The Same. A Room of State in the Palace. | |
| |
A Banquet prepared. Enter MACBETH, LADY MACBETH, ROSS, LENNOX, Lords, and Attendants. | |
| Macb. You know your own degrees; sit down: at first and last, | |
| The hearty welcome. | 4 |
| Lords. Thanks to your majesty. | |
| Macb. Ourself will mingle with society | |
| And play the humble host. | |
| Our hostess keeps her state, but in best time | 8 |
| We will require her welcome. | |
| Lady M. Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends; | |
| For my heart speaks they are welcome. | |
| |
Enter First Murderer, to the door. | 12 |
| Macb. See, they encounter thee with their hearts’ thanks; | |
| Both sides are even: here I’ll sit i’ the midst: | |
| Be large in mirth; anon, we’ll drink a measure | |
| The table round. [Approaching the door.] There’s blood upon thy face. | 16 |
| Mur. ’Tis Banquo’s, then. | |
| Macb. ’Tis better thee without than he within. | |
| Is he dispatch’d? | |
| Mur. My lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him. | 20 |
| Macb. Thou art the best o’ the cut-throats; yet he’s good | |
| That did the like for Fleance: if thou didst it, | |
| Thou art the nonpareil. | |
| Mur. Most royal sir, | 24 |
| Fleance is ’scap’d. | |
| Macb. 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: | 28 |
| But now I am cabin’d, cribb’d, confin’d, bound in | |
| To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo’s safe? | |
| Mur. Ay, my good lord; safe in a ditch he bides, | |
| With twenty trenched gashes on his head; | 32 |
| The least a death to nature. | |
| Macb. Thanks for that. | |
| There the grown serpent lies: the worm that’s fled | |
| Hath nature that in time will venom breed, | 36 |
| No teeth for the present. Get thee gone; to-morrow | |
| We’ll hear ourselves again. [Exit Murderer. | |
| Lady M. My royal lord, | |
| You do not give the cheer: the feast is sold | 40 |
| 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; | |
| Meeting were bare without it. | 44 |
| Macb. Sweet remembrancer! | |
| Now good digestion wait on appetite, | |
| And health on both! | |
| Len. May it please your highness sit? [The Ghost of BANQUO enters, and sits in MACBETH’S place. | 48 |
| Macb. Here had we now our country’s honour roof’d, | |
| Were the grac’d person of our Banquo present; | |
| Who may I rather challenge for unkindness | |
| Than pity for mischance! | 52 |
| Ross. His absence, sir, | |
| Lays blame upon his promise. Please ’t your highness | |
| To grace us with your royal company. | |
| Macb. The table’s full. | 56 |
| Len. Here is a place reserv’d, sir. | |
| Macb. Where? | |
| Len. Here, my good lord. What is ’t that moves your highness? | |
| Macb. Which of you have done this? | 60 |
| Lords. What, my good lord? | |
| Macb. Thou canst not say I did it: never shake | |
| Thy gory locks at me. | |
| Ross. Gentlemen, rise; his highness is not well. | 64 |
| Lady M. 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 | 68 |
| You shall offend him and extend his passion: | |
| Feed and regard him not. Are you a man? | |
| Macb. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that | |
| Which might appal the deIVl. | 72 |
| Lady M. 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— | 76 |
| Impostors to true fear—would well become | |
| A woman’s story at a winter’s fire, | |
| Authoriz’d by her grandam. Shame itself! | |
| Why do you make such faces? When all’s done | 80 |
| You look but on a stool. | |
| Macb. 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 | 84 |
| Those that we bury back, our monuments | |
| Shall be the maws of kites. [Ghost disappears: | |
| Lady M. What! quite unmann’d in folly? | |
| Macb. If I stand here, I saw him. | 88 |
| Lady M. Fie, for shame! | |
| Macb. Blood hath been shed ere now, i’ the olden time, | |
| Ere human statute purg’d the gentle weal; | |
| Ay, and since too, murders have been perform’d | 92 |
| Too terrible for the ear: the times have 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, | 96 |
| And push us from our stools: this is more strange | |
| Than such a murder is. | |
| Lady M. My worthy lord, | |
| Your noble friends do lack you. | 100 |
| Macb. 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; | 104 |
| Then, I’ll sit down. Give me some wine; fill full. | |
| I drink to the general joy of the whole table, | |
| And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss; | |
| Would he were here! to all, and him, we thirst, | 108 |
| And all to all. | |
| Lords. Our duties, and the pledge. | |
| |
Re-Enter Ghost. | |
| Macb. Avaunt! and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee! | 112 |
| Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; | |
| Thou hast no speculation in those eyes | |
| Which thou dost glare with. | |
| Lady M. Think of this, good peers, | 116 |
| But as a thing of custom: ’tis no other; | |
| Only it spoils the pleasure of the time. | |
| Macb. What man dare, I dare: | |
| Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, | 120 |
| The arm’d rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger; | |
| Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves | |
| Shall never tremble: or be alive again, | |
| And dare me to the desart with thy sword; | 124 |
| If trembling I inhabit then, protest me | |
| The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow! | |
| Unreal mockery, hence! [Ghost vanishes. | |
| Why, so; being gone, | 128 |
| I am a man again. Pray you, sit still. | |
| Lady M. You have displac’d the mirth, broke the good meeting, | |
| With most admir’d disorder. | |
| Macb. Can such things be | 132 |
| 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, | 136 |
| And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, | |
| When mine are blanch’d with fear. | |
| Ross. What sights, my lord? | |
| Lady M. I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse; | 140 |
| Question enrages him. At once, good-night: | |
| Stand not upon the order of your going, | |
| But go at once. | |
| Len. Good-night; and better health | 144 |
| Attend his majesty! | |
| Lady M. A kind good-night to all! [Exeunt Lords and Attendants. | |
| Macb. It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood: | |
| Stones have been known to move and trees to speak; | 148 |
| 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 M. Almost at odds with morning, which is which. | 152 |
| Macb. How sayst thou, that Macduff denies his person | |
| At our great bidding? | |
| Lady M. Did you send to him, sir? | |
| Macb. I hear it by the way; but I will send. | 156 |
| There’s not a one of them but in his house | |
| I keep a servant fee’d. I will to-morrow— | |
| And betimes I will—to the weird sisters: | |
| More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know, | 160 |
| By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good | |
| All causes shall give way: I am in blood | |
| Stepp’d in so far, that, should I wade no more, | |
| Returning were as tedious as go o’er. | 164 |
| Strange things I have in head that will to hand, | |
| Which must be acted ere they may be scann’d. | |
| Lady M. You lack the season of all natures, sleep. | |
| Macb. Come, we’ll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse | 168 |
| Is the initiate fear that wants hard use: | |
| We are yet but young in deed. [Exeunt. | |
