[Exeunt all but MALCOLM and DONALBAIN. Mal. 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.
Don. 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.

Mal. 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.

'Gainst nature still :

Thriftless ambition, that will ravin up

Thine own life's means!-Then 't is most like The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.

Macd. He is already named, and gone to Scone To be invested.

Rosse.

Where is Duncan's body? Macd. Carried to Colm-kill;

The sacred storehouse of his predecessors, And guardian of their bones.

Macd. Well, may you see things well done there;-adieu!

Lest old robes sit easier than our new!

Rosse. Farewell, father.

Old M. God's benison go with you; and with

those

That would make good of bad, and friends of foes. [Exeunt.

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 the made good,
May they not be my oracles as well,
And set me up in hope? But, hush: no more.

Senet sounded. Enter MACBETH, as King; LADY
MACBETH, as Queen; LENOX, Rosse, Lords,
Ladies, and Attendants.

Macb. Here's our chief guest.
Lady M.

If he had been forgotten,
It had been as a gap in our great feast,

And all things unbecoming.

Macb. To-night we hold a solemn supper, sir, And I'll request your presence. Let your highness

Ban.

Command upon me; to the which, my duties Are with a most indissoluble tie

For ever knit.

Macb. Ride you, this afternoon?

Ban.

Ay, my good lord.

Macb. 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?

Ban. 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.

Macb
Fail not our feast.
Ban. My lord, I will not.

Macb. We hear, our bloody cousins are bestowed
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?
Ban. Ay, my good lord: our time does call

upon us.

Macb. I wish your horses swift and sure of foot; And so I do commend you to their backs.

[Exit BANQUO.

Farewell.-
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 LADY MACBETH, Lords, Ladies, &c. Sirrah, a word with you: attend those men our pleasure?

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

Macb. 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 feared: '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 Cæsar. 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:
Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown,
And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,
Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand,
No son of mine succeeding. If it be so,
For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind;
For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered;
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 to the door, and stay there till we call.
[Exit Attendant.
Was it not yesterday we spoke together?
1st Mur. It was, so please your highness.
Macb.
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
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 might,

Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are cleped
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,
And not in the worst rank of manhood, say it;
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.

2nd Mur. 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.

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
Whom 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.

2nd Mur. We shall, my lord,
Perform what you command us.
1st Mur.

Though our lives

Macb. 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.

2nd Mur. We are resolved, my lord. Macb. I'll call upon you straight; abide within.

It is concluded:-Banquo, thy soul's flight,
If it find heaven, must find it out to-night.

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. Macb. We have scotched the snake, not killed 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 place, have sent to peace,
Then 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.

Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night,
Skarf 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 paie!-Light thickens; and
the crow

Makes wing to the rooky wood:

Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, Whiles night's black agents to their prey do rouse. Thou marvell'st at my words: but hold thee still;

Things bad begun, make strong themselves by ill : So, pr'y thee, go with me. [Exeunt.

Mur. 'Tis Banquo's then.

Macb. 'Tis better thee without, than he within. Is he despatched?

Mur. My lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him.

Macb. 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.

Mur. Most royal sir,
Fleance is 'scaped.

Macb. 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 am I cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo's safe?
Mur. Ay, my good lord; safe in a ditch he bides,
With twenty trenchéd gashes on his head;
The least a death to nature.