Like our strange garments; cleave not to their] mould,
But with the aid of use. Mach.
Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. Macb. 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 chanc'd; and, at more time,
The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak
Our free hearts each to other. Ban. Very gladly.
Macb. Till then, enough.-Come, friends. [Exeunt. I
SCENE IV.-Forres. A Room in the Palace,
Flourish. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain,
Lenox, and Attendants.
Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not
Those in commission yet return'd?
Mal.
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;
Implor'd 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 ow'd,
As 't were a careless trifle.
Dun.
There's no art
To find the mind's construction in the face:
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.-O worthiest cousin!
Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Rosse, and Angus.
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 deserv'd;
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.
Macb. 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 everything
Safe toward your love and honour.
Dun.
Welcome hither:
I have begun to plant thee, and will labour
To make thee full of growing.-Noble Banquo,
That hast no less deserv'd, nor must be known
No less to have done so, let me enfold thee,
And hold thee to my heart.
Ban.
There if I grow,
The harvest is your own.
Dun.
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.
Macb. The rest is labour, which is not us'd for you: I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful The hearing of my wife with your approach; So humbly take my leave. Dun. Mach. The prince of Cumberland !-That is a step On which I must fall down, or else o'er-leap, [Aside. 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. Dun. 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. A Room in Macbeth's Castle.
Enter Lady Macbeth, reading a letter. Lady M. '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 thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness; that thou mightest 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 promis'd:-Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way: Thou would'st be great; Art not without ambition; but without [highly, The illness should attend it. What thou would'st That would'st thou holily; would'st not play false, And yet would'st wrongly win; thou 'dst have, great Glamis, [have it: That which cries, Thus thou must do, if thou 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.-What is your tidings?
Enter an Attendant.
Attend. The king comes here to-night.
Lady M.
Thou 'rt mad to say it:
Is not thy master with him? who, wer 't so,
Attend. So please you, it is true; our thane is
Would have inform'd for preparation.
One of my fellows had the speed of him; [coming:
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
Than would make up his message.
Lady M.
Give him tending,
He brings great news. The raven himself is hoarse
[Exit Attendant.
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here;
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 murthering 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!--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.
Macb.
My dearest love,
Duncan comes here to-night.
Lady M.
And when goes hence?
Macb. To-morrow,-as he purposes.
Lady M.
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 it. 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
To alter favour ever is to fear:
Leave all the rest to me.
[Exeunt.
SCENE VI.-The same. Before the Castle.
Hautboys. Servants of Macbeth attending.
Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo,
Lenox, Macduff, Rosse, Angus, and Attendants.
Dun. This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses.
Ban.
This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve,
By his lov'd mansionry that the heaven's breath
Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze,
Buttress, nor coigne of vantage, but this bird
Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle:
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observ'd,
The air is delicate.
Dun.
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-eyld us for your pains,
And thank us for your trouble.
Lady M.
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.
Dun.
Where's the thane of Cawdor?
We cours'd 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 M.
Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in conpt,
To make their audit at your highness' pleasure,
Still to return your own.
Dun.
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.-The same. A Room in the Castle. Hautboys and torches. Enter, and pass over the stage, a Sewer, and divers Servants with dishes and service. Then enter Macbeth.
Macb. If it were done, when 't is done, then
't were 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'd 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 murtherer 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, hors'd
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.-How now, what news?
Enter Lady Macbeth.
Macb. Hath he ask'd for me?
Lady M.
Know you not he has?
Macb. 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,
Nor cast aside so soon.
Lady M.
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? Would'st 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?
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more, is none.
Lady M.
What beast was 't then,
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
That made you break this enterprise to me?
Be so much more the man. Nor time, nor place,
And, to be more than what you were, you would
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:
They have made themselves, and that their fitness
Does unmake you. I have given suck; and know
How tender 't is 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.
Macb.
Lady M.
We fail.
And we 'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep,
But screw your courage to the sticking place,
(Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey
Soundly invite him,) his two chamberlains
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Will I with wine and wassel so convince,
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?
Macb.
Bring forth men-children only,
For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing but males. Will it not be receiv'd,
of his own chamber, and us'd their very daggers,
When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two
That they have done 't?
Lady M.
Who dares receive it other,
As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar
Upon his death?
Mach.
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.
SCENE I.-The same. Court within the Castle.
Enter Banquo and Fleance with a torch.
Ban. How goes the night, boy?
Fle. The moon is down; I have not heard the clock,
Ban. And she goes down at twelve.
Fle.
I take 't, 't is later, sir.
Ban. 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 !-Give me my sword;-
Enter Macbeth, and a Servant with a torch,
Who 's there? Mach. A friend.
Ban. What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's a-bed:
He hath been in unusual pleasure, and
Lady M. He has almost supp'd: Why have you Sent forth great largess to your offices:
This diamond he greets your wife withal,
Our will became the servant to defect; Which else should free have wrought.
I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:
To you they have show'd some truth.
Mach.
I think not of them:
Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,
We would spend it in some words upon that busi-
If you would grant the time.
[ness,
At your kind'st leisure.
Macb. If you shall cleave to my consent,-when 't is,
It shall make honour for you.
Ban.
So I lose none,
In seeking to augment it, but still keep
My bosom franchis'd, and allegiance clear,
I shall be counsell'd.
Macb.
Good repose, the while!
Ban. Thanks, sir; the like to you!
[Exit Banquo and Fleance.
Macb. 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
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. [thee:
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 half world
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleep: witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murther,
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin's rav shing 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 where-about,
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.
SCENE II.-The same.
Enter Lady Macbeth.
![[blocks in formation]](https://books.google.cz/books/content?id=YcYjAAAAMAAJ&hl=cs&output=html_text&pg=PA508&img=1&zoom=3&q=fear&cds=1&sig=ACfU3U0NLuUXsRLUfUfoBZvsuL_R3wYpuA&edge=0&edge=stretch&ci=515,81,437,122)
I stood and heard them: but they did say their
And address'd them again to sleep.
[prayers,
Lady M. There are two lodg'd together.
Macb. 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 M.
Consider it not so deeply.
Macb. But wherefore could not I pronounce, amen?
I had most need of blessing, and amen
Stuck in my throat.
Lady M. These deeds must not be thought
After these ways; so, it will make us mad. [more!
Macb. Methought, I heard a voice cry, 'Sleep no
Macbeth does murther sleep,'-the innocent sleep;
Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleave 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 M.
What do you mean?
Macb. Still it cried, 'Sleep no more!' to all the
house:
[dor 'Glamis hath murther'd sleep: and therefore ČawShall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more!' Lady M. Who was it that thus cried? Why, wor
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.
I am afraid to think what I have done;
Look on 't again I dare not.
Lady M.
Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers: The sleeping, and the dead,
Are but as pictures: 't is 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.
Mach.
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 incarnardine,
[Exit. Making the green, one red.
Lady M. 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
He is about it: The doors are open; [night.
And the surfeited grooms do mock their charge with
I have drugg'd their possets,
[snores:
That death and nature do contend about them,
Whether they live, or die.
Macb. [Within.] Who's there?-what, hoa!
Lady M. Alack! I am afraid they have awak'd,
And 't is not done :-the attempt, and not the deed,
Confounds us :-Hark!-I laid their daggers ready,
He could not miss them.-Had he not resembled
My father as he slept I had done 't-My husband!
Enter Macbeth.
Lady M. My hands are of your colour; but I shame
To wear a heart so white. [Knock.] I hear a knock-
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.] 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.
Macb. To know my deed, 't were best not know
myself. (Knock. Wake Duncan with thy knocking; I would thou [Exeunt.
Enter a Porter. [Knocking within. Porter. Here's a knocking, indeed! If a man Macb. I have done the deed:-Didst thou not hear were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning [cry. the key. [Knocking.] Knock, knock, knock: Lady M. I heard the owl scream, and the crickets Who 's there, i' the name of Belzebub? Here's a Did not you speak? Mach. When? farmer, that hanged himself on the expectation of Lady M. plenty: Come in time; have napkins enough about Macb. As I descended? you; here you 'll sweat for 't. [Knocking. Knock, Lady M. Ay knock: Who's there, i' the other devil's name?
Our will became the servant to defect;
Which else should free have wrought.
I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:
To you they have show'd some truth.
Macb.
I think not of them:
Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,
We would spend it in some words upon that busi-
If you would grant the time.
[ness,
Ban.
At your kind'st leisure.
Macb. If you shall cleave to my consent,-when 't is,
It shall make honour for you.
Ban.
So I lose none,
In seeking to augment it, but still keep
My bosom franchis'd, and allegiance clear,
I shall be counsell'd.
Mach.
Good repose, the while!
Ban. Thanks, sir; the like to you!
[Exit Banquo and Fleance. Macb. 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
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. [thee:
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 half world
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleep: witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murther,
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin's rav shing 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 where-about,
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.
SCENE II.-The same.
Enter Lady Macbeth.
Who lies i' the second chamber?
Lady M.
Macb. This is a sorry sight. [Looking on his hands.
Lady M. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.
Mach. There's one did laugh in his sleep,
And one cried, 'murther!' that they did wake each
other;
I stood and heard them: but they did say their
And address'd them again to sleep. [prayers,
Lady M. There are two lodg'd together.
Macb. 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 M.
Consider it not so deeply.
Macb. But wherefore could not I pronounce, amen?
I had most need of blessing, and amen
Stuck in my throat.
Lady M. These deeds must not be thought
After these ways; so, it will make us mad. [more!
Macb. Methought, I heard a voice cry, 'Sleep no
Macbeth does murther sleep,'-the innocent sleep;
Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleave 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 M.
What do you mean?
Mach. Still it cried, 'Sleep no more!' to all the
house:
[dor
'Glamis hath murther'd sleep: and therefore Ĉaw-
Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more!'
Lady M. Who was it that thus cried? Why, wor-
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.
Macb.
I'll go no more;
I am afraid to think what I have done;
Look on 't again I dare not.
Lady M.
Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers: The sleeping, and the dead,
Are but as pictures: 't is 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.
Whence is that knocking!
every noise appals me?
Ha! they pluck out mine
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnardíne,
[Exit. Making the green, one red.
Lady M. My hands are of your colour; but I [ing
Lady M. That which hath made them drunk hatli To wear a heart so white. [Knock.] I hear a knock
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
He is about it: The doors are open;
[night.
And the surfeited grooms do mock their charge with
I have drugg'd their possets,
That death and nature do contend about them,
Whether they live, or die.
Macb. [Within.] Who's there?-what, hoa!
Lady M. Alack! I am afraid they have awak'd,
And 't is not done :-the attempt, and not the deed,
Confounds us :-Hark!-I laid their daggers ready,
He could not miss them.-Had he not resembled
My father as he slept I had done 't-My husband!
Enter Macbeth.
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.] 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.
Macb. To know my deed, 't were best not know
myself.
Wake Duncan with thy knocking; I would thou
Enter a Porter. [Knocking within. Porter. Here's a knocking, indeed! If a man Macb. I have done the deed:-Didst thou not hear were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning a noise? [cry. the key. [Knocking.] Knock, knock, knock": Lady M. I heard the owl scream, and the crickets Who 's there, i' the name of Belzebub? Here's a Did not you speak? Mach. When? farmer, that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty: Come in time; have napkins enough about you; here you 'll sweat for 't. [Knocking. Knock, knock: Who's there, i' the other devil's name?
|