Internet Shakespeare Editions

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Not Peer Reviewed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.