But in them Nature’s copy’s not eterne.
MACBETH There’s comfort yet; they are assailable:
Then be thou jocund. Ere the bat hath flown
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His cloister’d flight; ere to black Hecate’s summons
The shard-born beetle, with his drowsy hums,
Hath rung Night’s yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.
LADY MACBETH What’s to be done?
MACBETH
Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
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Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling Night,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful Day,
And, with thy bloody and invisible hand,
Cancel, and tear to pieces, that great bond
Which keeps me pale! – Light thickens; and the crow
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Makes wing to th’ rooky wood;
Good things of Day begin to droop and drowse,
Whiles Night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.
Thou marvell’st at my words: but hold thee still;
Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.
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So, pr’ythee, go with me. Exeunt.
3.3 Enter three Murderers.
1 MURDERER But who did bid thee join with us?
3 MURDERER Macbeth.
2 MURDERER
He needs not our mistrust; since he delivers
Our offices, and what we have to do,
To the direction just.
1 MURDERER Then stand with us.
The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day;
5
Now spurs the lated traveller apace,
To gain the timely inn; and near approaches
The subject of our watch.
3 MURDERER Hark! I hear horses.
BANQUO [within] Give us a light there, ho!
2 MURDERER Then ’tis he: the rest
That are within the note of expectation,
10
Already are i’th’ court.
1 MURDERER His horses go about.
3 MURDERER Almost a mile; but he does usually,
So all men do, from hence to the palace gate
Make it their walk.
Enter BANQUO and FLEANCE, with a torch.
2 MURDERER A light, a light!
3 MURDERER ’Tis he.
1 MURDERER Stand to’t.
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BANQUO It will be rain to-night.
1 MURDERER Let it come down.
[The First Murderer strikes out the light, while the others assault Banquo.]
BANQUO O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!
Thou may’st revenge – O slave! [Dies.]
Fleance escapes.
3 MURDERER Who did strike out the light?
1 MURDERER Was’t not the way?
3 MURDERER There’s but one down: the son is fled.
2 MURDERER We have lost
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Best half of our affair.
1 MURDERER Well, let’s away,
And say how much is done. Exeunt.
3.4 A banquet prepared. Enter MACBETH,
LADY MACBETH, ROSSE, LENOX
, Lords and attendants.
MACBETH
You know your own degrees, sit down: at first
And last, the hearty welcome.
LORDS Thanks to your Majesty.
MACBETH Ourself will mingle with society,
And play the humble host.
Our hostess keeps her state; but, in best time,
5
We will require her welcome.
LADY MACBETH
Pronounce it for me, Sir, to all our friends;
For my heart speaks, they are welcome.
Enter First Murderer, to the door.
MACBETH
See, they encounter thee with their hearts’ thanks.
Both sides are even: here I’ll sit i’th’ midst.
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Be large in mirth; anon, we’ll drink a measure
The table round. [Goes to door.]
There’s blood upon thy face.
1 MURDERER ’Tis Banquo’s then.
MACBETH ’Tis better thee without, than he within.
Is he dispatch’d?
1 MURDERER My Lord, his throat is cut;
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That I did for him.
MACBETH Thou art the best o’th’ cut-throats;
Yet he’s good that did the like for Fleance:
If thou didst it, thou art the nonpareil.
1 MURDERER Most royal Sir … Fleance is scap’d.
MACBETH
Then comes my fit again: I had else been perfect;
20
Whole as the marble, founded as the rock,
As broad and general as the casing air:
But now, I am cabin’d, cribb’d, confin’d, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears. – But Banquo’s safe?
1 MURDERER
Ay, my good Lord, safe in a ditch he bides,
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With twenty trenched gashes on his head;
The least a death to nature.
MACBETH Thanks for that. –
There the grown serpent lies; the worm, that’s fled,
Hath nature that in time will venom breed,
No teeth for th’ present. – Get thee gone; to-morrow
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We’ll hear ourselves again. Exit Murderer.
LADY MACBETH My royal Lord,
You do not give the cheer: the feast is sold,
That is not often vouch’d, while ’tis a-making,
’Tis given with welcome: to feed were best at home;
From thence, the sauce to meat is ceremony;
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Meeting were bare without it.
MACBETH Sweet remembrancer! –
Now, good digestion wait on appetite,
And health on both!
LENOX May it please your Highness sit?
MACBETH
Here had we now our country’s honour roof’d,
Were the grac’d person of our Banquo present;
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The ghost of BANQUO enters,
and sits in Macbeth’s place.
Who may I rather challenge for unkindness,
Than pity for mischance!
ROSSE His absence, Sir,
Lays blame upon his promise. Please’t your Highness
To grace us with your royal company?
MACBETH The table’s full.
LENOX Here is a place reserv’d, Sir.
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MACBETH Where?
LENOX
Here, my good Lord. What is’t that moves your Highness?
MACBETH Which of you have done this?
LORDS What, my good Lord?
MACBETH Thou canst not say, I did it: never shake
Thy gory locks at me.
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ROSSE Gentlemen, rise; his Highness is not well.
LADY MACBETH
Sit, worthy friends. My Lord is often thus,
And hath been from his youth: pray you, keep seat;
The fit is momentary; upon a thought
He will again be well. If much you note him,
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You shall offend him, and extend his passion;
Feed, and regard him not. – Are you a man?
MACBETH Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
Which might appal the Devil.
LADY MACBETH O proper stuff!
This is the very painting of your fear:
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This is the air-drawn dagger, which, you said,
Led you to Duncan. O! these flaws and starts
(Impostors to true fear), would well become
A woman’s story at a winter’s fire,
Authoris’d by her grandam. Shame itself!
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Why do you make such faces? When all’s done,
You look but on a stool.
MACBETH Pr’ythee, see there!
Behold! look! lo! how say you?
Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too. –
If charnel-houses and our graves must send
70
Those that we bury, back, our monuments
Shall be the maws of kites. Ghost disappears.
LADY MACBETH What! quite unmann’d in folly?
MACBETH If I stand here, I saw him.
LADY MACBETH Fie! for shame!
MACBETH
Blood hath been shed ere now, i’th’ olden time,
Ere humane statute purg’d the gentle weal;
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Ay, and since too, murthers have been perform’d
Too terrible for the ear: the time has been,
That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
And there an end; but now, they rise again,
With twenty mortal murthers on their crowns,
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And push us from our stools. This is more strange
Than such a murther is.
LADY MACBETH My worthy Lord,
Your noble friends do lack you.
MACBETH I do forget. –
Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends,
I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing
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To those that know me. Come, love and health to all;
Then, I’ll sit down. – Give me some wine: fill full: –
I drink to th’ general joy o’th’ whole table,
And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss;
Would he were here!
Re-enter ghost.
To all, and him, we thirst,
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And all to all.
LORDS Our duties, and the pledge.
MACBETH
Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee!
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes,
Which thou dost glare with.
LADY MACBETH Think of this, good Peers,
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But as a thing of custom: ’tis no other;
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
MACBETH What man dare, I dare:
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
The arm’d rhinoceros, or th’Hyrcan tiger;
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Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
Shall never tremble: or, be alive again,
And dare me to the desert with thy sword;
If trembling I inhabit then, protest me
The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!
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Unreal mock’ry, hence! – Ghost disappears.
Why, so; – being gone,
I am a man again. – Pray you, sit still.
LADY MACBETH
You have displac’d the mirth, broke the good meeting
With most admir’d disorder.
MACBETH Can such things be,
And overcome us like a summer’s cloud,
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Without our special wonder? You make me strange
Even to the disposition that I owe,
When now I think you can behold such sights,
And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,
When mine is blanch’d with fear.
ROSSE What sights, my Lord?
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LADY MACBETH
I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse;
Question enrages him. At once, good night: –
Stand not upon the order of your going,
But go at once.
LENOX Good night, and better health
Attend his Majesty!
LADY MACBETH A kind good night to all!
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Exeunt Lords and attendants.
MACBETH
It will have blood, they say: blood will have blood:
Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak;
Augures, and understood relations, have
By magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks, brought forth
The secret’st man of blood. – What is the night?
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LADY MACBETH
Almost at odds with morning, which is which.
MACBETH
How say’st thou, that Macduff denies his person,
At our great bidding?
LADY MACBETH Did you send to him, Sir?
MACBETH I heard it by the way; but I will send.
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 343
