Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave.
After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well.
Treason has done his worst. Nor steel nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing
Can touch him further.
LADY MACBETH
Come on, gentle my lord,
Sleek o’er your rugged looks, be bright and jovial
Among your guests tonight.
MACBETH
So shall I, love,
And so I pray be you. Let your remembrance
Apply to Banquo. Present him eminence
Both with eye and tongue; unsafe the while that we
Must lave our honours in these flattering streams
And make our faces visors to our hearts,
Disguising what they are.
LADY MACBETH
You must leave this.
MACBETH
O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!
Thou know’st that Banquo and his Fleance lives.
LADY MACBETH
But in them nature’s copy’s not eterne.
MACBETH
There’s comfort yet, they are assailable.
Then be thou jocund. Ere the bat hath flown
His cloistered flight, ere to black Hecate’s summons
The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums
Hath rung night’s yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.
LADY MACBETH
What’s to be done?
MACBETH
Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
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
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.
So prithee go with me. Exeunt
3.3 Enter three Murderers
FIRST MURDERER (to Third Murderer)
But who did bid thee join with us?
THIRD MURDERER
Macbeth.
SECOND MURDERER (to First Murderer)
He needs not our mistrust, since he delivers
Our offices and what we have to do
To the direction just.
FIRST MURDERER (to Third Murderer) Then stand with us.
The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day.
Now spurs the lated traveller apace
To gain the timely inn, and near approaches
The subject of our watch.
THIRD MURDERER
Hark, I hear horses.
BANQUO (within)
Give us a light there, ho!
SECOND MURDERER
Then ’tis he. The rest
That are within the note of expectation
Already are i’th’ court.
FIRST MURDERER
His horses go about.
THIRD MURDERER
Almost a mile; but he does usually,
So all men do, from hence to th’ palace gate
Make it their walk.
Enter Banquo and Fleance with a torch
SECOND MURDERER (aside) A light, a light.
THIRD MURDERER (aside)
’Tis he.
FIRST MURDERER (aside) Stand to’t.
BANQUO
It will be rain tonight.
FIRST MURDERER
Let it come down.
First Murderer strikes out the torch. The others attack Banquo
BANQUO
O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!
Thou mayst revenge.—O slave! He dies. Exit Fleance
THIRD MURDERER Who did strike out the light?
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.
Exeunt with Banquo’s body
3.4 Banquet prepared. Enter Macbeth as King, Lady Macbeth as Queen, Ross, Lennox, Lords, and attendants. ⌈Lady Macbeth sits⌉
MACBETH
You know your own degrees; sit down. At first and last
The hearty welcome.
LORDS
Thanks to your majesty.
They sit
MACBETH
Ourself will mingle with society
And play the humble host. Our hostess keeps her
state,
But in best time we will require her welcome.
LADY MACBETH
Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends,
For my heart speaks they are welcome.
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.
Be large in mirth. Anon we’ll drink a measure
The table round. (To First Murderer) There’s blood
upon thy face.
FIRST MURDERER (aside to Macbeth) ‘Tis Banquo’s, then.
MACBETH
’Tis better thee without than he within.
Is he dispatched?
FIRST MURDERER
My lord, his throat is cut. 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.
FIRST MURDERER
Most royal sir,
Fleance is scaped.
MACBETH
Then comes my fit again; I had else been perfect,
Whole as the marble, founded as the rock,
As broad and general as the casing air,
But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo’s safe?
FIRST MURDERER
Ay, my good lord. Safe in a ditch he bides,
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. Tomorrow
We’ll hear ourselves again. Exit First Murderer
LADY MACBETH
My royal lord,
You do not give the cheer. The feast is sold
That is not often vouched, while ‘tis a-making,
’Tis given with welcome. To feed were best at home.
From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony,
Meeting were bare without it.
Enter the Ghost of Banquo, and sits in Macbeth’s
place
MACBETH
Sweet remembrancer.
Now good digestion wait on appetite,
And health on both.
LENNOX
May’t please your highness sit?
MACBETH
Here had we now our country’s honour roofed
Were the graced person of our Banquo present,
Who may I rather challenge for unkindness
Than pity for mischance.
ROSS
His absence, sir,
Lays blame upon his promise. Please’t your highness
To grace us with your royal company?
MACBETH
The table’s full.
LENNOX
Here is a place reserved, sir.
MACBETH Where?
LENNOX
Here, my good lord. What is’t that moves your
highness?
MACBETH
Which of you have done this?
LORDS
What, my good lord?
MACBETH (to the Ghost)
Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake
Thy gory locks at me.
ROSS (rising)
Gentlemen, rise. His highness is not well.
LADY MACBETH (rising)
Sit, worthy friends. My lord is often thus,
And hath been from his youth. Pray you, keep seat.
The fit is momentary. Upon a thought
He will again be well. If much you note him
You shall offend him, and extend his passion.
Feed, and regard him not.
She speaks apart with Macbeth
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;
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
Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself,
Why do you make such faces? When all’s done
You look but on a stool.
MACBETH
Prithee see there. Behold, look, lo-how say you?
Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak, too!
If charnel-houses and our graves must send
Those that we bury back, our monuments
Shall be the maws of kites.
Exit Ghost
LADY MACBETH
What, quite unmanned in folly?
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 human statute purged the gentle weal;
Ay, and since, too, murders have been performed
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 murders on their crowns,
And push us from our stools. This is more strange
Than such a murder is.
LADY MACBETH (aloud)
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
To those that know me. Come, love and health to all,
Then I’ll sit down.
(To an attendant) Give me some wine. Fill full.
Enter Ghost
I drink to th’ general joy of th’whole table,
And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss.
Would he were here. To all and him we thirst,
And all to all.
LORDS
Our duties, and the pledge.
They drink
MACBETH (seeing the Ghost)
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,
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 armed rhinoceros, or th‘Hyrcan tiger;
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,
Unreal mock’ry, hence!
Exit Ghost
Why so, being gone,
I am a man again. Pray you sit still.
LADY MACBETH
You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting
With most admired disorder.
MACBETH
Can such things be
And overcome us like a summer’s cloud,
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 blanched with fear.
Ross
What sights, my lord?
LADY MACBETH
I pray you, speak not. He grows worse and worse. 116
Question enrages him. At once, good night.
Stand not upon the order of your going,
But go at once.
LENNOX
Good night, and better health
Attend his majesty.
LADY MACBETH
A kind good-night to all.
Exeunt Lords
MACBETH
It will have blood, they say. Blood will have blood.
Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak,
Augurs and understood relations have
By maggot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth
The secret’st man of blood. What is the night?
LADY MACBETH
Almost at odds with morning, which is which.
MACBETH
How sayst thou that Macduff denies his person
At our great bidding?
LADY MACBETH
Did you send to him, sir?
MACBETH
I hear it by the way, but I will send.
There’s not a one of them but in his house
I keep a servant fee’d. I will tomorrow,
And betimes I will, to the weird sisters.
More shall they speak, for now I am bent to know
By the worst means the worst. For mine own good
All causes shall give way. I am in blood
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er.
Strange things I have in head that will to hand,
Which must be acted ere they may be scanned.
LADY MACBETH
You lack the season of all natures, sleep.
MACBETH
Come, we’ll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse
Is the initiate fear that wants hard use.
We are yet but young in deed. Exeunt
3.5 Thunder. Enter the three Witches meeting Hecate
FIRST WITCH
Why, how now, Hecate? You look angerly.
HECATE
Have I not reason, beldams as you are?
Saucy and over-bold, how did you dare
To trade and traffic with Macbeth
In riddles and affairs of death,
And I, the mistress of your charms,
The close contriver of all harms,
Was never called to bear my part
Or show the glory of our art?—
And, which is worse, all you have done 10
Hath been but for a wayward son,
Spiteful and wrathful, who, as others do,
Loves for his own ends, not for you.
But make amends now. Get you gone,
And at the pit of Acheron
Meet me i‘th’ morning. Thither he
Will come to know his destiny.
Your vessels and your spells provide,
Your charms and everything beside.
I am for th’air. This night I’ll spend
Unto a dismal and a fatal end.
Great busine
ss must be wrought ere noon.
Upon the corner of the moon
There hangs a vap‘rous drop profound.
I’ll catch it ere it come to ground,
And that, distilled by magic sleights,
Shall raise such artificial sprites
As by the strength of their illusion
Shall draw him on to his confusion.
He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear
His hopes ’bove wisdom, grace, and fear;
And you all know security
Is mortals’ chiefest enemy.
SPIRITS (singing dispersedly within)
Come away, come away.
Hecate, Hecate, come away.
HECATE
Hark, I am called! My little spirit, see,
Sits in a foggy cloud and stays for me.
The Song
SPIRITS ⌈within⌉
Come away, come away,
Hecate, Hecate, come away.
HECATE
I come, I come, I come, I come,
With all the speed I may,
With all the speed I may.
Where’s Stadlin?
SPIRIT ⌈within⌉
Here.
HECATE
Where’s Puckle?
ANOTHER SPIRIT ⌈within⌉
Here.
OTHER SPIRITS ⌈within⌉
And Hoppo, too, and Hellwain, too,
We lack but you, we lack but you.
Come away, make up the count.
HECATE
I will but ’noint, and then I mount.
⌈Spirits appear above.⌉ A Spirit like a Cat descends
SPIRITS ⌈above⌉
There’s one comes down to fetch his dues,
A kiss, a coll, a sip of blood,
And why thou stay’st so long I muse, I muse,
Since the air’s so sweet and good.
HECATE
O, art thou come? What news, what news?
SPIRIT LIKE A CAT
All goes still to our delight. Either come, or else refuse, refuse.
HECATE Now I am furnished for the flight.
She ascends with the spirit and sings
Now I go, now I fly,
Malkin my sweet spirit and I.
⌈SPIRITS and HECATE⌉
O what a dainty pleasure ‘tis
To ride in the air
When the moon shines fair,
And sing, and dance, and toy, and kiss.
Over woods, high rocks and mountains,
Over seas and misty fountains,
Over steeples, towers and turrets,
We fly by night ’mongst troops of spirits.
No ring of bells to our ears sounds,
The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works Page 316
