Macbeth (10 page)

SERVANT
    Ay, madam, but returns again tonight.

LADY MACBETH
    Say to the king, I would attend his leisure
        For a few words.

SERVANT
    Madam, I will.
Exit

LADY MACBETH
    Naught’s had, all’s
spent
⁶
,
        Where our desire is got without
content
⁷
:
        ’Tis safer to be that which we destroy
        Than by destruction dwell in
doubtful
⁹
joy.

Enter Macbeth

    How now, my lord? Why do you keep alone,
        Of
sorriest fancies
¹¹
your companions making,
        
Using
¹²
those thoughts which should indeed have died
        With
them they think on
¹³
? Things without all remedy
        Should be without
regard
¹⁴
: what’s done is done.

MACBETH
    We have
scorched
¹⁵
the snake, not killed it:
        She’ll
close
¹⁶
and be herself, whilst our
poor malice
        Remains in danger of
her former tooth
¹⁷
.
        But
let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer
¹⁸
,
        Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep
        In the affliction of these terrible dreams
        That
shake
²¹
us nightly. Better be with the dead,
        Whom we,
to gain our peace
²²
, have sent to peace,
        Than
on the torture of the mind to lie
²³
        In restless
ecstasy
²⁴
. Duncan is in his grave:
        After life’s
fitful
²⁵
fever he sleeps well.
        Treason has done his worst:
nor
²⁶
steel, nor poison,
        
Malice domestic
²⁷
,
foreign levy
, nothing
        Can touch him further.

LADY MACBETH
    Come on,
        
Gentle my lord
³⁰
,
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
³³
apply to Banquo:
        
Present him eminence
³⁴
, both with eye and tongue:
        
Unsafe the while, that we
        Must
lave
³⁶
our honours in these flattering streams
³⁵
        And make our faces
vizards
³⁷
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
⁴²
not
eterne
.

MACBETH
    There’s comfort yet: they are assailable:
        Then be thou
jocund
⁴⁴
. Ere the bat hath flown
        His
cloistered
⁴⁵
flight, ere to black Hecate’s summons
        The
shard-born
⁴⁶
beetle with his drowsy hums
        Hath rung night’s
yawning
⁴⁷
peal, there shall be done
        A deed of dreadful
note
⁴⁸
.

LADY MACBETH
    What’s to be done?

MACBETH
    Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest
chuck
⁵⁰
,
        Till thou applaud the deed.—Come,
seeling
⁵¹
night,
        
Scarf up
⁵²
the
tender
eye of
pitiful
day,
        And with thy bloody and invisible hand
        Cancel and tear to pieces that great
bond
⁵⁴
        Which keeps me
pale
⁵⁵
. Light thickens,
        And the crow
makes wing
⁵⁶
to the
rooky
wood:
        Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,
        Whiles night’s black agents to their preys do
rouse
⁵⁸
.—
        Thou marvell’st at my words: but
hold thee still
⁵⁹
.
        Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.
        So prithee go with me.
Exeunt

Location: about a mile from the Scottish royal palace
  

Enter three Murderers

FIRST MURDERER
    But who did bid thee join with us?
To Third Murderer

THIRD MURDERER
    Macbeth.

SECOND MURDERER
    
He needs not our mistrust
³
, since he
delivers
        Our offices
and what we have to do
        
To the direction just
⁵
.

FIRST MURDERER
    Then stand with us.
        The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day.
        Now spurs the
lated
⁸
traveller
apace
        To
gain the timely inn
⁹
, and near approaches
        The subject of our watch.

THIRD MURDERER
    Hark, I hear horses.

BANQUO
    Give us a light there, ho!
Within

SECOND MURDERER
    Then ’tis he: the rest
        That are
within the note of expectation
¹⁴
        Already are i’th’court.

FIRST MURDERER
    His horses
go about
¹⁶
.

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
    A light, a light!

THIRD MURDERER
    ’Tis he.

FIRST MURDERER
    
Stand to’t
²²
.

BANQUO
    It will be rain tonight.

FIRST MURDERER
    Let it
come down
²⁴
.
He puts out the torch

BANQUO
    O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance,
                    fly, fly, fly!
They attack Banquo

        Thou mayst revenge.—O slave!
He dies. Fleance flees

THIRD MURDERER
    Who did strike out the light?

FIRST MURDERER
    Was’t not the
way
²⁸
?

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

Location: a banqueting hall in the Scottish royal palace
  

Banquet prepared. Enter Macbeth, Lady
[
Macbeth
]
, Ross, Lennox, Lords and Attendants

MACBETH
    You know your own
degrees
¹
, sit down:
at first
        And last
the hearty welcome.
They sit

LORDS
    Thanks to your majesty.

MACBETH
    Ourself will mingle
with society
⁴
        And play the humble host:
        Our hostess
keeps her state
⁶
, but
in best time
        We will
require her welcome
⁷
.

LADY MACBETH
    Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends,
        For my heart speaks they are welcome.

Enter First Murderer
[
at the door
]

MACBETH
    See, they
encounter
¹⁰
thee with their hearts’ thanks.
        
Both sides are even
¹¹
: here I’ll sit i’th’midst.
        Be
large in mirth
¹²
, anon we’ll
drink a measure
        The table round
.—
Moves to the door

                    There’s blood upon thy face.
To First Murderer

FIRST MURDERER
    ’Tis Banquo’s then.

MACBETH
    ’Tis better
thee without than he within
¹⁵
.
        Is he
dispatched
¹⁶
?

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
²⁰
.

FIRST MURDERER
    Most royal sir, Fleance
is scaped
²¹
.

MACBETH
    Then comes my
fit
²²
again. I had else been
perfect
,
        Whole as the marble,
founded
²³
as the rock,
        As
broad and general
²⁴
as the
casing
air:
        But now I am
cabined
²⁵
,
cribbed
, confined, bound in
        To
saucy
²⁶
doubts and fears. But Banquo’s
safe
?

FIRST MURDERER
    Ay, my good lord: safe in a ditch he
bides
²⁷
,
        With twenty
trenchèd
²⁸
gashes on his head,
        The
least a death to nature
²⁹
.

MACBETH
    Thanks for that.—
        There the grown serpent lies: the
worm
³¹
that’s fled
        Hath nature that in time will venom breed,
        No teeth for th’present.—Get thee gone: tomorrow
        We’ll
hear ourselves
³⁴
again.
Exit Murderer

LADY MACBETH
    My royal lord,
        You do not
give the cheer
³⁶
:
the feast is sold
        That is not often
vouched
³⁷
, while ’tis a-making,
        ’Tis given with welcome.
To feed were best at home
³⁸
:
        
From thence
³⁹
, the sauce to meat is
ceremony
:
        
Meeting
⁴⁰
were
bare
without it.

Enter the Ghost of Banquo, and sits in Macbeth’s place

MACBETH
    Sweet
remembrancer
⁴²
.
        Now, good digestion wait on appetite,
        And health on both!

LENNOX
    May’t please your highness sit.

MACBETH
    Here
had we
⁴⁵
now our
country’s honour
roofed
,
        Were the
graced
⁴⁶
person of our Banquo present,
        Who may I rather
challenge
⁴⁷
for unkindness
        Than pity for
mischance
⁴⁸
.

ROSS
    His absence, sir,
        
Lays blame upon his promise
⁵⁰
. 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
⁵⁵
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
⁵⁹
at me.

ROSS
    Gentlemen, rise: his highness is not well.

The Lords begin to rise

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
⁶³
        He will again be well. If much you
note him
⁶⁴
,
        You shall offend him and extend his
passion
⁶⁵
:
        Feed, and
regard
⁶⁶
him not.—
        Are you a man?

Lady Macbeth and Macbeth speak aside

MACBETH
    Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that

        Which might appal the devil.

LADY MACBETH
    O,
proper stuff
⁷⁰
!
        This is the very
painting of your fear
⁷¹
:
        This is the
air-drawn
⁷²
dagger which you said
        Led you to Duncan. O, these
flaws
⁷³
and
starts
—
        
Impostors to
⁷⁴
true fear—would well
become
        A woman’s story at a winter’s fire,
        
Authorized
⁷⁶
by her
grandam
. Shame itself!
        Why do you make such faces? When all’s done,
        You look but on a stool.