ACT 3               Scene 1

Enter Banquo.

 

BANQUO

Thou hast it now—king, Cawdor, Glamis, all

As the Weïrd Women promised, and I fear

Thou played’st most foully for ’t. Yet it was said

It should not stand in thy posterity,

But that myself should be the root and father                                                                  5

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.          10

 

Sennet sounded. Enter Macbeth as King, Lady
Macbeth, Lennox, Ross, Lords, 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

Tonight we hold a solemn supper, sir,       15

And I’ll request your presence.

BANQUO  Let your Highness

Command upon me, to the which my duties

Are with a most indissoluble tie

Forever knit.                                                    20

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 tomorrow.                                                       25

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.                              30

MACBETH  Fail not our feast.

BANQUO  My lord, I will not.

MACBETH

We hear our bloody cousins are bestowed

In England and in Ireland, not confessing

Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers  35

With strange invention. But of that tomorrow,

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.      40

MACBETH

I wish your horses swift and sure of foot,

And so I do commend you to their backs.

Farewell.                                      Banquo exits.

Let every man be master of his time

Till seven at night. To make society            45

The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself

Till suppertime alone. While then, God be with you.

Lords and all but Macbeth and a Servant exit.

Sirrah, a word with you. Attend those men

Our pleasure?

SERVANT

They are, my lord, without the palace gate.          50

MACBETH

Bring them before us.               Servant exits.

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 feared. ’Tis much he                                                           55

dares,

And to that dauntless temper of his mind

He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor

To act in safety. There is none but he

Whose being I do fear; and under him       60

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 hailed him father to a line of kings.   65

Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown

And put a barren scepter in my grip,

Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand,

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

For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind;  70

For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered,

Put rancors 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 seeds of Banquo kings.                                                                 75

Rather than so, come fate into the list,

And champion me to th’ utterance.—Who’s there?

Enter Servant and two Murderers.

To the Servant. Now go to the door, and stay there

till we call.                                 Servant exits.

Was it not yesterday we spoke together? 80

MURDERERS

It was, so please your Highness.

MACBETH  Well then, now

Have you considered of my speeches? Know

That it was he, in the times past, which held you

So under fortune, which you thought had been 85

Our innocent self. This I made good to you

In our last conference, passed in probation with you

How you were borne in hand, how crossed, the

instruments,

Who wrought with them, and all things else that  90

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    95

Our point of second meeting. Do you find

Your patience so predominant in your nature

That you can let this go? Are you so gospeled

To pray for this good man and for his issue,

Whose heavy hand hath bowed you to the grave                                                               100

And beggared yours forever?

FIRST MURDERER  We are men, my liege.

MACBETH

Ay, in the catalogue you go for men,

As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels,

curs,                                                             105

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                                                             110

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’ th’ worst rank of manhood, say ’t, 115

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.              120

SECOND MURDERER  I am one, my liege,

Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world

Hath so incensed that I am reckless what

I do to spite the world.

FIRST MURDERER  And I another                  125

So weary with disasters, tugged with fortune,

That I would set my life on any chance,

To mend it or be rid on ’t.

MACBETH  Both of you

Know Banquo was your enemy.                130

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 135

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,   140

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—         145

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’ th’ time,

The moment on ’t, for ’t must be done tonight                                                            150

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          155

Than is his father’s, must embrace the fate

Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart.

I’ll come to you anon.

MURDERERS  We are resolved, my lord.

MACBETH

I’ll call upon you straight. Abide within.   160

Murderers exit.

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

If it find heaven, must find it out tonight.

He exits.

 

Act 3       Scene 2

Enter Macbeth’s Lady and a Servant.

 

LADY MACBETH  Is Banquo gone from court?

SERVANT

Ay, madam, but returns again tonight.

LADY MACBETH

Say to the King I would attend his leisure

For a few words.

SERVANT  Madam, I will.         Servant exits.  5

LADY MACBETH  Naught’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,          10

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 scorched the snake, not killed it. 15

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          20

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. 25

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,   30

Sleek o’er your rugged looks. Be bright and jovial

Among your guests tonight.

MACBETH  So shall I, love,

And so I pray be you. Let your remembrance

Apply to Banquo; present him eminence  35

Both with eye and tongue: unsafe the while that we

Must lave our honors in these flattering streams

And make our faces vizards to our hearts,

Disguising what they are.

LADY MACBETH  You must leave this.            40

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                                                                 45

His cloistered flight, ere to black Hecate’s summons

The shard-born 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?             50

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 55

Which keeps me pale. Light thickens, and the crow

Makes wing to th’ rooky wood.

Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,

Whiles night’s black agents to their preys do

rouse.—                                                         60

Thou marvel’st at my words, but hold thee still.

Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.

So prithee go with me.                     They exit.

 

Act 3     Scene 3

Enter three Murderers.

 

FIRST MURDERER

But who did bid thee join with us?

THIRD MURDERER  Macbeth.

SECOND MURDERER, to the First Murderer

He needs not our mistrust, since he delivers

Our offices and what we have to do

To the direction just.                                        5

FIRST MURDERER  Then stand with us.—

The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day.

Now spurs the lated traveler apace

To gain the timely inn, and near approaches

The subject of our watch.                             10

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’ th’ court.                                  15

FIRST MURDERER  His horses go about.

THIRD MURDERER

Almost a mile; but he does usually

(So all men do) from hence to th’ palace gate

Make it their walk.

Enter Banquo and Fleance, with a torch.

 

SECOND MURDERER  A light, a light!             20

THIRD MURDERER  ’Tis he.

FIRST MURDERER  Stand to ’t.

BANQUO, to Fleance  It will be rain tonight.

FIRST MURDERER  Let it come down!

    The three Murderers attack.

 

BANQUO

O treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!          25

Thou mayst revenge—O slave!

                                                           He dies. Fleance exits.

THIRD MURDERER

Who did strike out the light?

FIRST MURDERER  Was ’t not the way?

THIRD MURDERER  There’s but one down. The son is

fled.                                                                30

SECOND MURDERER  We have lost best half of our

affair.

FIRST MURDERER

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

                                           They exit.

 

Act 3     Scene 4

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.          They sit.

LORDS  Thanks to your Majesty.

MACBETH

Ourself will mingle with society

And play the humble host.                              5

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.

 

Enter First Murderer to the door.

MACBETH

See, they encounter thee with their hearts’ thanks.                                                              10

Both sides are even. Here I’ll sit i’ th’ midst.

Be large in mirth. Anon we’ll drink a measure

The table round. He approaches the Murderer. There’s

blood upon thy face.

MURDERER  ’Tis Banquo’s then.                     15

MACBETH

’Tis better thee without than he within.

Is he dispatched?

MURDERER

My lord, his throat is cut. That I did for him.

MACBETH

Thou art the best o’ th’ cutthroats,

Yet he’s good that did the like for Fleance.          20

If thou didst it, thou art the nonpareil.

MURDERER

Most royal sir, Fleance is ’scaped.

MACBETH, aside

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.      25

But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in

To saucy doubts and fears.—But Banquo’s safe?

MURDERER

Ay, my good lord. Safe in a ditch he bides,

With twenty trenchèd gashes on his head,

The least a death to nature.                         30

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 th’ present. Get thee gone. Tomorrow

We’ll hear ourselves again.   Murderer exits.  35

LADY MACBETH  My royal lord,

You do not give the cheer. The feast is sold

That is not often vouched, while ’tis a-making,

’Tis given with welcome. To feed were best at home;

From thence, the sauce to meat is ceremony;                                                        40

Meeting were bare without it.

 

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

 

MACBETH, to Lady Macbeth  Sweet remembrancer!—

Now, good digestion wait on appetite

And health on both!

LENNOX  May ’t please your Highness sit.    45

MACBETH

Here had we now our country’s honor roofed,

Were the graced person of our Banquo present,

Who may I rather challenge for unkindness

Than pity for mischance.

ROSS  His absence, sir,                                      50

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.           55

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?                           60

MACBETH, to the Ghost

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.                                                        65

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. Drawing Macbeth aside.

Are you a man?                                            70

MACBETH

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

Which might appall the devil.

LADY MACBETH  O, proper stuff!

This is the very painting of your fear.

This is the air-drawn dagger which you said          75

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,                                                                 80

You look but on a stool.

MACBETH

Prithee, see there. Behold, look! To the Ghost. Lo,

how say you?

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

If charnel houses and our graves must send          85

Those that we bury back, our monuments

Shall be the maws of kites.          Ghost exits.

LADY MACBETH  What, quite unmanned in folly?

MACBETH

If I stand here, I saw him.

LADY MACBETH  Fie, for shame!                     90

MACBETH

Blood hath been shed ere now, i’ th’ olden time,

Ere humane statute purged the gentle weal;

Ay, and since too, murders have been performed

Too terrible for the ear. The time has been

That, when the brains were out, the man would die,                                                        95

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,                 100

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                                                        105

all.

Then I’ll sit down.—Give me some wine. Fill full.

Enter Ghost.

I drink to th’ general joy o’ th’ whole table

And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss.

Would he were here! To all, and him we thirst,                                                              110

And all to all.

LORDS  Our duties, and the pledge.

They raise their drinking cups.

MACBETH, to the Ghost

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   115

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.    120

MACBETH, to the Ghost  What man dare, I dare.

Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,

The armed rhinoceros, or th’ Hyrcan tiger;

Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves

Shall never tremble. Or be alive again     125

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 mock’ry, hence!                Ghost exits.

Why so, being gone,                                 130

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                      135

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          140

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.          145

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.   150

Lords and all but Macbeth and Lady Macbeth exit.

 

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 maggot pies and choughs and rooks brought                                                          155

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?                                  160

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 tomorrow

(And betimes I will) to the Weïrd Sisters. 165

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

Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,

Returning were as tedious as go o’er.      170

Strange things I have in head that will to hand,

Which must be acted ere they may be scanned.

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.   175

We are yet but young in deed.

They exit.

 

Act 3      Scene 5

Thunder. Enter the three Witches,

 

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,                       5

And I, the mistress of your charms,

The close contriver of all harms,

Was never called to bear my part

Or show the glory of our art?

And which is worse, all you have done      10

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                             15

Meet me i’ th’ morning. Thither he

Will come to know his destiny.

Your vessels and your spells provide,

Your charms and everything beside.

I am for th’ air. This night I’ll spend            20

Unto a dismal and a fatal end.

Great business must be wrought ere noon.

Upon the corner of the moon

There hangs a vap’rous drop profound.

I’ll catch it ere it come to ground,               25

And that, distilled 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          30

His hopes ’bove wisdom, grace, and fear.

And you all know, security

Is mortals’ chiefest enemy.

Music and a song.

Hark! I am called. My little spirit, see,

Sits in a foggy cloud and stays for me.          Hecate exits.  35

Sing within “Come away, come away,” etc.

FIRST WITCH

Come, let’s make haste. She’ll soon be back again.

They exit.

 

Act 3    Scene 6

Enter Lennox and another Lord.

 

LENNOX

My former speeches have but hit your thoughts,

Which can interpret farther. Only I say

Things have been strangely borne. The gracious

Duncan

Was pitied of Macbeth; marry, he was dead.                                                                   5

And the right valiant Banquo walked too late,

Whom you may say, if ’t please you, Fleance killed,

For Fleance fled. Men must not walk too late.

Who cannot want the thought how monstrous

It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain        10

To kill their gracious father? Damnèd 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,  15

For ’twould have angered 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                                                               20

find

What ’twere to kill a father. So should Fleance.

But peace. For from broad words, and ’cause he

failed

His presence at the tyrant’s feast, I hear   25

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  30

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                                                               35

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 honors,                                                             40

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,”   45

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 t’ hold what distance                                                            50

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.                                55

LORD  I’ll send my prayers with him.

They exit.

​

ACT 4       Scene 1

Thunder. Enter the three Witches.

 

FIRST WITCH

Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed.

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 poisoned entrails throw.                      5

Toad, that under cold stone

Days and nights has thirty-one

Sweltered venom sleeping got,

Boil thou first i’ th’ charmèd pot.

The Witches circle the cauldron.

ALL

Double, double toil and trouble;                 10

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,                   15

Adder’s fork and blindworm’s sting,

Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing,

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

ALL

Double, double toil and trouble;                 20

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

THIRD WITCH

Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,

Witch’s mummy, maw and gulf

Of the ravined salt-sea shark,

Root of hemlock digged i’ th’ dark,             25

Liver of blaspheming Jew,

Gall of goat and slips of yew

Slivered in the moon’s eclipse,

Nose of Turk and Tartar’s lips,

Finger of birth-strangled babe                     30

Ditch-delivered by a drab,

Make the gruel thick and slab.

Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron

For th’ ingredience of our cauldron.

ALL

Double, double toil and trouble;                 35

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 everyone shall share i’ th’ gains.         40

And now about the cauldron sing

Like elves and fairies in a ring,

Enchanting all that you put in.

Music and a song: “Black Spirits,” etc. Hecate exits.

SECOND WITCH

By the pricking of my thumbs,

Something wicked this way comes.            45

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.                           50

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 yeasty waves

Confound and swallow navigation up,       55

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    60

treasure

Of nature’s germens tumble all together

Even till destruction sicken, answer me

To what I ask you.

FIRST WITCH  Speak.                                          65

SECOND WITCH  Demand.

THIRD WITCH  We’ll answer.

FIRST WITCH

Say if th’ hadst rather hear it from our mouths

Or from our masters’.

MACBETH  Call ’em. Let me see ’em.             70

FIRST WITCH

Pour in sow’s blood that hath eaten

Her nine farrow; grease that’s sweaten

From the murderers’ gibbet throw

Into the flame.

ALL  Come high or low;                                     75

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 naught.        80

FIRST APPARITION

Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff!

Beware the Thane of Fife! Dismiss me. Enough.

He descends.

MACBETH

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

Thou hast harped my fear aright. But one word

more—                                                           85

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’d hear thee.

SECOND APPARITION

Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn                                                                 90

The power of man, for none of woman born

Shall harm Macbeth.                  He 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,          95

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          100

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 vanquished be until          105

Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill

Shall come against him.             He descends.

MACBETH  That will never be.

Who can impress the forest, bid the tree

Unfix his earthbound root? Sweet bodements, good!                                       110

Rebellious dead, 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     115

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!                                                             120

Cauldron sinks. Hautboys.

Why sinks that cauldron? And what noise is this?

FIRST WITCH  Show.

SECOND WITCH  Show.

THIRD WITCH  Show.

ALL

Show his eyes and grieve his heart.          125

Come like shadows; so depart.

 

A show of eight kings, the eighth king with a glass in
his hand, and Banquo last.

 

MACBETH

Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo. Down!

Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs. And thy hair,

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

A third is like the former.—Filthy hags,    130

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

What, will the line stretch out to th’ 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   135

That twofold balls and treble scepters carry.

Horrible sight! Now I see ’tis true,

For the blood-boltered Banquo smiles upon me

And points at them for his.

The Apparitions disappear.

What, is this so?                                        140

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               145

While you perform your antic round,

That this great king may kindly say

Our duties did his welcome pay.

Music. The Witches dance and vanish.

MACBETH

Where are they? Gone? Let this pernicious hour

Stand aye accursèd in the calendar!—     150

Come in, without there.

Enter Lennox.

LENNOX  What’s your Grace’s will?

MACBETH

Saw you the Weïrd Sisters?

LENNOX  No, my lord.

MACBETH

Came they not by you?                               155

LENNOX  No, indeed, my lord.

MACBETH

Infected be the air whereon they ride,

And damned 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 160

Macduff is fled to England.

MACBETH  Fled to England?

LENNOX  Ay, my good lord.

MACBETH, aside

Time, thou anticipat’st my dread exploits.

The flighty purpose never is o’ertook      165

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:                                                            170

The castle of Macduff I will surprise,

Seize upon Fife, give to th’ edge o’ th’ 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.          175

But no more sights!—Where are these gentlemen?

Come bring me where they are.

They exit.

 

Act 4     Scene 2

Enter Macduff’s Wife, 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.                       5

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;  10

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     15

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’ th’ season. I dare not speak much          20

further;

But cruel are the times when we are traitors

And do not know ourselves; when we hold rumor

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

But float upon a wild and violent sea         25

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.                                         30

LADY MACDUFF

Fathered 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.                  Ross exits.

LADY MACDUFF  Sirrah, your father’s dead. 35

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 ’dst never fear the net nor lime, 40

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?                                                              45

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.          50

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?               55

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?                           60

LADY MACDUFF  Why, the honest men.

SON  Then the liars and swearers are fools, for there

are liars and swearers enough to beat the honest

men and hang up them.

LADY MACDUFF  Now God help thee, poor monkey! But                                                       65

how wilt thou do for a father?

SON  If he were dead, you’d 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! 70

Enter a Messenger.

MESSENGER

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

Though in your state of honor 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!                                                                 75

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. Messenger exits.  80

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,          85

Do I put up that womanly defense

To say I have done no harm?

Enter Murderers.

What are these faces?

MURDERER  Where is your husband?

LADY MACDUFF

I hope in no place so unsanctified               90

Where such as thou mayst find him.

MURDERER  He’s a traitor.

SON

Thou liest, thou shag-eared villain!

MURDERER  What, you egg?

Stabbing him. Young fry of treachery!       95

SON  He has killed

me, mother.

Run away, I pray you.

Lady Macduff exits, crying “Murder!” followed by the

Murderers bearing the Son’s body.

 

Act 4  Scene 3

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 downfall’n birthdom. Each new morn                                                           5

New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows

Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds

As if it felt with Scotland, and yelled out

Like syllable of dolor.

MALCOLM  What I believe, I’ll wail;                10

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.                                                          15

He hath not touched you yet. I am young, but

something

You may deserve of him through me, and wisdom

To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb

T’ appease an angry god.                              20

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.                                                          25

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.                          30

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,               35

Let not my jealousies be your dishonors,

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,       40

For goodness dare not check thee. Wear thou thy

wrongs;

The title is affeered.—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,                                                                45

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 50

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 55

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?                      60

MALCOLM

It is myself I mean, in whom I know

All the particulars of vice so grafted

That, when they shall be opened, black Macbeth

Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state

Esteem him as a lamb, being compared    65

With my confineless harms.

MACDUFF  Not in the legions

Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned

In evils to top Macbeth.

MALCOLM  I grant him bloody,                       70

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     75

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             80

In nature is a tyranny. It hath been

Th’ 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          85

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.                                     90

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; 95

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                                   100

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,          105

With other graces weighed.

MALCOLM

But I have none. The king-becoming graces,

As justice, verity, temp’rance, stableness,

Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,

Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude,   110

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    115

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?                               120

No, not to live.—O nation miserable,

With an untitled tyrant bloody-sceptered,

When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again,

Since that the truest issue of thy throne

By his own interdiction stands accursed 125

And does blaspheme his breed?—Thy royal father

Was a most sainted king. The queen that bore thee,

Oft’ner upon her knees than on her feet,

Died every day she lived. Fare thee well.

These evils thou repeat’st upon thyself   130

Hath banished 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                                                         135

To thy good truth and honor. Devilish Macbeth

By many of these trains hath sought to win me

Into his power, and modest wisdom plucks me

From overcredulous haste. But God above

Deal between thee and me, for even now          140

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,          145

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    150

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                                                       155

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?             160

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.                               165

MALCOLM  I thank you, doctor.

Doctor exits.

MACDUFF

What’s the disease he means?

MALCOLM  ’Tis called the evil:

A most miraculous work in this good king,

Which often since my here-remain in England                                                          170

I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven

Himself best knows, but strangely visited people

All swoll’n and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye,

The mere despair of surgery, he cures,

Hanging a golden stamp about their necks,          175

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          180

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                                                           185

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     190

Be called our mother, but our grave, where nothing

But who knows nothing is once seen to smile;

Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rent the air

Are made, not marked; where violent sorrow seems

A modern ecstasy. The dead man’s knell 195

Is there scarce asked 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?          200

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?                   205

ROSS  Well too.

MACDUFF

The tyrant has not battered at their peace?

ROSS

No, they were well at peace when I did leave ’em.

MACDUFF

Be not a niggard of your speech. How goes ’t?

ROSS

When I came hither to transport the tidings          210

Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumor

Of many worthy fellows that were out;

Which was to my belief witnessed the rather

For that I saw the tyrant’s power afoot.

Now is the time of help. Your eye in Scotland                                                         215

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;          220

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 howled out in the desert air,          225

Where hearing should not latch them.

MACDUFF  What concern

they—

The general cause, or is it a fee-grief

Due to some single breast?                        230

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.          235

ROSS

Let not your ears despise my tongue forever,

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                                                              240

Savagely slaughtered. To relate the manner

Were on the quarry of these murdered deer

To add the death of you.

MALCOLM  Merciful heaven!—

What, man, ne’er pull your hat upon your brows.                                                            245

Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak

Whispers the o’erfraught 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 killed too? 250

ROSS  I have said.

MALCOLM  Be comforted.

Let’s make us med’cines of our great revenge

To cure this deadly grief.

MACDUFF

He has no children. All my pretty ones?  255

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,                                  260

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,   265

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          270

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.                             275

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                                                       280

may.

The night is long that never finds the day.

They exit.

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