Duff, I prithee contradict thyself
    850And say it is not so.
    Enter Macbeth, Lennox.
    Macbeth
    Had I but died an hour before this chance,
    I had lived a blessèd time, for from this instant
    There's nothing serious in mortality.
    855All 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?
    860Macbeth
    You are and do not know't:
    The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood
    Is stopped; the very source of it is stopped.
    Macduff
    Your royal father's murdered.
    Malcolm
    Oh, by whom?
    865Lennox
    Those of his chamber, as it seemed, had done't:
    Their hands and faces were all 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.
    870Macbeth
    Oh, yet I do repent me of my fury
    That I did kill them.
    Macduff
    Wherefore did you so?
    Macbeth
    Who can be wise, amazed, temp'rate and furious,
    Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man.
    875Th'expedition of my violent love
    Outran the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,
    His silver skin laced with his golden blood,
    And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature
    For ruin's wasteful entrance; there the murderers,
    880Steeped in the colors of their trade, their daggers
    Unmannerly breeched with gore. Who could refrain
    That had a heart to love, and in that heart
    Courage to make's love known?
    Lady Macbeth
    Help me hence, ho!
    885Macduff
    Look to the lady.
    [Attendants go to her.]
    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, 890 may rush and seize us?
    Let's away. Our tears are not yet brewed.
    Malcolm
    [Aside to Donalbain] Nor our strong sorrow upon the foot of motion.
    Banquo
    Look to the lady.
    [Lady Macbeth is helped off stage.]
    895And 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
    900Against the undivulged pretense I fight
    Of treasonous malice.
    Macduff
    And so do I.
    All
    So all.
    Macbeth
    Let's briefly put on manly readiness
    905And meet i'th' 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
    910Which 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. 915The nea'er 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,
    920But shift away. There's warrant in that theft
    Which steals itself when there's no mercy left.
    Exeunt.
    Enter Ross with an Old Man.
    925Old 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
    Ha, good father,
    930Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man's act,
    Threatens his bloody stage: by th'clock 'tis day
    And yet dark night strangles the traveling lamp.
    Is't night's predominance or the day's shame
    That darkness does the face of earth entomb
    935When living light should kiss it?
    Old Man
    '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 hawked at and killed.
    And Duncan's horses--a thing most strange and certain--
    Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race,
    Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,
    Contending 'gainst obedience as they would
    945Make war with mankind.
    Old Man
    'Tis said they ate each other.
    They did so, to th'amazement of mine eyes
    That looked upon't.
    Enter Macduff.
    950Here comes the good Macduff.
    How goes the world, sir, now?
    Macduff
    Why, see you not?
    Is't known who did this more than bloody deed?
    Macduff
    Those that Macbeth hath slain.
    955Ross
    Alas the day,
    What good could they pretend?
    Macduff
    They were suborned.
    Malcolm and Donalbain, the King's two sons,
    Are stol'n away and fled, which puts upon them
    960Suspicion of the deed.
    Ross
    'Gainst nature still--
    Thriftless ambition that will ravin up
    Thine own life's means. Then 'tis most like
    The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.
    965Macduff
    He is already named and gone to Scone
    To be invested.
    Where is Duncan's body?
    Macduff
    Carried to Colmkill,
    The sacred storehouse of his predecessors
    970And 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,
    975Lest our old robes sit easier than our new.
    Farewell, father.
    Old Man
    God's benison go with you, and with those
    That would make good of bad and friends of foes.
    Exeunt.
    Enter Banquo.
    Banquo
    Thou hast it now, King, Cawdor, Glamis, all,
    As the weird women promised, and I fear
    Thou played'st most foully for't. Yet it was said
    985It 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,
    990May 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, and attendants.
    Macbeth
    Here's our chief guest.
    995Lady Macbeth
    If he had been forgotten,
    It had been as a gap in our great feast,
    And all-thing unbecoming.
    Macbeth
    Tonight we hold a solemn supper, sir,
    And I'll request your presence.
    1000Banquo
    Let your highness
    Command upon me, to the which my duties
    Are with a most indissoluble tie
    Forever knit.
    Macbeth
    Ride you this afternoon?
    1005Banquo
    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 tomorrow.
    Is't far you ride?
    1010Banquo
    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.
    1015Banquo
    My lord, I will not.
    Macbeth
    We hear our bloody cousins are bestowed
    In England and in Ireland, not confessing
    Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers
    With strange invention. But of that tomorrow,
    1020When 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.
    1025Macbeth
    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
    1030The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself
    Till suppertime alone. While then, God be with you.
    Exeunt [all but Macbeth and a Servant].
    Sirrah, a word with you. Attend those men
    Our pleasure?
    1035Servant
    They are, my lord, without the palace gate.
    Macbeth
    Bring them before us.
    Exit Servant.
    To be thus is nothing,
    But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo
    Stick deep, 1040and in his royalty of nature
    Reigns that which would be feared. 'Tis much he dares,
    And to that dauntless temper of his mind
    He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor
    To act in safety. There is none but he
    1045Whose 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,
    1050They hailed him father to a line of kings.
    Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown
    And put a barren scepter in my grip,
    Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand,
    No son of mine succeeding. If't be so,
    1055For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind,
    For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered,
    Put rancors in the vessel of my peace
    Only for them, and mine eternal jewel
    Given to the common enemy of man
    1060To make them kings, the seeds of Banquo kings.
    Rather than so, come, Fate, into the list,
    And champion me to th'utterance. Who's there?
    Enter Servant and two Murderers.
    1065[To Servant] Now go to the door and stay there till we call.
    Exit Servant.
    Was it not yesterday we spoke together?
    Murderers
    It was, so please your highness.
    Macbeth
    Well then, 1070now,
    Have you considered 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; 1075passed in probation with you
    How you were borne in hand, how crossed, the instruments,
    Who wrought with them, and all things else that might
    To half a soul and to a notion crazed
    1080Say, "Thus did Banquo."
    1 Murderer
    You made it known to us.
    Macbeth
    I did so; and went further which is now
    Our point of second meeting. 1085Do you find
    Your patience so predominant in your nature
    That you can let this go? Are you so gospelled
    To pray for this good man and for his issue,
    Whose heavy hand hath bowed you to the grave
    And beggared 1090yours forever?
    1 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
    1095All 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 closed, whereby he does receive
    1100Particular addition from the bill
    That writes them all alike. And so of men.
    Now, if you have a station in the file
    Not i'th' worst rank of manhood, say't,
    And I will put that business in your bosoms
    1105Whose 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.
    2 Murderer
    I am one, my liege,
    1110Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world
    Hath so incensed that I am reckless what I do
    To spite the world.
    1 Murderer
    And I another,
    So weary with disasters, tugged with fortune,
    1115That I would set my life on any chance
    To mend it or be rid on't.
    Macbeth
    Both of you
    Know Banquo was your enemy.
    Murderers
    True, my lord.
    Macbeth
    So is he mine--and in such bloody distance
    1120That 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,
    1125Whose 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.
    11302 Murderer
    We shall, my lord,
    Perform what you command us.
    1 Murderer
    Though our lives--
    Macbeth
    Your spirits shine through you. Within this hour at most
    1135I will advise you where to plant yourselves,
    Acquaint you with the perfect spy o'th' time,
    The moment on't, for't must be done tonight,
    And something from the palace--always thought
    That I require a clearness. And with him,
    1140To 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,
    1145I'll come to you anon.
    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 tonight.
    [Exit.]
    Enter [Lady Macbeth] and a Servant.
    Lady Macbeth
    Is Banquo gone from court?
    Servant
    Ay, madam, but returns again tonight.
    Lady Macbeth
    Say to the King I would attend his leisure
    1155For 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
    1160Than 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
    1165With them they think on? Things without all remedy
    Should be without regard: what's done is done.
    Macbeth
    We have scorched the snake, not killed it.
    She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice
    Remains in danger of her former tooth.
    1170But 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,
    1175Whom 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.
    1180Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,
    Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
    Can touch him further.
    Lady Macbeth
    Come on, gentle my lord,
    Sleek o'er your rugged looks, 1185be bright and jovial
    Among your guests tonight.
    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 1190our honors in these flattering streams
    And make our faces vizards to our hearts,
    Disguising what they are.
    Lady Macbeth
    You must leave this.
    Macbeth
    Oh, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife.
    1195Thou knowst 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 cloistered flight, ere to black Hecate's summons
    1200The 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,
    1205Till 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,
    1210And the crow makes wing to th'rooky wood.
    Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,
    Whiles night's black agents to their preys do rouse.
    Thou marvel'st at my words, but hold thee still;
    Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.
    1215So prithee go with me.
    Exeunt.
    Enter three Murderers.
    1 Murderer
    But who did bid thee join with us?
    3 Murderer
    Macbeth.
    12202 Murderer
    He needs not our mistrust, since he delivers
    Our offices and what we have to do
    To the direction just.
    1 Murderer
    Then stand with us.
    The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day.
    1225Now spurs the lated traveler apace
    To gain the timely inn, and near approaches
    The subject of our watch.
    3 Murderer
    Hark, I hear horses.
    Banquo
    (Within) Give us a light there, ho!
    12302 Murderer
    Then 'tis he.
    The rest that are within the note of expectation
    Already are i'th' court.
    1 Murderer
    His horses go about.
    3 Murderer
    Almost a mile; but he does usually,
    1235So all men do, from hence to th'palace gate
    Make it their walk.
    Enter Banquo and Fleance with a torch.
    2 Murderer
    A light, a light.
    3 Murderer
    'Tis he.
    12401 Murderer
    Stand to't.
    Banquo
    It will be rain tonight.
    1 Murderer
    Let it come down.
    [The Murderers attack Banquo. 1 Murderer strikes out the light.]
    Banquo
    Oh, treachery!
    Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!
    1245Thou mayst revenge--O slave!
    [He dies. Fleance escapes.]
    3 Murderer
    Who did strike out the light?
    1 Murderer
    Was't not the way?
    3 Murderer
    There's but one down; the son is fled.
    2 Murderer
    We have lost 1250best half of our affair.
    1 Murderer
    Well, let's away, and say how much is done.
    Exeunt[, with Banquo's body].
    Banquet prepared. Enter Macbeth, Lady [Macbeth], Ross, Lennox, 1255Lords, and attendants. [Lady Macbeth sits.]
    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
    1260And 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.
    1265Enter 1 Murderer[, at the door].
    Macbeth
    See, they encounter thee with their hearts' thanks.
    Both sides are even--here I'll sit i'th' midst.
    Be large in mirth. Anon we'll drink a measure
    The table round. [To 1 Murderer] There's blood upon thy face.
    12701 Murderer
    'Tis Banquo's, then.
    Macbeth
    'Tis better thee without than he within.
    Is he dispatched?
    1 Murderer
    My lord, his throat is cut--that I did for him.
    Macbeth
    Thou art the best o'th' cutthroats.
    1275Yet he's good that did the like for Fleance;
    If thou didst it, thou art the nonpareil.
    1 Murderer
    Most royal sir, Fleance is 'scaped.
    Macbeth
    Then comes my fit again; 1280I had else been perfect,
    Whole as the marble, founded as the rock,
    As broad and general as the casing air,
    But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in
    To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo's safe?
    12851 Murderer
    Ay, my good lord; safe in a ditch he bides
    With twenty trenchèd gashes on his head,
    The least a death to nature.
    Macbeth
    Thanks for that.
    There the grown serpent lies; the worm that's fled
    1290Hath nature that in time will venom breed,
    No teeth for th'present. Get thee gone; tomorrow
    We'll hear ourselves again.
    Exit [1] Murderer.
    Lady Macbeth
    My royal lord,
    You do not give the cheer. The feast is sold
    1295That is not often vouched 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.
    Enter the Ghost of Banquo and sits in Macbeth's place.
    1300Macbeth
    Sweet remembrancer!
    Now good digestion wait on appetite
    And health on both.
    Lennox
    May't please your highness, sit.
    Macbeth
    Here had we now our country's honor roofed,
    1305Were 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
    1310To 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. 1315What is't that moves your highness?
    Macbeth
    Which of you have done this?
    Lords
    What, my good lord?
    Macbeth
    [To Banquo's Ghost] Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake
    Thy gory locks at me.
    [Rising] Gentlemen, rise--his highness is not well.
    Lady Macbeth
    [Rising] 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
    1325You shall offend him and extend his passion.
    Feed, and regard him not. [Aside to Macbeth] Are you a man?
    Macbeth
    Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
    Which might appall the devil.
    Lady Macbeth
    Oh, proper stuff!
    1330This is the very painting of your fear,
    This is the air-drawn dagger which you said
    Led you to Duncan. Oh, these flaws and starts,
    Impostors to true fear, would well become
    A woman's story at a winter's fire
    1335Authorized 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?
    1340[To Banquo's Ghost] 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.
    [Exit Ghost.]
    Lady Macbeth
    What? Quite unmanned in folly.
    1345Macbeth
    If I stand here, I saw him.
    Lady Macbeth
    Fie, for shame.
    Macbeth
    Blood hath been shed ere now, i'th' olden time
    Ere humane statute purged the gentle weal;
    Ay, and since too, murders have been performed
    1350Too terrible for the ear. The times has 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
    1355Than 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:
    1360I 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.
    Enter Ghost.
    I drink to th'general joy o'th' whole table
    1365And 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.
    Macbeth
    Avant and quit my sight, let the earth hide thee!
    1370Thy 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,
    1375Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
    Macbeth
    What man dare, I dare:
    Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
    The armed rhinoceros, or th'Hyrcan tiger,
    Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
    1380Shall 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 mock'ry, hence!
    [Exit Ghost.]
    Why so, being gone,
    1385I 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
    1390Without 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.
    1395Ross
    What sights, my lord?
    Lady Macbeth
    I pray you speak not: he grows worse and worse.
    Question enrages him. At once, goodnight.
    Stand not upon the order of your going,
    But go at once.
    1400Lennox
    Goodnight, and better health
    Attend his majesty.
    Lady Macbeth
    A kind goodnight to all.
    [Exeunt] Lords [and attendants].
    Macbeth
    It will have blood, they say--blood will have blood.
    1405Stones have been known to move and trees to speak,
    Augurs and understood relations have
    By maggot-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.
    1410Macbeth
    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
    1415I keep a servant fee'd. I will tomorrow,
    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
    1420Stepped 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 scanned.
    Lady Macbeth
    You lack the season of all natures, sleep.
    1425Macbeth
    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.
    Thunder. Enter the three Witches, meeting 1430Hecate.
    1 Witch
    Why, how now, Hecate, you look angerly?
    Hecate
    Have I not reason, beldams as you are,
    Saucy and over-bold? How did you dare
    To trade and traffic with Macbeth
    1435In riddles and affairs of death,
    And I the mistress of your charms,
    The close contriver of all harms,
    Was never called to bear my part
    Or show the glory of our art?
    1440And 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
    1445And at the pit of Acheron
    Meet me i'th' morning. Thither he
    Will come to know his destiny.
    Your vessels and your spells provide,
    Your charms and every thing beside.
    1450I am for th'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 vap'rous drop profound;
    1455I'll catch it ere it come to ground.
    And that distilled by magic sleights
    Shall raise such artificial sprites
    As by the strength of their illusion
    Shall draw him on to his confusion.
    1460He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear
    His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and fear.
    And you all know security
    Is mortals' chiefest enemy.
    Music and a song within: come away, come away, etc.
    1465Hark, I am called: my little spirit, see,
    Sits in a foggy cloud and stays for me.
    [Exit.]
    1 Witch
    Come, let's make haste, she'll soon be back again.
    Exeunt.
    Enter Lennox and another Lord.
    Lennox
    My former speeches have but hit your thoughts,
    Which can interpret farther. Only I say
    1475Things have been strangely borne. The gracious Duncan
    Was pitied of Macbeth--marry, he was dead.
    And the right valiant Banquo walked too late
    Whom you may say, if't please you, Fleance killed,
    For Fleance fled: men must not walk too late.
    1480Who cannot want the thought how monstrous
    It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain
    To kill their gracious father? Damnèd fact,
    How it did grieve Macbeth! Did he not straight,
    In pious rage, the two delinquents tear,
    1485That were the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep?
    Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely too,
    For 'twould have angered any heart alive
    To hear the men deny't. So that I say,
    He has borne all things well, and I do think
    1490That, had he Duncan's sons under his key,
    As, and'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 failed
    His presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear
    1495Macduff 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
    1500Of 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,
    1505That 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 honors,
    1510All which we pine for now. And this report
    Hath so exasperate their king that he
    Prepares for some attempt of war.
    Lennox
    Sent he to Macduff?
    He did; and with an absolute, "Sir, not I",
    1515The cloudy messenger turns me his back
    And hums--as who should say, "You'll rue the time
    That clogs me with this answer."
    Lennox
    And that well might
    Advise him to a caution, t'hold what distance
    1520His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel
    Fly to the court of England and unfold
    His message ere he come, that a swift blessing
    May soon return to this our suffering country
    Under a hand accursed.
    1525Lord
    I'll send my prayers with him.
    Exeunt.
    Thunder. Enter the three Witches.
    1 Witch
    Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed.
    2 Witch
    Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.
    15303 Witch
    Harpier cries, "'Tis time, 'tis time."
    1 Witch
    Round about the cauldron go,
    In the poisoned entrails throw.
    Toad that under cold stone
    Days and nights has thirty-one
    1535Sweltered venom sleeping got,
    Boil thou first i'th' charmèd pot.
    Double, double, toil and trouble,
    Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
    2 Witch
    Fillet of a fenny snake
    1540In the cauldron boil and bake,
    Eye of newt and toe of frog,
    Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
    Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
    Lizard's leg and owlet's wing,
    1545For a charm of powerful trouble,
    Like a hell-broth, boil and bubble.
    Double, double, toil and trouble,
    Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
    3 Witch
    Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
    1550Witch's mummy, maw and gulf
    Of the ravined salt-sea shark,
    Root of hemlock digged i'th' dark,
    Liver of blaspheming Jew,
    Gall of goat and slips of yew
    1555Slivered in the moon's eclipse,
    Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips,
    Finger of birth-strangled babe
    Ditch-delivered by a drab,
    Make the gruel thick and slab.
    1560Add thereto a tiger's chawdron
    For th'ingredience of our cauldron.
    Double, double, toil and trouble,
    Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
    2 Witch
    Cool it with a baboon's blood,
    1565Then the charm is firm and good.
    Enter Hecate and [three other] Witches.
    Hecate
    Oh, well done! I commend your pains,
    And everyone shall share i'th' gains.
    And now about the cauldron sing
    1570Like elves and fairies in a ring,
    Enchanting all that you put in.
    Music and a song. "Black spirits," etc.
    [Exeunt Hecate and the three other Witches.]
    2 Witch
    By the pricking of my thumbs,
    Something wicked this way comes;
    1575Open locks, whoever knocks.
    Enter Macbeth.
    Macbeth
    How now, you secret, black and midnight hags?
    What is't you do?
    All
    A deed without a name.
    1580Macbeth
    I conjure you, by that which you profess,
    Howe'er you come to know it, answer me.
    Though you untie the winds and let them fight
    Against the churches, though the yeasty waves
    Confound and swallow navigation up,
    1585Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down,
    Though castles topple on their warders' heads,
    Though palaces and pyramids do slope
    Their heads to their foundations, though the treasure
    Of nature's germen tumble altogether
    1590Even till destruction sicken, answer me
    To what I ask you.
    1 Witch
    Speak.
    2 Witch
    Demand.
    3 Witch
    We'll answer.
    15951 Witch
    Say if thou'dst rather hear it from our mouths
    Or from our masters'.
    Macbeth
    Call 'em; let me see 'em.
    1 Witch
    Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten
    Her nine farrow; grease that's sweaten
    1600From the murderer's gibbet, throw
    Into the flame.
    All
    Come high or low,
    Thyself and office deftly show.
    Thunder. 1 Apparition: an armed head.
    1605Macbeth
    Tell me, thou unknown power--
    1 Witch
    He knows thy thought;
    Hear his speech, but say thou nought.
    1 Apparition
    Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth, beware Macduff,
    1610Beware the Thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough.
    Descends.
    Macbeth
    Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks;
    Thou hast harped my fear aright. But one word more--
    1 Witch
    He will not be commanded. Here's another
    1615More potent than the first.
    Thunder. 2 Apparition: a bloody child.
    2 Apparition
    Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth.
    Macbeth
    Had I three ears, I'd hear thee.
    2 Apparition
    Be bloody, bold and resolute; 1620laugh to scorn
    The power of man, for none of woman born
    Shall harm Macbeth.
    Descends.
    Macbeth
    Then live, Macduff, what need I fear of thee?
    But yet I'll make assurance double sure
    1625And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live,
    That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies,
    And sleep in spite of thunder.
    Thunder 3 Apparition: a child crowned, with a tree in his hand.
    What is this that rises like the issue of a king
    1630And wears upon his baby-brow the round
    And top of sovereignty?
    All
    Listen, but speak not to't.
    3 Apparition
    Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care
    Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are:
    1635Macbeth shall never vanquished be until
    Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill
    Shall come against him.
    Descends.
    Macbeth
    That will never be.
    Who can impress the forest, bid the tree
    1640Unfix his earth-bound root? Sweet bodements, good!
    Rebellious dead, rise never till the Wood
    Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth
    Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath
    To time and mortal custom. Yet my heart
    1645Throbs to know one thing: tell me, if your art
    Can tell so much, shall Banquo's issue ever
    Reign in this kingdom?
    All
    Seek to know no more.
    Macbeth
    I will be satisfied. Deny me this,
    1650And an eternal curse fall on you. Let me know.
    [Cauldron descends.] Hautboys.
    Why sinks that cauldron? And what noise is this?
    1 Witch
    Show.
    2 Witch
    Show.
    3 Witch
    Show.
    Show his eyes and grieve his heart,
    Come like shadows, so depart.
    A show of eight kings, [the] last with a glass in his hand; [Banquo's ghost following].
    Macbeth
    Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo--down!
    1660Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs and thy hair,
    Thou other gold-bound-brow, is like the first;
    A third is like the former. Filthy hags,
    Why do you show me this? A fourth? Start, eyes!
    What, will the line stretch out to th'crack of doom?
    1665Another yet? A seventh? I'll see no more,
    And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass
    Which shows me many more. And some I see
    That twofold balls and treble scepters carry.
    Horrible sight! Now I see 'tis true,
    1670For the blood-boltered Banquo smiles upon me
    And points at them for his. What, is this so?
    [Apparitions and Banquo's ghost vanish.]
    1 Witch
    Ay, sir, all this is so. But why
    Stands Macbeth thus amazedly?
    Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites
    1675And show the best of our delights.
    I'll charm the air to give a sound
    While you perform your antic round
    That this great king may kindly say,
    Our duties did his welcome pay.
    Music. 1680The Witches dance and vanish.
    Macbeth
    Where are they? Gone? Let this pernicious hour
    Stand aye accursèd in the calendar.
    Come in, without there.
    Enter Lennox.
    1685Lennox
    What's your grace's will?
    Macbeth
    Saw you the weird sisters?
    Lennox
    No, my lord.
    Macbeth
    Came they not by you?
    Lennox
    No indeed, my lord.
    1690Macbeth
    Infected be the air whereon they ride
    And damned all those that trust them. I did hear
    The galloping of horse. Who was't came by?
    'Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word
    Macduff is fled to England.
    1695Macbeth
    Fled to England?
    Ay, my good lord.
    Macbeth
    [Aside] Time, thou anticipat'st my dread exploits;
    The flighty purpose never is o'ertook
    Unless the deed go with it. From this moment,
    1700The very firstlings of my heart shall be
    The firstlings of my hand. And even now
    To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done:
    The castle of Macduff I will surprise;
    Seize upon Fife; give to th'edge o'th' sword
    1705His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls
    That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool,
    This deed I'll do before this purpose cool.
    But no more sights! --Where are these gentlemen?
    Come, bring me where they are.
    Exeunt.
    Enter [Lady Macduff], her Son, and Ross.
    Lady Macduff
    What had he done to make him fly the land?
    You must have patience, madam.
    Lady Macduff
    He had none;
    1715His flight was madness. When our actions do not,
    Our fears do make us traitors.
    Ross
    You know not
    Whether it was his wisdom or his fear.
    Lady Macduff
    Wisdom? To leave his wife, to leave his babes,
    1720His mansion, and his titles, in a place
    From whence himself does fly? He loves us not;
    He wants the natural touch. For the poor wren,
    The most diminutive of birds, will fight,
    Her young ones in her nest, against the owl.
    1725All is the fear and nothing is the love;
    As little is the wisdom where the flight
    So runs against all reason.
    Ross
    My dearest coz,
    I pray you school yourself. But for your husband,
    1730He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows
    The fits o'th' season. I dare not speak much further,
    But cruel are the times when we are traitors
    And do not know ourselves; when we hold rumor
    From what we fear yet know not what we fear,
    1735But float upon a wild and violent sea
    Each way and none. I take my leave of you;
    Shall not be long but I'll be here again.
    Things at the worst will cease or else climb upward
    To what they were before. [To Son] My pretty cousin,
    1740Blessing upon you.
    Lady Macduff
    Fathered he is, and yet he's fatherless.
    I am so much a fool, should I stay longer
    It would be my disgrace and your discomfort.
    1745I take my leave at once.
    Exit.
    Lady Macduff
    Sirrah, your father's dead,
    And what will you do now? How will you live?
    As birds do, mother.
    Lady Macduff
    What, with worms and flies?
    With what I get, I mean, and so do they.
    Lady Macduff
    Poor bird, thou'dst never fear the net nor lime,
    The pitfall, nor the gin.
    Son
    Why should I, mother?
    1755Poor birds they are not set for. My father is not dead for all your saying.
    Lady Macduff
    Yes, he is dead. How wilt thou do for a father?
    Nay, how will you do for a husband?
    1760Lady Macduff
    Why, I can buy me twenty at any market.
    Then you'll buy 'em to sell again.
    Lady Macduff
    Thou speak'st with all thy wit, and yet i'faith with wit enough for thee.
    Was my father a traitor, mother?
    1765Lady Macduff
    Ay, that he was.
    What is a traitor?
    Lady Macduff
    Why, one that swears and lies.
    And be all traitors that do so?
    Lady Macduff
    Every one that does so is a traitor 1770and must be hanged.
    And must they all be hanged that swear and lie?
    Lady Macduff
    Every one.
    Who must hang them?
    Lady Macduff
    Why, the honest men.
    Then the liars and swearers are fools, for there are liars and swearers enough to beat the honest men and hang up them.
    Lady Macduff
    Now God help thee, poor monkey. But how wilt thou do for a father?
    If he were dead, you'd weep for him; if you would not, it were a good sign that I should quickly have a new father.
    Lady Macduff
    Poor prattler, how thou talk'st!
    Enter a Messenger.
    1785Messenger
    Bless you, fair dame. I am not to you known,
    Though in your state of honor I am perfect;
    I doubt some danger does approach you nearly.
    If you will take a homely man's advice,
    Be not found here. Hence with your little ones.
    1790To fright you thus methinks I am too savage;
    To do worse to you were fell cruelty,
    Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you,
    I dare abide no longer.
    Exit.
    Lady Macduff
    Whither should I fly?
    1795I have done no harm. But I remember now
    I am in this earthly world where to do harm
    Is often laudable, to do good sometime
    Accounted dangerous folly. Why then, alas,
    Do I put up that womanly defense
    1800To say I have done no harm?
    Enter Murderers.
    What are these faces?
    1 Murderer
    Where is your husband?
    Lady Macduff
    I hope in no place so unsanctified
    1805Where such as thou mayst find him.
    1 Murderer
    He's a traitor.
    Thou liest, thou shag-haired villain!
    1 Murderer
    What, you egg!
    Young fry of treachery!
    [Stabbing him.]
    1810Son
    He has killed me, mother.
    Run away, I pray you.
    Exit [Lady Macduff] crying "Murder," [pursued by the Murderers bearing her Son].
    Enter Malcolm and Macduff.
    Malcolm
    Let us seek out some desolate shade and there
    1815Weep our sad bosoms empty.
    Macduff
    Let us rather
    Hold fast the mortal sword and, like good men,
    Bestride our downfall birthdom. Each new morn
    New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows
    1820Strike heaven on the face that it resounds
    As if it felt with Scotland and yelled out
    Like syllable of dolor.
    Malcolm
    What I believe, I'll wail;
    What know, believe; and what I can redress,
    1825As I shall find the time to friend, I will.
    What you have spoke, it may be so perchance.
    This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,
    Was once thought honest; you have loved him well--
    He hath not touched you yet. I am young, but something
    1830You may discern of him through me, and wisdom
    To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb
    T'appease an angry god.
    Macduff
    I am not treacherous.
    Malcolm
    But Macbeth is.
    1835A good and virtuous nature may recoil
    In an imperial charge. But I shall crave your pardon,
    That which you are, my thoughts cannot transpose;
    Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.
    Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace,
    1840Yet grace must still look so.
    Macduff
    I have lost my hopes.
    Malcolm
    Perchance even there where I did find my doubts.
    Why in that rawness left you wife and child,
    1845Those precious motives, those strong knots of love,
    Without leave-taking? I pray you,
    Let not my jealousies be your dishonors,
    But mine own safeties. You may be rightly just,
    Whatever I shall think.
    1850Macduff
    Bleed, bleed poor country.
    Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure,
    For goodness dare not check thee; wear thou thy wrongs,
    The title is affeered. Fare thee well, lord,
    I would not be the villain that thou think'st
    1855For the whole space that's in the tyrant's grasp
    And the rich East to boot.
    Malcolm
    Be not offended.
    I speak not as in absolute fear of you.
    I think our country sinks beneath the yoke,
    1860It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash
    Is added to her wounds. I think withal
    There would be hands uplifted in my right,
    And here from gracious England have I offer
    Of goodly thousands. But for all this,
    1865When I shall tread upon the tyrant's head
    Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country
    Shall have more vices than it had before,
    More suffer, and more sundry ways than ever,
    By him that shall succeed.
    1870Macduff
    What should he be?
    Malcolm
    It is myself I mean, in whom I know
    All the particulars of vice so grafted
    That when they shall be opened, black Macbeth
    Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state
    1875Esteem him as a lamb, being compared
    With my confineless harms.
    Macduff
    Not in the legions
    Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned
    In evils to top Macbeth.
    1880Malcolm
    I grant him bloody,
    Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful,
    Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin
    That has a name. But there's no bottom, none,
    In my voluptuousness. Your wives, your daughters,
    1885Your matrons, and your maids, could not fill up
    The cistern of my lust, and my desire
    All continent impediments would o'erbear
    That did oppose my will. Better Macbeth
    Than such an one to reign.
    1890Macduff
    Boundless intemperance
    In nature is a tyranny. It hath been
    Th'untimely emptying of the happy throne
    And fall of many kings. But fear not yet
    To take upon you what is yours: you may
    1895Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty
    And yet seem cold--the time you may so hoodwink.
    We have willing dames enough. There cannot be
    That vulture in you to devour so many
    As will to greatness dedicate themselves,
    1900Finding it so inclined.
    Malcolm
    With this, there grows
    In my most ill-composed affection such
    A stanchless avarice that, were I king,
    I should cut off the nobles for their lands,
    1905Desire his jewels and this other's house,
    And my more-having would be as a sauce
    To make me hunger more that I should forge
    Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal,
    Destroying them for wealth.
    1910Macduff
    This avarice
    Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root
    Than summer-seeming lust, and it hath been
    The sword of our slain kings; yet do not fear,
    Scotland hath foisons to fill up your will
    1915Of your mere own. All these are portable,
    With other graces weighed.
    Malcolm
    But I have none. The king-becoming graces--
    As justice, verity, temperance, stableness,
    Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,
    1920Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude--
    I have no relish of them, but abound
    In the division of each several crime,
    Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should
    Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell,
    1925Uproar the universal peace, confound
    All unity on earth.
    Macduff
    O Scotland, Scotland!
    Malcolm
    If such a one be fit to govern, speak.
    I am as I have spoken.
    1930Macduff
    Fit to govern?
    No, not to live. O nation miserable!
    With an untitled tyrant bloody-sceptered,
    When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again,
    Since that the truest issue of thy throne
    By his own interdiction stands accused
    1935And does blaspheme his breed? Thy royal father
    Was a most sainted king; the queen that bore thee,
    Oft'ner upon her knees than on her feet,
    Died every day she lived. Fare thee well,
    These evils thou repeat'st upon thyself
    1940Hath banished me from Scotland. O my breast,
    Thy hope ends here.
    Malcolm
    Macduff, this noble passion,
    Child of integrity, hath from my soul
    Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts
    1945To thy good truth and honor. Devilish Macbeth,
    By many of these trains, hath sought to win me
    Into his power, and modest wisdom plucks me
    From over-credulous haste. But God above
    Deal between thee and me, for even now
    1950I put myself to thy direction and
    Unspeak mine own detraction, here abjure
    The taints and blames I laid upon myself
    For strangers to my nature. I am yet
    Unknown to woman, never was forsworn,
    1955Scarcely have coveted what was mine own,
    At no time broke my faith, would not betray
    The devil to his fellow, and delight
    No less in truth than life. My first false speaking
    Was this upon myself. What I am truly
    1960Is thine and my poor country's to command,
    Whither indeed, before thy here-approach,
    Old Siward with ten thousand warlike men
    Already at a point was setting forth.
    Now we'll together and the chance of goodness
    1965Be like our warranted quarrel. Why are you silent?
    Macduff
    Such welcome and unwelcome things at once,
    'Tis hard to reconcile.
    Enter a Doctor.
    Malcolm
    Well, more anon.
    Comes the King forth, 1970I pray you?
    Ay, sir: there are a crew of wretched souls
    That stay his cure; their malady convinces
    The great assay of art, but at his touch,
    Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand,
    1975They presently amend.
    Malcolm
    I thank you, doctor.
    Exit [Doctor].
    Macduff
    What's the disease he means?
    Malcolm
    'Tis called the evil.
    A most miraculous work in this good King,
    1980Which often since my here-remain in England
    I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven
    Himself best knows, but strangely visited people,
    All swollen and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye,
    The mere despair of surgery, he cures,
    1985Hanging a golden stamp about their necks
    Put on with holy prayers, and 'tis spoken
    To the succeeding royalty he leaves
    The healing benediction. With this strange virtue
    He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy,
    1990And sundry blessings hang about his throne
    That speak him full of grace.
    Enter Ross.
    Macduff
    See who comes here.
    Malcolm
    My countryman, but yet I know him not.
    1995Macduff
    My ever gentle cousin, welcome hither.
    Malcolm
    I know him now. Good God betimes remove
    The means that makes us strangers.
    Ross
    Sir, amen.
    Macduff
    Stands Scotland where it did?
    2000Ross
    Alas, poor country,
    Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot
    Be called our mother, but our grave, where nothing
    But who knows nothing is once seen to smile;
    Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the air
    2005Are made, not marked; where violent sorrow seems
    A modern ecstasy; the dead man's knell
    Is there scarce asked for who, and good men's lives
    Expire before the flowers in their caps,
    Dying or e'er they sicken.
    2010Macduff
    Oh, relation
    Too nice and yet too true.
    Malcolm
    What's the newest grief?
    That of an hour's age doth hiss the speaker,
    Each minute teems a new one.
    Macduff
    How does my wife?
    Why, well.
    Macduff
    And all my children?
    Ross
    Well, too.
    Macduff
    The tyrant has not battered at their peace?
    No, they were well at peace when I did leave 'em.
    2020Macduff
    Be not a niggard of your speech--how goes't?
    When I came hither to transport the tidings
    Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumor
    Of many worthy fellows that were out,
    Which was to my belief witnessed the rather,
    2025For that I saw the tyrant's power afoot.
    Now is the time of help. [To Malcolm] Your eye in Scotland
    Would create soldiers, make our women fight
    To doff their dire distresses.
    Malcolm
    Be't their comfort
    2030We are coming thither: gracious England hath
    Lent us good Siward and ten thousand men--
    An older and a better soldier none
    That Christendom gives out.
    Ross
    Would I could answer
    2035This comfort with the like. But I have words
    That would be howled out in the desert air
    Where hearing should not latch them.
    Macduff
    What concern they--
    The general cause, or is it a fee-grief
    2040Due to some single breast?
    Ross
    No mind that's honest
    But in it shares some woe, though the main part
    Pertains to you alone.
    Macduff
    If it be mine
    2045Keep it not from me; quickly let me have it.
    Let not your ears despise my tongue forever
    Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound
    That ever yet they heard.
    Macduff
    H'm, I guess at it.
    Your castle is surprised, your wife and babes
    Savagely slaughtered. To relate the manner
    Were on the quarry of these murdered deer
    To add the death of you.
    Malcolm
    Merciful heaven!
    2055What, man, ne'er pull your hat upon your brows:
    Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak
    Whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break.
    Macduff
    My children too?
    Ross
    Wife, children, servants, all
    That could be found.
    2060Macduff
    And I must be from thence!
    My wife killed too?
    Ross
    I have said.
    Malcolm
    Be comforted.
    Let's make us med'cines of our great revenge
    To cure this deadly grief.
    2065Macduff
    He has no children. All my pretty ones?
    Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
    What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
    At one fell swoop?
    Malcolm
    Dispute it like a man.
    2070Macduff
    I shall do so,
    But I must also feel it as a man.
    I cannot but remember such things were
    That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on
    And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff,
    2075They were all struck for thee. Naught that I am,
    Not for their own demerits but for mine,
    Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now.
    Malcolm
    Be this the whetstone of your sword; let grief
    Convert to anger. Blunt not the heart, enrage it.
    2080Macduff
    Oh, I could play the woman with mine eyes
    And braggart with my tongue. But gentle heavens,
    Cut short all intermission. Front to front
    Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself--
    Within my sword's length set him. If he 'scape,
    2085Heaven forgive him too.
    Malcolm
    This tune goes manly.
    Come, go we to the King; our power is ready,
    Our lack is nothing but our leave. Macbeth
    Is ripe for shaking and the powers above
    2090Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may,
    The night is long that never finds the day.
    Exeunt.
    Enter a Doctor of Physic and a Waiting Gentlewoman.
    2095Doctor
    I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walked?
    Gentlewoman
    Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown up2100on her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon't, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed, yet all this while in a most fast sleep.
    Doctor
    A great perturbation in nature to receive at once the benefit of sleep and do the effects of watching. 2105In this slumbery agitation, besides her walking and other actual performances, what at any time have you heard her say?
    Gentlewoman
    That, sir, which I will not report after her.
    Doctor
    You may to me, and 'tis most meet you should.
    2110Gentlewoman
    Neither to you nor anyone, having no witness to confirm my speech.
    Enter Lady [Macbeth] with a taper.
    Lo you, here she comes. This is her very guise and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her, stand close.
    Doctor
    How came she by that light?
    2115Gentlewoman
    Why, it stood by her--she has light by her continually, 'tis her command.
    Doctor
    You see her eyes are open.
    Gentlewoman
    Ay, but their sense are shut.
    Doctor
    What is it she does now? 2120Look how she rubs her hands.
    Gentlewoman
    It is an accustomed action with her to seem thus washing her hands. I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour.
    Lady Macbeth
    Yet here's a spot.
    2125Doctor
    Hark, she speaks: I will set down what comes from her to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.
    Lady Macbeth
    Out, damned spot! Out, I say. One, two, why then 'tis time to do't. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier and afeard? What need we fear who knows 2130it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?
    Doctor
    Do you mark that?
    Lady Macbeth
    The Thane of Fife had a wife, where is she now? 2135What, will these hands ne'er be clean? No more o'that, my lord, no more o'that. You mar all with this starting.
    Doctor
    Go to, go to. You have known what you should not.
    2140Gentlewoman
    She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that. Heaven knows what she has known.
    Lady Macbeth
    Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh.
    2145Doctor
    What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged.
    Gentlewoman
    I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the dignity of the whole body.
    Doctor
    Well, well, well.
    Gentlewoman
    Pray God it be, sir.
    2150Doctor
    This disease is beyond my practice, yet I have known those which have walked in their sleep who have died holily in their beds.
    Lady Macbeth
    Wash your hands, put on your nightgown, look not so pale. I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried, 2155he cannot come out on's grave.
    Doctor
    Even so?
    Lady Macbeth
    To bed, to bed, there's knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come, give me your hand--what's done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed.
    Doctor
    Will she go now to bed?
    Gentlewoman
    Directly.
    Doctor
    Foul whisp'rings are abroad. Unnatural deeds
    Do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds
    2165To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.
    More needs she the divine than the physician.
    God, God forgive us all. Look after her;
    Remove from her the means of all annoyance
    And still keep eyes upon her. So, goodnight,
    2170My mind she has mated and amazed my sight.
    I think, but dare not speak.
    Gentlewoman
    Good night, good doctor.
    Exeunt.
    Drum and colors. Enter Menteith, Caithness, 2175Angus, Lennox, soldiers.
    Menteith
    The English power is near, led on by Malcolm,
    His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff.
    Revenges burn in them, for their dear causes
    Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm
    2180Excite the mortified man.
    Angus
    Near Birnam Wood
    Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming.
    Caithness
    Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?
    Lennox
    For certain, sir, he is not. I have a file
    2185Of all the gentry: there is Siward's son
    And many unrough youths that even now
    Protest their first of manhood.
    Menteith
    What does the tyrant?
    Caithness
    Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies.
    2190Some say he's mad, others that lesser hate him
    Do call it valiant fury, but for certain
    He cannot buckle his distempered cause
    Within the belt of rule.
    Angus
    Now does he feel
    2195His secret murders sticking on his hands;
    Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach;
    Those he commands move only in command,
    Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title
    Hang loose about him like a giant's robe
    2200Upon a dwarfish thief.
    Menteith
    Who then shall blame
    His pestered senses to recoil and start,
    When all that is within him does condemn
    Itself for being there?
    2205Caithness
    Well, march we on
    To give obedience where 'tis truly owed;
    Meet we the med'cine of the sickly weal
    And with him pour we in our country's purge,
    Each drop of us.
    2210Lennox
    Or so much as it needs
    To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds.
    Make we our march towards Birnam.
    Exeunt, marching.
    Enter Macbeth, Doctor, and attendants.
    2215Macbeth
    Bring me no more reports, let them fly all.
    Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane,
    I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm?
    Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know
    All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus:
    2220"Fear not, Macbeth, no man that's born of woman
    Shall e'er have power upon thee." Then fly false thanes
    And mingle with the English epicures.
    The mind I sway by and the heart I bear
    Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.
    2225Enter Servant.
    The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon.
    Where got'st thou that goose-look?
    Servant
    There is ten thousand--
    Macbeth
    Geese, villain?
    2230Servant
    Soldiers, sir.
    Macbeth
    Go prick thy face and over-red thy fear,
    Thou lily-livered boy. What soldiers, patch?
    Death of thy soul, those linen cheeks of thine
    Are counselors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?
    2235Servant
    The English force, so please you.
    Macbeth
    Take thy face hence.
    Exit Servant.
    Seyton! --I am sick at heart
    When I behold-- Seyton, I say! --This push
    Will cheer me ever or disseat me now.
    I have lived long enough; my way of life
    2240Is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf,
    And that which should accompany old age,
    As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,
    I must not look to have, but in their stead
    Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath
    2245Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.
    --Seyton!
    Enter Seyton.
    Seyton
    What's your gracious pleasure?
    Macbeth
    What news more?
    2250Seyton
    All is confirmed, my lord, which was reported.
    Macbeth
    I'll fight till from my bones my flesh be hacked.
    Give me my armor.
    Seyton
    'Tis not needed yet.
    Macbeth
    I'll put it on.
    2255Send out more horses, skirr the country round,
    Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armor.
    How does your patient, Doctor?
    Doctor
    Not so sick, my lord,
    As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies
    2260That keep her from her rest.
    Macbeth
    Cure her of that.
    Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
    Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
    Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
    2265And with some sweet oblivious antidote
    Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff
    Which weighs upon the heart?
    Doctor
    Therein the patient
    Must minister to himself.
    2270Macbeth
    Throw physic to the dogs, I'll none of it.
    [To an attendant] Come, put mine armor on; give me my staff.
    --Seyton, send out. Doctor, the thanes fly from me.
    [To an attendant]Come, sir, dispatch. --If thou couldst, Doctor, cast
    The water of my land, find her disease,
    2275And purge it to a sound and pristine health,
    I would applaud thee to the very echo
    That should applaud again. --Pull't off, I say.
    --What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug
    Would scour these English hence? Hear'st thou of them?
    2280Doctor
    Ay, my good lord. Your royal preparation
    Makes us hear something.
    Macbeth
    --Bring it after me.
    I will not be afraid of death and bane
    Till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane.
    [Exeunt all but Doctor.]
    2285Doctor
    Were I from Dunsinane away and clear,
    Profit again should hardly draw me here.
    Ex[i]t.
    Drum and colors. Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, Siward's son, Menteith, Caithness, Angus, 2290and Soldiers, marching.
    Malcolm
    Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand
    That chambers will be safe.
    Menteith
    We doubt it nothing.
    Siward
    What wood is this before us?
    2295Menteith
    The Wood of Birnam.
    Malcolm
    Let every soldier hew him down a bough
    And bear't before him; thereby shall we shadow
    The numbers of our host and make discovery
    Err in report of us.
    2300Soldier
    It shall be done.
    Siward
    We learn no other but the confident tyrant
    Keeps still in Dunsinane and will endure
    Our setting down before't.
    Malcolm
    'Tis his main hope,
    2305For where there is advantage to be given,
    Both more and less have given him the revolt,
    And none serve with him but constrainèd things
    Whose hearts are absent too.
    Macduff
    Let our just censures
    2310Attend the true event and put we on
    Industrious soldiership.
    Siward
    The time approaches
    That will with due decision make us know
    What we shall say we have and what we owe.
    2315Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate,
    But certain issue strokes must arbitrate;
    Towards which advance the war.
    Exeunt, marching.
    Enter Macbeth, Seyton, and soldiers, with 2320drum and colors.
    Macbeth
    Hang out our banners on the outward walls;
    The cry is still, "They come." Our castle's strength
    Will laugh a siege to scorn. Here let them lie
    Till famine and the ague eat them up.
    2325Were they not forced with those that should be ours,
    We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,
    And beat them backward home.
    A cry within of women
    What is that noise?
    Seyton
    It is the cry of women, my good lord.
    2330Macbeth
    I have almost forgot the taste of fears:
    The time has been my senses would have cooled
    To hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair
    Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
    As life were in't. I have supped full with horrors.
    2335Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,
    Cannot once start me. Wherefore was that cry?
    Seyton
    The Queen, my lord, is dead.
    Macbeth
    She should have died hereafter;
    There would have been a time for such a word.
    2340Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
    Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
    To the last syllable of recorded time;
    And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
    The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle,
    2345Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
    That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
    And then is heard no more. It is a tale
    Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
    Signifying nothing.
    Enter a Messenger.
    2350Thou com'st to use thy tongue--thy story quickly.
    Messenger
    Gracious my lord,
    I should report that which I say I saw
    But know not how to do't.
    Macbeth
    Well, say, sir.
    2355Messenger
    As I did stand my watch upon the hill
    I looked toward Birnam and anon methought
    The wood began to move.
    Macbeth
    Liar and slave!
    Messenger
    Let me endure your wrath if't be not so--
    2360Within this three mile may you see it coming.
    I say, a moving grove.
    Macbeth
    If thou speak'st false,
    Upon the next tree shall thou hang alive
    Till famine cling thee; if thy speech be sooth,
    2365I care not if thou dost for me as much.
    I pull in resolution and begin
    To doubt th'equivocation of the fiend
    That lies like truth: "Fear not, till Birnam Wood
    Do come to Dunsinane," and now a wood
    2370Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out!
    If this which he avouches does appear,
    There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here.
    I 'gin to be aweary of the sun,
    And wish th'estate o'th' world were now undone.
    2375Ring the alarum bell! Blow wind, come wrack,
    At least we'll die with harness on our back.
    Exeunt.
    Drum and colors. Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, and their army, 2380with boughs.
    Malcolm
    Now near enough; your leafy screens throw down
    And show like those you are. You, worthy uncle,
    Shall with my cousin your right noble son
    2385Lead our first battle. Worthy Macduff and we
    Shall take upon's what else remains to do,
    According to our order.
    Siward
    Fare you well.
    Do we but find the tyrant's power tonight,
    2390Let us be beaten if we cannot fight.
    Macduff
    Make all our trumpets speak, give them all breath,
    Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.
    Exeunt. Alarums continued.
    2395Enter Macbeth.
    Macbeth
    They have tied me to a stake: I cannot fly,
    But bear-like I must fight the course. What's he
    That was not born of woman? Such a one
    Am I to fear, or none.
    2400Enter Young Siward.
    Young Siward
    What is thy name?
    Macbeth
    Thou'lt be afraid to hear it.
    Young Siward
    No, though thou call'st thyself a hotter name
    Than any is in hell.
    2405Macbeth
    My name's Macbeth.
    Young Siward
    The devil himself could not pronounce a title
    More hateful to mine ear.
    Macbeth
    No, nor more fearful.
    Young Siward
    Thou liest, abhorrèd tyrant: with my sword
    2410I'll prove the lie thou speak'st.
    Fight, and Young Siward slain.
    Macbeth
    Thou wast born of woman.
    But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn,
    Brandished by man that's of a woman born.
    Exit [with Young Siward's body].
    2415Alarums. Enter Macduff.
    Macduff
    That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy face.
    If thou be'st slain, and with no stroke of mine,
    My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still.
    I cannot strike at wretched kerns whose arms
    2420Are hired to bear their staves. Either thou, Macbeth,
    Or else my sword with an unbattered edge
    I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be:
    By this great clatter, one of greatest note
    Seems bruited. Let me find him, Fortune,
    2425And more I beg not.
    Exit.
    Alarums. Enter Malcolm and Siward.
    Siward
    This way, my lord; the castle's gently rendered.
    The tyrant's people on both sides do fight,
    The noble thanes do bravely in the war.
    2430The day almost itself professes yours
    And little is to do.
    Malcolm
    We have met with foes
    That strike beside us.
    Siward
    Enter, sir, the castle.
    Exeunt. Alarum.
    [5.8]
    2435Enter Macbeth.
    Macbeth
    Why should I play the Roman fool and die
    On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes
    Do better upon them.
    Enter Macduff.
    2440Macduff
    Turn, hell-hound, turn.
    Macbeth
    Of all men else I have avoided thee,
    But get thee back, my soul is too much charged
    With blood of thine already.
    Macduff
    I have no words:
    2445My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain
    Than terms can give thee out.
    Fight. Alarum.
    Macbeth
    Thou losest labor.
    As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air
    With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed.
    2450Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests:
    I bear a charmèd life which must not yield
    To one of woman born.
    Macduff
    Despair thy charm
    And let the angel whom thou still hast served
    2455Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb
    Untimely ripped.
    Macbeth
    Accursèd be that tongue that tells me so,
    For it hath cowed my better part of man.
    And be these juggling fiends no more believed
    2460That palter with us in a double sense,
    That keep the word of promise to our ear
    And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee.
    Macduff
    Then yield thee coward,
    And live to be the show and gaze o'th' time.
    2465We'll have thee as our rarer monsters are
    Painted upon a pole and underwrit,
    "Here may you see the tyrant."
    Macbeth
    I will not yield
    To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet,
    2470And to be baited with the rabble's curse.
    Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane,
    And thou opposed, being of no woman born,
    Yet I will try the last. Before my body,
    I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,
    2475And damned be him that first cries, "Hold, enough!"
    Exeunt fighting. Alarums.
    [They] enter fighting, and Macbeth [is] slain. [Exit Macduff with Macbeth's body.]
    [5.9]
    Retreat and flourish. Enter with drum and colors Malcolm, Siward, Ross, Thanes, and Soldiers.
    2480Malcolm
    I would the friends we miss were safe arrived.
    Siward
    Some must go off, and yet by these I see
    So great a day as this is cheaply bought.
    Malcolm
    Macduff is missing, and your noble son.
    Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt;
    2485He only lived but till he was a man,
    The which no sooner had his prowess confirmed
    In the unshrinking station where he fought
    But like a man he died.
    Siward
    Then he is dead?
    Ay, and brought off the field. Your cause of sorrow
    Must not be measured by his worth, for then
    It hath no end.
    Siward
    Had he his hurts before?
    Ay, on the front.
    2495Siward
    Why then, God's soldier be he.
    Had I as many sons as I have hairs,
    I would not wish them to a fairer death;
    And so his knell is knolled.
    Malcolm
    He's worth more sorrow,
    2500And that I'll spend for him.
    Siward
    He's worth no more--
    They say he parted well and paid his score,
    And so God be with him. Here comes newer comfort.
    Enter Macduff with Macbeth's head.
    2505Macduff
    Hail, King, for so thou art. Behold where stands
    Th'usurper's cursèd head. The time is free.
    I see thee compassed with thy kingdom's pearl
    That speak my salutation in their minds,
    2510Whose voices I desire aloud with mine:
    Hail, King of Scotland!
    All
    Hail, King of Scotland!
    Flourish.
    Malcolm
    We shall not spend a large expense of time
    Before we reckon with your several loves
    2515And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen,
    Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland
    In such an honor named. What's more to do,
    Which would be planted newly with the time--
    As calling home our exiled friends abroad
    2520That fled the snares of watchful tyranny,
    Producing forth the cruel ministers
    Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen,
    Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands
    Took off her life--this and what needful else
    2525That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace
    We will perform in measure, time, and place.
    So, thanks to all at once and to each one
    Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone.
    Flourish. Exeunt.