Internet Shakespeare Editions

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Anthony Dawson
Not Peer Reviewed

Modern (Modern)

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.