The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

  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,