Macbeth (6 page)
Authors: William Shakespeare
Enter Messenger
What is your tidings?
MESSENGER
The king comes here tonight.
LADY MACBETH
Thou’rt mad to say it.
Is not thy master with him? Who, were’t so,
Would have
informed for preparation
32
?
MESSENGER
So please you, it is true: our thane is coming.
One of my fellows
had the speed of
34
him,
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
Than would make up his message.
LADY MACBETH
Give him
tending
37
:
He brings great news.
Exit Messenger
The
raven
39
himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That
tend on
42
mortal
thoughts, unsex me here
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood,
Stop up th’access and passage to
remorse
45
,
That no
compunctious
46
visitings of nature
Shake my
fell
47
purpose, nor
keep
peace between
Th’effect and it
48
. Come to my woman’s breasts
And
take
49
my milk for
gall
, you murd’ring
ministers
,
Wherever in your
sightless
50
substances
You
wait on
51
nature’s mischief
. Come, thick night,
And
pall
52
thee in the
dunnest
smoke of hell,
That my
keen
53
knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry ‘
Hold
55
, hold!’—
Enter Macbeth
Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor,
Greater than both by the
all-hail hereafter
56
!
Thy letters have transported me beyond
This
ignorant
58
present, and I feel now
The future in the
instant
59
.
MACBETH
My dearest love,
Duncan comes here tonight.
LADY MACBETH
And when goes hence?
MACBETH
Tomorrow, as he
purposes
63
.
LADY MACBETH
O, never
Shall sun that morrow see!
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read
strange
67
matters. To
beguile
the time,
Look like the time
68
: bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue: look like th’innocent flower,
But be the serpent under’t. He that’s coming
Must be
provided for
71
, and you shall put
This night’s great business into my
dispatch
72
,
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give
solely
74
sovereign
sway
and masterdom.
MACBETH
We will speak further.
LADY MACBETH
Only
look up clear
76
:
To
alter favour
77
ever is to fear.
Leave all the rest to me.
Exeunt
running scene 6
Location: outside Macbeth’s castle
Hautboys
and
Torches
. Enter King
[
Duncan
]
, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Angus and Attendants
DUNCAN
This castle hath a pleasant
seat
1
: the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our
gentle
3
senses.
BANQUO
This guest of summer,
The
temple-haunting
5
martlet
, does
approve
By his loved
mansionry
6
that the heaven’s breath
Smells
wooingly
7
here: no
jutty
,
frieze
,
Buttress
8
, nor
coign of vantage
, but this bird
Hath made his
pendent
9
bed and
procreant
cradle:
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed
The air is
delicate
11
.
Enter Lady
[
Macbeth
]
DUNCAN
See, see, our honoured hostess.—
The love that follows us sometime is our trouble,
Which still we thank as love
13
.
Herein
14
I teach you
How you shall bid God
yield
15
us for your pains,
And thank us for your trouble.
LADY MACBETH
All our service
In every
point
18
twice done, and then done double
Were poor and
single
19
business
to
contend
Against
those honours deep and broad wherewith
Your majesty loads our house: for
those of old
21
,
And the
late
22
dignities heaped up to them,
We
rest your hermits
23
.
DUNCAN
Where’s the Thane of Cawdor?
We
coursed
25
him at the heels, and had a purpose
To be his
purveyor
26
: but he rides well,
And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath
holp
27
him
To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess,
We are your guest tonight.
LADY MACBETH
Your servants ever
Have
theirs
31
, themselves and what is theirs,
in compt
To make their
audit
32
at your highness’ pleasure,
Still to return your own
33
.
DUNCAN
Give me your hand,
Conduct me to mine host: we love him highly,
And shall continue our
graces
36
towards him.
By your leave
37
, hostess.
Exeunt
running scene 7
Location: within Macbeth’s castle
Hautboys. Torches. Enter a
Sewer
and
divers
Servants with dishes and
service
over the stage. Then enter Macbeth
MACBETH
If it were done when ’tis done
1
, then ’twere well
It were done quickly: if th’assassination
Could
trammel up
3
the consequence and
catch
With his
surcease
4
success
:
that but
this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all—here,
But here, upon this
bank and shoal
6
of time,
We’d
jump
7
the life to come. But in these cases
We
still
8
have judgement
here
,
that
we but teach
Bloody
instructions
9
, which, being taught, return
To plague
th’inventor
10
: this even-handed justice
Commends
11
th’ingredients of our poisoned
chalice
To our own lips. He’s here in double trust:
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both
14
against the deed: then, as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his
faculties
17
so meek, hath been
So
clear
18
in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his
taking-off
20
:
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding
22
the
blast
, or heaven’s
cherubin
,
horsed
Upon the
sightless couriers
23
of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That
25
tears shall drown the wind
. I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself
And falls on th’other
27
.—
Enter Lady
[
Macbeth
]
How now? What news?
LADY MACBETH
He has almost supped. Why have you left the chamber?
MACBETH
Hath he asked for me?
LADY MACBETH
Know you not he has?
MACBETH
We will proceed no further in this business:
He hath honoured me of late, and I have
bought
33
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Which
would
35
be worn now in their
newest gloss
,
Not cast aside so soon.
LADY MACBETH
Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time
Such
41
I
account
thy love.
Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour
As thou art in desire
? Wouldst thou have that
Which thou
esteem’st
44
the
ornament
of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting ‘I dare not’
wait upon
46
‘I would’,
Like the poor
cat i’th’
adage
47
?
MACBETH
Prithee, peace.
I dare
do
49
all that may become a man:
Who dares do more is
none
50
.
LADY MACBETH
What beast was’t, then,
That made you
break
52
this enterprise to me?
When you
durst
53
do it, then you were a man:
And to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place
Did then
adhere
56
, and yet you would
make both
:
They have made themselves, and
that their fitness
57
now
Does
unmake
58
you. I have
given suck
, and know
How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.
MACBETH
If we should fail?
LADY MACBETH
We fail?
But
66
screw your courage to the
sticking-place
And we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep—
Whereto the rather
68
shall his day’s hard journey
Soundly invite him—his two
chamberlains
69
Will I with wine and
wassail
70
so
convince
,
That memory, the
warder
71
of the brain,
Shall be a
fume
72
, and the
receipt
of reason
A
limbeck
73
only: when in
swinish
sleep
Their drenchèd natures lies as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
Th’unguarded Duncan? What not
put upon
76
His
spongy
77
officers
, who shall bear the guilt
Of our great
quell
78
?
MACBETH
Bring forth men-children only,
For thy
undaunted mettle
80
should compose
Nothing but males. Will it not be
received
81
,
When we have marked with blood those sleepy two
Of his own chamber and used their very daggers,
That they have done’t?
LADY MACBETH
Who dares receive it
other
85
,
As
86
we shall make our griefs and clamour roar
Upon his death?
MACBETH
I am
settled
88
, and
bend up
Each
corporal agent
89
to this terrible feat.
Away, and
mock
90
the time with fairest show:
False
91
face must hide what the false heart doth know.
Exeunt
