Macbeth

Macbeth

ACT III 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,	5
	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.	10
	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.	15
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	20
	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,	25
	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,	30
	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,	35
	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,	40
	'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,	45
	And health on both!
LENNOX	May't please your highness sit.
	The GHOST OF BANQUO enters, and sits inMACBETH'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	50
	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.	55
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?	60
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;	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. Are you a man?
MACBETH	Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that	70
	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,	75
	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.	80
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	85
	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,	90
	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,	95
	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.	100
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.	105
	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.	110
	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,	115
	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;	120
	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!	125
	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.	130
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,	135
	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:	140
	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!	145
	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?	150
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:	155
	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,	160
	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.	165
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