ACT III. | |
SCENE IV. The same. A Room of state in the Palace. A banquet | |
prepared. | |
| [Enter Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Ross, Lennox, Lords, and |
| Attendants.] |
MACBETH. | |
| You know your own degrees: sit down. At first |
| And last the hearty welcome. |
LORDS. | |
| Thanks to your majesty. |
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. |
MACBETH. | |
| See, they encounter thee with their hearts' thanks.-- |
| Both sides are even: here I'll sit i' the midst: |
| [Enter first Murderer to the door.] |
| Be large in mirth; anon we'll drink a measure |
| The table round.--There's blood upon thy face. |
MURDERER. | |
| 'Tis Banquo's then. |
MACBETH. | |
| 'Tis better thee without than he within. |
| Is he despatch'd? |
MURDERER. | |
| My lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him. |
MACBETH. | |
| 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. |
MURDERER. | |
| Most royal sir, |
| Fleance is 'scap'd. |
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 cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd, bound in |
| To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo's safe? |
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 the present.--Get thee gone; to-morrow |
| We'll hear, ourselves, again. |
| [Exit Murderer.] |
LADY MACBETH. | |
| My royal lord, |
| You do not give the cheer: the feast is sold |
| 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. |
MACBETH. | |
| Sweet remembrancer!-- |
| Now, good digestion wait on appetite, |
| And health on both! |
LENNOX. | |
| May't please your highness sit. |
| [The Ghost of Banquo rises, and sits in Macbeth's place.] |
MACBETH. | |
| Here had we now our country's honor roof'd, |
| Were the grac'd 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 reserv'd, 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. | |
| Thou canst not say I did it: never shake |
| Thy gory locks at me. |
ROSS. | |
| Gentlemen, rise; his highness is not well. |
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 |
| He will again be well: if much you note him, |
| You shall offend him, and extend his passion: |
| Feed, and regard him not.--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, |
| Authoriz'd by her grandam. Shame itself! |
| Why do you make such faces? When all's done, |
| You look but on a stool. |
MACBETH. | |
| Pr'ythee, 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. |
| [Ghost disappears.] |
LADY MACBETH. | |
| What, quite unmann'd in folly? |
MACBETH. | |
| If I stand here, I saw him. |
LADY MACBETH. | |
| Fie, for shame! |
MACBETH. | |
| Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time, |
| Ere humane statute purg'd the gentle weal; |
| Ay, and since too, murders have been perform'd |
| 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. | |
| 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.--Give me some wine, fill full.-- |
| I drink to the general joy o' the 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. |
| [Ghost rises again.] |
MACBETH. | |
| 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 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 desert with thy sword; |
| If trembling I inhabit then, protest me |
| The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow! |
| Unreal mockery, hence! |
| [Ghost disappears.] |
| 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 admir'd 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 are blanch'd with fear. |
ROSS. | |
| What sights, my lord? |
LADY MACBETH. | |
| I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse; |
| 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 all Lords and Atendants.] |
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 magot-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 say'st 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 to-morrow, |
| (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 |
| Step't 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 scann'd. |
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.] |