Macbeth a Gunpowder Plot and witchcraft play annotated

The Tragedy of Macbeth
written in the wake of the foiled Gunpowder Plot of 1605

by

William Shakespeare

(first performed c.1611)

 

Released by Austi Classics edited by Dan Abramson
Austi Classics home   Macbeth main   In print at Amazon

The version for sale at Amazon has improvements which are not included in the free version here.

 

Macbeth and the three witches
A scene from Macbeth - Act IV Scene 1
Painting by Thomas Barker (1769-1847), painted 1830

 

 

 

ISBN-13: 978-1539695912

ISBN-10: 1539695913

Formatted in Sydney Australia as part of the Austi Classics series.

Email books@austi.org

Phone +61 481 220 104

 

© Copyright 2017, 2022

Licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence

For licence details, see www.creativecommons.org.au

Contents

 

 

Preface. v

Introduction. vii

The Tragedy of Macbeth. 1

Characters of the play (‘dramatis personae’) 1

First Act 3

Second Act 40

Third Act 73

Fourth Act 108

Fifth Act 142

Preface

 

This edition provides footnotes to make the experience of reading and performing Macbeth enjoyable and engaging. Many footnotes provide the meaning of a word or phrase so that you can read without the interruption of having to look a word up. Other notes explain the historical circumstances in order to provide context.

 

The lines at the foot of each page are for your own handwritten notes.

 

We are indebted to Garry Wills for his insights, research and analysis in Witches and Jesuits: Shakespeare’s Macbeth Oxford University Press 1995. Where footnotes directly refer to Garry Wills’ book, the abbreviation [GW] is used.

 

We also have borrowed from the notes of Horace Howard Furness, Jr. editor of Macbeth A New Varorium Edition of Shakespeare Volume II, J. B. Lipppincott Company Philadelphia 1873. Where these notes are used, we acknowledge our debt to Furness with the flag [HHF].

 

Introduction

 

The meaning and significance of Macbeth in Shakespeare’s time is built on the earthshaking Gunpowder Plot. For its impact on the English population, the Gunpowder Plot could be compared with the 9-11 terrorist attack. The key difference is that the Gunpowder Plot was foiled by the authorities which prevented any damage, whereas 9-11 wasn’t foiled by the authorities and the damage intended by the terrorists and those who supported them was actually inflicted. Similarly, the popular conception of witches in Shakespeare’s time could be likened to terrorists of the 21^st Century – everyone talks about them, is afraid of them, and does horrible things to anyone suspected of being one. Both the themes of 9-11, i.e. the Gunpowder Plot, and terrorists, i.e. witches, run through the play Macbeth which would have made the play gripping viewing in its time. Moreover, in Shakespeare’s time, theatre could only be performed by troupes with a royal licence to perform. Of course, Shakespeare’s company had such a licence, making any gunpowder and witchcraft even more sought after for entertainment and interest.

 

The Gunpowder Plot lives on today in ‘Guy Fawkes night’ which is on the fifth of November. Guy Fawkes night continues commemoration of the foiled Gunpowder Plot in honour of King James I’s divine sanction to rule. The group of hackers known as ‘Anonymous’ use the Guy Fawkes mask as their symbol. The Guy Fawkes mask as used by the group of hackers known as ‘Anonymous’ is a reversal for it symbolises the anti-authority current in the thinking of the Gunpowder Plotters.

 

So what exactly was the Gunpowder Plot?

 

 

The Gunpowder Plot[1]

 

The Gunpowder Plot has its origins in tensions between the English government and the Roman Catholic Church dating back to the split between the Church and the English government under Henry VIII. Laws under Queen Elizabeth I and King James I provided that Catholic priests found in England were arrested and executed. Jesuits were a class of zealous Catholic priests who also worked as missionaries for the Catholic cause in England.

 

Under the severe anti-Catholic laws, Jesuit missionaries in England took great personal risk, and worked through underground networks, giving sermons and conducting mass in secret.

 

In order to target the anti-Catholic English government, in sympathy with the plight of Catholics in England, a plot was hatched in 1604 to blow up the House of Lords during the opening of parliament. The plan was devised by Robert Catesby a Northamptonshire gentlemen associated with Jesuits, and if successful would kill King James I, Prince Henry the heir to the throne, and many courtiers, lords and members of parliament.

 

A house neighbouring the old Palace of Westminster, where parliament was held, was rented by another plotter Thomas Percy, cousin to the 9th earl of Northumberland, to tunnel into the foundations of the palace, laying gunpowder and detonating it. However, the walls were too thick to make enough progress in tunnelling before parliament was due to open.

 

Fortuitously for the plotters, the plague hit London, delaying the opening of parliament to November 1605. Also, in January 1605, a vault beneath the House of Lords became available and was rented by Percy. About 900kg of gunpowder was brought at night in 1605 to place directly under the House of Lords.

 

An anonymous note to William Parker, Lord Monteagle probably from a plotter, Francis Tresham, warned Parker to stay away from the opening parliament. The note said:[2]

 

My lord, out of the love I bear to some of your friends, I have a care for your preservation. Therefore I would advise you, as you tender your life, to devise some excuse to shift of your attendance of this Parliament, for God and man hath concurred to punish the wickedness of this time. And think not slightly of this advertisement but retire yourself into your country, where you may expect the event in safety, for though there be no appearance of any stir, yet I say they shall receive a terrible blow, the Parliament, and yet they shall not see who hurts them. This counsel is not to be contemned, because it may do you good and can do you know harm, for the danger is past as soon as you have burnt the latter: and I hope God will give you the grace to make good use of it, to whose holy protection I commend you.

 

Parker reported the letter to some of King James’s councillors who informed the king. The word ‘blow’ in the intercepted note suggested to King James I that there was gunpowder involved as his own father was killed by gunpowder. An initial sweep of the palace on 4 November did not uncover any clues even though Guy Fawkes was seen in the vault and asked about a large pile of firewood; the gunpowder was hidden behind the firewood. Fawkes replied that it belonged to Percy. When Monteagle expressed surprise that Percy was renting the vault and noted that he was Catholic, James ordered another, late-night, search of the premises and the gunpowder was found (figure 1).

 

To celebrate the plot’s discovery, James ordered bonfires to be set and bells rung on 5 November as common forms of celebration. On 10 November, William Barlow, bishop of Rochester, preached a sermon on the plot in St Paul’s Churchyard with space for up to 6000 people. Official thanksgiving services were ordered in all parish churches.

 

Figure 1: Period picture of Guy Fawkes being apprehended by officers of King James I in front of the firewood which hid the gunpowder in the basement of the House of Lords, England

 

King James I zealously promoted the eleventh hour discovery of the Gunpowder Plot as a sign of divine providence. The event established the king’s credentials as protestant champion at a time when he was under fire from both some Catholics, who had expected some tolerance, and puritans who were disappointed that the Hampton Court Conference (1604) had not led to the reform of the church. It also fed into growing anti-Catholic feeling amongst the general population. A bill was introduced in the House of Commons in January 1606 to establish an annual thanksgiving, which quickly became law.

 

Guy Fawkes was arrested and tortured by his body being stretched on the rack until the limbs were almost pulled out of their sockets to force him to reveal the names of the other conspirators. The conspirators were all arrested, tried, convicted and executed by hanging, drawing and quartering which was the punishment for traitors of the crown. Those convicted were dragged by horse on a wooden frame to the place of execution while being abused by crowds who gathered to watch. The convicted would then be hanged by the neck for a short time or until almost dead. In most cases, the condemned would receive the short drop method of hanging so that the neck did not break. Still alive, he was dragged to the quartering table and, if unconscious, water was splashed to wake them up. The condemned would then be emasculated and disembowelled with the genitalia and entrails burned before their eyes. Finally the condemned was beheaded and the body quartered, or broken into four parts. Quartering was sometimes done by tying the limbs to four horses which would were spurred to run in a different direction. The resulting body parts were then put on display in different parts of the country for all to see.

 

At many of these gory executions of Catholics, there were people in the crowd who believed the condemned to be martyrs and they rushed forward for the clothing of the condemned as a holy relic of a saint. Henry Garnet the last of the plotters to be tried had a great deal of public sympathy. In fact, it is doubtful that Garnet was involved in the plot at all. His crime was to learn of the plot when taking confession, which he did as a Jesuit priest, and not to tell the authorities. However, Garnet went to great lengths to try to persuade the plotters to abandon their plan. None of that matters to the authorities who were keen to make an example of this leading Jesuit. When he was hanged, the crowd rushed forward and grabbed his legs to ensure that he died by hanging and was saved the ignominy and agony of being emasculated and disembowelled while still alive.

 

Macbeth a gunpowder and witchcraft play

 

Shakespeare’s Macbeth was written in the aftermath of the foiled Gunpowder Plot to honour King James I, and was written to be performed at court before King James I.

 

Macbeth is laced with compliments to the King. Naturally, Shakespeare makes reference to the King’s Scottish ancestry, life, and known legacy, which had been influenced by attempts to assassinate the King especially the recent Gunpowder Plot also known as the Gunpowder Treason.

 

When Lady Macbeth implores Macbeth to ‘look like th’ innocent flower / But be the serpent under’t’ (Act I Scene 5) to encourage her husband in murdering Duncan, she describes the Gunpowder Plot medal (figure 2). To commemorate discovery of the Gunpowder Plot and expulsion of the Jesuits from England, a silver medal was struck in Holland with the image of a snake amongst flowers in embossed detail.

 

Figure 2: Gunpowder Plot medal struck in 1605 described by Lady Macbeth, ‘an innocent flower with a serpent under it’.

 

Jesuits were known to be artful at equivocation. They had to be – being a religious order they could not commit the sin of lying, but at the same time when arrested they could not reveal the whereabouts of their fellow Jesuits who would be put to death.

 

Henry Garnet a leading Jesuit in England was known as a leader in the art of equivocation. Garnet wrote Treatise on Equivocation as a guide for his fellow Jesuits when arrested to avoid sinning by lying but also to avoid giving any information that might help the authorities locate and arrest other Jesuits. The fact that Garnet wrote the treatise was used by the authorities as evidence that Jesuits were doing the work of the devil and deserved death.

 

The theme of equivocation runs through the play, and is most poignant with the Porter acting as the devil welcoming into hell an equivocator, Henry Garnet without using the name Garnet. Garnet is known to have refused to confess even before being hung and so was said by the authorities to have died unrepentant and therefore to have gone straight to hell. The Porter says, ‘Faith, here’s an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God’s sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven’. (Act II Scene 3)

 

The heads of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators were placed on spikes outside parliament. Similarly, Macbeth was beheaded with his head put on display.

 

King James I was a prolific writer. Shakespeare would have had access to his works and, in any case, James’ beliefs were widely known. James’ beliefs on witchcraft were published in James’ Daemonologie, and Shakespeare was able incorporate them into the play. The fear of witches not an obscure academic interest of King James. Witchcraft was a crime in England and often women considered troublesome were accused of witchcraft and executed. Through Daemonologie and a sermon on Revelation, King James I said that the kingdom of evil lies close to Christendom – meaning that even certain of those who are priests, such as Jesuits, are on the side of evil. Moreover, the association between the Jesuit order and witchcraft extends back into the 16^th Century when the Jesuits were founded, and the association between the Jesuit order and witchcraft was live in the public mind during Shakespeare’s time.

 

James I’s parents were both killed in regicides, and there were several violent attempts on his life from within England. Given James’ strong and widely known views on witchcraft, it is natural that Shakespeare placed the three meddlesome witches within Scotland to help encourage an ambitious Macbeth to commit regicide.

 

Shakespeare during the reign of King James I

 

Nearly half of Shakespeare’s career was during the reign of King James I (figure 3) so Shakespeare was as James’ian as ‘Elizabethan’. Shakespeare was writing for about 15 years under Elizabeth I and for about 12 years under James I.[3] In the James I era, Shakespeare wrote 15 of his 37 plays, including Macbeth, Othello, King Lear and Antony and Cleopatra.

 

Figure 3: King James I of England, c. 1620, by Paul van Somer

 

James became king on 24 March 1603, the Gunpowder Plot of 5 November 1605 captured popular culture and set the backdrop for James’s rule. King James was a highly intellectual monarch. As King of Scotland, and prior to become King of England, James had written Daemonologie (1597) a book about ‘unlawful arts, necromancy, sorcery and witchcraft’. As King of England, James commissioned the King James Bible (1611) as the official bible of the Church of England. The King James Bible was started in 1604 and completed in 1611 during the height of Shakespeare’s career. The King James Bible comprises translations by a team of 47 Church of England scholars from Greek texts, the Old Testament from Hebrew and Aramaic texts, and the Apocrypha from Greek and Latin texts.

 

Live and in the stream of current affairs and public discussion were Henry VIII’s establishment of the Church of England with the English monarch at its head. Also hot topics were the ongoing battle between the monarchy on the one hand and the Catholic Church, Jesuits and witchcraft on the other.

 

Who was William Shakespeare?

 

Shakespeare was from Stratford-on-Avon England, and baptized on 26 April 1564. His family had been in Stratford-on-Avon for generations. Shakespeare’s father was the Catholic mayor of Stratford-on-Avon, and was a leading figure amongst the Augustinian Catholics in Britain. He was driven out of public office by persecution organized jointly by militant Calvinists and their Jesuit allies.

 

Shakespeare’s father was responsible for the trust funds in which English Augustinians concealed investments that would have been confiscated if left in the hands of private individuals. For years Shakespeare himself was involved in legal proceedings to determine the proceeds of such funds.

 

Shakespeare was from a family of community leaders, and political battles were familiar to him and his father John Shakespeare.

 

Ben Jonson, a contemporary of Shakespeare, was a vitriolic attacker of Shakespeare, saying that ‘Shakespeare wanteth art’, that is, ‘Shakespeare lacks art’. Jonson attempted to promote the idea that Shakespeare was an untutored country boy. One possible cause of Shakespeare’s death is poisoning by Ben Jonson. A passage in the diary of John Ward, the vicar of the church where Shakespeare was buried, says that William Shakespeare, after a heavy night of drinking with Michael Drayton, a poet, and Jonson, Shakespeare fell ill and died of a fever. However, the diary entry is dated 1661, which is 45 years after Shakespeare’s death in 1616 and 24 years after Jonson’s death in 1637. As Jonson had powerful sponsors, the vicar may have been afraid to write the entry earlier, but only after several decades wrote his recollection.

 

There are active authorship debates about who actually wrote Shakespeare’s plays. There are theories that the plays actually were written by the Earl of Oxford, or Francis Bacon, and not by William Shakespeare.

 

There is another theory that Amelia Bassano was the author. , Another thesis says that Shakespeare’s plays were written by a team of writers, in which Bassano was the most prolific contributor.

 

I hope you enjoy the play.

 

Dan Abramson, Sydney Australia

2 January 2017, updated 25 April 2022

 

 

 

 

The Tragedy of Macbeth

Characters of the play (‘dramatis personae’)

 

Duncan, King of Scotland

Malcolm, Donalbain, his sons

Macbeth, Banquo, generals of the King’s army

Macduff, Lennox, Ross, Menteith, Angus, Cathness, noblemen of Scotland

Fleance, son to Banquo

Siward, Earl of Northumberland, general of the English forces

Young Siward, his son

Seyton, an officer attending on Macbeth

Boy, son to Macduff 

An English Doctor 

A Scotch Doctor

A Captain

A Porter

An Old Man

Lady Macbeth

Lady Macduff

Gentlewomen attending on Lady Macbeth

Hecate

Three Witches

Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers,

Attendants, and Messengers; the Ghost of Banquo, and other Apparitions

 

Scene: Scotland and, only in Act IV 4 Scene 3, England

 

 

First Act

 

Act I Scene 1

A desert place.

 

[Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches]

 

First Witch. When shall we three meet again

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

 

Second Witch. When the hurlyburly’s done[5],

When the battle’s lost and won.                                                5

 

Third Witch. That will be ere[6] the set of sun.

 

First Witch. Where the place?

 

Second Witch. Upon the heath.

 

Third Witch. There to meet with Macbeth[7].

 

First Witch. I come, Graymalkin[8]!                                         10

 

Second Witch. Paddock[9] calls.

 

Third Witch. Anon[10].

 

All. Fair is foul, and foul is fair:

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

 

[Exeunt]

 

Act I Scene 2

A camp near Forres.

 

[Alarum within. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant]

 

Duncan. What bloody man is that? He can report,

As seemeth by his plight[11], of the revolt

The newest state[12].                                                                  20

 

Malcolm. This is the sergeant

Who like a good and hardy soldier fought

’Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend!

Say to the king the knowledge of the broil[13]

As thou didst leave it.                                                             25

 

Sergeant. Doubtful it stood;

As two spent swimmers[14], that do cling together[15]

And choke their art[16]. The merciless Macdonwald—

Worthy to be a rebel, for to that

The multiplying villanies of nature                                         30

Do swarm upon him—from the western isles

Of kerns[17] and gallowglasses[18] is supplied;

And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,

Show’d like a rebel’s whore: but all’s too weak:

For brave Macbeth—well he deserves that name—                35

Disdaining fortune, with his brandish’d steel,

Which smoked with bloody execution,

Like valour’s minion carved out his passage

Till he faced the slave[19];

Which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,             40

Till he unseam’d him[20] from the nave[21] to the chops[22],[23]

And fix’d his head upon our battlements[24].

 

Duncan. O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!

 

Sergeant. As whence the sun ‘gins his reflection

Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break,                   45

So from that spring whence comfort seem’d to come

Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark:

No sooner justice had with valour arm’d

Compell’d these skipping kerns to trust their heels,

But the Norweyan lord surveying vantage,                             50

With furbish’d arms and new supplies of men

Began a fresh assault.

 

Duncan. Dismay’d not this

Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo[25]?

 

Sergeant. Yes;                                                                        55

As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion[26].

If I say sooth[27], I must report they were

As cannons overcharged with double cracks, so they

Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe:

Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,                     60

Or memorise another Golgotha[28],

I cannot tell.

But I am faint, my gashes cry for help[29].

 

Duncan. So well thy words become thee as thy wounds[30];

They smack of honour both[31]. Go get him surgeons.             65

 

[Exit Sergeant, attended]

 

Who comes here?

 

[Enter ROSS]

 

Malcolm. The worthy thane[32] of Ross.

 

Lennox. What a haste looks through his eyes[33]! So should he look

                                                                                               70

That seems to speak things strange[34].

 

Ross. God save the king!

 

Duncan. Whence camest thou, worthy thane?

 

Ross. From Fife, great king;

Where the Norweyan banners[35] flout the sky[36]                      75

And fan our people cold. Norway himself[37],

With terrible numbers[38],

Assisted by that most disloyal traitor

The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict;

Till that Bellona’s bridegroom[39], lapp’d in proof[40],                 80

Confronted him with self-comparisons[41],

Point against point rebellious, arm ’gainst arm.

Curbing his lavish spirit[42]: and, to conclude,

The victory fell on us.

 

Duncan. Great happiness!                                                      85

 

Ross. That now

Sweno, the Norways’ king, craves composition[43]:

Nor would we deign him burial of his men[44]

Till he disbursed at Saint Colme’s inch[45]

Ten thousand dollars[46] to our general use.                             90

 

Duncan. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive

Our bosom interest[47]: go pronounce his present death[48],

And with his former title greet Macbeth[49].

 

Ross. I’ll see it done.

 

Duncan. What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won.            95

 

[Exeunt]

 

 

Act I Scene 3

A heath near Forres[50].

 

[Thunder. Enter the three Witches]

 

First Witch. Where hast thou been, sister?

 

Second Witch. Killing swine[51].

 

Third Witch. Sister, where thou?                                         100

 

First Witch. A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap,

And mounch’d, and mounch’d, and mounch’d[52]:—

‘Give me,’ quoth I[53]:

’Aroint thee[54], witch!’ the rump-fed[55] ronyon[56] cries.

Her husband’s to Aleppo[57] gone, master o’ the Tiger[58]:        105

But in a sieve I’ll thither sail[59],

And, like a rat without a tail,

I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do[60].

 

Second Witch. I’ll give thee a wind[61].

 

First Witch. Thou’rt kind.                                                    110

 

Third Witch. And I another.

 

First Witch. I myself have all the other,

And the very ports they blow,

All the quarters that they know

I’ the shipman’s card[62].                                                         115

I will drain him dry as hay[63]:

Sleep shall neither night nor day

Hang upon his pent-house[64] lid[65];

He shall live a man forbid[66]:

Weary se’n nights[67] nine times nine[68]                                   120

Shall he dwindle, peak and pine:

Though his bark[69] cannot be lost,

Yet it shall be tempest-tost[70].

Look what I have.

 

Second Witch. Show me, show me.                                     125

 

First Witch. Here I have a pilot’s thumb[71],

Wreck’d[72] as homeward he did come.

 

[Drum within]

 

Third Witch. A drum, a drum!

Macbeth doth come[73].                                                           130

 

All. The weyward sisters[74], hand in hand,

Posters of the sea and land,

Thus do go about, about:

Thrice to thine and thrice to mine

And thrice again, to make up nine[75].                                     135

Peace! the charm’s wound up[76].

 

[Enter MACBETH and BANQUO]

 

Macbeth. So foul and fair[77] a day I have not seen[78]^,[79].

 

Banquo. How far is’t call’d to Forres? What are these

So wither’d and so wild in their attire,                                  140

That look not like the inhabitants o’ the earth,

And yet are on’t[80]? Live you[81]? or are you aught[82]

That man may question[83]? You seem to understand me,

By each at once her chappy[84] finger laying

Upon her skinny lips: you should be women,                       145

And yet your beards forbid me to interpret

That you are so.

 

Macbeth. Speak, if you can: what are you?

 

First Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis!

 

Second Witch. All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!      150

 

Third Witch. All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!

 

Banquo. Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear

Things that do sound so fair[85]? I’ the name of truth,

Are ye fantastical[86], or that indeed

Which outwardly ye show[87]? My noble partner                    155

You greet with present grace[88] and great prediction

Of noble having[89] and of royal hope,

That he seems rapt withal[90]: to me you speak not.

If you can look into the seeds of time,

And say which grain will grow and which will not,               160

Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear

Your favours nor your hate[91].

 

First Witch. Hail!

 

Second Witch. Hail!

 

Third Witch. Hail!                                                                165

 

First Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.

 

Second Witch. Not so happy, yet much happier.

 

Third Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none[92]:

So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!

 

First Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!                          170

 

Macbeth. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:

By Sinel’s death I know I am thane of Glamis;

But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives,

A prosperous gentleman; and to be king

Stands not within the prospect of belief,                               175

No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence

You owe this strange intelligence? or why

Upon this blasted heath[93] you stop our way

With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.

 

[Witches vanish]

 

Banquo. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,

And these are of them. Whither are they vanish’d?

 

Macbeth. Into the air; and what seem’d corporal[94] melted

As breath into the wind. Would they had stay’d[95]!

 

Banquo. Were such things here as we do speak about?        185

Or have we eaten on the insane root[96]

That takes the reason prisoner[97]?

 

Macbeth. Your children shall be kings.

 

Banquo. You shall be king.

 

Macbeth. And thane of Cawdor too: went it not so?            190

 

Banquo. To the selfsame tune and words. Who’s here?

 

[Enter ROSS and ANGUS]

 

Ross. The king hath happily received, Macbeth,

The news of thy success; and when he reads

Thy personal venture in the rebels’ fight,                              195

His wonders and his praises do contend

Which should be thine or his: silenced with that,

In viewing o’er the rest o’ the selfsame day,

He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,

Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,                         200

Strange images of death. As thick as hail

Came post with post; and every one did bear

Thy praises in his kingdom’s great defence,

And pour’d them down before him.

 

Angus. We are sent                                                              205

To give thee from our royal master thanks;

Only to herald thee into his sight,

Not pay thee[98].

 

Ross. And, for an earnest of a greater honour,

He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor:              210

In which addition, hail, most worthy thane!

For it is thine[99].

 

Banquo. What, can the devil speak true[100]?

 

Macbeth. The thane of Cawdor lives: why do you dress me

In borrow’d robes?                                                               215

 

Angus. Who was the thane lives yet;

But under heavy judgment bears that life

Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined

With those of Norway[101], or did line the rebel

With hidden help and vantage, or that with both                  220

He labour’d in his country’s wreck, I know not;

But treasons capital, confess’d and proved,

Have overthrown him.

 

Macbeth. [Aside] Glamis, and thane of Cawdor!

The greatest is behind.                                                          225

 

[To ROSS and ANGUS]

 

Thanks for your pains.

 

[To BANQUO]

 

Do you not hope your children shall be kings,

When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me                230

Promised no less to them?

 

Banquo. That trusted home[102]

Might yet enkindle you unto the crown[103],

Besides the thane of Cawdor. But ’tis strange:

And oftentimes, to win us to our harm[104],                            235

The instruments of darkness tell us truths,

Win us with honest trifles, to betray ’s

In deepest consequence[105].

Cousins, a word, I pray you.

 

Macbeth. [Aside] Two truths are told,                                  240

As happy prologues to the swelling act

Of the imperial theme.—I thank you, gentlemen.

[Aside] This supernatural soliciting

Cannot be ill, cannot be good: if ill,

Why hath it given me earnest of success,                             245

Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor:

If good, why do I yield to that suggestion

Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair

And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,

Against the use of nature? Present fears                               250

Are less than horrible imaginings:

My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,

Shakes so my single state of man that function

Is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is

But what is not[106].                                                                 255

 

Banquo. Look, how our partner’s rapt.

 

Macbeth. [Aside] If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me,

Without my stir.

 

Banquo. New horrors come upon him[107],

Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould           260

But with the aid of use[108].

 

Macbeth. [Aside] Come what come may,

Time and the hour runs through the roughest day[109].

 

Banquo. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.

 

Macbeth. Give me your favour: my dull brain was wrought 265

With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains

Are register’d where every day I turn

The leaf to read them. Let us toward the king.

Think upon what hath chanced, and, at more time,

The interim having weigh’d it, let us speak                          270

Our free hearts each to other.

 

Banquo. Very gladly.

 

Macbeth. Till then, enough. Come, friends.

 

[Exeunt]

 

Act I Scene 4

Forres. The palace.

 

[Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, and Attendants]

 

Duncan. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not

Those in commission yet return’d?

 

Malcolm. My liege,

They are not yet come back. But I have spoke

With one that saw him die: who did report                           280

That very frankly he confess’d his treasons,

Implored your highness’ pardon and set forth

A deep repentance: nothing in his life

Became him like the leaving it; he died

As one that had been studied in his death                            285

To throw away the dearest thing he owed,

As ’twere a careless trifle.

 

Duncan. There’s no art

To find the mind’s construction in the face[110]^,[111]:

He was a gentleman on whom I built                                   290

An absolute trust[112]^,[113].

 

[Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSS, and ANGUS]

 

O worthiest cousin!

The sin of my ingratitude even now

Was heavy on me: thou art so far before                              295

That swiftest wing of recompense is slow

To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved,

That the proportion both of thanks and payment

Might have been mine! only I have left to say,

More is thy due than more than all can pay.                          300

 

Macbeth. The service and the loyalty I owe,

In doing it, pays itself. Your highness’ part

Is to receive our duties; and our duties

Are to your throne and state children and servants,

Which do[114] but what they should, by doing every thing      305

Safe toward your love and honour[115].

 

Duncan. Welcome hither:

I have begun to plant thee, and will labour

To make thee full of growing[116]. Noble Banquo,

That hast no less deserved[117], nor must be known                310

No less to have done so[118], let me enfold thee

And hold thee to my heart.

 

Banquo. There if I grow,

The harvest is your own.

 

Duncan. My plenteous joys,                                                 315

Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves

In drops of sorrow[119]. Sons, kinsmen, thanes,

And you whose places are the nearest, know

We will establish our estate upon

Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter                    320

The Prince of Cumberland; which honour must

Not unaccompanied invest him only,

But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine

On all deservers[120]. From hence to Inverness,

And bind us further to you.                                                  325

 

Macbeth. The rest is labour, which is not used for you:

I’ll be myself the harbinger and make joyful

The hearing of my wife with your approach;

So humbly take my leave.

 

Duncan. My worthy Cawdor!                                              330

 

Macbeth. [Aside] The Prince of Cumberland! that is a step

On which I must fall down, or else o’erleap,

For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires[121];

Let not light see my black and deep desires[122]:

The eye wink at the hand[123]; yet let that be,                          335

Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see[124].

 

[Exit]

 

Duncan. True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant,

And in his commendations I am fed;

It is a banquet to me. Let’s after him,                                   340

Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome:

It is a peerless kinsman[125].

 

[Flourish. Exeunt]

 

 

 

Act I Scene 5

Inverness. Macbeth’s castle.

 

[Enter LADY MACBETH, reading a letter]

 

Lady Macbeth. ‘They met me in the day of success: and I have 345

learned by the perfectest report[126], they have more in

them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire

to question them further, they made themselves air,

into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in

the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who               350

all-hailed me “Thane of Cawdor;” by which title,

before, these wayward sisters saluted me, and referred

me to the coming on of time, with ‘Hail, king that

shalt be!’ This have I thought good to deliver

thee (my dearest partner of greatness) that thou                   355

mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being

ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it

to thy heart, and farewell.’

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be

What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature;                  360

It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness

To catch the nearest way[127]: thou wouldst be great[128];

Art not without ambition, but without

The illness should attend it[129]: what thou wouldst highly,

That wouldst thou holily[130]; wouldst not play false,              365

And yet wouldst wrongly win[131]: thou’ldst have, great Glamis,

That which cries ‘Thus thou must do, if thou have it;

And that which rather thou dost fear to do

Than wishest should be undone[132].’ Hie thee hither[133],

That I may pour my spirits in thine ear[134];                             370

And chastise with the valour of my tongue

All that impedes thee from the golden round[135]^,[136],

Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem

To have thee crown’d withal[137].

 

[Enter a Messenger]                                                             375

 

What is your tidings[138]?

 

Messenger. The king comes here to-night.

 

Lady Macbeth. Thou’rt mad to say it:

Is not thy master with him? who, were’t so,

Would have inform’d for preparation[139].                              380

 

Messenger. So please you, it is true: our thane is coming:

One of my fellows had the speed of him,

Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more

Than would make up his message[140].

 

Lady Macbeth. Give him tending;                                        385

He brings great news[141].

 

[Exit Messenger]

 

The raven himself is hoarse[142]

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan

Under my battlements. Come, you spirits                             390

That tend on mortal thoughts[143], unsex me here[144],

And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full

Of direst cruelty[145]! make thick my blood;

Stop up the access and passage to remorse[146],

That no compunctious visitings of nature                             395

Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between

The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts,

And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,

Wherever in your sightless substances

You wait on nature’s mischief! Come, thick night,                400

And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell[147],

That my keen knife[148] see not the wound it makes,

Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,

To cry ‘Hold, hold!’[149]

 

[Enter MACBETH]                                                                405

 

Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor!

Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter[150]^,[151]!

Thy letters have transported me beyond

This ignorant present, and I feel now

The future in the instant.                                                       410

 

Macbeth. My dearest love,

Duncan comes here to-night.

 

Lady Macbeth. And when goes hence?

 

Macbeth. To-morrow, as he purposes.

 

Lady Macbeth. O, never                                                     415

Shall sun that morrow see!

Your face, my thane, is as a book where men

May read strange matters[152]. To beguile the time,

Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,

Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,        420

But be the serpent under’t[153][154]. He that’s coming

Must be provided for[155]: and you shall put

This night’s great business into my dispatch[156];

Which shall to all our nights and days to come

Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom[157].                    425

 

Macbeth. We will speak further.

 

Lady Macbeth. Only look up clear[158];

To alter favour ever is to fear[159]:

Leave all the rest to me.

 

[Exeunt]

 

 

Act I Scene 6

Before Macbeth’s castle.

 

[Hautboys and torches. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, BANQUO, LENNOX, MACDUFF, ROSS, ANGUS, and Attendants]

 

Duncan. This castle hath a pleasant seat[160]; the air

Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself

Unto our gentle senses[161].                                                     435

 

Banquo. This guest of summer,

The temple-haunting martlet[162], does approve,

By his loved mansionry, that the heaven’s breath

Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze,

Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird                          440

Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle[163]:

Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed,

The air is delicate[164].

 

[Enter LADY MACBETH]

 

Duncan.[165] See, see, our honour’d hostess!                         445

The love that follows us sometime is our trouble,

Which still we thank as love[166]. Herein I teach you

How you shall bid God ’ield us for your pains[167],

And thank us for your trouble[168].

 

Lady Macbeth.[169] All our service                                        450

In every point twice done and then done double

Were poor and single business to contend

Against those honours deep and broad wherewith

Your majesty loads our house: for those of old,

And the late dignities heap’d up to them,                              455

We rest your hermits.

 

Duncan. Where’s the thane of Cawdor?

We coursed him at the heels, and had a purpose

To be his purveyor: but he rides well;

And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp[170] him         460

To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess,

We are your guest to-night.

 

Lady Macbeth. Your servants ever

Have theirs, themselves and what is theirs[171], in compt[172],

To make their audit[173] at your highness’ pleasure[174],            465

Still to return your own[175].

 

Duncan. Give me your hand;

Conduct me to mine host[176]: we love him highly,

And shall continue our graces towards him.

By your leave, hostess.                                                         470

 

[Exeunt]

 

 

 

Act I Scene 7

Macbeth’s castle.

 

[Hautboys and torches. Enter a Sewer, and divers. Servants with dishes and service, and pass over the stage. Then enter MACBETH]

 

Macbeth. If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well

It were done quickly: if the assassination                             475

Could trammel up the consequence[177], and catch

With his surcease[178] success; that but this blow

Might be the be-all and the end-all here,

But here, upon this bank and school of time[179],

We’ld[180] jump the life to come[181]. But in these cases           480

We still have judgment here[182]; that we but teach

Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return

To plague the inventor[183]: this even-handed justice

Commends the ingredients of our poison’d chalice

To our own lips[184]. He’s here in double trust[185];                   485

First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,

Strong both against the deed[186]; then, as his host,

Who should against his murderer shut the door,

Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan

Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been                        490

So clear[187] in his great office, that his virtues

Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against

The deep damnation of his taking-off[188];

And pity, like a naked new-born babe,

Striding the blast[189], or heaven’s cherubim, horsed               495

Upon the sightless couriers of the air[190],

Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye[191],

That tears shall drown the wind[192]. I have no spur

To prick the sides of my intent[193], but only

Vaulting[194] ambition, which o’erleaps itself                         500

And falls on the other[195].

 

[Enter LADY MACBETH]

 

How now![196] what news?

 

Lady Macbeth. He has almost supp’d[197]: why have you left the chamber?

 

Macbeth. Hath he ask’d for me?                                         505

 

Lady Macbeth. Know you not he has?[198]

 

Macbeth. We will proceed no further in this business:

He hath honour’d me of late[199]; and I have bought

Golden opinions from all sorts of people,

Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,                 510

Not cast aside so soon[200].

 

Lady Macbeth. Was the hope drunk

Wherein you dress’d yourself? hath it slept since?

And wakes it now, to look so green and pale

At what it did so freely? From this time                               515

Such 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 the ornament of life,

And live a coward in thine own esteem,                               520

Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’

Like the poor cat i’ the adage?

 

Macbeth. Prithee, peace:

I dare do all that may become a man;

Who dares do more is none.                                                 525

 

Lady Macbeth. What beast was’t, then,

That made you break[201] this enterprise to me?

When you durst do it, then you were a man;

And, to be more than what you were, you would

Be so much more the man[202]. Nor time nor place                 530

Did then adhere, and yet you would make both[203]:

They have made themselves, and that their fitness now

Does unmake you[204]. 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,                              535

Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums,

And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you

Have done to this[205].

 

Macbeth. If we should fail?

 

Lady Macbeth. We fail!                                                      540

But screw your courage to the sticking-place[206],

And we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep—

Whereto the rather shall his day’s hard journey

Soundly invite him[207]—his two chamberlains

Will I with wine and wassail so convince                              545

That memory, the warder of the brain,

Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason

A limbeck[208] only: when in swinish sleep[209]

Their drenched natures lie as in a death[210],[211],

What cannot you and I perform upon                                  550

The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon

His spongy officers[212], who shall bear the guilt

Of our great quell[213]?

 

Macbeth. Bring forth men-children only;

For thy undaunted mettle should compose                           555

Nothing but males[214]. Will it not be received[215],

When we have mark’d with blood those sleepy two

Of his own chamber and used their very daggers[216],

That they have done’t?

 

Lady Macbeth. Who dares receive it other,                         560

As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar

Upon his death?[217]

 

Macbeth. I am settled, and bend up

Each corporal agent to this terrible feat[218].

Away, and mock the time with fairest show[219]:                    565

False face must hide what the false heart doth know[220].

 

[Exeunt]

 

 

 

Second Act

 

Act II Scene 1

Court of Macbeth’s castle.

 

[Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE bearing a torch before him]

 

Banquo. How goes the night, boy?

 

Fleance. The moon is down[221]; I have not heard the clock.  570

 

Banquo. And she goes down at twelve[222].

 

Fleance. I take’t, ’tis later, sir.

 

Banquo. Hold, take my sword. There’s husbandry in heaven;

Their candles are all out[223]. Take thee that too[224].

A heavy summons lies like lead upon me[225],                        575

And yet I would not sleep: merciful powers,

Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature

Gives way to in repose[226]!

 

[Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch]

 

Give me my sword[227].                                                           580

Who’s there?

 

Macbeth. A friend[228].

 

Banquo. What, sir, not yet at rest? The king’s a-bed:

He hath been in unusual pleasure, and

Sent forth great largess to your offices.                                585

This diamond he greets your wife withal,

By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up

In measureless content.

 

Macbeth. Being unprepared,

Our will became the servant to defect;                                 590

Which else should free have wrought.

 

Banquo. All’s well.

I dreamt last night of the three weyward sisters:

To you they have show’d some truth[229].

 

Macbeth. I think not of them[230]:                                           595

Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,

We would spend it in some words upon that business,

If you would grant the time[231].

 

Banquo. At your kind’st leisure.

 

Macbeth. If you shall cleave to my consent, when ’tis,        600

It shall make honour for you[232].

 

Banquo. So I lose none

In seeking to augment it[233], but still keep

My bosom franchised and allegiance clear[234],

I shall be counsell’d.                                                             605

 

Macbeth. Good repose the while[235]!

 

Banquo. Thanks, sir: the like to you[236]!

 

[Exeunt[237] BANQUO and FLEANCE]

 

Macbeth. Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,

She strike upon the bell[238]. Get thee to bed.                          610

 

[Exit Servant]

 

Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still[239].

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible                                        615

To feeling as to sight? or art thou but

A dagger of the mind, a false creation,

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?

I see thee yet, in form as palpable[240]

As this which now I draw[241].                                                 620

Thou marshall’st me the way that I was going;

And such an instrument I was to use[242].

Mine eyes are made the fools o’ the other senses,

Or else worth all the rest[243]; I see thee still,

And on thy blade and dudgeon[244] gouts[245] of blood,           625

Which was not so before[246]. There’s no such thing:

It is the bloody business which informs

Thus to mine eyes. Now o’er the one halfworld[247]

Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse

The curtain’d sleep[248]; witchcraft celebrates                         630

Pale Hecate’s offerings[249]^,[250], and wither’d murder[251],

Alarum’d by his sentinel, the wolf,

Whose howl’s his watch[252], thus with his stealthy pace.

With Tarquin’s ravishing strides[253], towards his design

Moves like a ghost[254]. Thou sure and firm-set earth,             635

Hear not my steps[255], which way they walk, for fear

Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,

And take the present horror from the time[256],

Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:

Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives[257].             640

 

[A bell rings]

 

I go, and it is done; the bell invites me[258].

Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell[259]

That summons thee to heaven or to hell[260].

 

[Exit]

 

 

Act II Scene 2

The same.

 

[Enter LADY MACBETH]

 

Lady Macbeth. That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold;

What hath quench’d them hath given me fire[261].

Hark! Peace![262]

It was the owl that shriek’d, the fatal bellman,                      650

Which gives the stern’st good-night[263]. He is about it[264]:

The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms

Do mock their charge with snores: I have drugg’d

their possets[265],

That death and nature do contend about them,                     655

Whether they live or die[266].

 

Macbeth. [Within] Who’s there? what, ho!

 

Lady Macbeth[267]. Alack, I am afraid they have awaked,

And ’tis not done[268]. The attempt and not the deed

Confounds us[269]. Hark! I laid their daggers ready;               660

He could not miss ’em[270]. Had he not resembled

My father as he slept, I had done’t[271].

 

[Enter MACBETH]

 

My husband!

 

Macbeth. I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise? 665

 

Lady Macbeth. I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.

Did not you speak?

 

Macbeth. When?

 

Lady Macbeth. Now.

 

Macbeth. As I descended?                                                   670

 

Lady Macbeth. Ay.

 

Macbeth. Hark!

Who lies i’ the second chamber?

 

Lady Macbeth. Donalbain.

 

Macbeth. This is a sorry sight.                                             675

 

[Looking on his hands]

 

Lady Macbeth. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.

 

Macbeth. There’s one did laugh in’s sleep, and one cried

‘Murder!’

That they did wake each other: I stood and heard them:      680

But they did say their prayers, and address’d them

Again to sleep.

 

Lady Macbeth. There are two lodged together.

 

Macbeth. One cried ‘God bless us!’ and ‘Amen’ the other;

As they had seen me with these hangman’s hands.              685

Listening their fear, I could not say ‘Amen,’

When they did say ‘God bless us!’

 

Lady Macbeth. Consider it not so deeply.

 

Macbeth. But wherefore could not I pronounce ‘Amen’?

I had most need of blessing, and ‘Amen’                              690

Stuck in my throat[272].

 

Lady Macbeth. These deeds must not be thought

After these ways; so, it will make us mad.

 

Macbeth. Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more!

Macbeth does murder sleep’, the innocent sleep,                  695

Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care,

The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath,

Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,

Chief nourisher in life’s feast,[273]—

 

Lady Macbeth. What do you mean?                                    700

 

Macbeth. Still it cried ‘Sleep no more!’ to all the house:

‘Glamis hath murder’d sleep, and therefore Cawdor

Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more.

 

Lady Macbeth. Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane,

You do unbend your noble strength, to think                        705

So brainsickly of things. Go get some water,

And wash this filthy witness from your hand[274].

Why did you bring these daggers from the place?

They must lie there[275]: go carry them; and smear

The sleepy grooms with blood.                                             710

 

Macbeth. I’ll go no more:

I am afraid to think what I have done;

Look on’t again I dare not.

 

Lady Macbeth. Infirm of purpose!

Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead                    715

Are but as pictures[276]: ’tis the eye of childhood

That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,

I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal;

For it must seem their guilt[277].

 

[Exit. Knocking within]

 

Macbeth. Whence is that knocking?

How is’t with me, when every noise appals me?

What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes.

Will all great Neptune’s ocean[278] wash this blood

Clean from my hand[279]? No, this my hand will rather           725

The multitudinous seas in incarnadine[280],

Making the green one red.

 

[Re-enter LADY MACBETH]

 

Lady Macbeth. My hands are of your colour; but I shame

To wear a heart so white[281].                                                   730

 

[Knocking within]

 

I hear a knocking

At the south entry: retire we to our chamber;

A little water clears us of this deed:

How easy is it, then[282]! Your constancy                                 735

Hath left you unattended[283].

 

[Knocking within]

 

Hark! more knocking.

Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us,

And show us to be watchers. Be not lost                               740

So poorly in your thoughts[284].

 

Macbeth. To know my deed, ’twere best not know myself[285].

 

[Knocking within]

 

Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!

 

[Exeunt]

 

 

Act II Scene 3

 

The same.

 

 

[Knocking within. Enter a Porter]

 

Porter. Here’s a knocking indeed! If a

man were porter of hell-gate, he should have

old turning the key[286].

 

[Knocking within]                                                                 750

 

Knock,

knock, knock! Who’s there, i’ the name of

Beelzebub? Here’s a farmer, that hanged

himself on the expectation of plenty[287]^,[288]: come in

time[289]; have napkins enow about you[290]^,[291]; here                 755

you’ll sweat for’t[292].

 

[Knocking within]

 

Knock,

knock! Who’s there, in the other devil’s

name? Faith, here’s an equivocator, that could                      760

swear in both the scales against either scale[293]^,[294];

who committed treason enough for God’s sake[295],

yet could not equivocate to heaven: O, come

in, equivocator[296].

 

[Knocking within]                                                                 765

 

Knock,

knock, knock! Who’s there? Faith, here’s an

English tailor come hither, for stealing out of

a French hose[297]: come in, tailor; here you may

roast your goose.                                                                   770

 

[Knocking within]

 

Knock,

knock; never at quiet! What are you? But

this place is too cold for hell. I’ll devil-porter

it no further[298]: I had thought to have let in                           775

some of all professions that go the primrose

way to the everlasting bonfire[299].

 

[Knocking within]

 

Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the porter[300].

 

[Opens the gate]

 

[Enter MACDUFF and LENNOX]

 

Macduff. Was it so late, friend, ere[301] you went to bed,

That you do lie so late?

 

Porter. ’Faith sir, we were carousing[302] till the

second cock[303]: and drink, sir, is a great                                785

provoker of three things.

 

Macduff. What three things does drink especially provoke?

 

Porter. Marry[304], sir, nose-painting[305], sleep, and

urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes[306];

it provokes the desire, but it takes                                         790

away the performance[307]: therefore, much drink

may be said to be an equivocator with lechery[308]:

it makes him, and it mars him; it sets

him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him,

and disheartens him; makes him stand to, and                      795

not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him

in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him[309].

 

Macduff. I believe drink gave thee the lie last night[310].

 

Porter. That it did, sir, i’ the very throat on

me[311]: but I requited him for his lie[312]; and, I                        800

think, being too strong for him, though he took

up my legs sometime, yet I made a shift to cast

him[313].

 

Macduff. Is thy master stirring[314]?

 

[Enter MACBETH]                                                                805

 

Our knocking has awaked him; here he comes.

 

Lennox. Good morrow, noble sir.

 

Macbeth. Good morrow, both.

 

Macduff. Is the king stirring, worthy thane?

 

Macbeth. Not yet.                                                                 810

 

Macduff. He did command me to call timely on him:

I have almost slipp’d the hour.

 

Macbeth. I’ll bring you to him.

 

Macduff. I know this is a joyful trouble to you;

But yet ’tis one[315].                                                                 815

 

Macbeth. The labour we delight in physics pain[316].

This is the door.

 

Macduff. I’ll make so bold to call,

For ’tis my limited service[317].

 

[Exit]

 

Lennox. Goes the king hence to-day?

 

Macbeth. He does: he did appoint so[318].

 

Lennox. The night has been unruly: where we lay,

Our chimneys were blown down[319]; and, as they say,

Lamentings heard i’ the air; strange screams of death[320],      825

And prophesying with accents terrible

Of dire combustion and confused events

New hatch’d to the woeful time[321]: the obscure bird

Clamour’d the livelong night[322]: some say, the earth

Was feverous and did shake[323].                                             830

 

Macbeth. ’Twas a rough night.

 

Lennox. My young remembrance cannot parallel

A fellow to it[324].

 

[Re-enter MACDUFF]

 

Macduff. O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart            835

Cannot conceive nor name thee!

 

Macbeth. [with Lennox] What’s the matter.

 

Macduff. Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!

Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope

The Lord’s anointed temple, and stole thence                       840

The life o’ the building!

 

Macbeth. What is ‘t you say? the life?

 

Lennox. Mean you his majesty?

 

Macduff. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight

With a new Gorgon[325]: do not bid me speak;                         845

See, and then speak yourselves.

 

[Exeunt MACBETH and LENNOX]

 

Awake, awake!

Ring the alarum-bell. Murder and treason!

Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm! awake!                            850

Shake off this downy sleep, death’s counterfeit[326],

And look on death itself! up, up, and see

The great doom’s image! Malcolm! Banquo!

As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites[327]^,[328],

To countenance this horror[329]! Ring the bell.                         855

 

[Bell rings]

 

[Enter LADY MACBETH]

 

Lady Macbeth. What’s the business,

That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley[330]

The sleepers of the house? speak, speak!                             860

 

Macduff. O gentle lady,

’Tis not for you to hear what I can speak:

The repetition, in a woman’s ear,

Would murder as it fell[331].

 

[Enter BANQUO]                                                                  865

 

O Banquo, Banquo,

Our royal master ’s murder’d!

Lady Macbeth. Woe, alas!

What, in our house?

Banquo. Too cruel any where.                                              870

Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself,

And say it is not so.

 

[Re-enter MACBETH and LENNOX, with ROSS]

 

Macbeth. Had I but died an hour before this chance,

I had lived a blessed time; for, from this instant,                   875

There ’s nothing serious in mortality:

All is but toys: renown and grace is dead;

The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees

Is left this vault to brag of[332].

 

[Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN]

 

Donalbain. What is amiss?

 

Macbeth. You are, and do not know’t:

The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood

Is stopp’d; the very source of it is stopp’d[333].

 

Macduff. Your royal father ’s murder’d[334].                           885

 

Malcolm. O, by whom?[335]

 

Lennox. Those of his chamber, as it seem’d, had done ’t:

Their hands and faces were an badged[336] with blood;

So were their daggers, which unwiped we found

Upon their pillows:                                                               890

They stared, and were distracted; no man’s life

Was to be trusted with them.

 

Macbeth. O, yet I do repent me of my fury,

That I did kill them.

 

Macduff. Wherefore did you so?                                          895

 

Macbeth. Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,

Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:

The expedition my violent love

Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,

His silver skin laced with his golden blood;                          900

And his gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in nature

For ruin’s wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,

Steep’d in the colours[337] of their trade[338], their daggers

Unmannerly breech’d with gore[339]: who could refrain,

That had a heart to love, and in that heart                             905

Courage to make ’s love known?

 

Lady Macbeth. Help me hence[340], ho![341]

 

Macduff. Look to the lady[342].

 

Malcolm. [Aside to DONALBAIN] Why do we hold our tongues,

That most may claim this argument for ours?[343]                    910

 

Donalbain. [Aside to MALCOLM] What should be spoken here,

where our fate,

Hid in an auger-hole, may rush, and seize us?

Let ’s away;

Our tears are not yet brew’d.                                                 915

 

Malcolm. [Aside to DONALBAIN] Nor our strong sorrow

Upon the foot of motion.

 

Banquo. Look to the lady[344]:

 

[LADY MACBETH is carried out]

 

And when we have our naked frailties hid,                           920

That suffer in exposure, let us meet,

And question this most bloody piece of work,

To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us:

In the great hand of God I stand; and thence

Against the undivulged pretence I fight                                 925

Of treasonous malice.

 

Macduff. And so do I.

 

All. So all.

 

Macbeth. Let’s briefly put on manly readiness,

And meet i’ the hall together.                                                930

 

All. Well contented.

 

[Exeunt all but Malcolm and Donalbain.]

 

Malcolm. What will you do? Let’s not consort with them:

To show an unfelt sorrow is an office

Which the false man does easy[345]. I’ll to England.                935

 

Donalbain. To Ireland, I; our separated fortune

Shall keep us both the safer: where we are,

There’s daggers in men’s smiles: the near in blood,

The nearer bloody[346].

 

Malcolm. This murderous shaft that’s shot                           940

Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way

Is to avoid the aim[347]. Therefore, to horse[348];

And let us not be dainty of leave-taking,

But shift away[349]: there’s warrant in that theft

Which steals itself, when there’s no mercy left[350].                945

 

[Exeunt]

 

 

Act II Scene 4

 

Outside Macbeth’s castle.

 

[Enter ROSS and an old Man]

 

Old Man. Threescore and ten I can remember well:

Within the volume of which time I have seen

Hours dreadful and things strange; but this sore night           950

Hath trifled former knowings[351].

 

Ross. Ah, good father,

Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man’s act,

Threaten his bloody stage: by the clock, ’tis day,

And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp:                   955

Is’t night’s predominance, or the day’s shame,

That darkness does the face of earth entomb,

When living light should kiss it?[352]

 

Old Man. ’Tis unnatural,

Even like the deed that’s done. On Tuesday last,                  960

A falcon, towering in her pride of place,

Was by a mousing owl hawk’d at and kill’d[353].

 

Ross. And Duncan’s horses—a thing most strange and certain—

Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race,

Turn’d wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,               965

Contending ’gainst obedience, as they would make

War with mankind.[354]

 

Old Man. ’Tis said they eat each other[355].

 

Ross. They did so, to the amazement of mine eyes

That look’d upon’t. Here comes the good Macduff.             970

 

[Enter MACDUFF]

 

How goes the world, sir, now?

 

Macduff. Why, see you not?

 

Ross. Is’t known who did this more than bloody deed?

 

Macduff. Those that Macbeth hath slain.                              975

 

Ross. Alas, the day!

What good could they pretend?

 

Macduff. They were suborn’d:

Malcolm and Donalbain, the king’s two sons,

Are stol’n away and fled; which puts upon them                  980

Suspicion of the deed.

 

Ross. ’Gainst nature still!

Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up

Thine own life’s means![356] Then ‘tis most like

The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth[357].                           985

 

Macduff. He is already named, and gone to Scone[358]

To be invested[359].

 

Ross. Where is Duncan’s body?

 

Macduff. Carried to Colmekill,

The sacred storehouse of his predecessors[360],                       990

And guardian of their bones[361].

 

Ross. Will you to Scone?

 

Macduff. No, cousin, I’ll to Fife.

 

Ross. Well, I will thither.

 

Macduff. Well, may you see things well done there: adieu!  995

Lest our old robes sit easier than our new![362]

 

Ross. Farewell, father.

 

Old Man. God’s benison[363] go with you[364]; and with those

That would make good of bad, and friends of foes![365]

 

[Exeunt]

 

 

 

Third Act

 

Act III Scene 1

Forres. The palace.

 

 

[Enter BANQUO]

 

Banquo[366]. Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all,

As the weyward women promised, and, I fear,

Thou play’dst most foully for’t: yet it was said

It should not stand in thy posterity,                                    1005

But that myself should be the root and father

Of many kings. If there come truth from them—

As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine—

Why, by the verities on thee made good,

May they not be my oracles as well,                                  1010

And set me up in hope?[367] But hush! no more.

 

[Sennet sounded[368]. Enter MACBETH, as king, LADY MACBETH, as queen, LENNOX, ROSS, Lords, Ladies, and Attendants]

 

Macbeth. Here’s our chief guest.

 

Lady Macbeth. If he had been forgotten,                           1015

It had been as a gap in our great feast,

And all-thing unbecoming[369].

 

Macbeth. To-night we hold a solemn supper sir,

And I’ll request your presence.

 

Banquo. Let your highness                                                 1020

Command upon me; to the which my duties

Are with a most indissoluble tie

For ever knit[370].

 

Macbeth. Ride you this afternoon?

 

Banquo. Ay, my good lord.                                                 1025

 

Macbeth. We should have else desired your good advice,

Which still hath been both grave and prosperous,

In this day’s council; but we’ll take to-morrow.

Is’t far you ride?

 

Banquo. As far, my lord, as will fill up the time                 1030

’Twixt this and supper: go not my horse the better,

I must become a borrower of the night

For a dark hour or twain.

 

Macbeth. Fail not our feast.

 

Banquo. My lord, I will not.                                               1035

 

Macbeth. We hear, our bloody cousins are bestow’d

In England and in Ireland, not confessing

Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers

With strange invention: but of that to-morrow,

When therewithal we shall have cause of state                   1040

Craving us jointly. Hie you to horse: adieu,

Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you?

 

Banquo. Ay, my good lord: our time does call upon ‘s.

 

Macbeth. I wish your horses swift and sure of foot;

And so I do commend you to their backs. Farewell.           1045

 

[Exit BANQUO]

 

Let every man be master of his time

Till seven at night: to make society

The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself

Till supper-time alone: while then, God be with you!          1050

 

[Exeunt all but MACBETH, and an attendant]

 

Sirrah, a word with you: attend those men

Our pleasure?

 

Attendant. They are, my lord, without the palace gate.

 

Macbeth. Bring them before us.                                         1055

 

[Exit Attendant]

 

To be thus is nothing;

But to be safely thus.—Our fears in Banquo

Stick deep; and in his royalty of nature

Reigns that which would be fear’d: ‘tis much he dares;      1060

And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,

He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour

To act in safety. There is none but he

Whose being I do fear: and, under him,

My Genius is rebuked; as, it is said,                                    1065

Mark Antony’s was by Caesar. He chid the sisters

When first they put the name of king upon me[371],

And bade them speak to him[372]: then prophet-like

They hail’d him father to a line of kings:

Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown,                     1070

And put a barren sceptre in my gripe[373],

Thence to be wrench’d with an unlineal hand[374],

No son of mine succeeding[375]. If ’t be so,

For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind[376];

For them the gracious Duncan have I murder’d;                 1075

Put rancours in the vessel of my peace

Only for them; and mine eternal jewel

Given to the common enemy of man[377],

To make them kings[378], the seed of Banquo kings!

Rather than so, come fate into the list[379].                            1080

And champion me to th’utterance[380]^,[381]! Who’s there!

 

[Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers]

 

Now go to the door, and stay there till we call.

 

[Exit Attendant]

 

Was it not yesterday we spoke together?                             1085

 

First Murderer. It was, so please your highness.

 

Macbeth. Well then, now

Have you consider’d of my speeches? Know

That it was he in the times past which held you

So under fortune, which you thought had been                  1090

Our innocent self[382]: this I made good to you

In our last conference[383], pass’d in probation with you[384],

How you were borne in hand, how cross’d,

the instruments,

Who wrought with them[385], and all things else that might   1095

To half a soul and to a notion crazed

Say ‘Thus did Banquo.’

 

First Murderer. You made it known to us.

 

Macbeth. I did so, and went further, which is now

Our point of second meeting. Do you find                         1100

Your patience so predominant in your nature

That you can let this go?[386] Are you so gospell’d

To pray for this good man and for his issue,

Whose heavy hand hath bow’d you to the grave

And beggar’d yours for ever?[387]                                         1105

 

First Murderer. We are men, my liege.[388]

 

Macbeth. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men;

As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,

Shoughs[389], water-rugs[390] and demi-wolves[391], are clept[392]

All by the name of dogs: the valued file                             1110

Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle,

The housekeeper, the hunter, every one

According to the gift which bounteous nature

Hath in him closed[393]; whereby he does receive

Particular addition from the bill[394]                                       1115

That writes them all alike[395]: and so of men[396].

Now, if you have a station in the file,

Not i’ the worst rank of manhood, say ’t;

And I will put that business in your bosoms[397],

Whose execution takes your enemy off,                            1120

Grapples you to the heart and love of us,

Who wear our health but sickly in his life,

Which in his death were perfect[398].

 

Second Murderer. I am one, my liege,

Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world                  1125

Have so incensed that I am reckless what

I do to spite the world.[399]

 

First Murderer. And I another

So weary with disasters, tugg’d with fortune,

That I would set my life on any chance,                             1130

To mend it, or be rid on’t.[400]

 

Macbeth. Both of you

Know Banquo was your enemy.

 

First Murderer. [with Second Murderer] True, my lord.

 

Macbeth. So is he mine; and in such bloody distance,       1135

That every minute of his being thrusts

Against my near’st of life[401]: and though I could

With barefaced power sweep him from my sight

And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not,

For certain friends that are both his and mine,                    1140

Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall

Who I myself struck down; and thence it is,

That I to your assistance do make love,

Masking the business from the common eye

For sundry weighty reasons.[402]                                           1145

 

Second Murderer. We shall, my lord,

Perform what you command us.

 

First Murderer. Though our lives—[403]

 

Macbeth. Your spirits shine through you. Within this hour at most

I will advise you where to plant yourselves;                       1150

Acquaint you with the perfect’st spy o’ the time[404],

The moment on’t; for’t must be done to-night,

And something from the palace; always thought

That I require a clearness: and with him—

To leave no rubs nor botches in the work—                       1155

Fleance his son, that keeps him company,

Whose absence is no less material to me

Than is his father’s[405], must embrace the fate

Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart:[406]

I’ll come to you anon.                                                        1160

 

First Murderer. [With Second Murderer] We are resolved, my lord.[407]

 

Macbeth. I’ll call upon you straight: abide within.[408]

 

[Exeunt Murderers]

It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul’s flight,

If it find heaven, must find it out to-night.[409]                      1165

 

[Exit]

 

Act III Scene 2

 

The palace.

 

 

[Enter LADY MACBETH and a Servant]

 

Lady Macbeth. Is Banquo gone from court?[410]

 

Servant. Ay, madam, but returns again to-night.[411]

 

Lady Macbeth. Say to the king, I would attend his leisure 1170

For a few words.[412]

 

Servant. Madam, I will.

 

[Exit]

 

Lady Macbeth. Nought’s had, all’s spent,

Where our desire is got without content:                             1175

’Tis safer to be that which we destroy

Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.

 

[Enter MACBETH]

 

How now, my lord! why do you keep alone,

Of sorriest fancies your companions making[413],                 1180

Using those thoughts which should indeed have died

With them they think on?[414] Things without all remedy

Should be without regard: what’s done is done.[415]

 

Macbeth. We have scotch’d the snake, not kill’d it:[416]

She’ll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice             1185

Remains in danger of her former tooth.

But let the frame of things disjoint, both the

worlds suffer,

Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep

In the affliction of these terrible dreams                             1190

That shake us nightly: better be with the dead,

Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,

Than on the torture of the mind to lie

In restless ecstasy[417]. Duncan is in his grave;

After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well;                                1195

Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,

Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,

Can touch him further[418].

 

Lady Macbeth. Come on;

Gentle my lord, sleek o’er your rugged looks[419];                1200

Be bright and jovial among your guests to-night.

 

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                                                    1205

Must lave our honours in these flattering streams,

And make our faces vizards to our hearts,

Disguising what they are[420].

 

Lady Macbeth. You must leave this[421].

 

Macbeth. O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!        1210

Thou know’st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives.

 

Lady Macbeth. But in them Nature’s Copy’s[422] not eterne[423].

 

Macbeth.[424] There’s comfort yet; they are assailable;

Then be thou jocund: ere the bat hath flown

His cloister’d flight, ere to black Hecate’s summons           1215

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,    1220

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           1225

Makes wing to the rooky wood:

Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;

While 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[425].            1230

So, prithee, go with me[426].

 

[Exeunt]

 

 

Act III Scene 3

 

A park near the palace.

 

 

[Enter three Murderers]

 

First Murderer. But who did bid thee join with us?

 

Third Murderer. Macbeth.                                                 1235

 

Second Murderer. He needs not our mistrust, since he delivers

Our offices and what we have to do

To the direction just.

 

First Murderer. Then stand with us.

The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day:               1240

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!                         1245

 

Second Murderer. Then ’tis he: the rest

That are within the note of expectation

Already are i’ the court.[427]

 

First Murderer. His horses go about.[428]

 

Third Murderer. Almost a mile: but he does usually,         1250

So all men do, from hence to the palace gate

Make it their walk.[429]

 

Second Murderer. A light, a light!

 

[Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE with a torch]

 

Third Murderer. ’Tis he.                                                    1255

 

First Murderer. Stand to’t.[430]

 

Banquo. It will be rain to-night.

 

First Murderer. Let it come down.[431]

 

[They set upon BANQUO]

 

Banquo. O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!        1260

Thou mayst revenge.[432] O slave![433]

 

[Dies. FLEANCE escapes]

 

Third Murderer. Who did strike out the light?

 

First Murderer. Wast not the way?[434]

 

Third Murderer. There’s but one down; the son is fled.    1265

 

Second Murderer. We have lost

Best half of our affair.

 

First Murderer. Well, let’s away, and say how much is done.

 

[Exeunt]

 

 

Act III Scene 4

 

The same. Hall 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.[435]

 

Lords. Thanks to your majesty.

 

Macbeth. Ourself will mingle with society,                         1275

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.                              1280

 

[First Murderer appears at the door]

 

Macbeth. 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.[436]                                                              1285

 

[Approaching the door]

 

There’s blood on thy face.

 

First Murderer. ’Tis Banquo’s then.

 

Macbeth. ’Tis better thee without than he within.

Is he dispatch’d?[437]                                                             1290

 

First 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.

 

First Murderer. Most royal sir,                                          1295

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 cabin’d, cribb’d, confined, bound in            1300

To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo’s safe?[438]

 

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.[439]

 

Macbeth. Thanks for that:                                                  1305

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;                       1315

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.                             1320

 

[The GHOST OF BANQUO enters, and sits in MACBETH’s place]

 

Macbeth. Here had we now our country’s honour roof’d,

Were the graced person of our Banquo present;

Who may I rather challenge for unkindness                        1325

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.                                                   1330

 

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?                                               1335

 

Macbeth. Thou canst not say I did it: never shake

Thy gory locks at me.[440]

 

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;           1340

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           1345

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,                    1350

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.[441]                                                  1355

 

Macbeth. Prithee, see there! behold! look! lo!

how say you?

Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.

If charnel-houses[442] and our graves must send

Those that we bury back, our monuments                          1360

Shall be the maws of kites[443],[444].

 

[GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes]

 

Lady Macbeth. What, quite unmann’d in folly?

 

Macbeth. If I stand here, I saw him.[445]

 

Lady Macbeth. Fie, for shame!                                          1365

 

Macbeth. Blood hath been shed ere now, i’ the olden time,

Ere human statute purged the gentle weal; [446]

Ay, and since too, murders have been perform’d

Too terrible for the ear:[447] the times have been,

That, when the brains were out, the man would die,           1370

And there an end;[448] but now they rise again[449],

With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,

And push us from our stools: this is more strange

Than such a murder is.[450]

 

Lady Macbeth. My worthy lord,                                        1375

Your noble friends do lack you.[451]

 

Macbeth. I do forget.[452]

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;         1380

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.                                                                      1385

 

Lords. Our duties, and the pledge.

 

[Re-enter GHOST OF BANQUO]

 

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                              1390

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.[453]

 

Macbeth. What man dare, I dare[454]:                                   1395

Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,

The arm’d rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger[455];

Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves

Shall never tremble[456]: or be alive again,

And dare me to the desert with thy sword;                          1400

If trembling I inhabit then, protest me

The baby of a girl[457]. Hence, horrible shadow!

Unreal mockery, hence![458]

 

[GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes]

 

Why, so: being gone,                                                           1405

I am a man again.[459] Pray you, sit still.

 

Lady Macbeth. You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting,

With most admired disorder.[460]

 

Macbeth. Can such things be,

And overcome us like a summer’s cloud,                           1410

Without our special wonder?[461] 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.[462]                                   1415

 

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.[463]                                                                1420

 

Lennox. Good night; and better health

Attend his majesty!

 

Lady Macbeth. A kind good night to all!

 

[Exeunt all but MACBETH and LADY MACBETH]

 

Macbeth. It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood[464]:      1425

Stones have been known to move and trees to speak[465];

Augurs[466] and understood relations[467] have

By magot-pies[468]and choughs and rooks[469] brought forth

The secret’st man of blood.[470] What is the night?[471]

 

Lady Macbeth. Almost at odds with morning, which is which.[472]

                                                                                           1430

Macbeth. How say’st thou, that Macduff denies his person

At our great bidding?[473]

 

Lady Macbeth. Did you send to him, sir?[474]

 

Macbeth. I hear it by the way; but I will send:[475]

There’s not a one of them but in his house                         1435

I keep a servant fee’d.[476] I will to-morrow,

And betimes I will, to the weyward sisters:[477]

More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know,

By the worst means, the worst.[478] For mine own good,

All causes shall give way:[479] I am in blood                         1440

Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more,

Returning were as tedious as go o’er:[480]

Strange things I have in head, that will to hand;

Which must be acted ere they may be scann’d.[481]

 

Lady Macbeth. You lack the season of all natures, sleep.[482] 1445

 

Macbeth. Come, we’ll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse

Is the initiate fear[483] that wants hard use[484]:[485]

We are yet but young in deed.[486]

 

[Exeunt]

 

 

Act III Scene 5

 

A Heath.

 

[Thunder. Enter the three Witches meeting HECATE]

 

First Witch. Why, how now, Hecate! you look angerly[487].

 

Hecate.[488] Have I not reason, beldams[489] as you are,

Saucy[490] and overbold? How did you dare

To trade and traffic with Macbeth

In riddles and affairs of death;[491]                                        1455

And I, the mistress of your charms,

The close contriver[492] of all harms,

Was never call’d to bear my part,

Or show the glory of our art?

And, which is worse, all you have done                             1460

Hath been but for a wayward son,

Spiteful and wrathful, who, as others do,

Loves for his own ends, not for you.[493]

But make amends now: get you gone,

And at the pit of Acheron[494]                                                1465

Meet me i’ the morning: thither he

Will come to know his destiny:

Your vessels and your spells provide,

Your charms and every thing beside.[495]

I am for the air; this night I’ll spend                                   1470

Unto a dismal and a fatal end:[496]

Great business must be wrought ere noon:

Upon the corner of the moon

There hangs a vaporous drop profound;

I’ll catch it ere it come to ground:[497]                                    1475

And that distill’d by magic sleights

Shall raise such artificial sprites

As by the strength of their illusion

Shall draw him on to his confusion:[498]

He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear                          1480

His hopes ’bove wisdom, grace and fear:[499]

And you all know, security

Is mortals’ chiefest enemy[500].

 

[Music and a song within: ‘Come away, come away,’ &c]

 

Hark! I am call’d; my little spirit, see,                                1485

Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me.[501]

 

[Exit]

 

First Witch. Come, let’s make haste; she’ll soon be back again.[502]

 

[Exeunt]

 

 

Act III Scene 6

Forres. The palace.

 

[Enter LENNOX and another Lord]

 

Lennox. My former speeches have but hit your thoughts,

Which can interpret further: only, I say,

Things have been strangely borne. The

gracious Duncan

Was pitied of Macbeth: marry, he was dead:                      1495

And the right-valiant Banquo walk’d too late[503];

Whom, you may say, if’t please you, Fleance kill’d,

For Fleance fled: men must not walk too late.[504]

Who cannot want the thought how monstrous

It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain                               1500

To kill their gracious father? damned fact!

How it did grieve Macbeth! did he not straight

In pious rage the two delinquents tear,

That were the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep?

Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely too;                     1505

For ’twould have anger’d any heart alive

To hear the men deny’t.[505] So that, I say,

He has borne all things well: and I do think

That had he Duncan’s sons under his key—

As, an’t please heaven, he shall not—they                          1510

should find

What ’twere to kill a father; so should Fleance.

But, peace! for from broad words and ’cause he fail’d

His presence at the tyrant’s feast,[506]^,[507] I hear

Macduff lives in disgrace: sir, can you tell                          1515

Where he bestows himself?[508]

 

Lord. The son of Duncan,

From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth

Lives in the English court, and is received

Of the most pious Edward[509] with such grace                    1520

That the malevolence of fortune nothing

Takes from his high respect: thither Macduff

Is gone to pray the holy king, upon his aid

To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward[510]:

That, by the help of these—with Him above                      1525

To ratify the work—we may again

Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights,

Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives,

Do faithful homage and receive free honours:

All which we pine for now: and this report                        1530

Hath so exasperate the king that he

Prepares for some attempt of war.

 

Lennox. Sent he to Macduff?[511]

 

Lord. He did: and with an absolute ‘Sir, not I’[512]

The cloudy messenger turns me his back,                          1535

And hums, as who should say ‘You’ll rue the time

That clogs me with this answer.’[513]

 

Lennox. And that well might

Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance

His wisdom can provide.[514] Some holy angel                     1540

Fly to the court of England and unfold

His message ere he come, that a swift blessing

May soon return to this our suffering country

Under a hand accursed![515]

 

Lord. I’ll send my prayers with him.                                  1545

 

[Exeunt]

 

 

 

Fourth Act

 

 

Act IV Scene 1

A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron.

 

[Thunder. Enter the three Witches]

 

First Witch. Thrice the brinded[516] cat hath mew’d.[517]

 

Second Witch. Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.

 

Third Witch. Harpier cries ’Tis time, ’tis time.                   1550

 

First Witch. Round about the cauldron go;

In the poison’d entrails throw.

Toad, that under cold stone

Days and nights has thirty-one

Swelter’d venom sleeping got,                                            1555

Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.

 

All. Double[518], double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

Second Witch. Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the cauldron boil and bake;                                            1560

Eye of newt and toe of frog,

Wool of bat and tongue of dog,

Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,

Lizard’s leg and owlet’s wing,

For a charm of powerful trouble,                                        1565

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

 

All. Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

 

Third Witch. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,

Witches’ mummy, maw and gulf                                        1570

Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark,

Root of hemlock digg’d i’ the dark,

Liver of blaspheming Jew,

Gall of goat, and slips of yew

Silver’d in the moon’s eclipse,                                           1575

Nose of Turk and Tartar’s lips,

Finger of birth-strangled babe

Ditch-deliver’d by a drab,

Make the gruel thick and slab:

Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron,                                          1580

For the ingredients of our cauldron.

 

All. Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

 

Second Witch. Cool it with a baboon’s blood,

Then the charm is firm and good.                                       1585

 

[Enter HECATE to the other three Witches]

 

Hecate. O well done! I commend your pains;

And every one shall share i’ the gains;

And now about the cauldron sing,

Live elves and fairies in a ring,                                           1590

Enchanting all that you put in.

 

[Music and a song: ‘Black spirits,’ &c]

 

[HECATE retires]

 

Second Witch. By the pricking of my thumbs,

Something wicked this way comes.[519]                                 1595

Open, locks,

Whoever knocks!

 

[Enter MACBETH]

 

Macbeth. How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!

What is’t you do?                                                                1600

 

All. A deed without a name.

 

Macbeth. I conjure you, by that which you profess,

Howe’er you come to know it, answer me[520]:

Though you untie the winds and let them fight

Against the churches[521]; though the yesty waves                 1605

Confound and swallow navigation up[522];

Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down;

Though castles topple on their warders’ heads;

Though palaces and pyramids do slope

Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure          1610

Of nature’s germens tumble all together,

Even till destruction sicken; answer me

To what I ask you.[523]

 

First Witch. Speak.

 

Second Witch. Demand.                                                     1615

 

Third Witch. We’ll answer.[524]

 

First Witch. Say, if thou’dst rather hear it from our mouths,

Or from our masters?

 

Macbeth. Call ’em; let me see ’em.

 

First Witch. Pour in sow’s blood, that hath eaten               1620

Her nine farrow; grease that’s sweaten

From the murderer’s gibbet throw

Into the flame.[525]

 

All. Come, high or low;

Thyself and office deftly show!                                         1625

 

[Thunder. First Apparition: an armed Head]

 

Macbeth. Tell me, thou unknown power,—

 

First Witch. He knows thy thought:

Hear his speech, but say thou nought.

 

First Apparition. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff;

                                                                                           1630

Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough.

 

[Descends]

 

Macbeth. Whate’er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks;

Thou hast harp’d my fear aright: but one

word more,—                                                                      1635

 

First Witch. He will not be commanded: here’s another,

More potent than the first.

 

[Thunder. Second Apparition: A bloody Child]

 

Second Apparition. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!

 

Macbeth. Had I three ears, I’ld hear thee.                           1640

 

Second Apparition. Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn

The power of man, for none of woman born

Shall harm Macbeth.

 

[Descends]

 

Macbeth. Then live, Macduff: what need I fear of thee?   1645

But yet I’ll make assurance double sure,

And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live;

That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies,

And sleep in spite of thunder.

 

[Thunder. Third Apparition: a Child crowned,
with a tree in his hand]                                                      1650

 

What is this

That rises like the issue of a king,

And wears upon his baby-brow the round

And top of sovereignty?

 

All. Listen, but speak not to’t.                                             1655

 

Third Apparition. Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care

Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are:

Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until

Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill

Shall come against him.                                                      1660

 

[Descends]

 

Macbeth. That will never be

Who can impress the forest, bid the tree

Unfix his earth-bound root? Sweet bodements! good![526]

Rebellion’s head, rise never till the wood                            1665

Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth

Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath

To time and mortal custom. Yet my heart

Throbs to know one thing: tell me, if your art

Can tell so much: shall Banquo’s issue ever                        1670

Reign in this kingdom?

 

All. Seek to know no more.

 

Macbeth. I will be satisfied: deny me this,

And an eternal curse fall on you! Let me know.

Why sinks that cauldron? and what noise is this? 1675

[Hautboys]

 

First Witch. Show!

Second Witch. Show!

Third Witch. Show!

All. Show his eyes, and grieve his heart;                             1680

Come like shadows, so depart!

 

[A show of Eight Kings, the last with a glass in his hand; GHOST OF BANQUO following]

 

Macbeth. Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo: down!

Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls. And thy hair,             1685

Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first.

A third is like the former. Filthy hags!

Why do you show me this? A fourth! Start, eyes!

What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom?

Another yet! A seventh! I’ll see no more:                            1690

And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass

Which shows me many more; and some I see

That two-fold balls and treble sceptres carry:[527]

Horrible sight! Now, I see, ’tis true;

For the blood-bolter’d Banquo smiles upon me,                 1695

And points at them for his[528].

 

[Apparitions vanish]

 

What, is this so?

 

First Witch. Ay, sir, all this is so: but why

Stands Macbeth thus amazedly?                                         1700

Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites,

And show the best of our delights:

I’ll charm the air to give a sound,

While you perform your antic round:

That this great king may kindly say,                                    1705

Our duties did his welcome pay.

 

[Music. The witches dance and then vanish, with HECATE]

 

Macbeth. Where are they? Gone? Let this pernicious hour

Stand aye accursed in the calendar!

Come in, without there!                                                      1710

 

[Enter LENNOX]

 

Lennox. What’s your grace’s will?

 

Macbeth. Saw you the weird sisters?

 

Lennox. No, my lord.

 

Macbeth. Came they not by you?                                       1715

 

Lennox. No, indeed, my lord.

 

Macbeth. Infected be the air whereon they ride;

And damn’d all those that trust them! I did hear

The galloping of horse: who was’t came by?

 

Lennox. ’Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word     1720

Macduff is fled to England.

 

Macbeth. Fled to England!

 

Lennox. Ay, my good lord.

 

Macbeth. Time, thou anticipatest my dread exploits:

The flighty purpose never is o’ertook                                 1725

Unless the deed go with it; from this moment

The very firstlings of my heart shall be

The firstlings of my hand. And even now,

To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done:

The castle of Macduff I will surprise;                                 1730

Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o’ the sword

His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls

That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool;

This deed I’ll do before this purpose cool.

But no more sights!—Where are these gentlemen?             1735

Come, bring me where they are.

 

[Exeunt]

 

 

 

Act IV Scene 2

 

Fife. Macduff’s castle.

 

[Enter LADY MACDUFF, her Son, and ROSS]

 

Lady Macduff. What had he done, to make him fly the land?

 

Ross. You must have patience, madam.                              1740

 

Lady Macduff. He had none:

His flight was madness: when our actions do not,

Our fears do make us traitors.

 

Ross. You know not

Whether it was his wisdom or his fear.                                1745

 

Lady Macduff. Wisdom! to leave his wife, to leave his babes,

His mansion and his titles in a place

From whence himself does fly? He loves us not;

He wants the natural touch: for the poor wren,

The most diminutive of birds, will fight,                             1750

Her young ones in her nest, against the owl.

All is the fear and nothing is the love;

As little is the wisdom, where the flight

So runs against all reason.

 

Ross. My dearest coz,                                                         1755

I pray you, school yourself: but for your husband,

He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows

The fits o’ the season. I dare not speak

much further;

But cruel are the times, when we are traitors                       1760

And do not know ourselves, when we hold rumour

From what we fear, yet know not what we fear,

But float upon a wild and violent sea

Each way and move. I take my leave of you:

Shall not be long but I’ll be here again:                               1765

Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward

To what they were before. My pretty cousin,

Blessing upon you!

 

Lady Macduff. Father’d he is, and yet he’s fatherless.[529]

 

Ross. I am so much a fool, should I stay longer,                 1770

It would be my disgrace and your discomfort:

I take my leave at once.

 

[Exit]

 

Lady Macduff. Sirrah, your father’s dead;

And what will you do now? How will you live?                 1775

 

Son. As birds do, mother.

 

Lady Macduff. What, with worms and flies?

 

Son. With what I get, I mean; and so do they.

 

Lady Macduff. Poor bird! thou’ldst never fear the net nor lime,[530]

The pitfall nor the gin.[531]                                                     1780

 

Son. Why should I, mother? Poor birds they are not set for.[532]

My father is not dead, for all your saying.

 

Lady Macduff. Yes, he is dead; how wilt thou do for a father?

 

Son. Nay, how will you do for a husband?

 

Lady Macduff. Why, I can buy me twenty at any market.  1785

 

Son. Then you’ll buy ’em to sell again.

 

Lady Macduff. Thou speak’st with all thy wit: and yet, i’ faith,

With wit enough for thee.

 

Son. Was my father a traitor, mother?

 

Lady Macduff. Ay, that he was.[533]                                      1790

 

Son. What is a traitor?

 

Lady Macduff. Why, one that swears and lies.

 

Son. And be all traitors that do so?

 

Lady Macduff. Every one that does so is a traitor, and must be hanged.

 

Son. And must they all be hanged that swear and lie?         1795

 

Lady Macduff. Every one.[534]

 

Son. Who must hang them?

 

Lady Macduff. Why, the honest men.[535]

 

Son. Then the liars and swearers are fools,

for there are liars and swearers enow to beat                      1800

the honest men and hang up them.[536]

 

Lady Macduff. Now, God help thee, poor monkey!

But how wilt thou do for a father?

 

Son. If he were dead, you’ld weep for

him: if you would not, it were a good sign                          1805

that I should quickly have a new father.

 

Lady Macduff. Poor prattler, how thou talk’st!

 

[Enter a Messenger]

 

Messenger. Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known,

Though in your state of honour I am perfect.                     1810

I doubt some danger does approach you nearly:

If you will take a homely man’s advice,

Be not found here; hence, with your little ones.[537]

To fright you thus, methinks, I am too savage;

To do worse to you were fell cruelty,                                  1815

Which is too nigh your person.[538] Heaven preserve you!

I dare abide no longer.[539]

 

[Exit]

 

Lady Macduff. Whither should I fly?

I have done no harm. But I remember now                         1820

I am in this earthly world; where to do harm

Is often laudable, to do good sometime

Accounted dangerous folly: why then, alas,

Do I put up that womanly defence,

To say I have done no harm?                                              1825

 

[Enter Murderers]

 

What are these faces?

 

First Murderer. Where is your husband?

 

Lady Macduff. I hope, in no place so unsanctified

Where such as thou mayst find him.[540]                               1830

 

First Murderer. He’s a traitor.

 

Son. Thou liest, thou shag-hair’d villain!

 

First Murderer. What, you egg!

[Stabbing him]

Young fry of treachery!                                                      1835

 

Son. He has kill’d me, mother:

Run away, I pray you!

 

[Dies]

 

[Exit LADY MACDUFF, crying ‘Murder!’

Exeunt Murderers, following her]                                       1840

 

 

Act IV Scene 3

England. Before the King’s palace.

 

[Enter MALCOLM and MACDUFF]

 

Malcolm. Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there

Weep our sad bosoms empty.

 

Macduff. Let us rather

Hold fast the mortal sword, and like good men                   1845

Bestride our down-fall’n birthdom: each new morn

New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows

Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds

As if it felt with Scotland and yell’d out

Like syllable of dolour.                                                       1850

 

Malcolm. What I believe I’ll wail,

What know believe, and what I can redress,

As I shall find the time to friend, I will.[541]

What you have spoke, it may be so perchance.[542]

This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,              1855

Was once thought honest: you have loved him well.

He hath not touch’d you yet. I am young;

but something

You may deserve of him through me, and wisdom

To offer up a weak poor innocent lamb                              1860

To appease an angry god.[543]

 

Macduff. I am not treacherous.[544]

 

Malcolm. But Macbeth is.[545]

A good and virtuous nature may recoil

In an imperial charge. But I shall crave                               1865

your pardon;

That which you are my thoughts cannot transpose:

Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell;

Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace,

Yet grace must still look so.                                                 1870

 

Macduff. I have lost my hopes.

 

Malcolm. Perchance even there where I did find my doubts.

Why in that rawness left you wife and child,

Those precious motives, those strong knots of love,

Without leave-taking? I pray you,                                       1875

Let not my jealousies be your dishonours,

But mine own safeties. You may be rightly just,

Whatever I shall think.[546]

 

Macduff. Bleed, bleed, poor country!

Great tyranny! lay thou thy basis sure,                                1880

For goodness dare not check thee[547]: wear thou

thy wrongs;

The title is affeer’d! Fare thee well, lord:

I would not be the villain that thou think’st

For the whole space that’s in the tyrant’s grasp,                  1885

And the rich East to boot.[548]

 

Malcolm. Be not offended:

I speak not as in absolute fear of you.[549]

I think our country sinks beneath the yoke;

It weeps, it bleeds; and each new day a gash                      1890

Is added to her wounds: I think withal

There would be hands uplifted in my right;

And here from gracious England have I offer

Of goodly thousands: but, for all this,

When I shall tread upon the tyrant’s head,                          1895

Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country

Shall have more vices than it had before,

More suffer and more sundry ways than ever,

By him that shall succeed.[550]

 

Macduff. What should he be?[551]                                         1900

 

Malcolm. It is myself I mean: in whom I know

All the particulars of vice so grafted

That, when they shall be open’d, black Macbeth

Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state

Esteem him as a lamb, being compared                              1905

With my confineless harms.[552]

 

Macduff. Not in the legions

Of horrid hell can come a devil more damn’d

In evils to top Macbeth.[553]

 

Malcolm. I grant him bloody,                                             1910

Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful,

Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin

That has a name: but there’s no bottom, none,

In my voluptuousness: your wives, your daughters,

Your matrons and your maids, could not fill up                  1915

The cistern of my lust, and my desire

All continent impediments would o’erbear

That did oppose my will[554]: better Macbeth

Than such an one to reign[555].

 

Macduff. Boundless intemperance[556]                                  1920

In nature is a tyranny; it hath been

The untimely emptying of the happy throne

And fall of many kings.[557] But fear not yet

To take upon you what is yours: you may

Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty,                       1925

And yet seem cold, the time you may so hoodwink.[558]

We have willing dames enough: there cannot be

That vulture in you, to devour so many

As will to greatness dedicate themselves,

Finding it so inclined.[559]                                                      1930

 

Malcolm. With this there grows

In my most ill-composed affection such

A stanchless avarice that[560], were I king,

I should cut off the nobles for their lands,

Desire his jewels and this other’s house:[561]                         1935

And my more-having would be as a sauce

To make me hunger more;[562] that I should forge

Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal,

Destroying them for wealth.[563]

 

Macduff. This avarice                                                         1940

Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root

Than summer-seeming lust[564], and it hath been

The sword of our slain kings:[565] yet do not fear;

Scotland hath foisons to fill up your will.[566]

Of your meere own[567]: all these are portable,                      1945

With other graces weigh’d.[568]

 

Malcolm. But I have none: the king-becoming graces,[569]

As justice, verity, temperance, stableness,

Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,

Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude,                               1950

I have no relish of them, but abound

In the division of each several crime,

Acting it many ways.[570] Nay, had I power, I should

Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell,

Uproar the universal peace, confound                                1955

All unity on earth.[571]

 

Macduff. O Scotland, Scotland!

 

Malcolm. If such a one be fit to govern, speak:

I am as I have spoken.[572]

 

Macduff. Fit to govern!                                                       1960

No, not to live.[573] O nation miserable,

With an untitled tyrant bloody-scepter’d,

When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again,

Since that the truest issue of thy throne

By his own interdiction stands accursed,                            1965

And does blaspheme his breed?[574] Thy royal father

Was a most sainted king: the queen that bore thee,

Oftener upon her knees than on her feet,[575]

Died every day she lived.[576] Fare thee well!

These evils thou repeat’st upon thyself                               1970

Have banish’d me from Scotland.[577] O my breast,

Thy hope ends here![578]

 

Malcolm. Macduff, this noble passion,

Child of integrity, hath from my soul

Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts              1975

To thy good truth and honour.[579] Devilish Macbeth

By many of these traines[580] hath sought to win me

Into his power, and modest wisdom plucks me

From over-credulous haste[581]: but God above

Deal between thee and me! for even now                           1980

I put myself to thy direction[582], and

Unspeak mine own detraction,[583]^,[584] here abjure

The taints and blames I laid upon myself,

For strangers to my nature.[585] I am yet

Unknown to woman, never was forsworn,                         1985

Scarcely have coveted what was mine own,

At no time broke my faith, would not betray

The devil to his fellow and delight

No less in truth than life:[586] my first false speaking

Was this upon myself:[587] what I am truly,                           1990

Is thine and my poor country’s to command:[588]

Whither indeed, before thy here-approach,

Old Siward, with ten thousand warlike men,

Already at a point, was setting forth.[589]

Now we’ll together; and the chance of goodness                1995

Be like our warranted quarrel![590] Why are you silent?[591]

 

Macduff. Such welcome and unwelcome things at once

’Tis hard to reconcile.[592]

 

[Enter a Doctor]

 

Malcolm. Well; more anon.—Comes the king forth, I pray you?[593]

                                                                                           2000

Doctor. Ay, sir; there are a crew of wretched souls

That stay his cure: their malady convinces

The great assay of art; but at his touch—

Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand—

They presently amend.[594]                                                    2005

Malcolm. I thank you, doctor.

 

[Exit Doctor]

 

Macduff. What’s the disease he means?

 

Malcolm. ’Tis call’d the evil:[595]

A most miraculous work in this good king;[596]                     2010

Which often, since my here-remain in England,

I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven,

Himself best knows:[597] but strangely-visited people,[598]

All swolne and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye,

The meere despair of surgery, he cures,[599]                          2015

Hanging a golden stamp[600] about their necks,

Put on with holy prayers: and ’tis spoken,

To the succeeding royalty he leaves

The healing benediction[601]. With this strange virtue,

He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy,[602]                              2020

And sundry blessings hang about his throne,

That speak him full of grace.[603]

 

[Enter ROSS]

 

Macduff. See, who comes here?

 

Malcolm. My countryman; but yet I know him not.[604]        2025

 

Macduff. My ever-gentle cousin, welcome hither.[605]

 

Malcolm. I know him now. Good God, betimes remove

The means that makes us strangers![606]

 

Ross. Sir, amen.[607]

 

Macduff. Stands Scotland where it did?[608]                          2030

 

Ross. Alas, poor country!

Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot

Be call’d our mother, but our grave; where nothing,

But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile;[609]

Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the air          2035

Are made, not mark’d;[610] where violent sorrow seems

A modern ecstasy; the dead man’s knell

Is there scarce ask’d for who;[611] and good men’s lives

Expire before the flowers in their caps,

Dying or ere they sicken.[612]                                                2040

 

Macduff. O, relation

Too nice, and yet too true![613]

 

Malcolm. What’s the newest grief?

 

Ross. That of an hour’s age doth hiss the speaker:

Each minute teems a new one.[614]                                        2045

 

Macduff. How does my wife?

 

Ross. Why, well.

 

Macduff. And all my children?

 

Ross. Well too.

 

Macduff. The tyrant has not batter’d at their peace?           2050

 

Ross. No; they were well at peace when I did leave ’em.[615]

 

Macduff. But not a niggard of your speech: how goes’t?[616]

 

Ross. When I came hither to transport the tidings,

Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumour

Of many worthy fellows that were out;                               2055

Which was to my belief witness’d the rather,

For that I saw the tyrant’s power a-foot:

Now is the time of help; your eye in Scotland

Would create soldiers, make our women fight,

To doff their dire distresses.                                                2060

 

Malcolm. Be’t their comfort

We are coming thither: gracious England hath

Lent us good Siward and ten thousand men;

An older and a better soldier none

That Christendom gives out.                                               2065

Ross. Would I could answer

This comfort with the like! But I have words

That would be howl’d out in the desert air,

Where hearing should not latch them.

 

Macduff. What concern they?                                            2070

The general cause? or is it a fee-grief

Due to some single breast?

 

Ross. No mind that’s honest

But in it shares some woe; though the main part

Pertains to you alone.                                                          2075

 

Macduff. If it be mine,

Keep it not from me, quickly let me have it.

 

Ross. Let not your ears despise my tongue for ever,

Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound

That ever yet they heard.                                                    2080

 

Macduff. Hum! I guess at it.

 

Ross. Your castle is surprised; your wife and babes

Savagely slaughter’d: to relate the manner,

Were, on the quarry of these murder’d deer,

To add the death of you.[617]                                                 2085

 

Malcolm. Merciful heaven!

What, man! ne’er pull your hat upon your brows;

Give sorrow words: the grief that does not speak

Whispers the o’er-fraught heart and bids it break.[618]

 

Macduff. My children too?                                                 2090

 

Ross. Wife, children, servants, all

That could be found.

 

Macduff. And I must be from thence!

My wife kill’d too?

 

Ross. I have said.                                                                2095

 

Malcolm. Be comforted:

Let’s make us medicines of our great revenge,

To cure this deadly grief.

 

Macduff. He has no children. All my pretty ones?

Did you say all? O hell-kite![619] All?                                   2100

What, all my pretty chickens and their damme

At one fell swoop?[620]

 

Malcolm. Dispute it like a man.

 

Macduff. I shall do so;

But I must also feel it as a man:[621]                                      2105

I cannot but remember such things were,

That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on,

And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff,

They were all struck for thee! naught that I am,

Not for their own demerits, but for mine,                            2110

Fell slaughter on their souls.[622] Heaven rest them now!

 

Malcolm. Be this the whetstone of your sword: let grief

Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it.[623]

 

Macduff. O, I could play the woman with mine eyes

And braggart with my tongue![624] But, gentle heavens,        2115

Cut short all intermission; front to front

Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself;

Within my sword’s length set him; if he ’scape,

Heaven forgive him too!

 

Malcolm. This tune goes manly.[625]                                     2120

Come, go we to the king; our power is ready;[626]

Our lack is nothing but our leave;[627] Macbeth

Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above

Put on their instruments[628].[629] Receive what cheer you may:

The night is long that never finds the day.                           2125

 

[Exeunt]

 

 

 

Fifth Act

 

Act V Scene 1

Dunsinane. Ante-room in the castle.

 

[Enter a Doctor of Physic and a Waiting-Gentlewoman]

 

Doctor. I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive

no truth in your report. When was it she last walked?[630]

 

Gentlewoman. Since his majesty went into the field[631], I have seen

                                                                                           2130

her rise from her bed, throw her night-gown upon

her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it,

write upon’t, read it, afterwards seal it, and again

return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep.

 

Doctor. A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once   2135

the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of

watching![632] In this slumbery agitation, besides her

walking and other actual performances, what, at any

time, have you heard her say?

 

Gentlewoman. That, sir, which I will not report after her.   2140

 

Doctor. You may to me: and ‘tis most meet you should.

 

Gentlewoman. Neither to you nor any one; having no witness to

confirm my speech.

 

[Enter LADY MACBETH, with a taper[633]]

 

Lo you, here she comes! This is her very guise;                  2145

and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand close.

 

Doctor. How came she by that light?

 

Gentlewoman. Why, it stood by her: she has light by her

continually; ‘tis her command.

 

Doctor. You see, her eyes are open.                                    2150

 

Gentlewoman. Ay, but their sense is shut.

 

Doctor. What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands.

 

Gentlewoman. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus

washing her hands: I have known her continue in

this a quarter of an hour.                                                     2155

 

Lady Macbeth. Yet here’s a spot.[634]

 

Doctor. Hark! she speaks: I will set down what comes from

her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.

 

Lady Macbeth. Out, damned spot! out, I say![635]—One: two: why,

then, ’tis time to do’t.—Hell is murky!—Fie, my                2160

lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we

fear who knows it, when none can call our power to

account?[636]—Yet who would have thought the old man

to have had so much blood in him.

 

Doctor. Do you mark that?                                                 2165

 

Lady Macbeth. The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now?—

What, will these hands ne’er be clean?—No more o’

that, my lord, no more o’ that: you mar all with

this starting.

 

Doctor. Go to, go to; you have known what you should not. 2170

 

Gentlewoman. She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of

that: heaven knows what she has known.

 

Lady Macbeth. Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the

perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little

hand. Oh, oh, oh!                                                                2175

 

Doctor. What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged.

 

Gentlewoman. I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the

dignity of the whole body.

 

Doctor. Well, well, well,—

 

Gentlewoman. Pray God it be, sir.                                      2180

 

Doctor. This disease is beyond my practise: yet I have known

those which have walked in their sleep who have died

holily in their beds.

 

Lady Macbeth. Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not so

pale.—I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried; he                  2185

cannot come out on’s grave[637].

 

Doctor. Even so?

 

Lady Macbeth. To bed, to bed! there’s knocking at the gate:

come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What’s

done cannot be undone.—To bed, to bed, to bed!              2190

 

[Exit]

 

Doctor. Will she go now to bed?

 

Gentlewoman. Directly.

 

Doctor. Foul whisperings are abroad[638]: unnatural deeds

Do breed unnatural troubles: infected minds                      2195

To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets:

More needs she the divine than the physician.

God, God forgive us all! Look after her;

Remove from her the means of all annoyance,

And still keep eyes upon her[639]. So, good night:                 2200

My mind she has mated[640], and amazed my sight.

I think, but dare not speak.

 

Gentlewoman. Good night, good doctor.

 

[Exeunt]

 

 

Act V Scene 2

 

The country near Dunsinane.

 

[Drum and colours. Enter MENTEITH, CAITHNESS, ANGUS, LENNOX, and Soldiers]

 

Menteith. The English power is near, led on by Malcolm,

His uncle Siward and the good Macduff:

Revenges burn in them[641]; for their dear causes

Would to the bleeding[642], and the grim alarm                      2210

Excite the mortified man[643].[644]

 

Angus. Near Birnam wood

Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming.

 

Caithness. Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?

 

Lennox. For certain, sir, he is not: I have a file                   2215

Of all the gentry: there is Siward’s son,

And many unrough youths that even now

Protest their first of manhood.

 

Menteith. What does the tyrant?[645]

 

Caithness. Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies:               2220

Some say he’s mad; others that lesser hate him

Do call it valiant fury: but, for certain,

He cannot buckle his distemper’d cause

Within the belt of rule.

 

Angus. Now does he feel                                                    2225

His secret murders sticking on his hands;

Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach;

Those he commands move only in command,

Nothing in love: now does he feel his title

Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe                            2230

Upon a dwarfish thief.

 

 

Menteith. Who then shall blame

His pester’d senses to recoil and start,

When all that is within him does condemn

Itself for being there?                                                          2235

 

Caithness. Well, march we on,

To give obedience where ‘tis truly owed:

Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal,

And with him pour we in our country’s purge

Each drop of us.                                                                 2240

 

Lennox. Or so much as it needs,

To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds.

Make we our march towards Birnam.

 

[Exeunt, marching]

 

 

Act V Scene 3

 

Dunsinane. A room in the castle.

 

 

[Enter MACBETH, Doctor, and Attendants]

 

Macbeth. Bring me no more reports; let them fly all:

Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane,

I cannot taint with fear.[646] What’s the boy Malcolm?

Was he not born of woman?[647] The spirits that know

All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus:          2250

‘Fear not, Macbeth; no man that’s born of woman

Shall e’er have power upon thee.’ Then fly,

false thanes[648],

And mingle with the English epicures[649]:

The mind I sway by and the heart I bear                             2255

Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.

 

[Enter a Servant]

 

The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon!

Where got’st thou that goose look?

 

Servant. There is ten thousand—                                       2260

 

Macbeth. Geese, villain!

 

Servant. Soldiers, sir.

 

Macbeth. Go prick thy face, and over-red thy fear,

Thou lily-liver’d boy. What soldiers, patch?

Death of thy soul! those linen cheeks of thine                    2265

Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?

Servant. The English force, so please you.

 

Macbeth. Take thy face hence.

 

[Exit Servant]

 

Seyton!—I am sick at heart,                                                2270

When I behold—Seyton, I say!—This push

Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now.

I have lived long enough: my way of life

Is fall’n into the sear, the yellow leaf;

And that which should accompany old age,                        2275

As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,

I must not look to have; but, in their stead,

Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath,

Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not. Seyton!

 

[Enter SEYTON]

 

Seyton. What is your gracious pleasure?

 

Macbeth. What news more?

 

Seyton. All is confirm’d, my lord, which was reported.

 

Macbeth. I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hack’d.

Give me my armour.                                                           2285

 

Seyton. ’Tis not needed yet.

 

Macbeth. I’ll put it on.[650]

Send out more horses; skirr the country round[651];

Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armour.

How does your patient, doctor?                                          2290

 

Doctor. Not so sick, my lord,

As she is troubled with thick coming fancies,

That keep her from her rest.

 

Macbeth. Cure her of that.

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,                        2295

Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,

Raze out the written troubles of the brain

And with some sweet oblivious antidote

Cleanse the stuff’d bosom of that perilous stuff

Which weighs upon the heart?                                            2300

 

Doctor. Therein the patient

Must minister to himself.

 

Macbeth. Throw physic to the dogs; I’ll none of it.[652]

Come, put mine armour on[653]; give me my staff[654].

Seyton, send out. Doctor, the thanes fly from me.              2305

Come, sir, dispatch. If thou couldst, doctor, cast

The water of my land, find her disease,

And purge it to a sound and pristine health,

I would applaud thee to the very echo,

That should applaud again.—Pull’t off, I say[655].—            2310

What rhubarb, cyme, or what purgative drug,

Would scour these English hence? Hear’st thou of them?

 

Doctor. Ay, my good lord; your royal preparation

Makes us hear something.

 

Macbeth. Bring it after me.                                                2315

I will not be afraid of death and bane,

Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane.

 

Doctor. [Aside] Were I from Dunsinane away and clear,

Profit again should hardly draw me here.[656]

 

[Exeunt]

 

 

Act V Scene 4

 

Country near Birnam wood.

 

 

[Drum and colours[657]. Enter MALCOLM, SIWARD and YOUNG. SIWARD, MACDUFF, MENTEITH, CAITHNESS, ANGUS, [p]LENNOX, ROSS, and Soldiers, marching]

 

Malcolm. Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand

That chambers will be safe.                                                2325

 

Menteith. We doubt it nothing.

 

Siward. What wood is this before us?

 

Menteith. The wood of Birnam.

 

Malcolm. Let every soldier hew him down a bough

And bear’t before him: thereby shall we shadow                2330

The numbers of our host and make discovery

Err in report of us.

Soldiers. It shall be done.

 

Siward. We learn no other but the confident tyrant

Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure                           2335

Our setting down before ‘t.

 

Malcolm. ’Tis his main hope:

For where there is advantage to be given,

Both more and less have given him the revolt,

And none serve with him but constrained things                 2340

Whose hearts are absent too.

 

Macduff. Let our just censures

Attend the true event, and put we on

Industrious soldiership.

 

Siward. The time approaches                                             2345

That will with due decision make us know

What we shall say we have and what we owe.

Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate,

But certain issue strokes must arbitrate:

Towards which advance the war.                                        2350

 

[Exeunt, marching]

 

 

 

Act V Scene 5

 

Dunsinane. Within the castle.

 

 

[Enter MACBETH, SEYTON, and Soldiers, with drum and colours]

 

Macbeth. Hang out our banners on the outward walls;

The cry is still ‘They come:’ our castle’s strength

Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie                        2355

Till famine and the ague eat them up:

Were they not forced with those that should be ours,

We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,

And beat them backward home.

 

[A cry of women within]                                                      2360

 

What is that noise?

 

Seyton. It is the cry of women, my good lord.

 

[Exit]

 

Macbeth. I have almost forgot the taste of fears;

The time has been, my senses would have cool’d               2365

To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair

Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir

As life were in’t: I have supp’d full with horrors;

Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts

Cannot once start me.                                                         2370

 

[Re-enter SEYTON]

 

Wherefore was that cry?

 

Seyton. The queen, my lord, is dead.

 

Macbeth. She should have died hereafter;[658]

There would have been a time for such a word.                 2375

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

To the last syllable of recorded time,

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!                  2380

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.                                                              2385

 

[Enter a Messenger]

 

Thou comest to use thy tongue; thy story quickly.

 

Messenger. Gracious my lord,

I should report that which I say I saw,

But know not how to do it.                                                 2390

 

Macbeth. Well, say, sir.

 

Messenger. As I did stand my watch upon the hill,

I look’d toward Birnam, and anon, methought,

The wood began to move.

 

Macbeth. Liar and slave!                                                    2395

 

Messenger. Let me endure your wrath, if’t be not so:

Within this three mile may you see it coming;

I say, a moving grove.

 

Macbeth. If thou speak’st false,

Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive,                            2400

Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth,

I care not if thou dost for me as much.

I pull in resolution, and begin

To doubt the equivocation of the fiend

That lies like truth[659]: ‘Fear not, till Birnam wood               2405

Do come to Dunsinane:’ and now a wood

Comes toward Dunsinane[660]. Arm, arm, and out![661]

If this which he avouches does appear,

There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here.

I ’gin to be aweary of the sun,                                            2410

And wish the estate o’ the world were now undone.

Ring the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack!

At least we’ll die with harness on our back.

 

[Exeunt]

 

 

Act V Scene 6

Dunsinane. Before the castle.

 

[Drum and colours. Enter MALCOLM, SIWARD, MACDUFF, and their Army, with boughs]

 

Malcolm. Now near enough: your leafy screens throw down.

And show like those you are. You, worthy uncle,

Shall, with my cousin, your right-noble son,

Lead our first battle: worthy Macduff and we                     2420

Shall take upon ‘s what else remains to do,

According to our order.

 

Siward. Fare you well.

Do we but find the tyrant’s power to-night,

Let us be beaten, if we cannot fight.                                   2425

Macduff. Make all our trumpets speak; give them all breath,

Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.

 

[Exeunt]

 

 

 

Act V Scene 7

Another part of the field.

 

[Alarums. Enter MACBETH]

 

Macbeth. They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly,         2430

But, bear-like, I must fight the course.[662] What’s he

That was not born of woman? Such a one

Am I to fear, or none.

 

[Enter YOUNG SIWARD]

 

Young Siward. What is thy name?                                      2435

 

Macbeth. Thou’lt be afraid to hear it.

 

Young Siward. No; though thou call’st thyself a hotter name

Than any is in hell.

 

Macbeth. My name’s Macbeth.

 

Young Siward. The devil himself could not pronounce a title 2440

More hateful to mine ear.

 

Macbeth. No, nor more fearful.

 

Young Siward. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with my sword

I’ll prove the lie thou speak’st.

 

[They fight and YOUNG SIWARD is slain]

 

Macbeth. Thou wast born of woman

But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn,

Brandish’d by man that’s of a woman born.

 

[Exit]

 

[Alarums. Enter MACDUFF]

 

Macduff. That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy face!

If thou be’st slain and with no stroke of mine,

My wife and children’s ghosts will haunt me still.

I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms

Are hired to bear their staves: either thou, Macbeth,           2455

Or else my sword with an unbatter’d edge

I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be;

By this great clatter, one of greatest note

Seems bruited. Let me find him, fortune!

And more I beg not.                                                            2460

 

[Exit. Alarums]

 

[Enter MALCOLM and SIWARD]

 

Siward. This way, my lord; the castle’s gently render’d:

The tyrant’s people on both sides do fight;

The noble thanes do bravely in the war;                             2465

The day almost itself professes yours,

And little is to do.

Malcolm. We have met with foes

That strike beside us.

 

Siward. Enter, sir, the castle.                                               2470

 

[Exeunt. Alarums]

 

 

 

Act V Scene 8

Another part of the field.

 

[Enter MACBETH]

 

Macbeth. Why should I play the Roman fool, and die

On mine own sword? whiles I see lives, the gashes

Do better upon them.                                                          2475

 

[Enter MACDUFF]

 

Macduff. Turn, hell-hound, turn!

 

Macbeth. Of all men else I have avoided thee:

But get thee back; my soul is too much charged

With blood of thine already.                                               2480

 

Macduff. I have no words:

My voice is in my sword: thou bloodier villain

Than terms can give thee out!

 

[They fight]

 

Macbeth. Thou losest labour:                                            2485

As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air

With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed:

Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;

I bear a charmed life, which must not yield,

To one of woman born.                                                      2490

 

Macduff. Despair thy charm;

And let the angel whom thou still hast served

Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb

Untimely ripp’d.[663]

 

Macbeth. Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,            2495

For it hath cow’d my better part of man![664]

And be these juggling fiends no more believed[665]^,[666],

That palter with us in a double sense[667];

That keep the word of promise to our ear,

And break it to our hope. I’ll not fight with thee.               2500

 

Macduff. Then yield thee, coward,

And live to be the show and gaze o’ the time:

We’ll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,

Painted on a pole, and underwrit,

‘Here may you see the tyrant.’[668]                                        2505

 

Macbeth. I will not yield,

To kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet[669],

And to be baited with the rabble’s curse.

Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane,

And thou opposed, being of no woman born,                    2510

Yet I will try the last. Before my body

I throw my warlike shield.[670] Lay on, Macduff,

And damn’d be him that first cries, ‘Hold, enough!’

 

[Exeunt, fighting. Alarums][671]

 

[Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colours,]             2515

MALCOLM, SIWARD, ROSS, the other Thanes, and Soldiers][672]

 

Malcolm. I would the friends we miss were safe arrived.[673]

 

Siward. Some must go off: and yet, by these I see,

So great a day as this is cheaply bought.[674]

 

Malcolm. Macduff is missing, and your noble son.           2520

 

Ross. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier’s debt:

He only lived but till he was a man;

The which no sooner had his prowess confirm’d

In the unshrinking station where he fought,

But like a man he died.[675]                                                   2525

 

Siward. Then he is dead?

 

Ross. Ay, and brought off the field: your cause of sorrow

Must not be measured by his worth, for then

It hath no end.

 

Siward. Had he his hurts before?[676]                                    2530

 

Ross. Ay, on the front.

 

Siward. Why then, God’s soldier be he!

Had I as many sons as I have hairs,

I would not wish them to a fairer death:

And so, his knell is knoll’d.[677]                                            2535

 

Malcolm. He’s worth more sorrow,

And that I’ll spend for him.[678]

 

Siward. He’s worth no more

They say he parted well, and paid his score:[679]

And so, God be with him! Here comes newer comfort.[680] 2540

 

[Re-enter MACDUFF, with MACBETH’s head]

 

Macduff. Hail, king! for so thou art: behold, where stands

The usurper’s cursed head: the time is free:[681]

I see thee compass’d with thy kingdom’s pearl,

That speak my salutation in their minds;                             2545

Whose voices I desire aloud with mine:[682]

Hail, King of Scotland!

 

All. Hail, King of Scotland![683]

 

[Flourish]

 

Malcolm. We shall not spend a large expense of time        2550

Before we reckon with your several loves,

And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen,

Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland

In such an honour named.[684] What’s more to do,

Which would be planted newly with the time,                    2555

As calling home our exiled friends abroad

That fled the snares of watchful tyranny;[685]

Producing forth the cruel ministers

Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen,

Who, as ’tis thought, by self and violent hands                  2560

Took off her life;[686] this, and what needful else

That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace,

We will perform in measure, time and place:[687],[688]

So, thanks to all at once and to each one,

Whom we invite to see us crown’d at Scone.[689]                  2565

 

[Flourish. Exeunt]