1
The Tragedy of Macbeth
William Shakespeare — EMOTHE0176_TheTragedyOfMacbeth
Characters in the play
Three Witches
the Weïrd Sisters
Duncan
king of Scotland
Malcolm
his elder son
Donalbain
Duncan’s younger son
Macbeth
thane of Glamis
Seyton
attendant to Macbeth
Three Murderers
in Macbeth’s service
A Doctor
}
Lady Macbeth
A Porter
Banquo
commander, with Macbeth, of Duncan’s army
Fleance
his son
Macduff
a Scottish noble
Lady Macduff
Their son
Lennox
} Scottish Nobles
Ross
}
Angus
}
Menteith
}
Caithness
}
Siward
comander of the English forces
Young Siward
Siward’s son
A Captain
in Duncan’s army
An Old Man
A Doctor
at the English court
Hecate
Apparitions: an Armed Head, a Bloody Child, a Crowned Child, and eight nonspeaking kings
Three Messengers, Three Servants, a Lord, a Soldier
Attendants, a Sewer, Servants, Lords, Thanes, Soldiers (all nonspeaking)
Macbeth and Lennox
All
All
Third and Second Murderers
Witches
Act I
Scene 1
(Thunder and Lightning.)
(Enter three Witches.)
FIRST WITCH
When shall we three meet again?
1
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
2
SECOND WITCH
When the hurly-burly’s done,
3
When the battle’s lost and won.
4
THIRD WITCH
That will be ere the set of sun.
5
FIRST WITCH
Where the place?
6
SECOND WITCH
Upon the heath.
THIRD WITCH
There to meet with Macbeth.
7
FIRST WITCH
I come, Graymalkin.
⸢SECOND WITCH⸣
Paddock calls.
⸢THIRD WITCH⸣
Anon.
ALL
Fair is foul, and foul is fair;
8
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
9
(They exit.)
Scene 2
(Alarum within.)
(Enter King ⸢Duncan,⸣ Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Captain.)
DUNCAN
What bloody man is that? He can report,
10
As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt
11
The newest state.
12
MALCOLM
This is the sergeant
Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought
13
’Gainst my captivity. —Hail, brave friend!
14
Say to the King the knowledge of the broil
15
As thou didst leave it.
16
CAPTAIN
Doubtful it stood,
As two spent swimmers that do cling together
17
And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald
18
(Worthy to be a rebel, for to that
19
The multiplying villainies of nature
20
Do swarm upon him) from the Western Isles
21
Of kerns and ⸢gallowglasses⸣ is supplied;
22
And Fortune, on his damnèd ⸢quarrel⸣smiling,
23
Showed like a rebel’s whore. But all’s too weak;
24
For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name),
25
Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel,
26
Which smoked with bloody execution,
27
Like valor’s minion, carved out his passage
28
Till he faced the slave;
29
Which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
30
Till he unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops,
31
And fixed his head upon our battlements.
32
DUNCAN
O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman!
33
CAPTAIN
As whence the sun ’gins his reflection
34
Shipwracking storms and direful thunders ⸢break,⸣
35
So from that spring whence comfort seemed to come
36
Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark:
37
No sooner justice had, with valor armed,
38
Compelled these skipping kerns to trust their heels,
39
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,
40
With furbished arms and new supplies of men,
41
Began a fresh assault.
42
DUNCAN
Dismayed not this our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?
43
CAPTAIN
Yes, as sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.
44
If I say sooth, I must report they were
45
As cannons overcharged with double cracks,
46
So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe.
47
Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds
48
Or memorize another Golgotha,
49
I cannot tell —
50
But I am faint. My gashes cry for help.
51
DUNCAN
So well thy words become thee as thy wounds:
52
They smack of honor both. —Go, get him surgeons.
53
(⸢The Captain is led off by Attendants.⸣)
(Enter Ross and Angus.)
Who comes here?
54
MALCOLM
The worthy Thane of Ross.
LENNOX
What a haste looks through his eyes!
55
So should he look that seems to speak things strange.
56
ROSS
God save the King.
57
DUNCAN
Whence cam’st thou, worthy thane?
58
ROSS
From Fife, great king,
59
Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky
60
And fan our people cold.
61
Norway himself, with terrible numbers,
62
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor,
63
The Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict,
64
Till that Bellona’s bridegroom, lapped in proof,
65
Confronted him with self-comparisons,
66
Point against point, rebellious arm ’gainst arm,
67
Curbing his lavish spirit. And to conclude,
68
The victory fell on us.
69
DUNCAN
Great happiness!
ROSS
That now Sweno,
70
The Norways’ king, craves composition.
71
Nor would we deign him burial of his men
72
Till he disbursèd at Saint Colme’s Inch
73
Ten thousand dollars to our general use.
74
DUNCAN
No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive
75
Our bosom interest. Go, pronounce his present death,
76
And with his former title greet Macbeth.
77
ROSS
I’ll see it done.
78
DUNCAN
What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.
79
(They exit.)
Scene 3
(Thunder.)
(Enter the three Witches.)
FIRST WITCH
Where hast thou been, sister?
80
SECOND WITCH
Killing swine.
81
THIRD WITCH
Sister, where thou?
82
FIRST WITCH
A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap
83
And munched and munched and munched. “Give me,” quoth I.
84
“Aroint thee, witch,” the rump-fed runnion cries.
85
Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master o’ th’ Tiger ;
86
But in a sieve I’ll thither sail,
87
And, like a rat without a tail,
88
I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.
89
SECOND WITCH
I’ll give thee a wind.
90
FIRST WITCH
Th’ art kind.
91
THIRD WITCH
And I another.
92
FIRST WITCH
I myself have all the other,
93
And the very ports they blow,
94
All the quarters that they know
95
I’ th’ shipman’s card.
96
I’ll drain him dry as hay.
97
Sleep shall neither night nor day
98
Hang upon his penthouse lid.
99
He shall live a man forbid.
100
Weary sev’nnights, nine times nine,
101
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.
102
Though his bark cannot be lost,
103
Yet it shall be tempest-tossed.
104
Look what I have.
105
SECOND WITCH
Show me, show me.
FIRST WITCH
Here I have a pilot’s thumb,
106
Wracked as homeward he did come.
107
(Drum within.)
THIRD WITCH
A drum, a drum!
108
Macbeth doth come.
109
ALL,
⸢dancing in a circle⸣ The Weïrd Sisters, hand in hand,
110
Posters of the sea and land,
111
Thus do go about, about,
112
Thrice to thine and thrice to mine
113
And thrice again, to make up nine.
114
Peace, the charm’s wound up.
115
(Enter Macbeth and Banquo.)
MACBETH
So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
116
BANQUO
How far is ’t called to ⸢Forres⸣? —What are these,
117
So withered, and so wild in their attire,
118
That look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ earth
119
And yet are on ’t? —Live you? Or are you aught
120
That man may question? You seem to understand me
121
By each at once her choppy finger laying
122
Upon her skinny lips. You should be women,
123
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
124
That you are so.
125
MACBETH
Speak if you can. What are you?
FIRST WITCH
All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!
126
SECOND WITCH
All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
127
THIRD WITCH
All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!
128
BANQUO
Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear
129
Things that do sound so fair? —I’ th’ name of truth,
130
Are you fantastical, or that indeed
131
Which outwardly you show? My noble partner
132
You greet with present grace and great prediction
133
Of noble having and of royal hope,
134
That he seems rapt withal. To me you speak not.
135
If you can look into the seeds of time
136
And say which grain will grow and which will not,
137
Speak, then, to me, who neither beg nor fear
138
Your favors nor your hate.
139
FIRST WITCH
Hail!
SECOND WITCH
Hail!
THIRD WITCH
Hail!
FIRST WITCH
Lesser than Macbeth and greater.
140
SECOND WITCH
Not so happy, yet much happier.
141
THIRD WITCH
Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.
142
So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!
143
FIRST WITCH
Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!
144
MACBETH
Stay, you imperfect speakers. Tell me more.
145
By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis.
146
But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives
147
A prosperous gentleman, and to be king
148
Stands not within the prospect of belief,
149
No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence
150
You owe this strange intelligence or why
151
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
152
With such prophetic greeting. Speak, I charge you.
153
(Witches vanish.)
BANQUO
The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
154
And these are of them. Whither are they vanished?
155
MACBETH
Into the air, and what seemed corporal melted,
156
As breath into the wind. Would they had stayed!
157
BANQUO
Were such things here as we do speak about?
158
Or have we eaten on the insane root
159
That takes the reason prisoner?
160
MACBETH
Your children shall be kings.
161
BANQUO
You shall be king.
MACBETH
And Thane of Cawdor too. Went it not so?
162
BANQUO
To th’ selfsame tune and words. —Who’s here?
163
(Enter Ross and Angus.)
ROSS
The King hath happily received, Macbeth,
164
The news of thy success, and, when he reads
165
Thy personal venture in the rebels’ fight,
166
His wonders and his praises do contend
167
Which should be thine or his. Silenced with that,
168
In viewing o’er the rest o’ th’ selfsame day
169
He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,
170
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
171
Strange images of death. As thick as tale
172
⸢Came⸣ post with post, and every one did bear
173
Thy praises in his kingdom’s great defense,
174
And poured them down before him.
175
ANGUS
We are sent
To give thee from our royal master thanks,
176
Only to herald thee into his sight,
177
Not pay thee.
178
ROSS
And for an earnest of a greater honor,
179
He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor,
180
In which addition, hail, most worthy thane,
181
For it is thine.
182
BANQUO
What, can the devil speak true?
MACBETH
The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me
183
In borrowed robes?
184
ANGUS
Who was the Thane lives yet,
But under heavy judgment bears that life
185
Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined
186
With those of Norway, or did line the rebel
187
With hidden help and vantage, or that with both
188
He labored in his country’s wrack, I know not;
189
But treasons capital, confessed and proved,
190
Have overthrown him.
191
MACBETH,
Glamis and Thane of Cawdor!
The greatest is behind.
192
⸢To Ross and Angus.⸣ Thanks for your pains.
Do you not hope your children shall be kings
193
When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me
194
Promised no less to them?
195
BANQUO
That, trusted home,
Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
196
Besides the Thane of Cawdor. But ’tis strange.
197
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
198
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
199
Win us with honest trifles, to betray ’s
200
In deepest consequence.
201
Cousins, a word, I pray you.
202
(⸢They step aside.⸣)
MACBETH,
Two truths are told
As happy prologues to the swelling act
203
Of the imperial theme.
204
This supernatural soliciting
205
Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill,
206
Why hath it given me earnest of success
207
Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor.
208
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
209
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
210
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs
211
Against the use of nature? Present fears
212
Are less than horrible imaginings.
213
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
214
Shakes so my single state of man
215
That function is smothered in surmise,
216
And nothing is but what is not.
217
BANQUO
Look how our partner’s rapt.
218
MACBETH,
If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me
219
Without my stir.
220
BANQUO
New honors come upon him,
Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mold
221
But with the aid of use.
222
MACBETH,
Come what come may,
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
223
BANQUO
Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.
224
MACBETH
Give me your favor. My dull brain was wrought
225
With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains
226
Are registered where every day I turn
227
The leaf to read them. Let us toward the King.
228
Think upon what hath chanced, and at more time,
229
The interim having weighed it, let us speak
230
Our free hearts each to other.
231
BANQUO
Very gladly.
232
MACBETH
Till then, enough. —Come, friends.
233
(They exit.)
Scene 4
(Flourish.)
(Enter King ⸢Duncan,⸣ Lennox, Malcolm, Donalbain, and Attendants.)
DUNCAN
Is execution done on Cawdor? ⸢Are⸣ not
234
Those in commission yet returned?
235
MALCOLM
My liege,
They are not yet come back. But I have spoke
236
With one that saw him die, who did report
237
That very frankly he confessed his treasons,
238
Implored your Highness’ pardon, and set forth
239
A deep repentance. Nothing in his life
240
Became him like the leaving it. He died
241
As one that had been studied in his death
242
To throw away the dearest thing he owed
243
As ’twere a careless trifle.
244
DUNCAN
There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face.
245
He was a gentleman on whom I built
246
An absolute trust.
247
(Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, and Angus.)
O worthiest cousin,
The sin of my ingratitude even now
248
Was heavy on me. Thou art so far before
249
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow
250
To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved,
251
That the proportion both of thanks and payment
252
Might have been mine! Only I have left to say,
253
More is thy due than more than all can pay.
254
MACBETH
The service and the loyalty I owe
255
In doing it pays itself. Your Highness’ part
256
Is to receive our duties, and our duties
257
Are to your throne and state children and servants,
258
Which do but what they should by doing everything
259
Safe toward your love and honor.
260
DUNCAN
Welcome hither.
I have begun to plant thee and will labor
261
To make thee full of growing. —Noble Banquo,
262
That hast no less deserved nor must be known
263
No less to have done so, let me enfold thee
264
And hold thee to my heart.
265
BANQUO
There, if I grow,
The harvest is your own.
266
DUNCAN
My plenteous joys,
Wanton in fullness, seek to hide themselves
267
In drops of sorrow. —Sons, kinsmen, thanes,
268
And you whose places are the nearest, know
269
We will establish our estate upon
270
Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter
271
The Prince of Cumberland; which honor must
272
Not unaccompanied invest him only,
273
But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
274
On all deservers. —From hence to Inverness
275
And bind us further to you.
276
MACBETH
The rest is labor which is not used for you.
277
I’ll be myself the harbinger and make joyful
278
The hearing of my wife with your approach.
279
So humbly take my leave.
280
DUNCAN
My worthy Cawdor.
MACBETH,
The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step
281
On which I must fall down or else o’erleap,
282
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;
283
Let not light see my black and deep desires.
284
The eye wink at the hand, yet let that be
285
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.
286
(He exits.)
DUNCAN
True, worthy Banquo. He is full so valiant,
287
And in his commendations I am fed:
288
It is a banquet to me. —Let’s after him,
289
Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome.
290
It is a peerless kinsman.
291
(Flourish.)
(They exit.)
Scene 5
(Enter Macbeth’s Wife, alone, with a letter.)
LADY MACBETH,
⸢reading the letter⸣ They met me in the
day of success, and I have learned by the perfect’st
report they have more in them than mortal knowledge.
When I burned 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, before, these Weïrd 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
might’st not lose the dues of rejoicing by being ignorant
of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy
heart, and farewell.
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be
292
What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature;
293
It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness
294
To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great,
295
Art not without ambition, but without
296
The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly,
297
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false
298
And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou ’dst have, great Glamis,
299
That which cries “Thus thou must do,” if thou have it,
300
And that which rather thou dost fear to do,
301
Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither,
302
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear
303
And chastise with the valor of my tongue
304
All that impedes thee from the golden round,
305
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
306
To have thee crowned withal.
307
(Enter Messenger.)
What is your tidings?
MESSENGER
The King comes here tonight.
308
LADY MACBETH
Thou ’rt mad to say it.
Is not thy master with him, who, were ’t so,
309
Would have informed for preparation?
310
MESSENGER
So please you, it is true. Our thane is coming.
311
One of my fellows had the speed of him,
312
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
313
Than would make up his message.
314
LADY MACBETH
Give him tending.
He brings great news.
315
(Messenger exits.)
The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
316
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
317
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
318
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
319
Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood.
320
Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse,
321
That no compunctious visitings of nature
322
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
323
Th’ effect and it. Come to my woman’s breasts
324
And take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers,
325
Wherever in your sightless substances
326
You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night,
327
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
328
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
329
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark
330
To cry “Hold, hold!”
331
(Enter Macbeth.)
Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor,
Greater than both by the all-hail hereafter!
332
Thy letters have transported me beyond
333
This ignorant present, and I feel now
334
The future in the instant.
335
MACBETH
My dearest love,
Duncan comes here tonight.
336
LADY MACBETH
And when goes hence?
MACBETH
Tomorrow, as he purposes.
337
LADY MACBETH
O, never
Shall sun that morrow see!
338
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
339
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
340
Look like the time. Bear welcome in your eye,
341
Your hand, your tongue. Look like th’ innocent flower,
342
But be the serpent under ’t. He that’s coming
343
Must be provided for; and you shall put
344
This night’s great business into my dispatch,
345
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
346
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
347
MACBETH
We will speak further.
348
LADY MACBETH
Only look up clear.
To alter favor ever is to fear.
349
Leave all the rest to me.
350
(They exit.)
Scene 6
(Hautboys and Torches.)
(Enter King ⸢Duncan,⸣ Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Angus, and Attendants.)
DUNCAN
This castle hath a pleasant seat. The air
351
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
352
Unto our gentle senses.
353
BANQUO
This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting ⸢martlet,⸣ does approve,
354
By his loved ⸢mansionry,⸣ that the heaven’s breath
355
Smells wooingly here. No jutty, frieze,
356
Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird
357
Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle.
358
Where they ⸢most⸣ breed and haunt, I have observed,
359
The air is delicate.
360
(Enter Lady ⸢Macbeth.⸣)
DUNCAN
See, see our honored hostess! —
361
The love that follows us sometime is our trouble,
362
Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you
363
How you shall bid God ’ild us for your pains
364
And thank us for your trouble.
365
LADY MACBETH
All our service,
In every point twice done and then done double,
366
Were poor and single business to contend
367
Against those honors deep and broad wherewith
368
Your Majesty loads our house. For those of old,
369
And the late dignities heaped up to them,
370
We rest your hermits.
371
DUNCAN
Where’s the Thane of Cawdor?
We coursed him at the heels and had a purpose
372
To be his purveyor; but he rides well,
373
And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath helped him
374
To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess,
375
We are your guest tonight.
376
LADY MACBETH
Your servants ever
Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs in compt
377
To make their audit at your Highness’ pleasure,
378
Still to return your own.
379
DUNCAN
Give me your hand.
(⸢Taking her hand.⸣)
Conduct me to mine host. We love him highly
380
And shall continue our graces towards him.
381
By your leave, hostess.
382
(They exit.)
Scene 7
(Hautboys. Torches.)
(Enter a Sewer and divers Servants with dishes and service over the stage.)
(Then enter Macbeth.)
MACBETH
If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well
383
It were done quickly. If th’ assassination
384
Could trammel up the consequence and catch
385
With his surcease success, that but this blow
386
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
387
But here, upon this bank and ⸢shoal⸣ of time,
388
We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases
389
We still have judgment here, that we but teach
390
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
391
To plague th’ inventor. This even-handed justice
392
Commends th’ ingredience of our poisoned chalice
393
To our own lips. He’s here in double trust:
394
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
395
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
396
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
397
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
398
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
399
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
400
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
401
The deep damnation of his taking-off;
402
And pity, like a naked newborn babe
403
Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin horsed
404
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
405
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
406
That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
407
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
408
Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself
409
And falls on th’ other —
410
(Enter Lady ⸢Macbeth.⸣)
How now, what news?
411
LADY MACBETH
He has almost supped. Why have you left the chamber?
412
MACBETH
Hath he asked for me?
413
LADY MACBETH
Know you not he has?
MACBETH
We will proceed no further in this business.
414
He hath honored me of late, and I have bought
415
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
416
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
417
Not cast aside so soon.
418
LADY MACBETH
Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?
419
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
420
At what it did so freely? From this time
421
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
422
To be the same in thine own act and valor
423
As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
424
Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life
425
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
426
Letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would,”
427
Like the poor cat i’ th’ adage?
428
MACBETH
Prithee, peace.
I dare do all that may become a man.
429
Who dares ⸢do⸣ more is none.
430
LADY MACBETH
What beast was ’t, then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?
431
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
432
And to be more than what you were, you would
433
Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place
434
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both.
435
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
436
Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know
437
How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me.
438
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
439
Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums
440
And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you
441
Have done to this.
442
MACBETH
If we should fail —
LADY MACBETH
We fail?
But screw your courage to the sticking place
443
And we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep
444
(Whereto the rather shall his day’s hard journey
445
Soundly invite him), his two chamberlains
446
Will I with wine and wassail so convince
447
That memory, the warder of the brain,
448
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
449
A limbeck only. When in swinish sleep
450
Their drenchèd natures lies as in a death,
451
What cannot you and I perform upon
452
Th’ unguarded Duncan? What not put upon
453
His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt
454
Of our great quell?
455
MACBETH
Bring forth men-children only,
For thy undaunted mettle should compose
456
Nothing but males. Will it not be received,
457
When we have marked with blood those sleepy two
458
Of his own chamber and used their very daggers,
459
That they have done ’t?
460
LADY MACBETH
Who dares receive it other,
As we shall make our griefs and clamor roar
461
Upon his death?
462
MACBETH
I am settled and bend up
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
463
Away, and mock the time with fairest show.
464
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
465
(They exit.)
Act II
Scene 1
(Enter Banquo, and Fleance with a torch before him.)
BANQUO
How goes the night, boy?
FLEANCE
The moon is down. I have not heard the clock.
466
BANQUO
And she goes down at twelve.
FLEANCE
I take ’t ’tis later, sir.
BANQUO
Hold, take my sword.
467
(⸢He gives his sword to Fleance.⸣)
There’s husbandry in heaven;
Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.
468
A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,
469
And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers,
470
Restrain in me the cursèd thoughts that nature
471
Gives way to in repose.
472
(Enter Macbeth, and a Servant with a torch.)
Give me my sword. —Who’s there?
MACBETH
A friend.
473
BANQUO
What, sir, not yet at rest? The King’s abed.
474
He hath been in unusual pleasure, and
475
Sent forth great largess to your offices.
476
This diamond he greets your wife withal,
477
By the name of most kind hostess, and shut up
478
In measureless content.
479
(⸢He gives Macbeth a diamond.⸣)
MACBETH
Being unprepared,
Our will became the servant to defect,
480
Which else should free have wrought.
481
BANQUO
All’s well.
482
I dreamt last night of the three Weïrd Sisters.
483
To you they have showed some truth.
484
MACBETH
I think not of them.
Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,
485
We would spend it in some words upon that business,
486
If you would grant the time.
487
BANQUO
At your kind’st leisure.
MACBETH
If you shall cleave to my consent, when ’tis,
488
It shall make honor for you.
489
BANQUO
So I lose none
In seeking to augment it, but still keep
490
My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,
491
I shall be counseled.
492
MACBETH
Good repose the while.
BANQUO
Thanks, sir. The like to you.
493
(Banquo ⸢and Fleance⸣ exit.)
MACBETH
Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,
494
She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.
495
(⸢Servant⸣ exits.)
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
496
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
497
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
498
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
499
To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
500
A dagger of the mind, a false creation
501
Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?
502
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
503
As this which now I draw.
504
(⸢He draws his dagger.⸣)
Thou marshal’st me the way that I was going,
505
And such an instrument I was to use.
506
Mine eyes are made the fools o’ th’ other senses
507
Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still,
508
And, on thy blade and dudgeon, gouts of blood,
509
Which was not so before. There’s no such thing.
510
It is the bloody business which informs
511
Thus to mine eyes. Now o’er the one-half world
512
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
513
The curtained sleep. Witchcraft celebrates
514
Pale Hecate’s off’rings, and withered murder,
515
Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf,
516
Whose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
517
With Tarquin’s ravishing ⸢strides,⸣ towards his design
518
Moves like a ghost. Thou ⸢sure⸣and firm-set earth,
519
Hear not my steps, which ⸢way they⸣ walk, for fear
520
Thy very stones prate of my whereabouts
521
And take the present horror from the time,
522
Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives.
523
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
524
(A bell rings.)
I go, and it is done. The bell invites me.
525
Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell
526
That summons thee to heaven or to hell.
527
(He exits.)
Scene 2
(Enter Lady ⸢Macbeth.⸣)
LADY MACBETH
That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold.
528
What hath quenched them hath given me fire. Hark! —Peace.
529
It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman,
530
Which gives the stern’st good-night. He is about it.
531
The doors are open, and the surfeited grooms
532
Do mock their charge with snores. I have drugged their possets,
533
That death and nature do contend about them
534
Whether they live or die.
535
MACBETH,
⸢within⸣ Who’s there? what, ho!
LADY MACBETH
Alack, I am afraid they have awaked,
536
And ’tis not done. Th’ attempt and not the deed
537
Confounds us. Hark! —I laid their daggers ready;
538
He could not miss ’em. Had he not resembled
539
My father as he slept, I had done ’t.
540
(Enter Macbeth ⸢with bloody daggers.⸣)
My husband?
541
MACBETH
I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?
542
LADY MACBETH
I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.
543
Did not you speak?
544
MACBETH
When?
LADY MACBETH
Now.
545
MACBETH
As I descended?
LADY MACBETH
Ay.
546
MACBETH
Hark! —Who lies i’ th’ second chamber?
547
LADY MACBETH
Donalbain.
548
MACBETH
This is a sorry sight.
549
LADY MACBETH
A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.
550
MACBETH
There’s one did laugh in ’s sleep, and one cried “Murder!”
551
That they did wake each other. I stood and heard them.
552
But they did say their prayers and addressed them
553
Again to sleep.
554
LADY MACBETH
There are two lodged together.
MACBETH
One cried “God bless us” and “Amen” the other,
555
As they had seen me with these hangman’s hands,
556
List’ning their fear. I could not say “Amen”
557
When they did say “God bless us.”
558
LADY MACBETH
Consider it not so deeply.
559
MACBETH
But wherefore could not I pronounce “Amen”?
560
I had most need of blessing, and “Amen”
561
Stuck in my throat.
562
LADY MACBETH
These deeds must not be thought
After these ways; so, it will make us mad.
563
MACBETH
Methought I heard a voice cry “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep” —the innocent sleep,
564
Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care,
565
The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath,
566
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
567
Chief nourisher in life’s feast.
568
LADY MACBETH
What do you mean?
MACBETH
Still it cried “Sleep no more!” to all the house.
569
“Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor
570
Shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more.”
571
LADY MACBETH
Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane,
572
You do unbend your noble strength to think
573
So brainsickly of things. Go get some water
574
And wash this filthy witness from your hand. —
575
Why did you bring these daggers from the place?
576
They must lie there. Go, carry them and smear
577
The sleepy grooms with blood.
578
MACBETH
I’ll go no more.
I am afraid to think what I have done.
579
Look on ’t again I dare not.
580
LADY MACBETH
Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead
581
Are but as pictures. ’Tis the eye of childhood
582
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
583
I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal,
584
For it must seem their guilt.
585
(She exits ⸢with the daggers.⸣)
(Knock within.)
MACBETH
Whence is that knocking?
How is ’t with me when every noise appalls me?
586
What hands are here! Ha, they pluck out mine eyes.
587
Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
588
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
589
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
590
Making the green one red.
591
(Enter Lady ⸢Macbeth.⸣)
LADY MACBETH
My hands are of your color, but I shame
592
To wear a heart so white.
593
(Knock.)
I hear a knocking
At the south entry. Retire we to our chamber.
594
A little water clears us of this deed.
595
How easy is it, then! Your constancy
596
Hath left you unattended.
597
(Knock.)
Hark, more knocking.
Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us
598
And show us to be watchers. Be not lost
599
So poorly in your thoughts.
600
MACBETH
To know my deed ’twere best not know myself.
601
(Knock.)
Wake Duncan with thy knocking. I would thou couldst.
602
(They exit.)
Scene 3
(Knocking within.)
(Enter a Porter.)
PORTER
Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were porter
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 enough about you; here you’ll sweat
for ’t. (Knock.) Knock, 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, knock, 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. I had
thought to have let in some of all professions that go
the primrose way to th’ everlasting bonfire.
(Knock.) Anon, anon!
(⸢The Porter opens the door to ⸣ Macduff and Lennox.)
I pray you, remember the porter.
MACDUFF
Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed
603
That you do lie so late?
604
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?
PORTER
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, and 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.
PORTER
That it did, sir, i’ th’ 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.
MACDUFF
Is thy master stirring?
605
(Enter Macbeth.)
Our knocking has awaked him. Here he comes.
606
(⸢Porter exits.⸣)
LENNOX
Good morrow, noble sir.
607
MACBETH
Good morrow, both.
MACDUFF
Is the King stirring, worthy thane?
608
MACBETH
Not yet.
MACDUFF
He did command me to call timely on him.
609
I have almost slipped the hour.
610
MACBETH
I’ll bring you to him.
MACDUFF
I know this is a joyful trouble to you,
611
But yet ’tis one.
612
MACBETH
The labor we delight in physics pain.
613
This is the door.
614
MACDUFF
I’ll make so bold to call,
For ’tis my limited service.
615
(Macduff exits.)
LENNOX
Goes the King hence today?
616
MACBETH
He does. He did appoint so.
617
LENNOX
The night has been unruly. Where we lay,
618
Our chimneys were blown down and, as they say,
619
Lamentings heard i’ th’ air, strange screams of death,
620
And prophesying, with accents terrible,
621
Of dire combustion and confused events
622
New hatched to th’ woeful time. The obscure bird
623
Clamored the livelong night. Some say the earth
624
Was feverous and did shake.
625
MACBETH
’Twas a rough night.
LENNOX
My young remembrance cannot parallel
626
A fellow to it.
627
(Enter Macduff.)
MACDUFF
O horror, horror, horror!
Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee!
628
MACBETH AND LENNOX
What’s the matter?
629
MACDUFF
Confusion now hath made his masterpiece.
630
Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope
631
The Lord’s anointed temple and stole thence
632
The life o’ th’ building.
633
MACBETH
What is ’t you say? The life?
LENNOX
Mean you his Majesty?
634
MACDUFF
Approach the chamber and destroy your sight
635
With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak.
636
See and then speak yourselves.
637
(Macbeth and Lennox exit.)
Awake, awake!
Ring the alarum bell. —Murder and treason!
638
Banquo and Donalbain, Malcolm, awake!
639
Shake off this downy sleep, death’s counterfeit,
640
And look on death itself. Up, up, and see
641
The great doom’s image. Malcolm, Banquo,
642
As from your graves rise up and walk like sprites
643
To countenance this horror. —Ring the bell.
644
(Bell rings.)
(Enter Lady ⸢Macbeth.⸣)
LADY MACBETH
What’s the business,
645
That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley
646
The sleepers of the house? Speak, speak!
647
MACDUFF
O gentle lady,
648
’Tis not for you to hear what I can speak.
649
The repetition in a woman’s ear
650
Would murder as it fell.
651
(Enter Banquo.)
O Banquo, Banquo,
Our royal master’s murdered.
652
LADY MACBETH
Woe, alas!
What, in our house?
653
BANQUO
Too cruel anywhere. —
Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself
654
And say it is not so.
655
(Enter Macbeth, Lennox, and Ross.)
MACBETH
Had I but died an hour before this chance,
656
I had lived a blessèd time; for from this instant
657
There’s nothing serious in mortality.
658
All is but toys. Renown and grace is dead.
659
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
660
Is left this vault to brag of.
661
(Enter Malcolm and Donalbain.)
DONALBAIN
What is amiss?
662
MACBETH
You are, and do not know ’t.
663
The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood
664
Is stopped; the very source of it is stopped.
665
MACDUFF
Your royal father’s murdered.
666
MALCOLM
O, by whom?
LENNOX
Those of his chamber, as it seemed, had done ’t.
667
Their hands and faces were all badged with blood.
668
So were their daggers, which unwiped we found
669
Upon their pillows. They stared and were distracted.
670
No man’s life was to be trusted with them.
671
MACBETH
O, yet I do repent me of my fury,
672
That I did kill them.
673
MACDUFF
Wherefore did you so?
MACBETH
Who can be wise, amazed, temp’rate, and furious,
674
Loyal, and neutral, in a moment? No man.
675
Th’ expedition of my violent love
676
Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,
677
His silver skin laced with his golden blood,
678
And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature
679
For ruin’s wasteful entrance; there the murderers,
680
Steeped in the colors of their trade, their daggers
681
Unmannerly breeched with gore. Who could refrain
682
That had a heart to love, and in that heart
683
Courage to make ’s love known?
684
LADY MACBETH
Help me hence, ho!
MACDUFF
Look to the lady.
685
MALCOLM,
Why do we hold our tongues,
That most may claim this argument for ours?
686
DONALBAIN,
What should be spoken here, where our fate,
687
Hid in an auger hole, may rush and seize us?
688
Let’s away. Our tears are not yet brewed.
689
MALCOLM,
Nor our strong sorrow upon the foot of motion.
690
BANQUO
Look to the lady.
691
(⸢Lady Macbeth is assisted to leave.⸣)
And when we have our naked frailties hid,
692
That suffer in exposure, let us meet
693
And question this most bloody piece of work
694
To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us.
695
In the great hand of God I stand, and thence
696
Against the undivulged pretense I fight
697
Of treasonous malice.
698
MACDUFF
And so do I.
ALL
So all.
MACBETH
Let’s briefly put on manly readiness
699
And meet i’ the hall together.
700
ALL
Well contented.
(⸢All but Malcolm and Donalbain⸣ exit.)
MALCOLM
What will you do? Let’s not consort with them.
701
To show an unfelt sorrow is an office
702
Which the false man does easy. I’ll to England.
703
DONALBAIN
To Ireland I. Our separated fortune
704
Shall keep us both the safer. Where we are,
705
There’s daggers in men’s smiles. The near in blood,
706
The nearer bloody.
707
MALCOLM
This murderous shaft that’s shot
Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way
708
Is to avoid the aim. Therefore to horse,
709
And let us not be dainty of leave-taking
710
But shift away. There’s warrant in that theft
711
Which steals itself when there’s no mercy left.
712
(They exit.)
Scene 4
(Enter Ross with an Old Man.)
OLD MAN
Threescore and ten I can remember well,
713
Within the volume of which time I have seen
714
Hours dreadful and things strange, but this sore night
715
Hath trifled former knowings.
716
ROSS
Ha, good father,
Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man’s act,
717
Threatens his bloody stage. By th’ clock ’tis day,
718
And yet dark night strangles the traveling lamp.
719
Is ’t night’s predominance or the day’s shame
720
That darkness does the face of earth entomb
721
When living light should kiss it?
722
OLD MAN
’Tis unnatural,
Even like the deed that’s done. On Tuesday last
723
A falcon, tow’ring in her pride of place,
724
Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed.
725
ROSS
And Duncan’s horses (a thing most strange and certain),
726
Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race,
727
Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,
728
Contending ’gainst obedience, as they would
729
Make war with mankind.
730
OLD MAN
’Tis said they eat each other.
ROSS
They did so, to th’ amazement of mine eyes
731
That looked upon ’t.
732
(Enter Macduff.)
Here comes the good Macduff. —
How goes the world, sir, now?
733
MACDUFF
Why, see you not?
ROSS
Is ’t known who did this more than bloody deed?
734
MACDUFF
Those that Macbeth hath slain.
735
ROSS
Alas the day,
What good could they pretend?
736
MACDUFF
They were suborned.
Malcolm and Donalbain, the King’s two sons,
737
Are stol’n away and fled, which puts upon them
738
Suspicion of the deed.
739
ROSS
’Gainst nature still!
Thriftless ambition, that will ravin up
740
Thine own lives’ means. Then ’tis most like
741
The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.
742
MACDUFF
He is already named and gone to Scone
743
To be invested.
744
ROSS
Where is Duncan’s body?
MACDUFF
Carried to Colmekill,
745
The sacred storehouse of his predecessors
746
And guardian of their bones.
747
ROSS
Will you to Scone?
MACDUFF
No, cousin, I’ll to Fife.
748
ROSS
Well, I will thither.
MACDUFF
Well, may you see things well done there. Adieu,
749
Lest our old robes sit easier than our new.
750
ROSS
Farewell, father.
751
OLD MAN
God’s benison go with you and with those
752
That would make good of bad and friends of foes.
753
(All exit.)
Act III
Scene 1
(Enter Banquo.)
BANQUO
Thou hast it now —King, Cawdor, Glamis, all
754
As the Weïrd Women promised, and I fear
755
Thou played’st most foully for ’t. Yet it was said
756
It should not stand in thy posterity,
757
But that myself should be the root and father
758
Of many kings. If there come truth from them
759
(As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine)
760
Why, by the verities on thee made good,
761
May they not be my oracles as well,
762
And set me up in hope? But hush, no more.
763
(Sennet sounded.)
(Enter Macbeth as King, Lady ⸢Macbeth,⸣ Lennox, Ross, Lords, and Attendants.)
MACBETH
Here’s our chief guest.
764
LADY MACBETH
If he had been forgotten,
It had been as a gap in our great feast
765
And all-thing unbecoming.
766
MACBETH
Tonight we hold a solemn supper, sir,
767
And I’ll request your presence.
768
BANQUO
Let your Highness
Command upon me, to the which my duties
769
Are with a most indissoluble tie
770
Forever knit.
771
MACBETH
Ride you this afternoon?
772
BANQUO
Ay, my good lord.
773
MACBETH
We should have else desired your good advice
774
(Which still hath been both grave and prosperous)
775
In this day’s council, but we’ll take tomorrow.
776
Is ’t far you ride?
777
BANQUO
As far, my lord, as will fill up the time
778
’Twixt this and supper. Go not my horse the better,
779
I must become a borrower of the night
780
For a dark hour or twain.
781
MACBETH
Fail not our feast.
BANQUO
My lord, I will not.
782
MACBETH
We hear our bloody cousins are bestowed
783
In England and in Ireland, not confessing
784
Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers
785
With strange invention. But of that tomorrow,
786
When therewithal we shall have cause of state
787
Craving us jointly. Hie you to horse. Adieu,
788
Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you?
789
BANQUO
Ay, my good lord. Our time does call upon ’s.
790
MACBETH
I wish your horses swift and sure of foot,
791
And so I do commend you to their backs.
792
Farewell.
793
(Banquo exits.)
Let every man be master of his time
794
Till seven at night. To make society
795
The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself
796
Till suppertime alone. While then, God be with you.
797
(Lords ⸢and all but Macbeth and a Servant⸣ exit.)
Sirrah, a word with you. Attend those men
798
Our pleasure?
799
SERVANT
They are, my lord, without the palace gate.
800
MACBETH
Bring them before us.
801
(Servant exits.)
To be thus is nothing,
But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo
802
Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature
803
Reigns that which would be feared. ’Tis much he dares,
804
And to that dauntless temper of his mind
805
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor
806
To act in safety. There is none but he
807
Whose being I do fear; and under him
808
My genius is rebuked, as it is said
809
Mark Antony’s was by Caesar. He chid the sisters
810
When first they put the name of king upon me
811
And bade them speak to him. Then, prophet-like,
812
They hailed him father to a line of kings.
813
Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown
814
And put a barren scepter in my grip,
815
Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand,
816
No son of mine succeeding. If ’t be so,
817
For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind;
818
For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered,
819
Put rancors in the vessel of my peace
820
Only for them, and mine eternal jewel
821
Given to the common enemy of man
822
To make them kings, the seeds of Banquo kings.
823
Rather than so, come fate into the list,
824
And champion me to th’ utterance. —Who’s there?
825
(Enter Servant and two Murderers.)
⸢To the Servant.⸣ Now go to the door, and stay there till we call.
826
(Servant exits.)
Was it not yesterday we spoke together?
827
⸢MURDERERS⸣
It was, so please your Highness.
828
MACBETH
Well then, now
Have you considered of my speeches? Know
829
That it was he, in the times past, which held you
830
So under fortune, which you thought had been
831
Our innocent self. This I made good to you
832
In our last conference, passed in probation with you
833
How you were borne in hand, how crossed, the instruments,
834
Who wrought with them, and all things else that might
835
To half a soul and to a notion crazed
836
Say “Thus did Banquo.”
837
FIRST MURDERER
You made it known to us.
MACBETH
I did so, and went further, which is now
838
Our point of second meeting. Do you find
839
Your patience so predominant in your nature
840
That you can let this go? Are you so gospeled
841
To pray for this good man and for his issue,
842
Whose heavy hand hath bowed you to the grave
843
And beggared yours forever?
844
FIRST MURDERER
We are men, my liege.
MACBETH
Ay, in the catalogue you go for men,
845
As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,
846
Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves are clept
847
All by the name of dogs. The valued file
848
Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle,
849
The housekeeper, the hunter, every one
850
According to the gift which bounteous nature
851
Hath in him closed; whereby he does receive
852
Particular addition, from the bill
853
That writes them all alike. And so of men.
854
Now, if you have a station in the file,
855
Not i’ th’ worst rank of manhood, say ’t,
856
And I will put that business in your bosoms
857
Whose execution takes your enemy off,
858
Grapples you to the heart and love of us,
859
Who wear our health but sickly in his life,
860
Which in his death were perfect.
861
SECOND MURDERER
I am one, my liege,
Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world
862
Hath so incensed that I am reckless what
863
I do to spite the world.
864
FIRST MURDERER
And I another
So weary with disasters, tugged with fortune,
865
That I would set my life on any chance,
866
To mend it or be rid on ’t.
867
MACBETH
Both of you
Know Banquo was your enemy.
868
⸢MURDERERS⸣
True, my lord.
MACBETH
So is he mine, and in such bloody distance
869
That every minute of his being thrusts
870
Against my near’st of life. And though I could
871
With barefaced power sweep him from my sight
872
And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not,
873
For certain friends that are both his and mine,
874
Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall
875
Who I myself struck down. And thence it is
876
That I to your assistance do make love,
877
Masking the business from the common eye
878
For sundry weighty reasons.
879
SECOND MURDERER
We shall, my lord,
Perform what you command us.
880
FIRST MURDERER
Though our lives —
MACBETH
Your spirits shine through you. Within this hour at most
881
I will advise you where to plant yourselves,
882
Acquaint you with the perfect spy o’ the time,
883
The moment on ’t, for ’t must be done tonight
884
And something from the palace; always thought
885
That I require a clearness. And with him
886
(To leave no rubs nor botches in the work)
887
Fleance, his son, that keeps him company,
888
Whose absence is no less material to me
889
Than is his father’s, must embrace the fate
890
Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart.
891
I’ll come to you anon.
892
⸢MURDERERS⸣
We are resolved, my lord.
893
MACBETH
I’ll call upon you straight. Abide within.
894
(⸢Murderers exit.⸣)
It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul’s flight,
895
If it find heaven, must find it out tonight.
896
(⸢He exits.⸣)
Scene 2
(Enter Macbeth’s Lady and a Servant.)
LADY MACBETH
Is Banquo gone from court?
897
SERVANT
Ay, madam, but returns again tonight.
898
LADY MACBETH
Say to the King I would attend his leisure
899
For a few words.
900
SERVANT
Madam, I will.
901
(He exits.)
LADY MACBETH
Naught’s had, all’s spent,
902
Where our desire is got without content.
903
’Tis safer to be that which we destroy
904
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.
905
(Enter Macbeth.)
How now, my lord, why do you keep alone,
906
Of sorriest fancies your companions making,
907
Using those thoughts which should indeed have died
908
With them they think on? Things without all remedy
909
Should be without regard. What’s done is done.
910
MACBETH
We have scorched the snake, not killed it.
911
She’ll close and be herself whilst our poor malice
912
Remains in danger of her former tooth.
913
But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,
914
Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep
915
In the affliction of these terrible dreams
916
That shake us nightly. Better be with the dead,
917
Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
918
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
919
In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave.
920
After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well.
921
Treason has done his worst; nor steel nor poison,
922
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing
923
Can touch him further.
924
LADY MACBETH
Come on, gentle my lord,
Sleek o’er your rugged looks. Be bright and jovial
925
Among your guests tonight.
926
MACBETH
So shall I, love,
And so I pray be you. Let your remembrance
927
Apply to Banquo; present him eminence
928
Both with eye and tongue: unsafe the while that we
929
Must lave our honors in these flattering streams
930
And make our faces vizards to our hearts,
931
Disguising what they are.
932
LADY MACBETH
You must leave this.
MACBETH
O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!
933
Thou know’st that Banquo and his Fleance lives.
934
LADY MACBETH
But in them nature’s copy’s not eterne.
935
MACBETH
There’s comfort yet; they are assailable.
936
Then be thou jocund. Ere the bat hath flown
937
His cloistered flight, ere to black Hecate’s summons
938
The shard-born beetle with his drowsy hums
939
Hath rung night’s yawning peal, there shall be done
940
A deed of dreadful note.
941
LADY MACBETH
What’s to be done?
MACBETH
Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
942
Till thou applaud the deed. —Come, seeling night,
943
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day
944
And with thy bloody and invisible hand
945
Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond
946
Which keeps me pale. Light thickens, and the crow
947
Makes wing to th’ rooky wood.
948
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,
949
Whiles night’s black agents to their preys do rouse. —
950
Thou marvel’st at my words, but hold thee still.
951
Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.
952
So prithee go with me.
953
(They exit.)
Scene 3
(Enter three Murderers.)
FIRST MURDERER
But who did bid thee join with us?
954
THIRD MURDERER
Macbeth.
SECOND MURDERER,
⸢to the First Murderer⸣ He needs not our mistrust, since he delivers
955
Our offices and what we have to do
956
To the direction just.
957
FIRST MURDERER
Then stand with us. —
The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day.
958
Now spurs the lated traveler apace
959
To gain the timely inn, ⸢and⸣ near approaches
960
The subject of our watch.
961
THIRD MURDERER
Hark, I hear horses.
962
BANQUO,
within Give us a light there, ho!
963
SECOND MURDERER
Then ’tis he. The rest
964
That are within the note of expectation
965
Already are i’ th’ court.
966
FIRST MURDERER
His horses go about.
967
THIRD MURDERER
Almost a mile; but he does usually
968
(So all men do) from hence to th’ palace gate
969
Make it their walk.
970
(Enter Banquo and Fleance, with a torch.)
SECOND MURDERER
A light, a light!
971
THIRD MURDERER
’Tis he.
972
FIRST MURDERER
Stand to ’t.
973
BANQUO
It will be rain tonight.
974
FIRST MURDERER
Let it come down!
975
(⸢The three Murderers attack.⸣)
BANQUO
O treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!
976
Thou mayst revenge —O slave!
977
(⸢He dies.⸣)
(⸢Fleance exits.⸣)
THIRD MURDERER
Who did strike out the light?
978
FIRST MURDERER
Was ’t not the way?
THIRD MURDERER
There’s but one down. The son is
fled.
SECOND MURDERER
We have lost best half of our
affair.
FIRST MURDERER
Well, let’s away and say how much is done.
979
(They exit.)
Scene 4
(Banquet prepared.)
(Enter Macbeth, Lady ⸢Macbeth,⸣ Ross, Lennox, Lords, and Attendants.)
MACBETH
You know your own degrees; sit down. At first
980
And last, the hearty welcome.
981
(⸢They sit.⸣)
LORDS
Thanks to your Majesty.
982
MACBETH
Ourself will mingle with society
983
And play the humble host.
984
Our hostess keeps her state, but in best time
985
We will require her welcome.
986
LADY MACBETH
Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends,
987
For my heart speaks they are welcome.
988
(Enter First Murderer ⸢to the door.⸣)
MACBETH
See, they encounter thee with their hearts’ thanks.
989
Both sides are even. Here I’ll sit i’ th’ midst.
990
Be large in mirth. Anon we’ll drink a measure
991
The table round.
992
(⸢He approaches the Murderer.⸣)
There’s blood upon thy face.
MURDERER
’Tis Banquo’s then.
993
MACBETH
’Tis better thee without than he within.
994
Is he dispatched?
995
MURDERER
My lord, his throat is cut. That I did for him.
996
MACBETH
Thou art the best o’ th’ cutthroats,
997
Yet he’s good that did the like for Fleance.
998
If thou didst it, thou art the nonpareil.
999
MURDERER
Most royal sir, Fleance is ’scaped.
1000
MACBETH,
Then comes my fit again. I had else been perfect,
1001
Whole as the marble, founded as the rock,
1002
As broad and general as the casing air.
1003
But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in
1004
To saucy doubts and fears.
1005
MURDERER
Ay, my good lord. Safe in a ditch he bides,
1006
With twenty trenchèd gashes on his head,
1007
The least a death to nature.
1008
MACBETH
Thanks for that.
There the grown serpent lies. The worm that’s fled
1009
Hath nature that in time will venom breed,
1010
No teeth for th’ present. Get thee gone. Tomorrow
1011
We’ll hear ourselves again.
1012
(Murderer exits.)
LADY MACBETH
My royal lord,
You do not give the cheer. The feast is sold
1013
That is not often vouched, while ’tis a-making,
1014
’Tis given with welcome. To feed were best at home;
1015
From thence, the sauce to meat is ceremony;
1016
Meeting were bare without it.
1017
(Enter the Ghost of Banquo, and sits in Macbeth’s place.)
MACBETH,
⸢to Lady Macbeth⸣ Sweet remembrancer! —
1018
Now, good digestion wait on appetite
1019
And health on both!
1020
LENNOX
May ’t please your Highness sit.
MACBETH
Here had we now our country’s honor roofed,
1021
Were the graced person of our Banquo present,
1022
Who may I rather challenge for unkindness
1023
Than pity for mischance.
1024
ROSS
His absence, sir,
Lays blame upon his promise. Please ’t your Highness
1025
To grace us with your royal company?
1026
MACBETH
The table’s full.
1027
LENNOX
Here is a place reserved, sir.
MACBETH
Where?
1028
LENNOX
Here, my good lord. What is ’t that moves your Highness?
1029
MACBETH
Which of you have done this?
1030
LORDS
What, my good lord?
MACBETH,
⸢to the Ghost⸣ Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake
1031
Thy gory locks at me.
1032
ROSS
Gentlemen, rise. His Highness is not well.
1033
LADY MACBETH
Sit, worthy friends. My lord is often thus
1034
And hath been from his youth. Pray you, keep seat.
1035
The fit is momentary; upon a thought
1036
He will again be well. If much you note him
1037
You shall offend him and extend his passion.
1038
Feed and regard him not.
1039
Are you a man?
MACBETH
Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
1040
Which might appall the devil.
1041
LADY MACBETH
O, proper stuff!
This is the very painting of your fear.
1042
This is the air-drawn dagger which you said
1043
Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts,
1044
Impostors to true fear, would well become
1045
A woman’s story at a winter’s fire,
1046
Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!
1047
Why do you make such faces? When all’s done,
1048
You look but on a stool.
1049
MACBETH
Prithee, see there. Behold, look!
1050
⸢To the Ghost.⸣ Lo, how say you?
Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too. —
1051
If charnel houses and our graves must send
1052
Those that we bury back, our monuments
1053
Shall be the maws of kites.
1054
(⸢Ghost exits.⸣)
LADY MACBETH
What, quite unmanned in folly?
1055
MACBETH
If I stand here, I saw him.
1056
LADY MACBETH
Fie, for shame!
MACBETH
Blood hath been shed ere now, i’ th’ olden time,
1057
Ere humane statute purged the gentle weal;
1058
Ay, and since too, murders have been performed
1059
Too terrible for the ear. The ⸢time⸣ has been
1060
That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
1061
And there an end. But now they rise again
1062
With twenty mortal murders on their crowns
1063
And push us from our stools. This is more strange
1064
Than such a murder is.
1065
LADY MACBETH
My worthy lord,
Your noble friends do lack you.
1066
MACBETH
I do forget. —
Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends.
1067
I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing
1068
To those that know me. Come, love and health to all.
1069
Then I’ll sit down. —Give me some wine. Fill full.
1070
(Enter Ghost.)
I drink to th’ general joy o’ th’ whole table
1071
And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss.
1072
Would he were here! To all, and him we thirst,
1073
And all to all.
1074
LORDS
Our duties, and the pledge.
(⸢They raise their drinking cups.⸣)
MACBETH,
⸢to the Ghost⸣ Avaunt, and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee.
1075
Thy bones are marrowless; thy blood is cold;
1076
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
1077
Which thou dost glare with.
1078
LADY MACBETH
Think of this, good peers,
But as a thing of custom. ’Tis no other;
1079
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
1080
MACBETH,
⸢to the Ghost⸣ What man dare, I dare.
1081
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
1082
The armed rhinoceros, or th’ Hyrcan tiger;
1083
Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
1084
Shall never tremble. Or be alive again
1085
And dare me to the desert with thy sword.
1086
If trembling I inhabit then, protest me
1087
The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!
1088
Unreal mock’ry, hence!
1089
(⸢Ghost exits.⸣)
Why so, being gone,
I am a man again. —Pray you sit still.
1090
LADY MACBETH
You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting
1091
With most admired disorder.
1092
MACBETH
Can such things be
And overcome us like a summer’s cloud,
1093
Without our special wonder? You make me strange
1094
Even to the disposition that I owe
1095
When now I think you can behold such sights
1096
And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks
1097
When mine is blanched with fear.
1098
ROSS
What sights, my lord?
LADY MACBETH
I pray you, speak not. He grows worse and worse.
1099
Question enrages him. At once, good night.
1100
Stand not upon the order of your going,
1101
But go at once.
1102
LENNOX
Good night, and better health
Attend his Majesty.
1103
LADY MACBETH
A kind good night to all.
1104
(Lords ⸢and all but Macbeth and Lady Macbeth⸣ exit.)
MACBETH
It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood.
1105
Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak.
1106
Augurs and understood relations have
1107
By maggot pies and choughs and rooks brought forth
1108
The secret’st man of blood. —What is the night?
1109
LADY MACBETH
Almost at odds with morning, which is which.
1110
MACBETH
How say’st thou that Macduff denies his person
1111
At our great bidding?
1112
LADY MACBETH
Did you send to him, sir?
MACBETH
I hear it by the way; but I will send.
1113
There’s not a one of them but in his house
1114
I keep a servant fee’d. I will tomorrow
1115
(And betimes I will) to the Weïrd Sisters.
1116
More shall they speak, for now I am bent to know
1117
By the worst means the worst. For mine own good,
1118
All causes shall give way. I am in blood
1119
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
1120
Returning were as tedious as go o’er.
1121
Strange things I have in head that will to hand,
1122
Which must be acted ere they may be scanned.
1123
LADY MACBETH
You lack the season of all natures, sleep.
1124
MACBETH
Come, we’ll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse
1125
Is the initiate fear that wants hard use.
1126
We are yet but young in deed.
1127
(They exit.)
Scene 5
(Thunder.)
(Enter the three Witches, meeting Hecate.)
FIRST WITCH
Why, how now, Hecate? You look angerly.
1128
HECATE
Have I not reason, beldams as you are?
1129
Saucy and overbold, how did you dare
1130
To trade and traffic with Macbeth
1131
In riddles and affairs of death,
1132
And I, the mistress of your charms,
1133
The close contriver of all harms,
1134
Was never called to bear my part
1135
Or show the glory of our art?
1136
And which is worse, all you have done
1137
Hath been but for a wayward son,
1138
Spiteful and wrathful, who, as others do,
1139
Loves for his own ends, not for you.
1140
But make amends now. Get you gone,
1141
And at the pit of Acheron
1142
Meet me i’ th’ morning. Thither he
1143
Will come to know his destiny.
1144
Your vessels and your spells provide,
1145
Your charms and everything beside.
1146
I am for th’ air. This night I’ll spend
1147
Unto a dismal and a fatal end.
1148
Great business must be wrought ere noon.
1149
Upon the corner of the moon
1150
There hangs a vap’rous drop profound.
1151
I’ll catch it ere it come to ground,
1152
And that, distilled by magic sleights,
1153
Shall raise such artificial sprites
1154
As by the strength of their illusion
1155
Shall draw him on to his confusion.
1156
He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear
1157
His hopes ’bove wisdom, grace, and fear.
1158
And you all know, security
1159
Is mortals’ chiefest enemy.
1160
(Music and a song.)
Hark! I am called. My little spirit, see,
1161
Sits in a foggy cloud and stays for me.
1162
(⸢Hecate exits.⸣)
(Sing within “Come away, come away,” etc.)
FIRST WITCH
Come, let’s make haste. She’ll soon be back again.
1163
(They exit.)
Scene 6
(Enter Lennox and another Lord.)
LENNOX
My former speeches have but hit your thoughts,
1164
Which can interpret farther. Only I say
1165
Things have been strangely borne. The gracious Duncan
1166
Was pitied of Macbeth; marry, he was dead.
1167
And the right valiant Banquo walked too late,
1168
Whom you may say, if ’t please you, Fleance killed,
1169
For Fleance fled. Men must not walk too late.
1170
Who cannot want the thought how monstrous
1171
It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain
1172
To kill their gracious father? Damnèd fact,
1173
How it did grieve Macbeth! Did he not straight
1174
In pious rage the two delinquents tear
1175
That were the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep?
1176
Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely, too,
1177
For ’twould have angered any heart alive
1178
To hear the men deny ’t. So that I say
1179
He has borne all things well. And I do think
1180
That had he Duncan’s sons under his key
1181
(As, an ’t please heaven, he shall not) they should find
1182
What ’twere to kill a father. So should Fleance.
1183
But peace. For from broad words, and ’cause he failed
1184
His presence at the tyrant’s feast, I hear
1185
Macduff lives in disgrace. Sir, can you tell
1186
Where he bestows himself?
1187
LORD
The ⸢son⸣ of Duncan
(From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth)
1188
Lives in the English court and is received
1189
Of the most pious Edward with such grace
1190
That the malevolence of fortune nothing
1191
Takes from his high respect. Thither Macduff
1192
Is gone to pray the holy king upon his aid
1193
To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward
1194
That, by the help of these (with Him above
1195
To ratify the work), we may again
1196
Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights,
1197
Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives,
1198
Do faithful homage, and receive free honors,
1199
All which we pine for now. And this report
1200
Hath so exasperate ⸢the⸣ King that he
1201
Prepares for some attempt of war.
1202
LENNOX
Sent he to Macduff?
1203
LORD
He did, and with an absolute “Sir, not I,”
1204
The cloudy messenger turns me his back
1205
And hums, as who should say “You’ll rue the time
1206
That clogs me with this answer.”
1207
LENNOX
And that well might
Advise him to a caution ⸢t’ hold⸣ what distance
1208
His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel
1209
Fly to the court of England and unfold
1210
His message ere he come, that a swift blessing
1211
May soon return to this our suffering country
1212
Under a hand accursed.
1213
LORD
I’ll send my prayers with him.
1214
(They exit.)
Act IV
Scene 1
(Thunder.)
(Enter the three Witches.)
FIRST WITCH
Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed.
1215
SECOND WITCH
Thrice, and once the hedge-pig whined.
1216
THIRD WITCH
Harpier cries “’Tis time, ’tis time!”
1217
FIRST WITCH
Round about the cauldron go;
1218
In the poisoned entrails throw.
1219
Toad, that under cold stone
1220
Days and nights has thirty-one
1221
Sweltered venom sleeping got,
1222
Boil thou first i’ th’ charmèd pot.
1223
(⸢The Witches circle the cauldron.⸣)
ALL
Double, double toil and trouble;
1224
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
1225
SECOND WITCH
Fillet of a fenny snake
1226
In the cauldron boil and bake.
1227
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
1228
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
1229
Adder’s fork and blindworm’s sting,
1230
Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing,
1231
For a charm of powerful trouble,
1232
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
1233
ALL
Double, double toil and trouble;
1234
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
1235
THIRD WITCH
Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
1236
Witch’s mummy, maw and gulf
1237
Of the ravined salt-sea shark,
1238
Root of hemlock digged i’ th’ dark,
1239
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
1240
Gall of goat and slips of yew
1241
Slivered in the moon’s eclipse,
1242
Nose of Turk and Tartar’s lips,
1243
Finger of birth-strangled babe
1244
Ditch-delivered by a drab,
1245
Make the gruel thick and slab.
1246
Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron
1247
For th’ ingredience of our cauldron.
1248
ALL
Double, double toil and trouble;
1249
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
1250
SECOND WITCH
Cool it with a baboon’s blood.
1251
Then the charm is firm and good.
1252
(Enter Hecate ⸢to⸣ the other three Witches.)
HECATE
O, well done! I commend your pains,
1253
And everyone shall share i’ the gains.
1254
And now about the cauldron sing
1255
Like elves and fairies in a ring,
1256
Enchanting all that you put in.
1257
(Music and a song: “Black Spirits,” etc.)
(⸢Hecate exits.⸣)
SECOND WITCH
By the pricking of my thumbs,
1258
Something wicked this way comes.
1259
Open, locks,
1260
Whoever knocks.
1261
(Enter Macbeth.)
MACBETH
How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags?
1262
What is ’t you do?
1263
ALL
A deed without a name.
MACBETH
I conjure you by that which you profess
1264
(Howe’er you come to know it), answer me.
1265
Though you untie the winds and let them fight
1266
Against the churches, though the yeasty waves
1267
Confound and swallow navigation up,
1268
Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down,
1269
Though castles topple on their warders’ heads,
1270
Though palaces and pyramids do slope
1271
Their heads to their foundations, though the treasure
1272
Of nature’s ⸢germens tumble all together⸣
1273
Even till destruction sicken, answer me
1274
To what I ask you.
1275
FIRST WITCH
Speak.
SECOND WITCH
Demand.
THIRD WITCH
We’ll answer.
FIRST WITCH
Say if th’ hadst rather hear it from our mouths
1276
Or from our masters’.
1277
MACBETH
Call ’em. Let me see ’em.
FIRST WITCH
Pour in sow’s blood that hath eaten
1278
Her nine farrow; grease that’s sweaten
1279
From the murderers’ gibbet throw
1280
Into the flame.
1281
ALL
Come high or low;
Thyself and office deftly show.
1282
(Thunder.)
(First Apparition, an Armed Head.)
MACBETH
Tell me, thou unknown power —
1283
FIRST WITCH
He knows thy thought.
Hear his speech but say thou naught.
1284
FIRST APPARITION
Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff!
1285
Beware the Thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough.
1286
(He descends.)
MACBETH
Whate’er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks.
1287
Thou hast harped my fear aright. But one word more —
1288
FIRST WITCH
He will not be commanded. Here’s another
1289
More potent than the first.
1290
(Thunder.)
(Second Apparition, a Bloody Child.)
SECOND APPARITION
Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! —
1291
MACBETH
Had I three ears, I’d hear thee.
1292
SECOND APPARITION
Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn
1293
The power of man, for none of woman born
1294
Shall harm Macbeth.
1295
(⸢He⸣ descends.)
MACBETH
Then live, Macduff; what need I fear of thee?
1296
But yet I’ll make assurance double sure
1297
And take a bond of fate. Thou shalt not live,
1298
That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies,
1299
And sleep in spite of thunder.
1300
(Thunder.)
(Third Apparition, a Childe Crowned, with a tree in his hand.)
What is this
That rises like the issue of a king
1301
And wears upon his baby brow the round
1302
And top of sovereignty?
1303
ALL
Listen but speak not to ’t.
1304
THIRD APPARITION
Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care
1305
Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are.
1306
Macbeth shall never vanquished be until
1307
Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill
1308
Shall come against him.
1309
(⸢He⸣ descends.)
MACBETH
That will never be.
Who can impress the forest, bid the tree
1310
Unfix his earthbound root? Sweet bodements, good!
1311
Rebellious dead, rise never till the Wood
1312
Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth
1313
Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath
1314
To time and mortal custom. Yet my heart
1315
Throbs to know one thing. Tell me, if your art
1316
Can tell so much: shall Banquo’s issue ever
1317
Reign in this kingdom?
1318
ALL
Seek to know no more.
MACBETH
I will be satisfied. Deny me this,
1319
And an eternal curse fall on you! Let me know!
1320
(⸢Cauldron sinks.⸣ Hautboys.)
Why sinks that cauldron? And what noise is this?
1321
FIRST WITCH
Show.
1322
SECOND WITCH
Show.
1323
THIRD WITCH
Show.
1324
ALL
Show his eyes and grieve his heart.
1325
Come like shadows; so depart.
1326
(A show of eight kings, ⸢the eighth king⸣ with a glass in his hand, and Banquo last.)
MACBETH
Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo. Down!
1327
Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs. And thy hair,
1328
Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first.
1329
A third is like the former. —Filthy hags,
1330
Why do you show me this? —A fourth? Start, eyes!
1331
What, will the line stretch out to th’ crack of doom?
1332
Another yet? A seventh? I’ll see no more.
1333
And yet the eighth appears who bears a glass
1334
Which shows me many more, and some I see
1335
That twofold balls and treble scepters carry.
1336
Horrible sight! Now I see ’tis true,
1337
For the blood-boltered Banquo smiles upon me
1338
And points at them for his.
1339
(⸢The Apparitions disappear.⸣)
What, is this so?
FIRST WITCH
Ay, sir, all this is so. But why
1340
Stands Macbeth thus amazedly?
1341
Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites
1342
And show the best of our delights.
1343
I’ll charm the air to give a sound
1344
While you perform your antic round,
1345
That this great king may kindly say
1346
Our duties did his welcome pay.
1347
(Music.)
(The Witches dance and vanish.)
MACBETH
Where are they? Gone? Let this pernicious hour
1348
Stand aye accursèd in the calendar! —
1349
Come in, without there.
1350
(Enter Lennox.)
LENNOX
What’s your Grace’s will?
MACBETH
Saw you the Weïrd Sisters?
1351
LENNOX
No, my lord.
MACBETH
Came they not by you?
1352
LENNOX
No, indeed, my lord.
MACBETH
Infected be the air whereon they ride,
1353
And damned all those that trust them! I did hear
1354
The galloping of horse. Who was ’t came by?
1355
LENNOX
’Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word
1356
Macduff is fled to England.
1357
MACBETH
Fled to England?
LENNOX
Ay, my good lord.
MACBETH,
Time, thou anticipat’st my dread exploits.
1358
The flighty purpose never is o’ertook
1359
Unless the deed go with it. From this moment
1360
The very firstlings of my heart shall be
1361
The firstlings of my hand. And even now,
1362
To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done:
1363
The castle of Macduff I will surprise,
1364
Seize upon Fife, give to th’ edge o’ th’ sword
1365
His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls
1366
That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool;
1367
This deed I’ll do before this purpose cool.
1368
But no more sights!
1369
Come bring me where they are.
1370
(They exit.)
Scene 2
(Enter Macduff’s Wife, her Son, and Ross.)
LADY MACDUFF
What had he done to make him fly the land?
1371
ROSS
You must have patience, madam.
1372
LADY MACDUFF
He had none.
His flight was madness. When our actions do not,
1373
Our fears do make us traitors.
1374
ROSS
You know not
Whether it was his wisdom or his fear.
1375
LADY MACDUFF
Wisdom? To leave his wife, to leave his babes,
1376
His mansion and his titles in a place
1377
From whence himself does fly? He loves us not;
1378
He wants the natural touch; for the poor wren,
1379
The most diminutive of birds, will fight,
1380
Her young ones in her nest, against the owl.
1381
All is the fear, and nothing is the love,
1382
As little is the wisdom, where the flight
1383
So runs against all reason.
1384
ROSS
My dearest coz,
I pray you school yourself. But for your husband,
1385
He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows
1386
The fits o’ th’ season. I dare not speak much further;
1387
But cruel are the times when we are traitors
1388
And do not know ourselves; when we hold rumor
1389
From what we fear, yet know not what we fear,
1390
But float upon a wild and violent sea
1391
Each way and move —I take my leave of you.
1392
Shall not be long but I’ll be here again.
1393
Things at the worst will cease or else climb upward
1394
To what they were before. —My pretty cousin,
1395
Blessing upon you.
1396
LADY MACDUFF
Fathered he is, and yet he’s fatherless.
1397
ROSS
I am so much a fool, should I stay longer
1398
It would be my disgrace and your discomfort.
1399
I take my leave at once.
1400
(Ross exits.)
LADY MACDUFF
Sirrah, your father’s dead.
1401
And what will you do now? How will you live?
1402
SON
As birds do, mother.
1403
LADY MACDUFF
What, with worms and flies?
SON
With what I get, I mean; and so do they.
1404
LADY MACDUFF
Poor bird, thou ’dst never fear the net nor lime,
1405
The pitfall nor the gin.
1406
SON
Why should I, mother? Poor birds they are not set for.
1407
My father is not dead, for all your saying.
1408
LADY MACDUFF
Yes, he is dead. How wilt thou do for a father?
1409
SON
Nay, how will you do for a husband?
1410
LADY MACDUFF
Why, I can buy me twenty at any market.
1411
SON
Then you’ll buy ’em to sell again.
1412
LADY MACDUFF
Thou speak’st with all thy wit,
1413
And yet, i’ faith, with wit enough for thee.
1414
SON
Was my father a traitor, mother?
LADY MACDUFF
Ay, that he was.
SON
What is a traitor?
LADY MACDUFF
Why, one that swears and lies.
SON
And be all traitors that do so?
LADY MACDUFF
Every one that does so is a traitor
and must be hanged.
SON
And must they all be hanged that swear and lie?
LADY MACDUFF
Every one.
SON
Who must hang them?
LADY MACDUFF
Why, the honest men.
SON
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?
SON
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.)
MESSENGER
Bless you, fair dame. I am not to you known,
1415
Though in your state of honor I am perfect.
1416
I doubt some danger does approach you nearly.
1417
If you will take a homely man’s advice,
1418
Be not found here. Hence with your little ones!
1419
To fright you thus methinks I am too savage;
1420
To do worse to you were fell cruelty,
1421
Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you!
1422
I dare abide no longer.
1423
(Messenger exits.)
LADY MACDUFF
Whither should I fly?
I have done no harm. But I remember now
1424
I am in this earthly world, where to do harm
1425
Is often laudable, to do good sometime
1426
Accounted dangerous folly. Why then, alas,
1427
Do I put up that womanly defense
1428
To say I have done no harm?
1429
(Enter Murderers.)
What are these faces?
MURDERER
Where is your husband?
1430
LADY MACDUFF
I hope in no place so unsanctified
1431
Where such as thou mayst find him.
1432
MURDERER
He’s a traitor.
SON
Thou liest, thou shag-eared villain!
1433
MURDERER
What, you egg?
⸢Stabbing him.⸣ Young fry of treachery!
1434
SON
He has killed me, mother.
Run away, I pray you.
1435
(⸢Lady Macduff⸣ exits, crying “Murder!” ⸢followed by the Murderers bearing the Son’s body.⸣)
Scene 3
(Enter Malcolm and Macduff.)
MALCOLM
Let us seek out some desolate shade and there
1436
Weep our sad bosoms empty.
1437
MACDUFF
Let us rather
Hold fast the mortal sword and, like good men,
1438
Bestride our ⸢downfall’n⸣ birthdom. Each new morn
1439
New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows
1440
Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds
1441
As if it felt with Scotland, and yelled out
1442
Like syllable of dolor.
1443
MALCOLM
What I believe, I’ll wail;
1444
What know, believe; and what I can redress,
1445
As I shall find the time to friend, I will.
1446
What you have spoke, it may be so, perchance.
1447
This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,
1448
Was once thought honest. You have loved him well.
1449
He hath not touched you yet. I am young, but something
1450
You may ⸢deserve⸣ of him through me, and wisdom
1451
To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb
1452
T’ appease an angry god.
1453
MACDUFF
I am not treacherous.
1454
MALCOLM
But Macbeth is.
A good and virtuous nature may recoil
1455
In an imperial charge. But I shall crave your pardon.
1456
That which you are, my thoughts cannot transpose.
1457
Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.
1458
Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace,
1459
Yet grace must still look so.
1460
MACDUFF
I have lost my hopes.
MALCOLM
Perchance even there where I did find my doubts.
1461
Why in that rawness left you wife and child,
1462
Those precious motives, those strong knots of love,
1463
Without leave-taking? I pray you,
1464
Let not my jealousies be your dishonors,
1465
But mine own safeties. You may be rightly just,
1466
Whatever I shall think.
1467
MACDUFF
Bleed, bleed, poor country!
Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure,
1468
For goodness dare not check thee. Wear thou thy wrongs;
1469
The title is affeered. —Fare thee well, lord.
1470
I would not be the villain that thou think’st
1471
For the whole space that’s in the tyrant’s grasp,
1472
And the rich East to boot.
1473
MALCOLM
Be not offended.
I speak not as in absolute fear of you.
1474
I think our country sinks beneath the yoke.
1475
It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash
1476
Is added to her wounds. I think withal
1477
There would be hands uplifted in my right;
1478
And here from gracious England have I offer
1479
Of goodly thousands. But, for all this,
1480
When I shall tread upon the tyrant’s head
1481
Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country
1482
Shall have more vices than it had before,
1483
More suffer, and more sundry ways than ever,
1484
By him that shall succeed.
1485
MACDUFF
What should he be?
MALCOLM
It is myself I mean, in whom I know
1486
All the particulars of vice so grafted
1487
That, when they shall be opened, black Macbeth
1488
Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state
1489
Esteem him as a lamb, being compared
1490
With my confineless harms.
1491
MACDUFF
Not in the legions
Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned
1492
In evils to top Macbeth.
1493
MALCOLM
I grant him bloody,
Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful,
1494
Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin
1495
That has a name. But there’s no bottom, none,
1496
In my voluptuousness. Your wives, your daughters,
1497
Your matrons, and your maids could not fill up
1498
The cistern of my lust, and my desire
1499
All continent impediments would o’erbear
1500
That did oppose my will. Better Macbeth
1501
Than such an one to reign.
1502
MACDUFF
Boundless intemperance
In nature is a tyranny. It hath been
1503
Th’ untimely emptying of the happy throne
1504
And fall of many kings. But fear not yet
1505
To take upon you what is yours. You may
1506
Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty
1507
And yet seem cold —the time you may so hoodwink.
1508
We have willing dames enough. There cannot be
1509
That vulture in you to devour so many
1510
As will to greatness dedicate themselves,
1511
Finding it so inclined.
1512
MALCOLM
With this there grows
In my most ill-composed affection such
1513
A stanchless avarice that, were I king,
1514
I should cut off the nobles for their lands,
1515
Desire his jewels, and this other’s house;
1516
And my more-having would be as a sauce
1517
To make me hunger more, that I should forge
1518
Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal,
1519
Destroying them for wealth.
1520
MACDUFF
This avarice
Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root
1521
Than summer-seeming lust, and it hath been
1522
The sword of our slain kings. Yet do not fear.
1523
Scotland hath foisons to fill up your will
1524
Of your mere own. All these are portable,
1525
With other graces weighed.
1526
MALCOLM
But I have none. The king-becoming graces,
1527
As justice, verity, temp’rance, stableness,
1528
Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,
1529
Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude,
1530
I have no relish of them but abound
1531
In the division of each several crime,
1532
Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should
1533
Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell,
1534
Uproar the universal peace, confound
1535
All unity on earth.
1536
MACDUFF
O Scotland, Scotland!
MALCOLM
If such a one be fit to govern, speak.
1537
I am as I have spoken.
1538
MACDUFF
Fit to govern?
No, not to live. —O nation miserable,
1539
With an untitled tyrant bloody-sceptered,
1540
When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again,
1541
Since that the truest issue of thy throne
1542
By his own interdiction stands ⸢accursed⸣
1543
And does blaspheme his breed? —Thy royal father
1544
Was a most sainted king. The queen that bore thee,
1545
Oft’ner upon her knees than on her feet,
1546
Died every day she lived. Fare thee well.
1547
These evils thou repeat’st upon thyself
1548
Hath banished me from Scotland. —O my breast,
1549
Thy hope ends here!
1550
MALCOLM
Macduff, this noble passion,
Child of integrity, hath from my soul
1551
Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts
1552
To thy good truth and honor. Devilish Macbeth
1553
By many of these trains hath sought to win me
1554
Into his power, and modest wisdom plucks me
1555
From overcredulous haste. But God above
1556
Deal between thee and me, for even now
1557
I put myself to thy direction and
1558
Unspeak mine own detraction, here abjure
1559
The taints and blames I laid upon myself
1560
For strangers to my nature. I am yet
1561
Unknown to woman, never was forsworn,
1562
Scarcely have coveted what was mine own,
1563
At no time broke my faith, would not betray
1564
The devil to his fellow, and delight
1565
No less in truth than life. My first false speaking
1566
Was this upon myself. What I am truly
1567
Is thine and my poor country’s to command —
1568
Whither indeed, before ⸢thy here-approach,⸣
1569
Old Siward with ten thousand warlike men,
1570
Already at a point, was setting forth.
1571
Now we’ll together, and the chance of goodness
1572
Be like our warranted quarrel. Why are you silent?
1573
MACDUFF
Such welcome and unwelcome things at once
1574
’Tis hard to reconcile.
1575
(Enter a Doctor.)
MALCOLM
Well, more anon. —Comes the King forth,
1576
I pray you?
1577
DOCTOR
Ay, sir. There are a crew of wretched souls
1578
That stay his cure. Their malady convinces
1579
The great assay of art, but at his touch
1580
(Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand)
1581
They presently amend.
1582
MALCOLM
I thank you, doctor.
(⸢Doctor⸣ exits.)
MACDUFF
What’s the disease he means?
1583
MALCOLM
’Tis called the evil:
A most miraculous work in this good king,
1584
Which often since my here-remain in England
1585
I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven
1586
Himself best knows, but strangely visited people
1587
All swoll’n and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye,
1588
The mere despair of surgery, he cures,
1589
Hanging a golden stamp about their necks,
1590
Put on with holy prayers; and, ’tis spoken,
1591
To the succeeding royalty he leaves
1592
The healing benediction. With this strange virtue,
1593
He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy,
1594
And sundry blessings hang about his throne
1595
That speak him full of grace.
1596
(Enter Ross.)
MACDUFF
See who comes here.
MALCOLM
My countryman, but yet I know him ⸢not.⸣
1597
MACDUFF
My ever-gentle cousin, welcome hither.
1598
MALCOLM
I know him now. —Good God betimes remove
1599
The means that makes us strangers!
1600
ROSS
Sir, amen.
MACDUFF
Stands Scotland where it did?
1601
ROSS
Alas, poor country,
Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot
1602
Be called our mother, but our grave, where nothing
1603
But who knows nothing is once seen to smile;
1604
Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rent the air
1605
Are made, not marked; where violent sorrow seems
1606
A modern ecstasy. The dead man’s knell
1607
Is there scarce asked for who, and good men’s lives
1608
Expire before the flowers in their caps,
1609
Dying or ere they sicken.
1610
MACDUFF
O relation too nice and yet too true!
1611
MALCOLM
What’s the newest grief?
1612
ROSS
That of an hour’s age doth hiss the speaker.
1613
Each minute teems a new one.
1614
MACDUFF
How does my wife?
ROSS
Why, well.
1615
MACDUFF
And all my children?
1616
ROSS
Well too.
1617
MACDUFF
The tyrant has not battered at their peace?
1618
ROSS
No, they were well at peace when I did leave ’em.
1619
MACDUFF
Be not a niggard of your speech. How goes ’t?
1620
ROSS
When I came hither to transport the tidings
1621
Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumor
1622
Of many worthy fellows that were out;
1623
Which was to my belief witnessed the rather
1624
For that I saw the tyrant’s power afoot.
1625
Now is the time of help. Your eye in Scotland
1626
Would create soldiers, make our women fight
1627
To doff their dire distresses.
1628
MALCOLM
Be ’t their comfort
We are coming thither. Gracious England hath
1629
Lent us good Siward and ten thousand men;
1630
An older and a better soldier none
1631
That Christendom gives out.
1632
ROSS
Would I could answer
This comfort with the like. But I have words
1633
That would be howled out in the desert air,
1634
Where hearing should not latch them.
1635
MACDUFF
What concern they —
The general cause, or is it a fee-grief
1636
Due to some single breast?
1637
ROSS
No mind that’s honest
But in it shares some woe, though the main part
1638
Pertains to you alone.
1639
MACDUFF
If it be mine,
Keep it not from me. Quickly let me have it.
1640
ROSS
Let not your ears despise my tongue forever,
1641
Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound
1642
That ever yet they heard.
1643
MACDUFF
Hum! I guess at it.
ROSS
Your castle is surprised, your wife and babes
1644
Savagely slaughtered. To relate the manner
1645
Were on the quarry of these murdered deer
1646
To add the death of you.
1647
MALCOLM
Merciful heaven!—
What, man, ne’er pull your hat upon your brows.
1648
Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak
1649
Whispers the o’erfraught heart and bids it break.
1650
MACDUFF
My children too?
1651
ROSS
Wife, children, servants, all that could be found.
1652
MACDUFF
And I must be from thence? My wife killed too?
1653
ROSS
I have said.
1654
MALCOLM
Be comforted.
1655
Let’s make us med’cines of our great revenge
1656
To cure this deadly grief.
1657
MACDUFF
He has no children. All my pretty ones?
1658
Did you say “all”? O hell-kite! All?
1659
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
1660
At one fell swoop?
1661
MALCOLM
Dispute it like a man.
1662
MACDUFF
I shall do so,
1663
But I must also feel it as a man.
1664
I cannot but remember such things were
1665
That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on
1666
And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff,
1667
They were all struck for thee! Naught that I am,
1668
Not for their own demerits, but for mine,
1669
Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now.
1670
MALCOLM
Be this the whetstone of your sword. Let grief
1671
Convert to anger. Blunt not the heart; enrage it.
1672
MACDUFF
O, I could play the woman with mine eyes
1673
And braggart with my tongue! But, gentle heavens,
1674
Cut short all intermission! Front to front
1675
Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself.
1676
Within my sword’s length set him. If he ’scape,
1677
Heaven forgive him too.
1678
MALCOLM
This ⸢tune⸣ goes manly.
Come, go we to the King. Our power is ready;
1679
Our lack is nothing but our leave. Macbeth
1680
Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above
1681
Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may.
1682
The night is long that never finds the day.
1683
(They exit.)
Act V
Scene 1
(Enter a Doctor of Physic and a Waiting-Gentlewoman.)
DOCTOR
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
upon 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. In this slumb’ry 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.
GENTLEWOMAN
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?
GENTLEWOMAN
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? Look 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.
DOCTOR
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 it, 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? What, 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.
GENTLEWOMAN
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. O, O, O!
DOCTOR
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.
DOCTOR
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; he 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.
(Lady ⸢Macbeth⸣ exits.)
DOCTOR
Will she go now to bed?
GENTLEWOMAN
Directly.
DOCTOR
Foul whisp’rings are abroad. Unnatural deeds
1684
Do breed unnatural troubles. Infected minds
1685
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.
1686
More needs she the divine than the physician.
1687
God, God forgive us all. Look after her.
1688
Remove from her the means of all annoyance
1689
And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night.
1690
My mind she has mated, and amazed my sight.
1691
I think but dare not speak.
1692
GENTLEWOMAN
Good night, good doctor.
(They exit.)
Scene 2
(Drum and Colors. Enter Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, ⸢and⸣ Soldiers.)
MENTEITH
The English power is near, led on by Malcolm,
1693
His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff.
1694
Revenges burn in them, for their dear causes
1695
Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm
1696
Excite the mortified man.
1697
ANGUS
Near Birnam Wood
Shall we well meet them. That way are they coming.
1698
CAITHNESS
Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?
1699
LENNOX
For certain, sir, he is not. I have a file
1700
Of all the gentry. There is Siward’s son
1701
And many unrough youths that even now
1702
Protest their first of manhood.
1703
MENTEITH
What does the tyrant?
CAITHNESS
Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies.
1704
Some say he’s mad; others that lesser hate him
1705
Do call it valiant fury. But for certain
1706
He cannot buckle his distempered cause
1707
Within the belt of rule.
1708
ANGUS
Now does he feel
His secret murders sticking on his hands.
1709
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach.
1710
Those he commands move only in command,
1711
Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title
1712
Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe
1713
Upon a dwarfish thief.
1714
MENTEITH
Who, then, shall blame
His pestered senses to recoil and start
1715
When all that is within him does condemn
1716
Itself for being there?
1717
CAITHNESS
Well, march we on
To give obedience where ’tis truly owed.
1718
Meet we the med’cine of the sickly weal,
1719
And with him pour we in our country’s purge
1720
Each drop of us.
1721
LENNOX
Or so much as it needs
To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds.
1722
Make we our march towards Birnam.
1723
(They exit marching.)
Scene 3
(Enter Macbeth, ⸢the⸣ Doctor, and Attendants.)
MACBETH
Bring me no more reports. Let them fly all.
1724
Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane
1725
I cannot taint with fear. What’s the boy Malcolm?
1726
Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know
1727
All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus:
1728
“Fear not, Macbeth. No man that’s born of woman
1729
Shall e’er have power upon thee.” Then fly, false thanes,
1730
And mingle with the English epicures.
1731
The mind I sway by and the heart I bear
1732
Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.
1733
(Enter Servant.)
The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon!
1734
Where got’st thou that goose-look?
1735
SERVANT
There is ten thousand —
1736
MACBETH
Geese, villain?
1737
SERVANT
Soldiers, sir.
1738
MACBETH
Go prick thy face and over-red thy fear,
1739
Thou lily-livered boy. What soldiers, patch?
1740
Death of thy soul! Those linen cheeks of thine
1741
Are counselors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?
1742
SERVANT
The English force, so please you.
1743
MACBETH
Take thy face hence.
1744
(⸢Servant exits.⸣)
Seyton! —I am sick at heart
When I behold —Seyton, I say! —This push
1745
Will cheer me ever or ⸢disseat⸣ me now.
1746
I have lived long enough. My way of life
1747
Is fall’n into the sere, the yellow leaf,
1748
And that which should accompany old age,
1749
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,
1750
I must not look to have, but in their stead
1751
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath
1752
Which the poor heart would fain deny and dare not. —
1753
Seyton!
1754
(Enter Seyton.)
SEYTON
What’s your gracious pleasure?
1755
MACBETH
What news more?
SEYTON
All is confirmed, my lord, which was reported.
1756
MACBETH
I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hacked.
1757
Give me my armor.
1758
SEYTON
’Tis not needed yet.
1759
MACBETH
I’ll put it on.
1760
Send out more horses. Skirr the country round.
1761
Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armor. —
1762
How does your patient, doctor?
1763
DOCTOR
Not so sick, my lord,
1764
As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies
1765
That keep her from her rest.
1766
MACBETH
Cure ⸢her⸣ of that.
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
1767
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
1768
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
1769
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
1770
Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff
1771
Which weighs upon the heart?
1772
DOCTOR
Therein the patient
Must minister to himself.
1773
MACBETH
Throw physic to the dogs. I’ll none of it. —
1774
Come, put mine armor on. Give me my staff.
1775
(⸢Attendants begin to arm him.⸣)
Seyton, send out. —Doctor, the thanes fly from me. —
1776
Come, sir, dispatch. —If thou couldst, doctor, cast
1777
The water of my land, find her disease,
1778
And purge it to a sound and pristine health,
1779
I would applaud thee to the very echo
1780
That should applaud again —Pull ’t off, I say. —
1781
What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug
1782
Would scour these English hence? Hear’st thou of them?
1783
DOCTOR
Ay, my good lord. Your royal preparation
1784
Makes us hear something.
1785
MACBETH
Bring it after me. —
I will not be afraid of death and bane
1786
Till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane.
1787
DOCTOR,
Were I from Dunsinane away and clear,
1788
Profit again should hardly draw me here.
1789
(They exit.)
Scene 4
(Drum and Colors. Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, Siward’s son, Menteith, Caithness, Angus, and Soldiers, marching.)
MALCOLM
Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand
1790
That chambers will be safe.
1791
MENTEITH
We doubt it nothing.
SIWARD
What wood is this before us?
1792
MENTEITH
The Wood of Birnam.
MALCOLM
Let every soldier hew him down a bough
1793
And bear ’t before him. Thereby shall we shadow
1794
The numbers of our host and make discovery
1795
Err in report of us.
1796
SOLDIER
It shall be done.
SIWARD
We learn no other but the confident tyrant
1797
Keeps still in Dunsinane and will endure
1798
Our setting down before ’t.
1799
MALCOLM
’Tis his main hope;
For, where there is advantage to be given,
1800
Both more and less have given him the revolt,
1801
And none serve with him but constrainèd things
1802
Whose hearts are absent too.
1803
MACDUFF
Let our just censures
Attend the true event, and put we on
1804
Industrious soldiership.
1805
SIWARD
The time approaches
That will with due decision make us know
1806
What we shall say we have and what we owe.
1807
Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate,
1808
But certain issue strokes must arbitrate;
1809
Towards which, advance the war.
1810
(They exit marching.)
Scene 5
(Enter Macbeth, Seyton, and Soldiers, with Drum and Colors.)
MACBETH
Hang out our banners on the outward walls.
1811
The cry is still “They come!” Our castle’s strength
1812
Will laugh a siege to scorn. Here let them lie
1813
Till famine and the ague eat them up.
1814
Were they not forced with those that should be ours,
1815
We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,
1816
And beat them backward home.
1817
(A cry within of women.)
What is that noise?
SEYTON
It is the cry of women, my good lord.
1818
(⸢He exits.⸣)
MACBETH
I have almost forgot the taste of fears.
1819
The time has been my senses would have cooled
1820
To hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair
1821
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
1822
As life were in ’t. I have supped full with horrors.
1823
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,
1824
Cannot once start me.
1825
(⸢Enter Seyton.⸣)
Wherefore was that cry?
SEYTON
The Queen, my lord, is dead.
1826
MACBETH
She should have died hereafter.
1827
There would have been a time for such a word.
1828
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
1829
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
1830
To the last syllable of recorded time,
1831
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
1832
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
1833
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
1834
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
1835
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
1836
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
1837
Signifying nothing.
1838
(Enter a Messenger.)
Thou com’st to use thy tongue: thy story quickly.
1839
MESSENGER
Gracious my lord,
1840
I should report that which I say I saw,
1841
But know not how to do ’t.
1842
MACBETH
Well, say, sir.
MESSENGER
As I did stand my watch upon the hill,
1843
I looked toward Birnam, and anon methought
1844
The Wood began to move.
1845
MACBETH
Liar and slave!
MESSENGER
Let me endure your wrath if ’t be not so.
1846
Within this three mile may you see it coming.
1847
I say, a moving grove.
1848
MACBETH
If thou speak’st false,
Upon the next tree shall thou hang alive
1849
Till famine cling thee. If thy speech be sooth,
1850
I care not if thou dost for me as much. —
1851
I pull in resolution and begin
1852
To doubt th’ equivocation of the fiend,
1853
That lies like truth. “Fear not till Birnam Wood
1854
Do come to Dunsinane,” and now a wood
1855
Comes toward Dunsinane. —Arm, arm, and out! —
1856
If this which he avouches does appear,
1857
There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here.
1858
I ’gin to be aweary of the sun
1859
And wish th’ estate o’ th’ world were now undone. —
1860
Ring the alarum bell. —Blow wind, come wrack,
1861
At least we’ll die with harness on our back.
1862
(They exit.)
Scene 6
(Drum and Colors. Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, and their army, with boughs.)
MALCOLM
Now near enough. Your leafy screens throw down
1863
And show like those you are. —You, worthy uncle,
1864
Shall with my cousin, your right noble son,
1865
Lead our first battle. Worthy Macduff and we
1866
Shall take upon ’s what else remains to do,
1867
According to our order.
1868
SIWARD
Fare you well.
Do we but find the tyrant’s power tonight,
1869
Let us be beaten if we cannot fight.
1870
MACDUFF
Make all our trumpets speak; give them all breath,
1871
Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.
1872
(They exit.)
(Alarums continued.)
Scene 7
(Enter Macbeth.)
MACBETH
They have tied me to a stake. I cannot fly,
1873
But, bear-like, I must fight the course. What’s he
1874
That was not born of woman? Such a one
1875
Am I to fear, or none.
1876
(Enter young Siward.)
YOUNG SIWARD
What is thy name?
1877
MACBETH
Thou ’lt be afraid to hear it.
1878
YOUNG SIWARD
No, though thou call’st thyself a hotter name
1879
Than any is in hell.
1880
MACBETH
My name’s Macbeth.
YOUNG SIWARD
The devil himself could not pronounce a title
1881
More hateful to mine ear.
1882
MACBETH
No, nor more fearful.
YOUNG SIWARD
Thou liest, abhorrèd tyrant. With my sword
1883
I’ll prove the lie thou speak’st.
1884
(⸢They fight,⸣ and young Siward ⸢is⸣ slain.)
MACBETH
Thou wast born of woman.
But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn,
1885
Brandished by man that’s of a woman born.
1886
(He exits.)
(Alarums.)
(Enter Macduff.)
MACDUFF
That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy face!
1887
If thou beest slain, and with no stroke of mine,
1888
My wife and children’s ghosts will haunt me still.
1889
I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms
1890
Are hired to bear their staves. Either thou, Macbeth,
1891
Or else my sword with an unbattered edge
1892
I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be;
1893
By this great clatter, one of greatest note
1894
Seems bruited. Let me find him, Fortune,
1895
And more I beg not.
1896
(He exits.)
(Alarums.)
(Enter Malcolm and Siward.)
SIWARD
This way, my lord. The castle’s gently rendered.
1897
The tyrant’s people on both sides do fight,
1898
The noble thanes do bravely in the war,
1899
The day almost itself professes yours,
1900
And little is to do.
1901
MALCOLM
We have met with foes
That strike beside us.
1902
SIWARD
Enter, sir, the castle.
(They exit.)
(Alarum.)
⸢Scene 8⸣
(Enter Macbeth.)
MACBETH
Why should I play the Roman fool and die
1903
On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes
1904
Do better upon them.
1905
(Enter Macduff.)
MACDUFF
Turn, hellhound, turn!
MACBETH
Of all men else I have avoided thee.
1906
But get thee back. My soul is too much charged
1907
With blood of thine already.
1908
MACDUFF
I have no words;
My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain
1909
Than terms can give thee out.
1910
(Fight. Alarum.)
MACBETH
Thou losest labor.
As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air
1911
With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed.
1912
Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;
1913
I bear a charmèd life, which must not yield
1914
To one of woman born.
1915
MACDUFF
Despair thy charm,
And let the angel whom thou still hast served
1916
Tell thee Macduff was from his mother’s womb
1917
Untimely ripped.
1918
MACBETH
Accursèd be that tongue that tells me so,
1919
For it hath cowed my better part of man!
1920
And be these juggling fiends no more believed
1921
That palter with us in a double sense,
1922
That keep the word of promise to our ear
1923
And break it to our hope. I’ll not fight with thee.
1924
MACDUFF
Then yield thee, coward,
1925
And live to be the show and gaze o’ th’ time.
1926
We’ll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,
1927
Painted upon a pole, and underwrit
1928
“Here may you see the tyrant.”
1929
MACBETH
I will not yield
To kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet
1930
And to be baited with the rabble’s curse.
1931
Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane
1932
And thou opposed, being of no woman born,
1933
Yet I will try the last. Before my body
1934
I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,
1935
And damned be him that first cries “Hold! Enough!”
1936
(They exit fighting.)
(Alarums.)
(⸢They⸣ enter fighting, and Macbeth ⸢is⸣ slain.)
(⸢Macduff exits carrying off Macbeth’s body.⸣)
(Retreat and flourish.)
(Enter, with Drum and Colors, Malcolm, Siward, Ross, Thanes, and Soldiers.)
MALCOLM
I would the friends we miss were safe arrived.
1937
SIWARD
Some must go off; and yet by these I see
1938
So great a day as this is cheaply bought.
1939
MALCOLM
Macduff is missing, and your noble son.
1940
ROSS
Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier’s debt.
1941
He only lived but till he was a man,
1942
The which no sooner had his prowess confirmed
1943
In the unshrinking station where he fought,
1944
But like a man he died.
1945
SIWARD
Then he is dead?
ROSS
Ay, and brought off the field. Your cause of sorrow
1946
Must not be measured by his worth, for then
1947
It hath no end.
1948
SIWARD
Had he his hurts before?
ROSS
Ay, on the front.
1949
SIWARD
Why then, God’s soldier be he!
Had I as many sons as I have hairs,
1950
I would not wish them to a fairer death;
1951
And so his knell is knolled.
1952
MALCOLM
He’s worth more sorrow, and that I’ll spend for him.
1953
SIWARD
He’s worth no more.
1954
They say he parted well and paid his score,
1955
And so, God be with him. Here comes newer comfort.
1956
(Enter Macduff with Macbeth’s head.)
MACDUFF
Hail, King! for so thou art. Behold where stands
1957
Th’ usurper’s cursèd head. The time is free.
1958
I see thee compassed with thy kingdom’s pearl,
1959
That speak my salutation in their minds,
1960
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine.
1961
Hail, King of Scotland!
1962
ALL
Hail, King of Scotland!
1963
(Flourish.)
MALCOLM
We shall not spend a large expense of time
1964
Before we reckon with your several loves
1965
And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen,
1966
Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland
1967
In such an honor named. What’s more to do,
1968
Which would be planted newly with the time,
1969
As calling home our exiled friends abroad
1970
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny,
1971
Producing forth the cruel ministers
1972
Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen
1973
(Who, as ’tis thought, by self and violent hands,
1974
Took off her life) —this, and what needful else
1975
That calls upon us, by the grace of grace,
1976
We will perform in measure, time, and place.
1977
So thanks to all at once and to each one,
1978
Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone.
1979
(Flourish.)
(All exit.)