
                The Tragedy of Macbeth
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**** ACT I ****
**** SCENE I. 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,
     When the battle's lost and won.
Third Witch
     That will be ere the set of sun.
First Witch
     Where the place?
Second Witch
     Upon the heath.
Third Witch
     There to meet with Macbeth.
First Witch
     I come, Graymalkin!
Second Witch
     Paddock calls.
Third Witch
     Anon.
ALL
     Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
     Hover through the fog and filthy air.
     Exeunt
**** SCENE II. 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, of the revolt
     The newest state.
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
     As thou didst leave it.
Sergeant
     Doubtful it stood;
     As two spent swimmers, that do cling together
     And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald--
     Worthy to be a rebel, for to that
     The multiplying villanies of nature
     Do swarm upon him--from the western isles
     Of kerns and gallowglasses 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--
     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;
     Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
     Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps,
     And fix'd his head upon our battlements.
DUNCAN
     O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!
Sergeant
     As whence the sun 'gins his reflection
     Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break,
     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,
     With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men
     Began a fresh assault.
DUNCAN
     Dismay'd not this
     Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?
Sergeant
     Yes;
     As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.
     If I say sooth, 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,
     Or memorise another Golgotha,
     I cannot tell.
     But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.
DUNCAN
     So well thy words become thee as thy wounds;
     They smack of honour both. Go get him surgeons.
     Exit Sergeant, attended
     Who comes here?
     Enter ROSS
MALCOLM
     The worthy thane of Ross.
LENNOX
     What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look
     That seems to speak things strange.
ROSS
     God save the king!
DUNCAN
     Whence camest thou, worthy thane?
ROSS
     From Fife, great king;
     Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky
     And fan our people cold. Norway himself,
     With terrible numbers,
     Assisted by that most disloyal traitor
     The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict;
     Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof,
     Confronted him with self-comparisons,
     Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm.
     Curbing his lavish spirit: and, to conclude,
     The victory fell on us.
DUNCAN
     Great happiness!
ROSS
     That now
     Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition:
     Nor would we deign him burial of his men
     Till he disbursed at Saint Colme's inch
     Ten thousand dollars to our general use.
DUNCAN
     No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive
     Our bosom interest: go pronounce his present death,
     And with his former title greet Macbeth.
ROSS
     I'll see it done.
DUNCAN
     What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won.
     Exeunt
**** SCENE III. A heath near Forres. ****
     Thunder. Enter the three Witches
First Witch
     Where hast thou been, sister?
Second Witch
     Killing swine.
Third Witch
     Sister, where thou?
First Witch
     A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap,
     And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd:--
     'Give me,' quoth I:
     'Aroint thee, witch!' the rump-fed ronyon cries.
     Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger:
     But in a sieve I'll thither sail,
     And, like a rat without a tail,
     I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do.
Second Witch
     I'll give thee a wind.
First Witch
     Thou'rt kind.
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.
     I will drain him dry as hay:
     Sleep shall neither night nor day
     Hang upon his pent-house lid;
     He shall live a man forbid:
     Weary se'nnights nine times nine
     Shall he dwindle, peak and pine:
     Though his bark cannot be lost,
     Yet it shall be tempest-tost.
     Look what I have.
Second Witch
     Show me, show me.
First Witch
     Here I have a pilot's thumb,
     Wreck'd as homeward he did come.
     Drum within
Third Witch
     A drum, a drum!
     Macbeth doth come.
ALL
     The weird sisters, 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.
     Peace! the charm's wound up.
     Enter MACBETH and BANQUO
MACBETH
     So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
BANQUO
     How far is't call'd to Forres? What are these
     So wither'd and so wild in their attire,
     That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,
     And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught
     That man may question? You seem to understand me,
     By each at once her chappy finger laying
     Upon her skinny lips: you should be women,
     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!
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? I' the name of truth,
     Are ye fantastical, or that indeed
     Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner
     You greet with present grace and great prediction
     Of noble having and of royal hope,
     That he seems rapt withal: to me you speak not.
     If you can look into the seeds of time,
     And say which grain will grow and which will not,
     Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
     Your favours nor your hate.
First Witch
     Hail!
Second Witch
     Hail!
Third Witch
     Hail!
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:
     So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!
First Witch
     Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!
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,
     No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence
     You owe this strange intelligence? or why
     Upon this blasted heath 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 melted
     As breath into the wind. Would they had stay'd!
BANQUO
     Were such things here as we do speak about?
     Or have we eaten on the insane root
     That takes the reason prisoner?
MACBETH
     Your children shall be kings.
BANQUO
     You shall be king.
MACBETH
     And thane of Cawdor too: went it not so?
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,
     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,
     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
     To give thee from our royal master thanks;
     Only to herald thee into his sight,
     Not pay thee.
ROSS
     And, for an earnest of a greater honour,
     He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor:
     In which addition, hail, most worthy thane!
     For it is thine.
BANQUO
     What, can the devil speak true?
MACBETH
     The thane of Cawdor lives: why do you dress me
     In borrow'd robes?
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, or did line the rebel
     With hidden help and vantage, or that with both
     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.
     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
     Promised no less to them?
BANQUO
     That trusted home
     Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
     Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange:
     And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
     The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
     Win us with honest trifles, to betray's
     In deepest consequence.
     Cousins, a word, I pray you.
MACBETH
     [Aside] Two truths are told,
     As happy prologues to the swelling act
     Of the imperial theme.--I thank you, gentlemen.
     Aside
     Cannot be ill, cannot be good: if ill,
     Why hath it given me earnest of success,
     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
     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.
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,
     Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould
     But with the aid of use.
MACBETH
     [Aside] Come what come may,
     Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
BANQUO
     Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.
MACBETH
     Give me your favour: my dull brain was wrought
     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
     Our free hearts each to other.
BANQUO
     Very gladly.
MACBETH
     Till then, enough. Come, friends.
     Exeunt
**** SCENE IV. 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
     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
     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:
     He was a gentleman on whom I built
     An absolute trust.
     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
     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.
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 but what they should, by doing every thing
     Safe toward your love and honour.
DUNCAN
     Welcome hither:
     I have begun to plant thee, and will labour
     To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo,
     That hast no less deserved, nor must be known
     No less to have done so, let me enfold thee
     And hold thee to my heart.
BANQUO
     There if I grow,
     The harvest is your own.
DUNCAN
     My plenteous joys,
     Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves
     In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes,
     And you whose places are the nearest, know
     We will establish our estate upon
     Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter
     The Prince of Cumberland; which honour must
     Not unaccompanied invest him only,
     But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
     On all deservers. From hence to Inverness,
     And bind us further to you.
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!
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;
     Let not light see my black and deep desires:
     The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be,
     Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.
     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,
     Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome:
     It is a peerless kinsman.
     Flourish. Exeunt
**** SCENE V. Inverness. Macbeth's castle. ****
     Enter LADY MACBETH, reading a letter
LADY MACBETH
     'They met me in the day of success: and I have
     learned by the perfectest report, 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
     all-hailed me 'Thane of Cawdor;' by which title,
     before, these weird 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
     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;
     It is too full o' the milk of human kindness
     To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great;
     Art not without ambition, but without
     The illness should attend it: what thou wouldst highly,
     That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,
     And yet wouldst wrongly win: 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.' Hie thee hither,
     That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;
     And chastise with the valour of my tongue
     All that impedes thee from the golden round,
     Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
     To have thee crown'd withal.
     Enter a Messenger
     What is your tidings?
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.
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.
LADY MACBETH
     Give him tending;
     He brings great news.
     Exit Messenger
     The raven himself is hoarse
     That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
     Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
     That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
     And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
     Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;
     Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
     That no compunctious visitings of nature
     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,
     And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
     That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
     Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
     To cry 'Hold, hold!'
     Enter MACBETH
     Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor!
     Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!
     Thy letters have transported me beyond
     This ignorant present, and I feel now
     The future in the instant.
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
     Shall sun that morrow see!
     Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
     May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
     Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
     Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,
     But be the serpent under't. He that's coming
     Must be provided for: and you shall put
     This night's great business into my dispatch;
     Which shall to all our nights and days to come
     Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
MACBETH
     We will speak further.
LADY MACBETH
     Only look up clear;
     To alter favour ever is to fear:
     Leave all the rest to me.
     Exeunt
**** SCENE VI. 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; the air
     Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
     Unto our gentle senses.
BANQUO
     This guest of summer,
     The temple-haunting martlet, 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
     Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle:
     Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed,
     The air is delicate.
     Enter LADY MACBETH
DUNCAN
     See, see, our honour'd hostess!
     The love that follows us sometime is our trouble,
     Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you
     How you shall bid God 'ild us for your pains,
     And thank us for your trouble.
LADY MACBETH
     All our service
     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,
     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 him
     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, in compt,
     To make their audit at your highness' pleasure,
     Still to return your own.
DUNCAN
     Give me your hand;
     Conduct me to mine host: we love him highly,
     And shall continue our graces towards him.
     By your leave, hostess.
     Exeunt
**** SCENE VII. 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
     Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
     With his surcease success; that but this blow
     Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
     But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
     We'ld jump the life to come. But in these cases
     We still have judgment here; that we but teach
     Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
     To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice
     Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
     To our own lips. He's here in double trust;
     First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
     Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
     Who should against his murderer shut the door,
     Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
     Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
     So clear in his great office, that his virtues
     Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
     The deep damnation of his taking-off;
     And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
     Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsed
     Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
     Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
     That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
     To prick the sides of my intent, but only
     Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
     And falls on the other.
     Enter LADY MACBETH
     How now! what news?
LADY MACBETH
     He has almost supp'd: why have you left the chamber?
MACBETH
     Hath he ask'd for me?
LADY MACBETH
     Know you not he has?
MACBETH
     We will proceed no further in this business:
     He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought
     Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
     Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
     Not cast aside so soon.
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
     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,
     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.
LADY MACBETH
     What beast was't, then,
     That made you break 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. Nor time nor place
     Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:
     They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
     Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know
     How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:
     I would, while it was smiling in my face,
     Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
     And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you
     Have done to this.
MACBETH
     If we should fail?
LADY MACBETH
     We fail!
     But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
     And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep--
     Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey
     Soundly invite him--his two chamberlains
     Will I with wine and wassail so convince
     That memory, the warder of the brain,
     Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
     A limbeck only: when in swinish sleep
     Their drenched natures lie as in a death,
     What cannot you and I perform upon
     The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon
     His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt
     Of our great quell?
MACBETH
     Bring forth men-children only;
     For thy undaunted mettle should compose
     Nothing but males. Will it not be received,
     When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two
     Of his own chamber and used their very daggers,
     That they have done't?
LADY MACBETH
     Who dares receive it other,
     As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar
     Upon his death?
MACBETH
     I am settled, and bend up
     Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
     Away, and mock the time with fairest show:
     False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
     Exeunt
**** ACT II ****
**** SCENE I. 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; I have not heard the clock.
BANQUO
     And she goes down at twelve.
FLEANCE
     I take't, 'tis later, sir.
BANQUO
     Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven;
     Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.
     A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,
     And yet I would not sleep: merciful powers,
     Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature
     Gives way to in repose!
     Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch
     Give me my sword.
     Who's there?
MACBETH
     A friend.
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.
     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;
     Which else should free have wrought.
BANQUO
     All's well.
     I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:
     To you they have show'd some truth.
MACBETH
     I think not of them:
     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.
BANQUO
     At your kind'st leisure.
MACBETH
     If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis,
     It shall make honour for you.
BANQUO
     So I lose none
     In seeking to augment it, but still keep
     My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,
     I shall be counsell'd.
MACBETH
     Good repose the while!
BANQUO
     Thanks, sir: the like to you!
     Exeunt BANQUO and FLEANCE
MACBETH
     Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,
     She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.
     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.
     Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
     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
     As this which now I draw.
     Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;
     And such an instrument I was to use.
     Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
     Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,
     And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
     Which was not so before. There's no such thing:
     It is the bloody business which informs
     Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworld
     Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
     The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates
     Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder,
     Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
     Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace.
     With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
     Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
     Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
     Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
     And take the present horror from the time,
     Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:
     Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
     A bell rings
     I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
     Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
     That summons thee to heaven or to hell.
     Exit
**** SCENE II. 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.
     Hark! Peace!
     It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman,
     Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it:
     The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms
     Do mock their charge with snores: I have drugg'd
     their possets,
     That death and nature do contend about them,
     Whether they live or die.
MACBETH
     [Within] Who's there? what, ho!
LADY MACBETH
     Alack, I am afraid they have awaked,
     And 'tis not done. The attempt and not the deed
     Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready;
     He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled
     My father as he slept, I had done't.
     Enter MACBETH
     My husband!
MACBETH
     I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?
LADY MACBETH
     I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.
     Did not you speak?
MACBETH
     When?
LADY MACBETH
     Now.
MACBETH
     As I descended?
LADY MACBETH
     Ay.
MACBETH
     Hark!
     Who lies i' the second chamber?
LADY MACBETH
     Donalbain.
MACBETH
     This is a sorry sight.
     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:
     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.
     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'
     Stuck in my throat.
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,
     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,--
LADY MACBETH
     What do you mean?
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
     So brainsickly of things. Go get some water,
     And wash this filthy witness from your hand.
     Why did you bring these daggers from the place?
     They must lie there: go carry them; and smear
     The sleepy grooms with blood.
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
     Are but as pictures: '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.
     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 wash this blood
     Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
     The multitudinous seas in incarnadine,
     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.
     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! Your constancy
     Hath left you unattended.
     Knocking within
     Hark! more knocking.
     Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us,
     And show us to be watchers. Be not lost
     So poorly in your thoughts.
MACBETH
     To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself.
     Knocking within
     Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!
     Exeunt
**** SCENE III. 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.
     Knocking within
     Knock,
     knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of
     Beelzebub? Here's a farmer, that hanged
     himself on the expectation of plenty: come in
     time; have napkins enow about you; here
     you'll sweat for't.
     Knocking within
     Knock,
     knock! Who's there, in the other devil's
     name? 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: O, come
     in, equivocator.
     Knocking within
     Knock,
     knock, knock! Who's there? Faith, here's an
     English tailor come hither, for stealing out of
     a French hose: come in, tailor; here you may
     roast your goose.
     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: I had thought to have let in
     some of all professions that go the primrose
     way to the everlasting bonfire.
     Knocking within
     Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the porter.
     Opens the gate
     Enter MACDUFF and LENNOX
MACDUFF
     Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed,
     That you do lie so late?
Porter
     'Faith sir, we were carousing till the
     second cock: and drink, sir, is a great
     provoker of three things.
MACDUFF
     What three things does drink especially provoke?
Porter
     Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and
     urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes;
     it provokes the desire, but it takes
     away the performance: therefore, much drink
     may be said to be an equivocator with lechery:
     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
     not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him
     in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him.
MACDUFF
     I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.
Porter
     That it did, sir, i' the very throat on
     me: but I requited him for his lie; and, I
     think, being too strong for him, though he took
     up my legs sometime, yet I made a shift to cast
     him.
MACDUFF
     Is thy master stirring?
     Enter MACBETH
     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.
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.
MACBETH
     The labour we delight in physics pain.
     This is the door.
MACDUFF
     I'll make so bold to call,
     For 'tis my limited service.
     Exit
LENNOX
     Goes the king hence to-day?
MACBETH
     He does: he did appoint so.
LENNOX
     The night has been unruly: where we lay,
     Our chimneys were blown down; and, as they say,
     Lamentings heard i' the air; strange screams of death,
     And prophesying with accents terrible
     Of dire combustion and confused events
     New hatch'd to the woeful time: the obscure bird
     Clamour'd the livelong night: some say, the earth
     Was feverous and did shake.
MACBETH
     'Twas a rough night.
LENNOX
     My young remembrance cannot parallel
     A fellow to it.
     Re-enter MACDUFF
MACDUFF
     O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart
     Cannot conceive nor name thee!
MACBETH 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
     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: do not bid me speak;
     See, and then speak yourselves.
     Exeunt MACBETH and LENNOX
     Awake, awake!
     Ring the alarum-bell. Murder and treason!
     Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm! awake!
     Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit,
     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,
     To countenance this horror! Ring the bell.
     Bell rings
     Enter LADY MACBETH
LADY MACBETH
     What's the business,
     That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley
     The sleepers of the house? speak, speak!
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.
     Enter BANQUO
     O Banquo, Banquo,
     Our royal master 's murder'd!
LADY MACBETH
     Woe, alas!
     What, in our house?
BANQUO
     Too cruel any where.
     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,
     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.
     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.
MACDUFF
     Your royal father 's murder'd.
MALCOLM
     O, by whom?
LENNOX
     Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done 't:
     Their hands and faces were an badged with blood;
     So were their daggers, which unwiped we found
     Upon their pillows:
     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?
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;
     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 of their trade, their daggers
     Unmannerly breech'd with gore: who could refrain,
     That had a heart to love, and in that heart
     Courage to make 's love kno wn?
LADY MACBETH
     Help me hence, ho!
MACDUFF
     Look to the lady.
MALCOLM
     [Aside to DONALBAIN] Why do we hold our tongues,
     That most may claim this argument for ours?
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.
MALCOLM
     [Aside to DONALBAIN] Nor our strong sorrow
     Upon the foot of motion.
BANQUO
     Look to the lady:
     LADY MACBETH is carried out
     And when we have our naked frailties hid,
     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
     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.
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. I'll to England.
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.
MALCOLM
     This murderous shaft that's shot
     Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way
     Is to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse;
     And let us not be dainty of leave-taking,
     But shift away: there's warrant in that theft
     Which steals itself, when there's no mercy left.
     Exeunt
**** SCENE IV. 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
     Hath trifled former knowings.
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:
     Is't night's predominance, or the day's shame,
     That darkness does the face of earth entomb,
     When living light should kiss it?
Old Man
     'Tis unnatural,
     Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last,
     A falcon, towering in her pride of place,
     Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd.
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,
     Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make
     War with mankind.
Old Man
     'Tis said they eat each other.
ROSS
     They did so, to the amazement of mine eyes
     That look'd upon't. Here comes the good Macduff.
     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.
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
     Suspicion of the deed.
ROSS
     'Gainst nature still!
     Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up
     Thine own life's means! Then 'tis most like
     The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.
MACDUFF
     He is already named, and gone to Scone
     To be invested.
ROSS
     Where is Duncan's body?
MACDUFF
     Carried to Colmekill,
     The sacred storehouse of his predecessors,
     And guardian of their bones.
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!
     Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!
ROSS
     Farewell, father.
Old Man
     God's benison go with you; and with those
     That would make good of bad, and friends of foes!
     Exeunt
**** ACT III ****
**** SCENE I. Forres. The palace. ****
     Enter BANQUO
BANQUO
     Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all,
     As the weird women promised, and, I fear,
     Thou play'dst most foully for't: yet it was said
     It should not stand in thy posterity,
     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,
     And set me up in hope? But hush! no more.
     Sennet sounded. 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,
     It had been as a gap in our great feast,
     And all-thing unbecoming.
MACBETH
     To-night we hold a solemn supper sir,
     And I'll request your presence.
BANQUO
     Let your highness
     Command upon me; to the which my duties
     Are with a most indissoluble tie
     For ever knit.
MACBETH
     Ride you this afternoon?
BANQUO
     Ay, my good lord.
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
     '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.
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
     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.
     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!
     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.
     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;
     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,
     Mark Antony's was by Caesar. He chid the sisters
     When first they put the name of king upon me,
     And bade them speak to him: then prophet-like
     They hail'd him father to a line of kings:
     Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown,
     And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,
     Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand,
     No son of mine succeeding. If 't be so,
     For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind;
     For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd;
     Put rancours in the vessel of my peace
     Only for them; and mine eternal jewel
     Given to the common enemy of man,
     To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings!
     Rather than so, come fate into the list.
     And champion me to the utterance! 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?
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
     Our innocent self: this I made good to you
     In our last conference, pass'd in probation with you,
     How you were borne in hand, how cross'd,
     the instruments,
     Who wrought with them, and all things else that might
     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
     Your patience so predominant in your nature
     That you can let this go? 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?
First Murderer
     We are men, my liege.
MACBETH
     Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men;
     As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,
     Shoughs, water-rugs and demi-wolves, are clept
     All by the name of dogs: the valued file
     Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle,
     The housekeeper, the hunter, every one
     According to the gift which bounteous nature
     Hath in him closed; whereby he does receive
     Particular addition. from the bill
     That writes them all alike: and so of men.
     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,
     Whose execution takes your enemy off,
     Grapples you to the heart and love of us,
     Who wear our health but sickly in his life,
     Which in his death were perfect.
Second Murderer
     I am one, my liege,
     Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world
     Have so incensed that I am reckless what
     I do to spite the world.
First Murderer
     And I another
     So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune,
     That I would set my lie on any chance,
     To mend it, or be rid on't.
MACBETH
     Both of you
     Know Banquo was your enemy.
Both Murderers
     True, my lord.
MACBETH
     So is he mine; and in such bloody distance,
     That every minute of his being thrusts
     Against my near'st of life: 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,
     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.
Second Murderer
     We shall, my lord,
     Perform what you command us.
First Murderer
     Though our lives--
MACBETH
     Your spirits shine through you. Within this hour at most
     I will advise you where to plant yourselves;
     Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time,
     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--
     Fleance his son, that keeps him company,
     Whose absence is no less material to me
     Than is his father's, must embrace the fate
     Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart:
     I'll come to you anon.
Both Murderers
     We are resolved, my lord.
MACBETH
     I'll call upon you straight: abide within.
     Exeunt Murderers
     It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul's flight,
     If it find heaven, must find it out to-night.
     Exit
**** SCENE II. The palace. ****
     Enter LADY MACBETH and a Servant
LADY MACBETH
     Is Banquo gone from court?
Servant
     Ay, madam, but returns again to-night.
LADY MACBETH
     Say to the king, I would attend his leisure
     For a few words.
Servant
     Madam, I will.
     Exit
LADY MACBETH
     Nought's had, all's spent,
     Where our desire is got without content:
     '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,
     Using those thoughts which should indeed have died
     With them they think on? Things without all remedy
     Should be without regard: what's done is done.
MACBETH
     We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it:
     She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice
     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
     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. Duncan is in his grave;
     After life's fitful fever he sleeps well;
     Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,
     Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
     Can touch him further.
LADY MACBETH
     Come on;
     Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks;
     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
     Must lave our honours in these flattering streams,
     And make our faces vizards to our hearts,
     Disguising what they are.
LADY MACBETH
     You must leave this.
MACBETH
     O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!
     Thou know'st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives.
LADY MACBETH
     But in them nature's copy's not eterne.
MACBETH
     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
     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,
     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
     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.
     So, prithee, go with me.
     Exeunt
**** SCENE III. A park near the palace. ****
     Enter three Murderers
First Murderer
     But who did bid thee join with us?
Third Murderer
     Macbeth.
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:
     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!
Second Murderer
     Then 'tis he: the rest
     That are within the note of expectation
     Already are i' the court.
First Murderer
     His horses go about.
Third Murderer
     Almost a mile: but he does usually,
     So all men do, from hence to the palace gate
     Make it their walk.
Second Murderer
     A light, a light!
     Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE with a torch
Third Murderer
     'Tis he.
First Murderer
     Stand to't.
BANQUO
     It will be rain to-night.
First Murderer
     Let it come down.
     They set upon BANQUO
BANQUO
     O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!
     Thou mayst revenge. O slave!
     Dies. FLEANCE escapes
Third Murderer
     Who did strike out the light?
First Murderer
     Wast not the way?
Third Murderer
     There's but one down; the son is fled.
Second Murderer
     We have lost
     Best half of our affair.
First Murderer
     Well, let's away, and say how much is done.
     Exeunt
**** SCENE IV. 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.
Lords
     Thanks to your majesty.
MACBETH
     Ourself will mingle with society,
     And play the humble host.
     Our hostess keeps her state, but in best time
     We will require her welcome.
LADY MACBETH
     Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends;
     For my heart speaks they are welcome.
     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.
     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?
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,
     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
     To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo's safe?
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.
MACBETH
     Thanks for that:
     There the grown serpent lies; the worm that's fled
     Hath nature that in time will venom breed,
     No teeth for the present. Get thee gone: to-morrow
     We'll hear, ourselves, again.
     Exit Murderer
LADY MACBETH
     My royal lord,
     You do not give the cheer: the feast is sold
     That is not often vouch'd, while 'tis a-making,
     'Tis given with welcome: to feed were best at home;
     From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony;
     Meeting were bare without it.
MACBETH
     Sweet remembrancer!
     Now, good digestion wait on appetite,
     And health on both!
LENNOX
     May't please your highness sit.
     The GHOST OF BANQUO 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
     Than pity for mischance!
ROSS
     His absence, sir,
     Lays blame upon his promise. Please't your highness
     To grace us with your royal company.
MACBETH
     The table's full.
LENNOX
     Here is a place 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?
MACBETH
     Thou canst not say I did it: never shake
     Thy gory locks at me.
ROSS
     Gentlemen, rise: his highness is not well.
LADY MACBETH
     Sit, worthy friends: my lord is often thus,
     And hath been from his youth: pray you, keep seat;
     The fit is momentary; upon a thought
     He will again be well: if much you note him,
     You shall offend him and extend his passion:
     Feed, and regard him not. Are you a man?
MACBETH
     Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
     Which might appal the devil.
LADY MACBETH
     O proper stuff!
     This is the very painting of your fear:
     This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said,
     Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts,
     Impostors to true fear, would well become
     A woman's story at a winter's fire,
     Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!
     Why do you make such faces? When all's done,
     You look but on a stool.
MACBETH
     Prithee, see there! behold! look! lo!
     how say you?
     Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.
     If charnel-houses and our graves must send
     Those that we bury back, our monuments
     Shall be the maws of kites.
     GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes
LADY MACBETH
     What, quite unmann'd in folly?
MACBETH
     If I stand here, I saw him.
LADY MACBETH
     Fie, for shame!
MACBETH
     Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time,
     Ere human statute purged the gentle weal;
     Ay, and since too, murders have been perform'd
     Too terrible for the ear: the times have been,
     That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
     And there an end; but now they rise again,
     With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,
     And push us from our stools: this is more strange
     Than such a murder is.
LADY MACBETH
     My worthy lord,
     Your noble friends do lack you.
MACBETH
     I do forget.
     Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends,
     I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing
     To those that know me. Come, love and health to all;
     Then I'll sit down. Give me some wine; fill full.
     I drink to the general joy o' the whole table,
     And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss;
     Would he were here! to all, and him, we thirst,
     And all to all.
Lords
     Our duties, and the pledge.
     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
     Which thou dost glare with!
LADY MACBETH
     Think of this, good peers,
     But as a thing of custom: 'tis no other;
     Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
MACBETH
     What man dare, I dare:
     Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
     The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;
     Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
     Shall never tremble: or be alive again,
     And dare me to the desert with thy sword;
     If trembling I inhabit then, protest me
     The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!
     Unreal mockery, hence!
     GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes
     Why, so: being gone,
     I am a man again. Pray you, sit still.
LADY MACBETH
     You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting,
     With most admired disorder.
MACBETH
     Can such things be,
     And overcome us like a summer's cloud,
     Without our special wonder? You make me strange
     Even to the disposition that I owe,
     When now I think you can behold such sights,
     And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,
     When mine is blanched with fear.
ROSS
     What sights, my lord?
LADY MACBETH
     I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse;
     Question enrages him. At once, good night:
     Stand not upon the order of your going,
     But go at once.
LENNOX
     Good night; and better health
     Attend his majesty!
LADY MACBETH
     A kind good night to all!
     Exeunt all but MACBETH and LADY MACBETH
MACBETH
     It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood:
     Stones have been known to move and trees to speak;
     Augurs and understood relations have
     By magot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth
     The secret'st man of blood. What is the night?
LADY MACBETH
     Almost at odds with morning, which is which.
MACBETH
     How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person
     At our great bidding?
LADY MACBETH
     Did you send to him, sir?
MACBETH
     I hear it by the way; but I will send:
     There's not a one of them but in his house
     I keep a servant fee'd. I will to-morrow,
     And betimes I will, to the weird sisters:
     More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know,
     By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good,
     All causes shall give way: I am in blood
     Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more,
     Returning were as tedious as go o'er:
     Strange things I have in head, that will to hand;
     Which must be acted ere they may be scann'd.
LADY MACBETH
     You lack the season of all natures, sleep.
MACBETH
     Come, we'll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse
     Is the initiate fear that wants hard use:
     We are yet but young in deed.
     Exeunt
**** SCENE V. A Heath. ****
     Thunder. Enter the three Witches meeting HECATE
First Witch
     Why, how now, Hecate! you look angerly.
HECATE
     Have I not reason, beldams as you are,
     Saucy and overbold? How did you dare
     To trade and traffic with Macbeth
     In riddles and affairs of death;
     And I, the mistress of your charms,
     The close contriver 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
     Hath been but for a wayward son,
     Spiteful and wrathful, who, as others do,
     Loves for his own ends, not for you.
     But make amends now: get you gone,
     And at the pit of Acheron
     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.
     I am for the air; this night I'll spend
     Unto a dismal and a fatal end:
     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:
     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:
     He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear
     He hopes 'bove wisdom, grace and fear:
     And you all know, security
     Is mortals' chiefest enemy.
     Music and a song within: 'Come away, come away,' & c
     Hark! I am call'd; my little spirit, see,
     Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me.
     Exit
First Witch
     Come, let's make haste; she'll soon be back again.
     Exeunt
**** SCENE VI. 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:
     And the right-valiant Banquo walk'd too late;
     Whom, you may say, if't please you, Fleance kill'd,
     For Fleance fled: men must not walk too late.
     Who cannot want the thought how monstrous
     It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain
     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;
     For 'twould have anger'd any heart alive
     To hear the men deny't. 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
     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, I hear
     Macduff lives in disgrace: sir, can you tell
     Where he bestows himself?
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 with such grace
     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:
     That, by the help of these--with Him above
     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
     Hath so exasperate the king that he
     Prepares for some attempt of war.
LENNOX
     Sent he to Macduff?
Lord
     He did: and with an absolute 'Sir, not I,'
     The cloudy messenger turns me his back,
     And hums, as who should say 'You'll rue the time
     That clogs me with this answer.'
LENNOX
     And that well might
     Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance
     His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel
     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!
Lord
     I'll send my prayers with him.
     Exeunt
**** ACT IV ****
**** SCENE I. A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron. ****
     Thunder. Enter the three Witches
First Witch
     Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
Second Witch
     Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.
Third Witch
     Harpier cries 'Tis time, 'tis time.
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,
     Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.
ALL
     Double, double toil and trouble;
     Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
Second Witch
     Fillet of a fenny snake,
     In the cauldron boil and bake;
     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,
     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
     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,
     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,
     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.
     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,
     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.
     Open, locks,
     Whoever knocks!
     Enter MACBETH
MACBETH
     How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!
     What is't you do?
ALL
     A deed without a name.
MACBETH
     I conjure you, by that which you profess,
     Howe'er you come to know it, answer me:
     Though you untie the winds and let them fight
     Against the churches; though the yesty waves
     Confound and swallow navigation up;
     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
     Of nature's germens tumble all together,
     Even till destruction sicken; answer me
     To what I ask you.
First Witch
     Speak.
Second Witch
     Demand.
Third Witch
     We'll answer.
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
     Her nine farrow; grease that's sweaten
     From the murderer's gibbet throw
     Into the flame.
ALL
     Come, high or low;
     Thyself and office deftly show!
     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;
     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,--
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.
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?
     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
     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.
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.
     Descends
MACBETH
     That will never be
     Who can impress the forest, bid the tree
     Unfix his earth-bound root? Sweet bodements! good!
     Rebellion's head, rise never till the wood
     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
     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?
     Hautboys
First Witch
     Show!
Second Witch
     Show!
Third Witch
     Show!
ALL
     Show his eyes, and grieve his heart;
     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,
     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:
     And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass
     Which shows me many more; and some I see
     That two-fold balls and treble scepters carry:
     Horrible sight! Now, I see, 'tis true;
     For the blood-bolter'd Banquo smiles upon me,
     And points at them for his.
     Apparitions vanish
     What, is this so?
First Witch
     Ay, sir, all this is so: but why
     Stands Macbeth thus amazedly?
     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,
     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!
     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?
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
     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
     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;
     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?
     Come, bring me where they are.
     Exeunt
**** SCENE II. 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.
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.
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,
     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,
     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
     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:
     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.
ROSS
     I am so much a fool, should I stay longer,
     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?
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,
     The pitfall nor the gin.
Son
     Why should I, mother? Poor birds they are not set for.
     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.
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.
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?
LADY MACDUFF
     Every one.
Son
     Who must hang them?
LADY MACDUFF
     Why, the honest men.
Son
     Then the liars and swearers are fools,
     for there are liars and swearers enow to beat
     the honest men and hang up them.
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
     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.
     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.
     To fright you thus, methinks, I am too savage;
     To do worse to you were fell cruelty,
     Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you!
     I dare abide no longer.
     Exit
LADY MACDUFF
     Whither should I fly?
     I have done no harm. But I remember now
     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?
     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.
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!
Son
     He has kill'd me, mother:
     Run away, I pray you!
     Dies
     Exit LADY MACDUFF, crying 'Murder!' Exeunt Murderers, following her
**** SCENE III. 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
     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.
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.
     What you have spoke, it may be so perchance.
     This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,
     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
     To appease an angry god.
MACDUFF
     I am not treacherous.
MALCOLM
     But Macbeth is.
     A good and virtuous nature may recoil
     In an imperial charge. But I shall crave
     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.
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,
     Let not my jealousies be your dishonours,
     But mine own safeties. You may be rightly just,
     Whatever I shall think.
MACDUFF
     Bleed, bleed, poor country!
     Great tyranny! lay thou thy basis sure,
     For goodness dare not cheque thee: 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,
     And the rich East to boot.
MALCOLM
     Be not offended:
     I speak not as in absolute fear of you.
     I think our country sinks beneath the yoke;
     It weeps, it bleeds; and each new day a gash
     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,
     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.
MACDUFF
     What should he be?
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
     With my confineless harms.
MACDUFF
     Not in the legions
     Of horrid hell can come a devil more damn'd
     In evils to top Macbeth.
MALCOLM
     I grant him bloody,
     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
     The cistern of my lust, and my desire
     All continent impediments would o'erbear
     That did oppose my will: better Macbeth
     Than such an one to reign.
MACDUFF
     Boundless intemperance
     In nature is a tyranny; it hath been
     The untimely emptying of the happy throne
     And fall of many kings. But fear not yet
     To take upon you what is yours: you may
     Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty,
     And yet seem cold, the time you may so hoodwink.
     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.
MALCOLM
     With this there grows
     In my most ill-composed affection such
     A stanchless avarice that, were I king,
     I should cut off the nobles for their lands,
     Desire his jewels and this other's house:
     And my more-having would be as a sauce
     To make me hunger more; that I should forge
     Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal,
     Destroying them for wealth.
MACDUFF
     This avarice
     Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root
     Than summer-seeming lust, and it hath been
     The sword of our slain kings: yet do not fear;
     Scotland hath foisons to fill up your will.
     Of your mere own: all these are portable,
     With other graces weigh'd.
MALCOLM
     But I have none: the king-becoming graces,
     As justice, verity, temperance, stableness,
     Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,
     Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude,
     I have no relish of them, but abound
     In the division of each several crime,
     Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should
     Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell,
     Uproar the universal peace, confound
     All unity on earth.
MACDUFF
     O Scotland, Scotland!
MALCOLM
     If such a one be fit to govern, speak:
     I am as I have spoken.
MACDUFF
     Fit to govern!
     No, not to live. 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,
     And does blaspheme his breed? Thy royal father
     Was a most sainted king: the queen that bore thee,
     Oftener upon her knees than on her feet,
     Died every day she lived. Fare thee well!
     These evils thou repeat'st upon thyself
     Have banish'd me from Scotland. O my breast,
     Thy hope ends here!
MALCOLM
     Macduff, this noble passion,
     Child of integrity, hath from my soul
     Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts
     To thy good truth and honour. Devilish Macbeth
     By many of these trains hath sought to win me
     Into his power, and modest wisdom plucks me
     From over-credulous haste: but God above
     Deal between thee and me! for even now
     I put myself to thy direction, and
     Unspeak mine own detraction, here abjure
     The taints and blames I laid upon myself,
     For strangers to my nature. I am yet
     Unknown to woman, never was forsworn,
     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: my first false speaking
     Was this upon myself: what I am truly,
     Is thine and my poor country's to command:
     Whither indeed, before thy here-approach,
     Old Siward, with ten thousand warlike men,
     Already at a point, was setting forth.
     Now we'll together; and the chance of goodness
     Be like our warranted quarrel! Why are you silent?
MACDUFF
     Such welcome and unwelcome things at once
     'Tis hard to reconcile.
     Enter a Doctor
MALCOLM
     Well; more anon.--Comes the king forth, I pray you?
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.
MALCOLM
     I thank you, doctor.
     Exit Doctor
MACDUFF
     What's the disease he means?
MALCOLM
     'Tis call'd the evil:
     A most miraculous work in this good king;
     Which often, since my here-remain in England,
     I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven,
     Himself best knows: but strangely-visited people,
     All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye,
     The mere despair of surgery, he cures,
     Hanging a golden stamp about their necks,
     Put on with holy prayers: and 'tis spoken,
     To the succeeding royalty he leaves
     The healing benediction. With this strange virtue,
     He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy,
     And sundry blessings hang about his throne,
     That speak him full of grace.
     Enter ROSS
MACDUFF
     See, who comes here?
MALCOLM
     My countryman; but yet I know him not.
MACDUFF
     My ever-gentle cousin, welcome hither.
MALCOLM
     I know him now. Good God, betimes remove
     The means that makes us strangers!
ROSS
     Sir, amen.
MACDUFF
     Stands Scotland where it did?
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;
     Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the air
     Are made, not mark'd; where violent sorrow seems
     A modern ecstasy; the dead man's knell
     Is there scarce ask'd for who; and good men's lives
     Expire before the flowers in their caps,
     Dying or ere they sicken.
MACDUFF
     O, relation
     Too nice, and yet too true!
MALCOLM
     What's the newest grief?
ROSS
     That of an hour's age doth hiss the speaker:
     Each minute teems a new one.
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?
ROSS
     No; they were well at peace when I did leave 'em.
MACDUFF
     But not a niggard of your speech: how goes't?
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;
     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.
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.
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?
     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.
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.
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.
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.
MACDUFF
     My children too?
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.
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! All?
     What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
     At one fell swoop?
MALCOLM
     Dispute it like a man.
MACDUFF
     I shall do so;
     But I must also feel it as a man:
     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,
     Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now!
MALCOLM
     Be this the whetstone of your sword: let grief
     Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it.
MACDUFF
     O, I could play the woman with mine eyes
     And braggart with my tongue! But, gentle heavens,
     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.
     Come, go we to the king; our power is ready;
     Our lack is nothing but our leave; Macbeth
     Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above
     Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may:
     The night is long that never finds the day.
     Exeunt
**** ACT V ****
**** SCENE I. 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?
Gentlewoman
     Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen
     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
     the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of
     watching! 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.
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
     Lo you, here she comes! This is her very guise;
     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.
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.
LADY MACBETH
     Yet here's a spot.
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!--One: two: why,
     then, 'tis time to do't.--Hell is murky!--Fie, my
     lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we
     fear who knows it, when none can call our power to
     account?--Yet who would have thought the old man
     to have had so much blood in him.
Doctor
     Do you mark that?
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.
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!
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.
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
     cannot come out on's grave.
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!
     Exit
Doctor
     Will she go now to bed?
Gentlewoman
     Directly.
Doctor
     Foul whisperings are abroad: unnatural deeds
     Do breed unnatural troubles: infected minds
     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. So, good night:
     My mind she has mated, and amazed my sight.
     I think, but dare not speak.
Gentlewoman
     Good night, good doctor.
     Exeunt
**** SCENE II. 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; for their dear causes
     Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm
     Excite the mortified man.
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
     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?
CAITHNESS
     Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies:
     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
     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
     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?
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.
LENNOX
     Or so much as it needs,
     To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds.
     Make we our march towards Birnam.
     Exeunt, marching
**** SCENE III. 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. What's the boy Malcolm?
     Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know
     All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus:
     'Fear not, Macbeth; no man that's born of woman
     Shall e'er have power upon thee.' Then fly,
     false thanes,
     And mingle with the English epicures:
     The mind I sway by and the heart I bear
     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--
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
     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,
     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,
     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.
SEYTON
     'Tis not needed yet.
MACBETH
     I'll put it on.
     Send out more horses; skirr the country round;
     Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armour.
     How does your patient, doctor?
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,
     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?
Doctor
     Therein the patient
     Must minister to himself.
MACBETH
     Throw physic to the dogs; I'll none of it.
     Come, put mine armour on; give me my staff.
     Seyton, send out. Doctor, the thanes fly from me.
     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.--
     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.
     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.
     Exeunt
**** SCENE IV. Country near Birnam wood. ****
     Drum and colours. Enter MALCOLM, SIWARD and YOUNG SIWARD, MACDUFF,
     MENTEITH, CAITHNESS, ANGUS, LENNOX, ROSS, and Soldiers, marching
MALCOLM
     Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand
     That chambers will be safe.
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
     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
     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
     Whose hearts are absent too.
MACDUFF
     Let our just censures
     Attend the true event, and put we on
     Industrious soldiership.
SIWARD
     The time approaches
     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.
     Exeunt, marching
**** SCENE V. 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
     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
     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
     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.
     Re-enter SEYTON
     Wherefore was that cry?
SEYTON
     The queen, my lord, is dead.
MACBETH
     She should have died hereafter;
     There would have been a time for such a word.
     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!
     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.
     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.
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!
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,
     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: 'Fear not, till Birnam wood
     Do come to Dunsinane:' and now a wood
     Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out!
     If this which he avouches does appear,
     There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here.
     I gin to be aweary of the sun,
     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
**** SCENE VI. 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
     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.
MACDUFF
     Make all our trumpets speak; give them all breath,
     Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.
     Exeunt
**** SCENE VII. Another part of the field. ****
     Alarums. Enter MACBETH
MACBETH
     They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly,
     But, bear-like, I must fight the course. 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?
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
     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,
     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.
     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;
     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.
     Exeunt. Alarums
**** SCENE VIII. 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.
     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.
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:
     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.
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.
MACBETH
     Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,
     For it hath cow'd my better part of man!
     And be these juggling fiends no more believed,
     That palter with us in a double sense;
     That keep the word of promise to our ear,
     And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee.
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.'
MACBETH
     I will not yield,
     To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet,
     And to be baited with the rabble's curse.
     Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane,
     And thou opposed, being of no woman born,
     Yet I will try the last. Before my body
     I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,
     And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!'
     Exeunt, fighting. Alarums
     Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colours, MALCOLM, SIWARD,
     ROSS, the other Thanes, and Soldiers
MALCOLM
     I would the friends we miss were safe arrived.
SIWARD
     Some must go off: and yet, by these I see,
     So great a day as this is cheaply bought.
MALCOLM
     Macduff is missing, and your noble son.
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.
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?
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.
MALCOLM
     He's worth more sorrow,
     And that I'll spend for him.
SIWARD
     He's worth no more
     They say he parted well, and paid his score:
     And so, God be with him! Here comes newer comfort.
     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:
     I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl,
     That speak my salutation in their minds;
     Whose voices I desire aloud with mine:
     Hail, King of Scotland!
ALL
     Hail, King of Scotland!
     Flourish
MALCOLM
     We shall not spend a large expense of time
     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. What's more to do,
     Which would be planted newly with the time,
     As calling home our exiled friends abroad
     That fled the snares of watchful tyranny;
     Producing forth the cruel ministers
     Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen,
     Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands
     Took off her life; this, and what needful else
     That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace,
     We will perform in measure, time and place:
     So, thanks to all at once and to each one,
     Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone.
     Flourish. Exeunt
