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The Tragedy of Macbeth 7.html
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The Tragedy of Macbeth 7.html
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<span id = 25 ></span><span id = 26 ><h3>SCENE I.<br /></h3><blockquote><i>Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches</i></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>When shall we three meet again</a><br /><a>In thunder, lightning, or in rain?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Second Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>When the hurlyburly's done,</a><br /><a>When the battle's lost and won.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Third Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>That will be ere the set of sun.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Where the place?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Second Witch</b></a><blockquote><a> Upon the heath.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Third Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>There to meet with Macbeth.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>I come, Graymalkin!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Second Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Paddock calls.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Third Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Anon.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ALL</b></a><blockquote><a>Fair is foul, and foul is fair:</a><br /><a>Hover through the fog and filthy air.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 30 ><h3>SCENE II. </h3><blockquote><i>Alarum within. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant</i></blockquote><a><b>DUNCAN</b></a><blockquote><a>What bloody man is that? He can report,</a><br /><a>As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt</a><br /><a>The newest state.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a> This is the sergeant</a><br /><a>Who like a good and hardy soldier fought</a><br /><a>'Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend!</a><br /><a>Say to the king the knowledge of the broil</a><br /><a>As thou didst leave it.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Sergeant</b></a><blockquote><a>Doubtful it stood;</a><br /><a>As two spent swimmers, that do cling together</a><br /><a>And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald--</a><br /><a>Worthy to be a rebel, for to that</a><br /><a>The multiplying villanies of nature</a><br /><a>Do swarm upon him--from the western isles</a><br /><a>Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied;</a><br /><a>And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,</a><br /><a>Show'd like a rebel's whore: but all's too weak:</a><br /><a>For brave Macbeth--well he deserves that name--</a><br /><a>Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,</a><br /><a>Which smoked with bloody execution,</a><br /><a>Like valour's minion carved out his passage</a><br /><a>Till he faced the slave;</a><br /><a>Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,</a><br /><a>Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps,</a><br /><a>And fix'd his head upon our battlements.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DUNCAN</b></a><blockquote><a>O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Sergeant</b></a><blockquote><a>As whence the sun 'gins his reflection</a><br /><a>Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break,</a><br /><a>So from that spring whence comfort seem'd to come</a><br /><a>Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark:</a><br /><a>No sooner justice had with valour arm'd</a><br /><a>Compell'd these skipping kerns to trust their heels,</a><br /><a>But the Norweyan lord surveying vantage,</a><br /><a>With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men</a><br /><a>Began a fresh assault.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DUNCAN</b></a><blockquote><a>Dismay'd not this</a><br /><a>Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Sergeant</b></a><blockquote><a>Yes;</a><br /><a>As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.</a><br /><a>If I say sooth, I must report they were</a><br /><a>As cannons overcharged with double cracks, so they</a><br /><a>Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe:</a><br /><a>Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,</a><br /><a>Or memorise another Golgotha,</a><br /><a>I cannot tell.</a><br /><a>But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DUNCAN</b></a><blockquote><a>So well thy words become thee as thy wounds;</a><br /><a>They smack of honour both. Go get him surgeons.</a><br /><p><i>Exit Sergeant, attended</i></p><a>Who comes here?</a><br /><p><i>Enter ROSS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a> The worthy thane of Ross.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LENNOX</b></a><blockquote><a>What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look</a><br /><a>That seems to speak things strange.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>God save the king!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DUNCAN</b></a><blockquote><a>Whence camest thou, worthy thane?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>From Fife, great king;</a><br /><a>Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky</a><br /><a>And fan our people cold. Norway himself,</a><br /><a>With terrible numbers,</a><br /><a>Assisted by that most disloyal traitor</a><br /><a>The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict;</a><br /><a>Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof,</a><br /><a>Confronted him with self-comparisons,</a><br /><a>Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm.</a><br /><a>Curbing his lavish spirit: and, to conclude,</a><br /><a>The victory fell on us.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DUNCAN</b></a><blockquote><a>Great happiness!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>That now</a><br /><a>Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition:</a><br /><a>Nor would we deign him burial of his men</a><br /><a>Till he disbursed at Saint Colme's inch</a><br /><a>Ten thousand dollars to our general use.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DUNCAN</b></a><blockquote><a>No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive</a><br /><a>Our bosom interest: go pronounce his present death,</a><br /><a>And with his former title greet Macbeth.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>I'll see it done.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DUNCAN</b></a><blockquote><a>What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 31 ><h3>SCENE III.<br /></h3><blockquote><i>Thunder. Enter the three Witches</i></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Where hast thou been, sister?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Second Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Killing swine.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Third Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Sister, where thou?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap,</a><br /><a>And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd:--</a><br /><a>'Give me,' quoth I:</a><br /><a>'Aroint thee, witch!' the rump-fed ronyon cries.</a><br /><a>Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger:</a><br /><a>But in a sieve I'll thither sail,</a><br /><a>And, like a rat without a tail,</a><br /><a>I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Second Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>I'll give thee a wind.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Thou'rt kind.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Third Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>And I another.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>I myself have all the other,</a><br /><a>And the very ports they blow,</a><br /><a>All the quarters that they know</a><br /><a>I' the shipman's card.</a><br /><a>I will drain him dry as hay:</a><br /><a>Sleep shall neither night nor day</a><br /><a>Hang upon his pent-house lid;</a><br /><a>He shall live a man forbid:</a><br /><a>Weary se'nnights nine times nine</a><br /><a>Shall he dwindle, peak and pine:</a><br /><a>Though his bark cannot be lost,</a><br /><a>Yet it shall be tempest-tost.</a><br /><a>Look what I have.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Second Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Show me, show me.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Here I have a pilot's thumb,</a><br /><a>Wreck'd as homeward he did come.</a><br /><p><i>Drum within</i></p></blockquote><a><b>Third Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>A drum, a drum!</a><br /><a>Macbeth doth come.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ALL</b></a><blockquote><a>The weird sisters, hand in hand,</a><br /><a>Posters of the sea and land,</a><br /><a>Thus do go about, about:</a><br /><a>Thrice to thine and thrice to mine</a><br /><a>And thrice again, to make up nine.</a><br /><a>Peace! the charm's wound up.</a><br /><p><i>Enter MACBETH and BANQUO</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>So foul and fair a day I have not seen.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>How far is't call'd to Forres? What are these</a><br /><a>So wither'd and so wild in their attire,</a><br /><a>That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,</a><br /><a>And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught</a><br /><a>That man may question? You seem to understand me,</a><br /><a>By each at once her chappy finger laying</a><br /><a>Upon her skinny lips: you should be women,</a><br /><a>And yet your beards forbid me to interpret</a><br /><a>That you are so.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a> Speak, if you can: what are you?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Second Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Third Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear</a><br /><a>Things that do sound so fair? I' the name of truth,</a><br /><a>Are ye fantastical, or that indeed</a><br /><a>Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner</a><br /><a>You greet with present grace and great prediction</a><br /><a>Of noble having and of royal hope,</a><br /><a>That he seems rapt withal: to me you speak not.</a><br /><a>If you can look into the seeds of time,</a><br /><a>And say which grain will grow and which will not,</a><br /><a>Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear</a><br /><a>Your favours nor your hate.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Hail!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Second Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Hail!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Third Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Hail!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Second Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Not so happy, yet much happier.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Third Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none:</a><br /><a>So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:</a><br /><a>By Sinel's death I know I am thane of Glamis;</a><br /><a>But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives,</a><br /><a>A prosperous gentleman; and to be king</a><br /><a>Stands not within the prospect of belief,</a><br /><a>No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence</a><br /><a>You owe this strange intelligence? or why</a><br /><a>Upon this blasted heath you stop our way</a><br /><a>With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.</a><br /><p><i>Witches vanish</i></p></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,</a><br /><a>And these are of them. Whither are they vanish'd?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Into the air; and what seem'd corporal melted</a><br /><a>As breath into the wind. Would they had stay'd!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>Were such things here as we do speak about?</a><br /><a>Or have we eaten on the insane root</a><br /><a>That takes the reason prisoner?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Your children shall be kings.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>You shall be king.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>And thane of Cawdor too: went it not so?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>To the selfsame tune and words. Who's here?</a><br /><p><i>Enter ROSS and ANGUS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>The king hath happily received, Macbeth,</a><br /><a>The news of thy success; and when he reads</a><br /><a>Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight,</a><br /><a>His wonders and his praises do contend</a><br /><a>Which should be thine or his: silenced with that,</a><br /><a>In viewing o'er the rest o' the selfsame day,</a><br /><a>He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,</a><br /><a>Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,</a><br /><a>Strange images of death. As thick as hail</a><br /><a>Came post with post; and every one did bear</a><br /><a>Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence,</a><br /><a>And pour'd them down before him.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ANGUS</b></a><blockquote><a>We are sent</a><br /><a>To give thee from our royal master thanks;</a><br /><a>Only to herald thee into his sight,</a><br /><a>Not pay thee.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>And, for an earnest of a greater honour,</a><br /><a>He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor:</a><br /><a>In which addition, hail, most worthy thane!</a><br /><a>For it is thine.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a> What, can the devil speak true?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>The thane of Cawdor lives: why do you dress me</a><br /><a>In borrow'd robes?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ANGUS</b></a><blockquote><a> Who was the thane lives yet;</a><br /><a>But under heavy judgment bears that life</a><br /><a>Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined</a><br /><a>With those of Norway, or did line the rebel</a><br /><a>With hidden help and vantage, or that with both</a><br /><a>He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not;</a><br /><a>But treasons capital, confess'd and proved,</a><br /><a>Have overthrown him.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>[Aside] Glamis, and thane of Cawdor!</a><br /><a>The greatest is behind.</a><br /><p><i>To ROSS and ANGUS</i></p><a>Thanks for your pains.</a><br /><p><i>To BANQUO</i></p><a>Do you not hope your children shall be kings,</a><br /><a>When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me</a><br /><a>Promised no less to them?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>That trusted home</a><br /><a>Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,</a><br /><a>Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange:</a><br /><a>And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,</a><br /><a>The instruments of darkness tell us truths,</a><br /><a>Win us with honest trifles, to betray's</a><br /><a>In deepest consequence.</a><br /><a>Cousins, a word, I pray you.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>[Aside] Two truths are told,</a><br /><a>As happy prologues to the swelling act</a><br /><a>Of the imperial theme.--I thank you, gentlemen.</a><br /><p><i>Aside</i></p><a>This supernatural soliciting<br />Cannot be ill, cannot be good: if ill,</a><br /><a>Why hath it given me earnest of success,</a><br /><a>Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor:</a><br /><a>If good, why do I yield to that suggestion</a><br /><a>Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair</a><br /><a>And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,</a><br /><a>Against the use of nature? Present fears</a><br /><a>Are less than horrible imaginings:</a><br /><a>My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,</a><br /><a>Shakes so my single state of man that function</a><br /><a>Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is</a><br /><a>But what is not.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a> Look, how our partner's rapt.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>[Aside] If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me,</a><br /><a>Without my stir.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a> New honors come upon him,</a><br /><a>Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould</a><br /><a>But with the aid of use.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>[Aside] Come what come may,</a><br /><a>Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Give me your favour: my dull brain was wrought</a><br /><a>With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains</a><br /><a>Are register'd where every day I turn</a><br /><a>The leaf to read them. Let us toward the king.</a><br /><a>Think upon what hath chanced, and, at more time,</a><br /><a>The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak</a><br /><a>Our free hearts each to other.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>Very gladly.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Till then, enough. Come, friends.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 33 ><h3>SCENE IV.</h3><blockquote><i>Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, and Attendants</i></blockquote><a><b>DUNCAN</b></a><blockquote><a>Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not</a><br /><a>Those in commission yet return'd?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>My liege,</a><br /><a>They are not yet come back. But I have spoke</a><br /><a>With one that saw him die: who did report</a><br /><a>That very frankly he confess'd his treasons,</a><br /><a>Implored your highness' pardon and set forth</a><br /><a>A deep repentance: nothing in his life</a><br /><a>Became him like the leaving it; he died</a><br /><a>As one that had been studied in his death</a><br /><a>To throw away the dearest thing he owed,</a><br /><a>As 'twere a careless trifle.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DUNCAN</b></a><blockquote><a>There's no art</a><br /><a>To find the mind's construction in the face:</a><br /><a>He was a gentleman on whom I built</a><br /><a>An absolute trust.</a><br /><p><i>Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSS, and ANGUS</i></p><a>O worthiest cousin!</a><br /><a>The sin of my ingratitude even now</a><br /><a>Was heavy on me: thou art so far before</a><br /><a>That swiftest wing of recompense is slow</a><br /><a>To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved,</a><br /><a>That the proportion both of thanks and payment</a><br /><a>Might have been mine! only I have left to say,</a><br /><a>More is thy due than more than all can pay.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>The service and the loyalty I owe,</a><br /><a>In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part</a><br /><a>Is to receive our duties; and our duties</a><br /><a>Are to your throne and state children and servants,</a><br /><a>Which do but what they should, by doing every thing</a><br /><a>Safe toward your love and honour.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DUNCAN</b></a><blockquote><a>Welcome hither:</a><br /><a>I have begun to plant thee, and will labour</a><br /><a>To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo,</a><br /><a>That hast no less deserved, nor must be known</a><br /><a>No less to have done so, let me enfold thee</a><br /><a>And hold thee to my heart.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>There if I grow,</a><br /><a>The harvest is your own.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DUNCAN</b></a><blockquote><a>My plenteous joys,</a><br /><a>Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves</a><br /><a>In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes,</a><br /><a>And you whose places are the nearest, know</a><br /><a>We will establish our estate upon</a><br /><a>Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter</a><br /><a>The Prince of Cumberland; which honour must</a><br /><a>Not unaccompanied invest him only,</a><br /><a>But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine</a><br /><a>On all deservers. From hence to Inverness,</a><br /><a>And bind us further to you.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>The rest is labour, which is not used for you:</a><br /><a>I'll be myself the harbinger and make joyful</a><br /><a>The hearing of my wife with your approach;</a><br /><a>So humbly take my leave.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DUNCAN</b></a><blockquote><a>My worthy Cawdor!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>[Aside] The Prince of Cumberland! that is a step</a><br /><a>On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,</a><br /><a>For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;</a><br /><a>Let not light see my black and deep desires:</a><br /><a>The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be,</a><br /><a>Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>DUNCAN</b></a><blockquote><a>True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant,</a><br /><a>And in his commendations I am fed;</a><br /><a>It is a banquet to me. Let's after him,</a><br /><a>Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome:</a><br /><a>It is a peerless kinsman.</a><br /><p><i>Flourish. Exeunt</i></p></blockquote> <a></a></span><span id = 34 ><h3>SCENE V.<br /></h3><blockquote><i>Enter LADY MACBETH, reading a letter</i></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>'They met me in the day of success: and I have</a><a> learned by the perfectest report, they have more in</a><a> them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire</a><a> to question them further, they made themselves air,</a><a> into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in</a><a> the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who</a><a> all-hailed me 'Thane of Cawdor;' by which title,</a><a> before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred</a><a> me to the coming on of time, with 'Hail, king that</a><a> shalt be!' This have I thought good to deliver</a><a> thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou</a><a> mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being</a><a> ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it</a><a> to thy heart, and farewell.'</a><br /><a>Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be</a><br /><a>What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature;</a><br /><a>It is too full o' the milk of human kindness</a><br /><a>To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great;</a><br /><a>Art not without ambition, but without</a><br /><a>The illness should attend it: what thou wouldst highly,</a><br /><a>That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,</a><br /><a>And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou'ldst have, great Glamis,</a><br /><a>That which cries 'Thus thou must do,' if thou have it;</a><br /><a>And that which rather thou dost fear to do</a><br /><a>Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither,</a><br /><a>That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;</a><br /><a>And chastise with the valour of my tongue</a><br /><a>All that impedes thee from the golden round,</a><br /><a>Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem</a><br /><a>To have thee crown'd withal.</a><br /><p><i>Enter a Messenger</i></p><a>What is your tidings?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Messenger</b></a><blockquote><a>The king comes here to-night.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Thou'rt mad to say it:</a><br /><a>Is not thy master with him? who, were't so,</a><br /><a>Would have inform'd for preparation.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Messenger</b></a><blockquote><a>So please you, it is true: our thane is coming:</a><br /><a>One of my fellows had the speed of him,</a><br /><a>Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more</a><br /><a>Than would make up his message.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Give him tending;</a><br /><a>He brings great news.</a><br /><p><i>Exit Messenger</i></p><a>The raven himself is hoarse</a><br /><a>That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan</a><br /><a>Under my battlements. Come, you spirits</a><br /><a>That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,</a><br /><a>And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full</a><br /><a>Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;</a><br /><a>Stop up the access and passage to remorse,</a><br /><a>That no compunctious visitings of nature</a><br /><a>Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between</a><br /><a>The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,</a><br /><a>And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,</a><br /><a>Wherever in your sightless substances</a><br /><a>You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night,</a><br /><a>And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,</a><br /><a>That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,</a><br /><a>Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,</a><br /><a>To cry 'Hold, hold!'</a><br /><p><i>Enter MACBETH</i></p><a>Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor!</a><br /><a>Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!</a><br /><a>Thy letters have transported me beyond</a><br /><a>This ignorant present, and I feel now</a><br /><a>The future in the instant.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>My dearest love,</a><br /><a>Duncan comes here to-night.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>And when goes hence?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>To-morrow, as he purposes.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>O, never</a><br /><a>Shall sun that morrow see!</a><br /><a>Your face, my thane, is as a book where men</a><br /><a>May read strange matters. To beguile the time,</a><br /><a>Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,</a><br /><a>Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,</a><br /><a>But be the serpent under't. He that's coming</a><br /><a>Must be provided for: and you shall put</a><br /><a>This night's great business into my dispatch;</a><br /><a>Which shall to all our nights and days to come</a><br /><a>Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>We will speak further.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Only look up clear;</a><br /><a>To alter favour ever is to fear:</a><br /><a>Leave all the rest to me.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 36 ><h3>SCENE VI. </h3><blockquote><i>Hautboys and torches. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, BANQUO, LENNOX, MACDUFF, ROSS, ANGUS, and Attendants</i></blockquote><a><b>DUNCAN</b></a><blockquote><a>This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air</a><br /><a>Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself</a><br /><a>Unto our gentle senses.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>This guest of summer,</a><br /><a>The temple-haunting martlet, does approve,</a><br /><a>By his loved mansionry, that the heaven's breath</a><br /><a>Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze,</a><br /><a>Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird</a><br /><a>Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle:</a><br /><a>Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed,</a><br /><a>The air is delicate.</a><br /><p><i>Enter LADY MACBETH</i></p></blockquote><a><b>DUNCAN</b></a><blockquote><a>See, see, our honour'd hostess!</a><br /><a>The love that follows us sometime is our trouble,</a><br /><a>Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you</a><br /><a>How you shall bid God 'ild us for your pains,</a><br /><a>And thank us for your trouble.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>All our service</a><br /><a>In every point twice done and then done double</a><br /><a>Were poor and single business to contend</a><br /><a>Against those honours deep and broad wherewith</a><br /><a>Your majesty loads our house: for those of old,</a><br /><a>And the late dignities heap'd up to them,</a><br /><a>We rest your hermits.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DUNCAN</b></a><blockquote><a>Where's the thane of Cawdor?</a><br /><a>We coursed him at the heels, and had a purpose</a><br /><a>To be his purveyor: but he rides well;</a><br /><a>And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him</a><br /><a>To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess,</a><br /><a>We are your guest to-night.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Your servants ever</a><br /><a>Have theirs, themselves and what is theirs, in compt,</a><br /><a>To make their audit at your highness' pleasure,</a><br /><a>Still to return your own.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DUNCAN</b></a><blockquote><a>Give me your hand;</a><br /><a>Conduct me to mine host: we love him highly,</a><br /><a>And shall continue our graces towards him.</a><br /><a>By your leave, hostess.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 37 ><h3>SCENE VII.</h3><blockquote><i>Hautboys and torches. Enter a Sewer, and divers Servants with dishes and service, and pass over the stage. Then enter MACBETH</i></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well</a><br /><a>It were done quickly: if the assassination</a><br /><a>Could trammel up the consequence, and catch</a><br /><a>With his surcease success; that but this blow</a><br /><a>Might be the be-all and the end-all here,</a><br /><a>But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,</a><br /><a>We'ld jump the life to come. But in these cases</a><br /><a>We still have judgment here; that we but teach</a><br /><a>Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return</a><br /><a>To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice</a><br /><a>Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice</a><br /><a>To our own lips. He's here in double trust;</a><br /><a>First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,</a><br /><a>Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,</a><br /><a>Who should against his murderer shut the door,</a><br /><a>Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan</a><br /><a>Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been</a><br /><a>So clear in his great office, that his virtues</a><br /><a>Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against</a><br /><a>The deep damnation of his taking-off;</a><br /><a>And pity, like a naked new-born babe,</a><br /><a>Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsed</a><br /><a>Upon the sightless couriers of the air,</a><br /><a>Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,</a><br /><a>That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur</a><br /><a>To prick the sides of my intent, but only</a><br /><a>Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself</a><br /><a>And falls on the other.</a><br /><p><i>Enter LADY MACBETH</i></p><a>How now! what news?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>He has almost supp'd: why have you left the chamber?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Hath he ask'd for me?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Know you not he has?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>We will proceed no further in this business:</a><br /><a>He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought</a><br /><a>Golden opinions from all sorts of people,</a><br /><a>Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,</a><br /><a>Not cast aside so soon.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Was the hope drunk</a><br /><a>Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since?</a><br /><a>And wakes it now, to look so green and pale</a><br /><a>At what it did so freely? From this time</a><br /><a>Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard</a><br /><a>To be the same in thine own act and valour</a><br /><a>As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that</a><br /><a>Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,</a><br /><a>And live a coward in thine own esteem,</a><br /><a>Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would,'</a><br /><a>Like the poor cat i' the adage?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Prithee, peace:</a><br /><a>I dare do all that may become a man;</a><br /><a>Who dares do more is none.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>What beast was't, then,</a><br /><a>That made you break this enterprise to me?</a><br /><a>When you durst do it, then you were a man;</a><br /><a>And, to be more than what you were, you would</a><br /><a>Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place</a><br /><a>Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:</a><br /><a>They have made themselves, and that their fitness now</a><br /><a>Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know</a><br /><a>How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:</a><br /><a>I would, while it was smiling in my face,</a><br /><a>Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,</a><br /><a>And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you</a><br /><a>Have done to this.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a> If we should fail?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>We fail!</a><br /><a>But screw your courage to the sticking-place,</a><br /><a>And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep--</a><br /><a>Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey</a><br /><a>Soundly invite him--his two chamberlains</a><br /><a>Will I with wine and wassail so convince</a><br /><a>That memory, the warder of the brain,</a><br /><a>Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason</a><br /><a>A limbeck only: when in swinish sleep</a><br /><a>Their drenched natures lie as in a death,</a><br /><a>What cannot you and I perform upon</a><br /><a>The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon</a><br /><a>His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt</a><br /><a>Of our great quell?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Bring forth men-children only;</a><br /><a>For thy undaunted mettle should compose</a><br /><a>Nothing but males. Will it not be received,</a><br /><a>When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two</a><br /><a>Of his own chamber and used their very daggers,</a><br /><a>That they have done't?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Who dares receive it other,</a><br /><a>As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar</a><br /><a>Upon his death?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><a> I am settled, and bend up</a><br /><a>Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.</a><br /><a>Away, and mock the time with fairest show:</a><br /><a>False face must hide what the false heart doth know.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></span><span id = 38 ></span><span id = 39 ><h3>SCENE I.</h3><blockquote><i>Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE bearing a torch before him</i></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>How goes the night, boy?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>FLEANCE</b></a><blockquote><a>The moon is down; I have not heard the clock.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>And she goes down at twelve.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>FLEANCE</b></a><blockquote><a>I take't, 'tis later, sir.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven;</a><br /><a>Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.</a><br /><a>A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,</a><br /><a>And yet I would not sleep: merciful powers,</a><br /><a>Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature</a><br /><a>Gives way to in repose!</a><br /><p><i>Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch</i></p><a>Give me my sword.</a><br /><a>Who's there?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>A friend.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's a-bed:</a><br /><a>He hath been in unusual pleasure, and</a><br /><a>Sent forth great largess to your offices.</a><br /><a>This diamond he greets your wife withal,</a><br /><a>By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up</a><br /><a>In measureless content.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Being unprepared,</a><br /><a>Our will became the servant to defect;</a><br /><a>Which else should free have wrought.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>All's well.</a><br /><a>I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:</a><br /><a>To you they have show'd some truth.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>I think not of them:</a><br /><a>Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,</a><br /><a>We would spend it in some words upon that business,</a><br /><a>If you would grant the time.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>At your kind'st leisure.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis,</a><br /><a>It shall make honour for you.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>So I lose none</a><br /><a>In seeking to augment it, but still keep</a><br /><a>My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,</a><br /><a>I shall be counsell'd.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Good repose the while!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>Thanks, sir: the like to you!</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt BANQUO and FLEANCE</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,</a><br /><a>She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.</a><br /><p><i>Exit Servant</i></p><a>Is this a dagger which I see before me,</a><br /><a>The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.</a><br /><a>I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.</a><br /><a>Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible</a><br /><a>To feeling as to sight? or art thou but</a><br /><a>A dagger of the mind, a false creation,</a><br /><a>Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?</a><br /><a>I see thee yet, in form as palpable</a><br /><a>As this which now I draw.</a><br /><a>Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;</a><br /><a>And such an instrument I was to use.</a><br /><a>Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,</a><br /><a>Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,</a><br /><a>And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,</a><br /><a>Which was not so before. There's no such thing:</a><br /><a>It is the bloody business which informs</a><br /><a>Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworld</a><br /><a>Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse</a><br /><a>The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates</a><br /><a>Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder,</a><br /><a>Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,</a><br /><a>Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace.</a><br /><a>With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design</a><br /><a>Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,</a><br /><a>Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear</a><br /><a>Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,</a><br /><a>And take the present horror from the time,</a><br /><a>Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:</a><br /><a>Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.</a><br /><p><i>A bell rings</i></p><a>I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.</a><br /><a>Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell</a><br /><a>That summons thee to heaven or to hell.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 40 ><h3>SCENE II.</h3><blockquote><i>Enter LADY MACBETH</i></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold;</a><br /><a>What hath quench'd them hath given me fire.</a><br /><a>Hark! Peace!</a><br /><a>It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman,</a><br /><a>Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it:</a><br /><a>The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms</a><br /><a>Do mock their charge with snores: I have drugg'd</a><br /><a>their possets,</a><br /><a>That death and nature do contend about them,</a><br /><a>Whether they live or die.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>[Within] Who's there? what, ho!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Alack, I am afraid they have awaked,</a><br /><a>And 'tis not done. The attempt and not the deed</a><br /><a>Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready;</a><br /><a>He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled</a><br /><a>My father as he slept, I had done't.</a><br /><p><i>Enter MACBETH</i></p><a>My husband!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.</a><br /><a>Did not you speak?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a> When?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Now.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>As I descended?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Hark!</a><br /><a>Who lies i' the second chamber?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Donalbain.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>This is a sorry sight.</a><br /><p><i>Looking on his hands</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>There's one did laugh in's sleep, and one cried</a><br /><a>'Murder!'</a><br /><a>That they did wake each other: I stood and heard them:</a><br /><a>But they did say their prayers, and address'd them</a><br /><a>Again to sleep.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a> There are two lodged together.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>One cried 'God bless us!' and 'Amen' the other;</a><br /><a>As they had seen me with these hangman's hands.</a><br /><a>Listening their fear, I could not say 'Amen,'</a><br /><a>When they did say 'God bless us!'</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Consider it not so deeply.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'?</a><br /><a>I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen'</a><br /><a>Stuck in my throat.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>These deeds must not be thought</a><br /><a>After these ways; so, it will make us mad.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more!</a><br /><a>Macbeth does murder sleep', the innocent sleep,</a><br /><a>Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care,</a><br /><a>The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,</a><br /><a>Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,</a><br /><a>Chief nourisher in life's feast,--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>What do you mean?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Still it cried 'Sleep no more!' to all the house:</a><br /><a>'Glamis hath murder'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor</a><br /><a>Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more.'</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane,</a><br /><a>You do unbend your noble strength, to think</a><br /><a>So brainsickly of things. Go get some water,</a><br /><a>And wash this filthy witness from your hand.</a><br /><a>Why did you bring these daggers from the place?</a><br /><a>They must lie there: go carry them; and smear</a><br /><a>The sleepy grooms with blood.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>I'll go no more:</a><br /><a>I am afraid to think what I have done;</a><br /><a>Look on't again I dare not.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Infirm of purpose!</a><br /><a>Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead</a><br /><a>Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood</a><br /><a>That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,</a><br /><a>I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal;</a><br /><a>For it must seem their guilt.</a><br /><p><i>Exit. Knocking within</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Whence is that knocking?</a><br /><a>How is't with me, when every noise appals me?</a><br /><a>What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes.</a><br /><a>Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood</a><br /><a>Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather</a><br /><a>The multitudinous seas in incarnadine,</a><br /><a>Making the green one red.</a><br /><p><i>Re-enter LADY MACBETH</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>My hands are of your colour; but I shame</a><br /><a>To wear a heart so white.</a><br /><p><i>Knocking within</i></p><a>I hear a knocking</a><br /><a>At the south entry: retire we to our chamber;</a><br /><a>A little water clears us of this deed:</a><br /><a>How easy is it, then! Your constancy</a><br /><a>Hath left you unattended.</a><br /><p><i>Knocking within</i></p><a>Hark! more knocking.</a><br /><a>Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us,</a><br /><a>And show us to be watchers. Be not lost</a><br /><a>So poorly in your thoughts.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself.</a><br /><p><i>Knocking within</i></p><a>Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 41 ><h3>SCENE III.</h3><blockquote><i>Knocking within. Enter a Porter</i></blockquote><a><b>Porter</b></a><blockquote><a>Here's a knocking indeed! If a</a><a> man were porter of hell-gate, he should have</a><br /><a>old turning the key.</a><br /><p><i>Knocking within</i></p><a>Knock,</a><a> knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of</a><a> Beelzebub? Here's a farmer, that hanged</a><a> himself on the expectation of plenty: come in</a><a> time; have napkins enow about you; here</a><a> you'll sweat for't.</a><br /><p><i>Knocking within</i></p><a>Knock,</a><a> knock! Who's there, in the other devil's</a><a> name? Faith, here's an equivocator, that could</a><a> swear in both the scales against either scale;</a><a> who committed treason enough for God's sake,</a><a> yet could not equivocate to heaven: O, come</a><a> in, equivocator.</a><br /><p><i>Knocking within</i></p><a>Knock,</a><a> knock, knock! Who's there? Faith, here's an</a><a> English tailor come hither, for stealing out of</a><a> a French hose: come in, tailor; here you may</a><a> roast your goose.</a><br /><p><i>Knocking within</i></p><a>Knock,</a><a> knock; never at quiet! What are you? But</a><a> this place is too cold for hell. I'll devil-porter</a><a> it no further: I had thought to have let in</a><a> some of all professions that go the primrose</a><a> way to the everlasting bonfire.</a><br /><p><i>Knocking within</i></p><a>Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the porter.</a><br /><p><i>Opens the gate</i></p><p><i>Enter MACDUFF and LENNOX</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed,</a><br /><a>That you do lie so late?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Porter</b></a><blockquote><a>'Faith sir, we were carousing till the</a><a> second cock: and drink, sir, is a great</a><a> provoker of three things.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>What three things does drink especially provoke?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Porter</b></a><blockquote><a>Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and</a><a> urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes;</a><a> it provokes the desire, but it takes</a><a> away the performance: therefore, much drink</a><a> may be said to be an equivocator with lechery:</a><a> it makes him, and it mars him; it sets</a><a> him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him,</a><a> and disheartens him; makes him stand to, and</a><a> not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him</a><a> in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Porter</b></a><blockquote><a>That it did, sir, i' the very throat on</a><a> me: but I requited him for his lie; and, I</a><a> think, being too strong for him, though he took</a><a> up my legs sometime, yet I made a shift to cast</a><a> him.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Is thy master stirring?</a><br /><p><i>Enter MACBETH</i></p><a>Our knocking has awaked him; here he comes.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LENNOX</b></a><blockquote><a>Good morrow, noble sir.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Good morrow, both.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Is the king stirring, worthy thane?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Not yet.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>He did command me to call timely on him:</a><br /><a>I have almost slipp'd the hour.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>I'll bring you to him.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>I know this is a joyful trouble to you;</a><br /><a>But yet 'tis one.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>The labour we delight in physics pain.</a><br /><a>This is the door.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a> I'll make so bold to call,</a><br /><a>For 'tis my limited service.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LENNOX</b></a><blockquote><a>Goes the king hence to-day?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>He does: he did appoint so.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LENNOX</b></a><blockquote><a>The night has been unruly: where we lay,</a><br /><a>Our chimneys were blown down; and, as they say,</a><br /><a>Lamentings heard i' the air; strange screams of death,</a><br /><a>And prophesying with accents terrible</a><br /><a>Of dire combustion and confused events</a><br /><a>New hatch'd to the woeful time: the obscure bird</a><br /><a>Clamour'd the livelong night: some say, the earth</a><br /><a>Was feverous and did shake.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>'Twas a rough night.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LENNOX</b></a><blockquote><a>My young remembrance cannot parallel</a><br /><a>A fellow to it.</a><br /><p><i>Re-enter MACDUFF</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart</a><br /><a>Cannot conceive nor name thee!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><a><b> and LENNOX</b></a><blockquote><a>What's the matter.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!</a><br /><a>Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope</a><br /><a>The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence</a><br /><a>The life o' the building!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>What is 't you say? the life?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LENNOX</b></a><blockquote><a>Mean you his majesty?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight</a><br /><a>With a new Gorgon: do not bid me speak;</a><br /><a>See, and then speak yourselves.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt MACBETH and LENNOX</i></p><a>Awake, awake!</a><br /><a>Ring the alarum-bell. Murder and treason!</a><br /><a>Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm! awake!</a><br /><a>Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit,</a><br /><a>And look on death itself! up, up, and see</a><br /><a>The great doom's image! Malcolm! Banquo!</a><br /><a>As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites,</a><br /><a>To countenance this horror! Ring the bell.</a><br /><p><i>Bell rings</i></p><p><i>Enter LADY MACBETH</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>What's the business,</a><br /><a>That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley</a><br /><a>The sleepers of the house? speak, speak!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>O gentle lady,</a><br /><a>'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak:</a><br /><a>The repetition, in a woman's ear,</a><br /><a>Would murder as it fell.</a><br /><p><i>Enter BANQUO</i></p><a>O Banquo, Banquo,</a><br /><a>Our royal master 's murder'd!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Woe, alas!</a><br /><a>What, in our house?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>Too cruel any where.</a><br /><a>Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself,</a><br /><a>And say it is not so.</a><br /><p><i>Re-enter MACBETH and LENNOX, with ROSS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Had I but died an hour before this chance,</a><br /><a>I had lived a blessed time; for, from this instant,</a><br /><a>There 's nothing serious in mortality:</a><br /><a>All is but toys: renown and grace is dead;</a><br /><a>The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees</a><br /><a>Is left this vault to brag of.</a><br /><p><i>Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN</i></p></blockquote><a><b>DONALBAIN</b></a><blockquote><a>What is amiss?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a> You are, and do not know't:</a><br /><a>The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood</a><br /><a>Is stopp'd; the very source of it is stopp'd.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Your royal father 's murder'd.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>O, by whom?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LENNOX</b></a><blockquote><a>Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done 't:</a><br /><a>Their hands and faces were an badged with blood;</a><br /><a>So were their daggers, which unwiped we found</a><br /><a>Upon their pillows:</a><br /><a>They stared, and were distracted; no man's life</a><br /><a>Was to be trusted with them.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>O, yet I do repent me of my fury,</a><br /><a>That I did kill them.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Wherefore did you so?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,</a><br /><a>Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:</a><br /><a>The expedition my violent love</a><br /><a>Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,</a><br /><a>His silver skin laced with his golden blood;</a><br /><a>And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature</a><br /><a>For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,</a><br /><a>Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers</a><br /><a>Unmannerly breech'd with gore: who could refrain,</a><br /><a>That had a heart to love, and in that heart</a><br /><a>Courage to make 's love known?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Help me hence, ho!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Look to the lady.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>[Aside to DONALBAIN] Why do we hold our tongues,</a><br /><a>That most may claim this argument for ours?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DONALBAIN</b></a><blockquote><a>[Aside to MALCOLM] What should be spoken here,</a><br /><a>where our fate,</a><br /><a>Hid in an auger-hole, may rush, and seize us?</a><br /><a>Let 's away;</a><br /><a>Our tears are not yet brew'd.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>[Aside to DONALBAIN] Nor our strong sorrow</a><br /><a>Upon the foot of motion.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>Look to the lady:</a><br /><p><i>LADY MACBETH is carried out</i></p><a>And when we have our naked frailties hid,</a><br /><a>That suffer in exposure, let us meet,</a><br /><a>And question this most bloody piece of work,</a><br /><a>To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us:</a><br /><a>In the great hand of God I stand; and thence</a><br /><a>Against the undivulged pretence I fight</a><br /><a>Of treasonous malice.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>And so do I.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ALL</b></a><blockquote><a>So all.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Let's briefly put on manly readiness,</a><br /><a>And meet i' the hall together.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ALL</b></a><blockquote><a>Well contented.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt all but Malcolm and Donalbain.</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>What will you do? Let's not consort with them:</a><br /><a>To show an unfelt sorrow is an office</a><br /><a>Which the false man does easy. I'll to England.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DONALBAIN</b></a><blockquote><a>To Ireland, I; our separated fortune</a><br /><a>Shall keep us both the safer: where we are,</a><br /><a>There's daggers in men's smiles: the near in blood,</a><br /><a>The nearer bloody.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a> This murderous shaft that's shot</a><br /><a>Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way</a><br /><a>Is to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse;</a><br /><a>And let us not be dainty of leave-taking,</a><br /><a>But shift away: there's warrant in that theft</a><br /><a>Which steals itself, when there's no mercy left.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 42 ><h3>SCENE IV.</h3><blockquote><i>Enter ROSS and an old Man</i></blockquote><a><b>Old Man</b></a><blockquote><a>Threescore and ten I can remember well:</a><br /><a>Within the volume of which time I have seen</a><br /><a>Hours dreadful and things strange; but this sore night</a><br /><a>Hath trifled former knowings.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>Ah, good father,</a><br /><a>Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act,</a><br /><a>Threaten his bloody stage: by the clock, 'tis day,</a><br /><a>And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp:</a><br /><a>Is't night's predominance, or the day's shame,</a><br /><a>That darkness does the face of earth entomb,</a><br /><a>When living light should kiss it?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Old Man</b></a><blockquote><a>'Tis unnatural,</a><br /><a>Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last,</a><br /><a>A falcon, towering in her pride of place,</a><br /><a>Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>And Duncan's horses--a thing most strange and certain--</a><br /><a>Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race,</a><br /><a>Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,</a><br /><a>Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make</a><br /><a>War with mankind.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Old Man</b></a><blockquote><a>'Tis said they ate each other.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>They did so, to the amazement of mine eyes</a><br /><a>That look'd upon't. Here comes the good Macduff.</a><br /><p><i>Enter MACDUFF</i></p><a>How goes the world, sir, now?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, see you not?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>Is't known who did this more than bloody deed?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Those that Macbeth hath slain.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>Alas, the day!</a><br /><a>What good could they pretend?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>They were suborn'd:</a><br /><a>Malcolm and Donalbain, the king's two sons,</a><br /><a>Are stol'n away and fled; which puts upon them</a><br /><a>Suspicion of the deed.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>'Gainst nature still!</a><br /><a>Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up</a><br /><a>Thine own life's means! Then 'tis most like</a><br /><a>The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>He is already named, and gone to Scone</a><br /><a>To be invested.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a> Where is Duncan's body?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Carried to Colmekill,</a><br /><a>The sacred storehouse of his predecessors,</a><br /><a>And guardian of their bones.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>Will you to Scone?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>No, cousin, I'll to Fife.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>Well, I will thither.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Well, may you see things well done there: adieu!</a><br /><a>Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>Farewell, father.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Old Man</b></a><a>God's benison go with you; and with those</a><br /><a>That would make good of bad, and friends of foes!</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></span><span id = 43 ></span><span id = 44 ><h3>SCENE I.</h3><blockquote><i>Enter BANQUO</i></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all,</a><br /><a>As the weird women promised, and, I fear,</a><br /><a>Thou play'dst most foully for't: yet it was said</a><br /><a>It should not stand in thy posterity,</a><br /><a>But that myself should be the root and father</a><br /><a>Of many kings. If there come truth from them--</a><br /><a>As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine--</a><br /><a>Why, by the verities on thee made good,</a><br /><a>May they not be my oracles as well,</a><br /><a>And set me up in hope? But hush! no more.</a><br /><p><i>Sennet sounded. Enter MACBETH, as king, LADY MACBETH, as queen, LENNOX, ROSS, Lords, Ladies, and Attendants</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Here's our chief guest.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>If he had been forgotten,</a><br /><a>It had been as a gap in our great feast,</a><br /><a>And all-thing unbecoming.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>To-night we hold a solemn supper sir,</a><br /><a>And I'll request your presence.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>Let your highness</a><br /><a>Command upon me; to the which my duties</a><br /><a>Are with a most indissoluble tie</a><br /><a>For ever knit.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a> Ride you this afternoon?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, my good lord.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>We should have else desired your good advice,</a><br /><a>Which still hath been both grave and prosperous,</a><br /><a>In this day's council; but we'll take to-morrow.</a><br /><a>Is't far you ride?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>As far, my lord, as will fill up the time</a><br /><a>'Twixt this and supper: go not my horse the better,</a><br /><a>I must become a borrower of the night</a><br /><a>For a dark hour or twain.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Fail not our feast.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>My lord, I will not.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>We hear, our bloody cousins are bestow'd</a><br /><a>In England and in Ireland, not confessing</a><br /><a>Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers</a><br /><a>With strange invention: but of that to-morrow,</a><br /><a>When therewithal we shall have cause of state</a><br /><a>Craving us jointly. Hie you to horse: adieu,</a><br /><a>Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, my good lord: our time does call upon 's.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>I wish your horses swift and sure of foot;</a><br /><a>And so I do commend you to their backs. Farewell.</a><br /><p><i>Exit BANQUO</i></p><a>Let every man be master of his time</a><br /><a>Till seven at night: to make society</a><br /><a>The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself</a><br /><a>Till supper-time alone: while then, God be with you!</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt all but MACBETH, and an attendant</i></p><a>Sirrah, a word with you: attend those men</a><br /><a>Our pleasure?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ATTENDANT</b></a><blockquote><a>They are, my lord, without the palace gate.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Bring them before us.</a><br /><p><i>Exit Attendant</i></p><a>To be thus is nothing;</a><br /><a>But to be safely thus.--Our fears in Banquo</a><br /><a>Stick deep; and in his royalty of nature</a><br /><a>Reigns that which would be fear'd: 'tis much he dares;</a><br /><a>And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,</a><br /><a>He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour</a><br /><a>To act in safety. There is none but he</a><br /><a>Whose being I do fear: and, under him,</a><br /><a>My Genius is rebuked; as, it is said,</a><br /><a>Mark Antony's was by Caesar. He chid the sisters</a><br /><a>When first they put the name of king upon me,</a><br /><a>And bade them speak to him: then prophet-like</a><br /><a>They hail'd him father to a line of kings:</a><br /><a>Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown,</a><br /><a>And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,</a><br /><a>Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand,</a><br /><a>No son of mine succeeding. If 't be so,</a><br /><a>For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind;</a><br /><a>For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd;</a><br /><a>Put rancours in the vessel of my peace</a><br /><a>Only for them; and mine eternal jewel</a><br /><a>Given to the common enemy of man,</a><br /><a>To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings!</a><br /><a>Rather than so, come fate into the list.</a><br /><a>And champion me to the utterance! Who's there!</a><br /><p><i>Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers</i></p><a>Now go to the door, and stay there till we call.</a><br /><p><i>Exit Attendant</i></p><a>Was it not yesterday we spoke together?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>It was, so please your highness.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Well then, now</a><br /><a>Have you consider'd of my speeches? Know</a><br /><a>That it was he in the times past which held you</a><br /><a>So under fortune, which you thought had been</a><br /><a>Our innocent self: this I made good to you</a><br /><a>In our last conference, pass'd in probation with you,</a><br /><a>How you were borne in hand, how cross'd,</a><br /><a>the instruments,</a><br /><a>Who wrought with them, and all things else that might</a><br /><a>To half a soul and to a notion crazed</a><br /><a>Say 'Thus did Banquo.'</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>You made it known to us.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>I did so, and went further, which is now</a><br /><a>Our point of second meeting. Do you find</a><br /><a>Your patience so predominant in your nature</a><br /><a>That you can let this go? Are you so gospell'd</a><br /><a>To pray for this good man and for his issue,</a><br /><a>Whose heavy hand hath bow'd you to the grave</a><br /><a>And beggar'd yours for ever?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>We are men, my liege.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men;</a><br /><a>As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,</a><br /><a>Shoughs, water-rugs and demi-wolves, are clept</a><br /><a>All by the name of dogs: the valued file</a><br /><a>Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle,</a><br /><a>The housekeeper, the hunter, every one</a><br /><a>According to the gift which bounteous nature</a><br /><a>Hath in him closed; whereby he does receive</a><br /><a>Particular addition. from the bill</a><br /><a>That writes them all alike: and so of men.</a><br /><a>Now, if you have a station in the file,</a><br /><a>Not i' the worst rank of manhood, say 't;</a><br /><a>And I will put that business in your bosoms,</a><br /><a>Whose execution takes your enemy off,</a><br /><a>Grapples you to the heart and love of us,</a><br /><a>Who wear our health but sickly in his life,</a><br /><a>Which in his death were perfect.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Second Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>I am one, my liege,</a><br /><a>Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world</a><br /><a>Have so incensed that I am reckless what</a><br /><a>I do to spite the world.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>And I another</a><br /><a>So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune,</a><br /><a>That I would set my lie on any chance,</a><br /><a>To mend it, or be rid on't.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Both of you</a><br /><a>Know Banquo was your enemy.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Both Murderers</b></a><blockquote><a>True, my lord.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>So is he mine; and in such bloody distance,</a><br /><a>That every minute of his being thrusts</a><br /><a>Against my near'st of life: and though I could</a><br /><a>With barefaced power sweep him from my sight</a><br /><a>And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not,</a><br /><a>For certain friends that are both his and mine,</a><br /><a>Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall</a><br /><a>Who I myself struck down; and thence it is,</a><br /><a>That I to your assistance do make love,</a><br /><a>Masking the business from the common eye</a><br /><a>For sundry weighty reasons.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Second Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>We shall, my lord,</a><br /><a>Perform what you command us.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>Though our lives--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Your spirits shine through you. Within this hour at most</a><br /><a>I will advise you where to plant yourselves;</a><br /><a>Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time,</a><br /><a>The moment on't; for't must be done to-night,</a><br /><a>And something from the palace; always thought</a><br /><a>That I require a clearness: and with him--</a><br /><a>To leave no rubs nor botches in the work--</a><br /><a>Fleance his son, that keeps him company,</a><br /><a>Whose absence is no less material to me</a><br /><a>Than is his father's, must embrace the fate</a><br /><a>Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart:</a><br /><a>I'll come to you anon.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Both Murderers</b></a><blockquote><a>We are resolved, my lord.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>I'll call upon you straight: abide within.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt Murderers</i></p><a>It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul's flight,</a><br /><a>If it find heaven, must find it out to-night.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 45 ><h3>SCENE II.</h3><blockquote><i>Enter LADY MACBETH and a Servant</i></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Is Banquo gone from court?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Servant</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, madam, but returns again to-night.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Say to the king, I would attend his leisure</a><br /><a>For a few words.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Servant</b></a><blockquote><a> Madam, I will.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Nought's had, all's spent,</a><br /><a>Where our desire is got without content:</a><br /><a>'Tis safer to be that which we destroy</a><br /><a>Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.</a><br /><p><i>Enter MACBETH</i></p><a>How now, my lord! why do you keep alone,</a><br /><a>Of sorriest fancies your companions making,</a><br /><a>Using those thoughts which should indeed have died</a><br /><a>With them they think on? Things without all remedy</a><br /><a>Should be without regard: what's done is done.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it:</a><br /><a>She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice</a><br /><a>Remains in danger of her former tooth.</a><br /><a>But let the frame of things disjoint, both the</a><br /><a>worlds suffer,</a><br /><a>Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep</a><br /><a>In the affliction of these terrible dreams</a><br /><a>That shake us nightly: better be with the dead,</a><br /><a>Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,</a><br /><a>Than on the torture of the mind to lie</a><br /><a>In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave;</a><br /><a>After life's fitful fever he sleeps well;</a><br /><a>Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,</a><br /><a>Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,</a><br /><a>Can touch him further.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Come on;</a><br /><a>Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks;</a><br /><a>Be bright and jovial among your guests to-night.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>So shall I, love; and so, I pray, be you:</a><br /><a>Let your remembrance apply to Banquo;</a><br /><a>Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue:</a><br /><a>Unsafe the while, that we</a><br /><a>Must lave our honours in these flattering streams,</a><br /><a>And make our faces vizards to our hearts,</a><br /><a>Disguising what they are.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>You must leave this.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!</a><br /><a>Thou know'st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>But in them nature's copy's not eterne.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>There's comfort yet; they are assailable;</a><br /><a>Then be thou jocund: ere the bat hath flown</a><br /><a>His cloister'd flight, ere to black Hecate's summons</a><br /><a>The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums</a><br /><a>Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done</a><br /><a>A deed of dreadful note.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>What's to be done?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,</a><br /><a>Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night,</a><br /><a>Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day;</a><br /><a>And with thy bloody and invisible hand</a><br /><a>Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond</a><br /><a>Which keeps me pale! Light thickens; and the crow</a><br /><a>Makes wing to the rooky wood:</a><br /><a>Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;</a><br /><a>While night's black agents to their preys do rouse.</a><br /><a>Thou marvell'st at my words: but hold thee still;</a><br /><a>Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.</a><br /><a>So, prithee, go with me.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 46 ><h3>SCENE III.</h3><blockquote><i>Enter three Murderers</i></blockquote><a><b>First Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>But who did bid thee join with us?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Third Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>Macbeth.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Second Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>He needs not our mistrust, since he delivers</a><br /><a>Our offices and what we have to do</a><br /><a>To the direction just.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>Then stand with us.</a><br /><a>The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day:</a><br /><a>Now spurs the lated traveller apace</a><br /><a>To gain the timely inn; and near approaches</a><br /><a>The subject of our watch.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Third Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>Hark! I hear horses.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>[Within] Give us a light there, ho!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Second Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>Then 'tis he: the rest</a><br /><a>That are within the note of expectation</a><br /><a>Already are i' the court.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>His horses go about.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Third Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>Almost a mile: but he does usually,</a><br /><a>So all men do, from hence to the palace gate</a><br /><a>Make it their walk.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Second Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>A light, a light!</a><br /><p><i>Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE with a torch</i></p></blockquote><a><b>Third Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>'Tis he.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>Stand to't.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>It will be rain to-night.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>Let it come down.</a><br /><p><i>They set upon BANQUO</i></p></blockquote><a><b>BANQUO</b></a><blockquote><a>O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!</a><br /><a>Thou mayst revenge. O slave!</a><br /><p><i>Dies. FLEANCE escapes</i></p></blockquote><a><b>Third Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>Who did strike out the light?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>Wast not the way?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Third Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>There's but one down; the son is fled.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Second Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>We have lost</a><br /><a>Best half of our affair.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>Well, let's away, and say how much is done.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 47 ><h3>SCENE IV.</h3><blockquote><i>A banquet prepared. Enter MACBETH, LADY MACBETH, ROSS, LENNOX, Lords, and Attendants</i></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>You know your own degrees; sit down: at first</a><br /><a>And last the hearty welcome.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Lords</b></a><blockquote><a>Thanks to your majesty.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Ourself will mingle with society,</a><br /><a>And play the humble host.</a><br /><a>Our hostess keeps her state, but in best time</a><br /><a>We will require her welcome.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends;</a><br /><a>For my heart speaks they are welcome.</a><br /><p><i>First Murderer appears at the door</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>See, they encounter thee with their hearts' thanks.</a><br /><a>Both sides are even: here I'll sit i' the midst:</a><br /><a>Be large in mirth; anon we'll drink a measure</a><br /><a>The table round.</a><br /><p><i>Approaching the door</i></p><a>There's blood on thy face.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>'Tis Banquo's then.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>'Tis better thee without than he within.</a><br /><a>Is he dispatch'd?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>My lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Thou art the best o' the cut-throats: yet he's good</a><br /><a>That did the like for Fleance: if thou didst it,</a><br /><a>Thou art the nonpareil.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>Most royal sir,</a><br /><a>Fleance is 'scaped.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Then comes my fit again: I had else been perfect,</a><br /><a>Whole as the marble, founded as the rock,</a><br /><a>As broad and general as the casing air:</a><br /><a>But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confined, bound in</a><br /><a>To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo's safe?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, my good lord: safe in a ditch he bides,</a><br /><a>With twenty trenched gashes on his head;</a><br /><a>The least a death to nature.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Thanks for that:</a><br /><a>There the grown serpent lies; the worm that's fled</a><br /><a>Hath nature that in time will venom breed,</a><br /><a>No teeth for the present. Get thee gone: to-morrow</a><br /><a>We'll hear, ourselves, again.</a><br /><p><i>Exit Murderer</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>My royal lord,</a><br /><a>You do not give the cheer: the feast is sold</a><br /><a>That is not often vouch'd, while 'tis a-making,</a><br /><a>'Tis given with welcome: to feed were best at home;</a><br /><a>From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony;</a><br /><a>Meeting were bare without it.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Sweet remembrancer!</a><br /><a>Now, good digestion wait on appetite,</a><br /><a>And health on both!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LENNOX</b></a><blockquote><a>May't please your highness sit.</a><br /><p><i>The GHOST OF BANQUO enters, and sits in MACBETH's place</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Here had we now our country's honour roof'd,</a><br /><a>Were the graced person of our Banquo present;</a><br /><a>Who may I rather challenge for unkindness</a><br /><a>Than pity for mischance!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>His absence, sir,</a><br /><a>Lays blame upon his promise. Please't your highness</a><br /><a>To grace us with your royal company.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>The table's full.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LENNOX</b></a><blockquote><a> Here is a place reserved, sir.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Where?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LENNOX</b></a><blockquote><a>Here, my good lord. What is't that moves your highness?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Which of you have done this?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Lords</b></a><blockquote><a>What, my good lord?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Thou canst not say I did it: never shake</a><br /><a>Thy gory locks at me.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>Gentlemen, rise: his highness is not well.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Sit, worthy friends: my lord is often thus,</a><br /><a>And hath been from his youth: pray you, keep seat;</a><br /><a>The fit is momentary; upon a thought</a><br /><a>He will again be well: if much you note him,</a><br /><a>You shall offend him and extend his passion:</a><br /><a>Feed, and regard him not. Are you a man?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that</a><br /><a>Which might appal the devil.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>O proper stuff!</a><br /><a>This is the very painting of your fear:</a><br /><a>This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said,</a><br /><a>Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts,</a><br /><a>Impostors to true fear, would well become</a><br /><a>A woman's story at a winter's fire,</a><br /><a>Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!</a><br /><a>Why do you make such faces? When all's done,</a><br /><a>You look but on a stool.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Prithee, see there! behold! look! lo!</a><br /><a>how say you?</a><br /><a>Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.</a><br /><a>If charnel-houses and our graves must send</a><br /><a>Those that we bury back, our monuments</a><br /><a>Shall be the maws of kites.</a><br /><p><i>GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>What, quite unmann'd in folly?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>If I stand here, I saw him.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Fie, for shame!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time,</a><br /><a>Ere human statute purged the gentle weal;</a><br /><a>Ay, and since too, murders have been perform'd</a><br /><a>Too terrible for the ear: the times have been,</a><br /><a>That, when the brains were out, the man would die,</a><br /><a>And there an end; but now they rise again,</a><br /><a>With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,</a><br /><a>And push us from our stools: this is more strange</a><br /><a>Than such a murder is.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>My worthy lord,</a><br /><a>Your noble friends do lack you.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>I do forget.</a><br /><a>Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends,</a><br /><a>I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing</a><br /><a>To those that know me. Come, love and health to all;</a><br /><a>Then I'll sit down. Give me some wine; fill full.</a><br /><a>I drink to the general joy o' the whole table,</a><br /><a>And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss;</a><br /><a>Would he were here! to all, and him, we thirst,</a><br /><a>And all to all.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Lords</b></a><blockquote><a> Our duties, and the pledge.</a><br /><p><i>Re-enter GHOST OF BANQUO</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee!</a><br /><a>Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;</a><br /><a>Thou hast no speculation in those eyes</a><br /><a>Which thou dost glare with!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Think of this, good peers,</a><br /><a>But as a thing of custom: 'tis no other;</a><br /><a>Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>What man dare, I dare:</a><br /><a>Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,</a><br /><a>The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;</a><br /><a>Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves</a><br /><a>Shall never tremble: or be alive again,</a><br /><a>And dare me to the desert with thy sword;</a><br /><a>If trembling I inhabit then, protest me</a><br /><a>The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!</a><br /><a>Unreal mockery, hence!</a><br /><p><i>GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes</i></p><a>Why, so: being gone,</a><br /><a>I am a man again. Pray you, sit still.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting,</a><br /><a>With most admired disorder.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Can such things be,</a><br /><a>And overcome us like a summer's cloud,</a><br /><a>Without our special wonder? You make me strange</a><br /><a>Even to the disposition that I owe,</a><br /><a>When now I think you can behold such sights,</a><br /><a>And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,</a><br /><a>When mine is blanched with fear.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>What sights, my lord?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse;</a><br /><a>Question enrages him. At once, good night:</a><br /><a>Stand not upon the order of your going,</a><br /><a>But go at once.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LENNOX</b></a><blockquote><a> Good night; and better health</a><br /><a>Attend his majesty!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>A kind good night to all!</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt all but MACBETH and LADY MACBETH</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood:</a><br /><a>Stones have been known to move and trees to speak;</a><br /><a>Augurs and understood relations have</a><br /><a>By maggot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth</a><br /><a>The secret'st man of blood. What is the night?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Almost at odds with morning, which is which.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person</a><br /><a>At our great bidding?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Did you send to him, sir?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>I hear it by the way; but I will send:</a><br /><a>There's not a one of them but in his house</a><br /><a>I keep a servant fee'd. I will to-morrow,</a><br /><a>And betimes I will, to the weird sisters:</a><br /><a>More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know,</a><br /><a>By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good,</a><br /><a>All causes shall give way: I am in blood</a><br /><a>Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more,</a><br /><a>Returning were as tedious as go o'er:</a><br /><a>Strange things I have in head, that will to hand;</a><br /><a>Which must be acted ere they may be scann'd.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>You lack the season of all natures, sleep.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Come, we'll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse</a><br /><a>Is the initiate fear that wants hard use:</a><br /><a>We are yet but young in deed.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 48 ><h3>SCENE V.</h3><blockquote><i>Thunder. Enter the three Witches meeting HECATE</i></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, how now, Hecate! you look angerly.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HECATE</b></a><blockquote><a>Have I not reason, beldams as you are,</a><br /><a>Saucy and overbold? How did you dare</a><br /><a>To trade and traffic with Macbeth</a><br /><a>In riddles and affairs of death;</a><br /><a>And I, the mistress of your charms,</a><br /><a>The close contriver of all harms,</a><br /><a>Was never call'd to bear my part,</a><br /><a>Or show the glory of our art?</a><br /><a>And, which is worse, all you have done</a><br /><a>Hath been but for a wayward son,</a><br /><a>Spiteful and wrathful, who, as others do,</a><br /><a>Loves for his own ends, not for you.</a><br /><a>But make amends now: get you gone,</a><br /><a>And at the pit of Acheron</a><br /><a>Meet me i' the morning: thither he</a><br /><a>Will come to know his destiny:</a><br /><a>Your vessels and your spells provide,</a><br /><a>Your charms and every thing beside.</a><br /><a>I am for the air; this night I'll spend</a><br /><a>Unto a dismal and a fatal end:</a><br /><a>Great business must be wrought ere noon:</a><br /><a>Upon the corner of the moon</a><br /><a>There hangs a vaporous drop profound;</a><br /><a>I'll catch it ere it come to ground:</a><br /><a>And that distill'd by magic sleights</a><br /><a>Shall raise such artificial sprites</a><br /><a>As by the strength of their illusion</a><br /><a>Shall draw him on to his confusion:</a><br /><a>He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear</a><br /><a>His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace and fear:</a><br /><a>And you all know, security</a><br /><a>Is mortals' chiefest enemy.</a><br /><p><i>Music and a song within: 'Come away, come away,' & c</i></p><a>Hark! I am call'd; my little spirit, see,</a><br /><a>Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Come, let's make haste; she'll soon be back again.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 49 ><h3>SCENE VI. </h3><blockquote><i>Enter LENNOX and another Lord</i></blockquote><a><b>LENNOX</b></a><blockquote><a>My former speeches have but hit your thoughts,</a><br /><a>Which can interpret further: only, I say,</a><br /><a>Things have been strangely borne. The</a><br /><a>gracious Duncan</a><br /><a>Was pitied of Macbeth: marry, he was dead:</a><br /><a>And the right-valiant Banquo walk'd too late;</a><br /><a>Whom, you may say, if't please you, Fleance kill'd,</a><br /><a>For Fleance fled: men must not walk too late.</a><br /><a>Who cannot want the thought how monstrous</a><br /><a>It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain</a><br /><a>To kill their gracious father? damned fact!</a><br /><a>How it did grieve Macbeth! did he not straight</a><br /><a>In pious rage the two delinquents tear,</a><br /><a>That were the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep?</a><br /><a>Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely too;</a><br /><a>For 'twould have anger'd any heart alive</a><br /><a>To hear the men deny't. So that, I say,</a><br /><a>He has borne all things well: and I do think</a><br /><a>That had he Duncan's sons under his key--</a><br /><a>As, an't please heaven, he shall not--they</a><br /><a>should find</a><br /><a>What 'twere to kill a father; so should Fleance.</a><br /><a>But, peace! for from broad words and 'cause he fail'd</a><br /><a>His presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear</a><br /><a>Macduff lives in disgrace: sir, can you tell</a><br /><a>Where he bestows himself?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Lord</b></a><blockquote><a>The son of Duncan,</a><br /><a>From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth</a><br /><a>Lives in the English court, and is received</a><br /><a>Of the most pious Edward with such grace</a><br /><a>That the malevolence of fortune nothing</a><br /><a>Takes from his high respect: thither Macduff</a><br /><a>Is gone to pray the holy king, upon his aid</a><br /><a>To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward:</a><br /><a>That, by the help of these--with Him above</a><br /><a>To ratify the work--we may again</a><br /><a>Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights,</a><br /><a>Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives,</a><br /><a>Do faithful homage and receive free honours:</a><br /><a>All which we pine for now: and this report</a><br /><a>Hath so exasperate the king that he</a><br /><a>Prepares for some attempt of war.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LENNOX</b></a><blockquote><a>Sent he to Macduff?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Lord</b></a><blockquote><a>He did: and with an absolute 'Sir, not I,'</a><br /><a>The cloudy messenger turns me his back,</a><br /><a>And hums, as who should say 'You'll rue the time</a><br /><a>That clogs me with this answer.'</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LENNOX</b></a><blockquote><a>And that well might</a><br /><a>Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance</a><br /><a>His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel</a><br /><a>Fly to the court of England and unfold</a><br /><a>His message ere he come, that a swift blessing</a><br /><a>May soon return to this our suffering country</a><br /><a>Under a hand accursed!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Lord</b></a><a>I'll send my prayers with him.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></span><span id = 50 ></span><span id = 52 ><h3>SCENE I.</h3><blockquote><i>Thunder. Enter the three Witches</i></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Thrice the brindled cat hath mew'd.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Second Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Third Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Harpier cries 'Tis time, 'tis time.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Round about the cauldron go;</a><br /><a>In the poison'd entrails throw.</a><br /><a>Toad, that under cold stone</a><br /><a>Days and nights has thirty-one</a><br /><a>Swelter'd venom sleeping got,</a><br /><a>Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ALL</b></a><blockquote><a>Double, double toil and trouble;</a><br /><a>Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Second Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Fillet of a fenny snake,</a><br /><a>In the cauldron boil and bake;</a><br /><a>Eye of newt and toe of frog,</a><br /><a>Wool of bat and tongue of dog,</a><br /><a>Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,</a><br /><a>Lizard's leg and owlet's wing,</a><br /><a>For a charm of powerful trouble,</a><br /><a>Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ALL</b></a><blockquote><a>Double, double toil and trouble;</a><br /><a>Fire burn and cauldron bubble.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Third Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,</a><br /><a>Witches' mummy, maw and gulf</a><br /><a>Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,</a><br /><a>Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,</a><br /><a>Liver of blaspheming Jew,</a><br /><a>Gall of goat, and slips of yew</a><br /><a>Silver'd in the moon's eclipse,</a><br /><a>Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips,</a><br /><a>Finger of birth-strangled babe</a><br /><a>Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,</a><br /><a>Make the gruel thick and slab:</a><br /><a>Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,</a><br /><a>For the ingredients of our cauldron.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ALL</b></a><blockquote><a>Double, double toil and trouble;</a><br /><a>Fire burn and cauldron bubble.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Second Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Cool it with a baboon's blood,</a><br /><a>Then the charm is firm and good.</a><br /><p><i>Enter HECATE to the other three Witches</i></p></blockquote><a><b>HECATE</b></a><blockquote><a>O well done! I commend your pains;</a><br /><a>And every one shall share i' the gains;</a><br /><a>And now about the cauldron sing,</a><br /><a>Live elves and fairies in a ring,</a><br /><a>Enchanting all that you put in.</a><br /><p><i>Music and a song: 'Black spirits,' & c</i></p><p><i>HECATE retires</i></p></blockquote><a><b>Second Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>By the pricking of my thumbs,</a><br /><a>Something wicked this way comes.</a><br /><a>Open, locks,</a><br /><a>Whoever knocks!</a><br /><p><i>Enter MACBETH</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!</a><br /><a>What is't you do?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ALL</b></a><blockquote><a> A deed without a name.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>I conjure you, by that which you profess,</a><br /><a>Howe'er you come to know it, answer me:</a><br /><a>Though you untie the winds and let them fight</a><br /><a>Against the churches; though the yesty waves</a><br /><a>Confound and swallow navigation up;</a><br /><a>Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down;</a><br /><a>Though castles topple on their warders' heads;</a><br /><a>Though palaces and pyramids do slope</a><br /><a>Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure</a><br /><a>Of nature's germens tumble all together,</a><br /><a>Even till destruction sicken; answer me</a><br /><a>To what I ask you.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a> Speak.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Second Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Demand.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Third Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>We'll answer.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Say, if thou'dst rather hear it from our mouths,</a><br /><a>Or from our masters?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Call 'em; let me see 'em.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten</a><br /><a>Her nine farrow; grease that's sweaten</a><br /><a>From the murderer's gibbet throw</a><br /><a>Into the flame.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ALL</b></a><blockquote><a> Come, high or low;</a><br /><a>Thyself and office deftly show!</a><br /><p><i>Thunder. First Apparition: an armed Head</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Tell me, thou unknown power,--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>He knows thy thought:</a><br /><a>Hear his speech, but say thou nought.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Apparition</b></a><blockquote><a>Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff;</a><br /><a>Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough.</a><br /><p><i>Descends</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks;</a><br /><a>Thou hast harp'd my fear aright: but one</a><br /><a>word more,--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>He will not be commanded: here's another,</a><br /><a>More potent than the first.</a><br /><p><i>Thunder. Second Apparition: A bloody Child</i></p></blockquote><a><b>Second Apparition</b></a><blockquote><a>Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Had I three ears, I'ld hear thee.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Second Apparition</b></a><blockquote><a>Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn</a><br /><a>The power of man, for none of woman born</a><br /><a>Shall harm Macbeth.</a><br /><p><i>Descends</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Then live, Macduff: what need I fear of thee?</a><br /><a>But yet I'll make assurance double sure,</a><br /><a>And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live;</a><br /><a>That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies,</a><br /><a>And sleep in spite of thunder.</a><br /><p><i>Thunder. Third Apparition: a Child crowned, with a tree in his hand</i></p><a>What is this</a><br /><a>That rises like the issue of a king,</a><br /><a>And wears upon his baby-brow the round</a><br /><a>And top of sovereignty?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ALL</b></a><blockquote><a>Listen, but speak not to't.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Third Apparition</b></a><blockquote><a>Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care</a><br /><a>Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are:</a><br /><a>Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until</a><br /><a>Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill</a><br /><a>Shall come against him.</a><br /><p><i>Descends</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>That will never be</a><br /><a>Who can impress the forest, bid the tree</a><br /><a>Unfix his earth-bound root? Sweet bodements! good!</a><br /><a>Rebellion's head, rise never till the wood</a><br /><a>Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth</a><br /><a>Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath</a><br /><a>To time and mortal custom. Yet my heart</a><br /><a>Throbs to know one thing: tell me, if your art</a><br /><a>Can tell so much: shall Banquo's issue ever</a><br /><a>Reign in this kingdom?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ALL</b></a><blockquote><a>Seek to know no more.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>I will be satisfied: deny me this,</a><br /><a>And an eternal curse fall on you! Let me know.</a><br /><a>Why sinks that cauldron? and what noise is this?</a><br /><p><i>Hautboys</i></p></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Show!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Second Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Show!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Third Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Show!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ALL</b></a><blockquote><a>Show his eyes, and grieve his heart;</a><br /><a>Come like shadows, so depart!</a><br /><p><i>A show of Eight Kings, the last with a glass in his hand; GHOST OF BANQUO following</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo: down!</a><br /><a>Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls. And thy hair,</a><br /><a>Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first.</a><br /><a>A third is like the former. Filthy hags!</a><br /><a>Why do you show me this? A fourth! Start, eyes!</a><br /><a>What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom?</a><br /><a>Another yet! A seventh! I'll see no more:</a><br /><a>And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass</a><br /><a>Which shows me many more; and some I see</a><br /><a>That two-fold balls and treble scepters carry:</a><br /><a>Horrible sight! Now, I see, 'tis true;</a><br /><a>For the blood-bolter'd Banquo smiles upon me,</a><br /><a>And points at them for his.</a><br /><p><i>Apparitions vanish</i></p><a>What, is this so?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Witch</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, sir, all this is so: but why</a><br /><a>Stands Macbeth thus amazedly?</a><br /><a>Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites,</a><br /><a>And show the best of our delights:</a><br /><a>I'll charm the air to give a sound,</a><br /><a>While you perform your antic round:</a><br /><a>That this great king may kindly say,</a><br /><a>Our duties did his welcome pay.</a><br /><p><i>Music. The witches dance and then vanish, with HECATE</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Where are they? Gone? Let this pernicious hour</a><br /><a>Stand aye accursed in the calendar!</a><br /><a>Come in, without there!</a><br /><p><i>Enter LENNOX</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LENNOX</b></a><blockquote><a>What's your grace's will?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Saw you the weird sisters?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LENNOX</b></a><blockquote><a>No, my lord.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Came they not by you?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LENNOX</b></a><blockquote><a>No, indeed, my lord.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Infected be the air whereon they ride;</a><br /><a>And damn'd all those that trust them! I did hear</a><br /><a>The galloping of horse: who was't came by?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LENNOX</b></a><blockquote><a>'Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word</a><br /><a>Macduff is fled to England.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Fled to England!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LENNOX</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, my good lord.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Time, thou anticipatest my dread exploits:</a><br /><a>The flighty purpose never is o'ertook</a><br /><a>Unless the deed go with it; from this moment</a><br /><a>The very firstlings of my heart shall be</a><br /><a>The firstlings of my hand. And even now,</a><br /><a>To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done:</a><br /><a>The castle of Macduff I will surprise;</a><br /><a>Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o' the sword</a><br /><a>His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls</a><br /><a>That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool;</a><br /><a>This deed I'll do before this purpose cool.</a><br /><a>But no more sights!--Where are these gentlemen?</a><br /><a>Come, bring me where they are.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 53 ><h3>SCENE II.</h3><blockquote><i>Enter LADY MACDUFF, her Son, and ROSS</i></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>What had he done, to make him fly the land?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>You must have patience, madam.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>He had none:</a><br /><a>His flight was madness: when our actions do not,</a><br /><a>Our fears do make us traitors.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>You know not</a><br /><a>Whether it was his wisdom or his fear.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Wisdom! to leave his wife, to leave his babes,</a><br /><a>His mansion and his titles in a place</a><br /><a>From whence himself does fly? He loves us not;</a><br /><a>He wants the natural touch: for the poor wren,</a><br /><a>The most diminutive of birds, will fight,</a><br /><a>Her young ones in her nest, against the owl.</a><br /><a>All is the fear and nothing is the love;</a><br /><a>As little is the wisdom, where the flight</a><br /><a>So runs against all reason.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>My dearest coz,</a><br /><a>I pray you, school yourself: but for your husband,</a><br /><a>He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows</a><br /><a>The fits o' the season. I dare not speak</a><br /><a>much further;</a><br /><a>But cruel are the times, when we are traitors</a><br /><a>And do not know ourselves, when we hold rumour</a><br /><a>From what we fear, yet know not what we fear,</a><br /><a>But float upon a wild and violent sea</a><br /><a>Each way and move. I take my leave of you:</a><br /><a>Shall not be long but I'll be here again:</a><br /><a>Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward</a><br /><a>To what they were before. My pretty cousin,</a><br /><a>Blessing upon you!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Father'd he is, and yet he's fatherless.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>I am so much a fool, should I stay longer,</a><br /><a>It would be my disgrace and your discomfort:</a><br /><a>I take my leave at once.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Sirrah, your father's dead;</a><br /><a>And what will you do now? How will you live?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Son</b></a><blockquote><a>As birds do, mother.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>What, with worms and flies?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Son</b></a><blockquote><a>With what I get, I mean; and so do they.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Poor bird! thou'ldst never fear the net nor lime,</a><br /><a>The pitfall nor the gin.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Son</b></a><blockquote><a>Why should I, mother? Poor birds they are not set for.</a><br /><a>My father is not dead, for all your saying.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Yes, he is dead; how wilt thou do for a father?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Son</b></a><blockquote><a>Nay, how will you do for a husband?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, I can buy me twenty at any market.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Son</b></a><blockquote><a>Then you'll buy 'em to sell again.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Thou speak'st with all thy wit: and yet, i' faith,</a><br /><a>With wit enough for thee.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Son</b></a><blockquote><a>Was my father a traitor, mother?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, that he was.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Son</b></a><blockquote><a>What is a traitor?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, one that swears and lies.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Son</b></a><blockquote><a>And be all traitors that do so?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Every one that does so is a traitor, and must be hanged.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Son</b></a><blockquote><a>And must they all be hanged that swear and lie?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Every one.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Son</b></a><blockquote><a>Who must hang them?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, the honest men.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Son</b></a><blockquote><a>Then the liars and swearers are fools,</a><br /><a>for there are liars and swearers enow to beat</a><br /><a>the honest men and hang up them.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Now, God help thee, poor monkey!</a><br /><a>But how wilt thou do for a father?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Son</b></a><blockquote><a>If he were dead, you'ld weep for</a><br /><a>him: if you would not, it were a good sign</a><br /><a>that I should quickly have a new father.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Poor prattler, how thou talk'st!</a><br /><p><i>Enter a Messenger</i></p></blockquote><a><b>Messenger</b></a><blockquote><a>Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known,</a><br /><a>Though in your state of honour I am perfect.</a><br /><a>I doubt some danger does approach you nearly:</a><br /><a>If you will take a homely man's advice,</a><br /><a>Be not found here; hence, with your little ones.</a><br /><a>To fright you thus, methinks, I am too savage;</a><br /><a>To do worse to you were fell cruelty,</a><br /><a>Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you!</a><br /><a>I dare abide no longer.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Whither should I fly?</a><br /><a>I have done no harm. But I remember now</a><br /><a>I am in this earthly world; where to do harm</a><br /><a>Is often laudable, to do good sometime</a><br /><a>Accounted dangerous folly: why then, alas,</a><br /><a>Do I put up that womanly defence,</a><br /><a>To say I have done no harm?</a><br /><p><i>Enter Murderers</i></p><a>What are these faces?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>Where is your husband?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>I hope, in no place so unsanctified</a><br /><a>Where such as thou mayst find him.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>He's a traitor.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Son</b></a><blockquote><a>Thou liest, thou shag-hair'd villain!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Murderer</b></a><blockquote><a>What, you egg!</a><br /><p><i>Stabbing him</i></p><a>Young fry of treachery!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Son</b></a><blockquote><a>He has kill'd me, mother:</a><br /><a>Run away, I pray you!</a><br /><p><i>Dies</i></p><p><i>Exit LADY MACDUFF, crying 'Murder!' Exeunt Murderers, following her</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 54 ><h3>SCENE III. </h3><blockquote><i>Enter MALCOLM and MACDUFF</i></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there</a><br /><a>Weep our sad bosoms empty.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Let us rather</a><br /><a>Hold fast the mortal sword, and like good men</a><br /><a>Bestride our down-fall'n birthdom: each new morn</a><br /><a>New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows</a><br /><a>Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds</a><br /><a>As if it felt with Scotland and yell'd out</a><br /><a>Like syllable of dolour.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>What I believe I'll wail,</a><br /><a>What know believe, and what I can redress,</a><br /><a>As I shall find the time to friend, I will.</a><br /><a>What you have spoke, it may be so perchance.</a><br /><a>This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,</a><br /><a>Was once thought honest: you have loved him well.</a><br /><a>He hath not touch'd you yet. I am young;</a><br /><a>but something</a><br /><a>You may deserve of him through me, and wisdom</a><br /><a>To offer up a weak poor innocent lamb</a><br /><a>To appease an angry god.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>I am not treacherous.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>But Macbeth is.</a><br /><a>A good and virtuous nature may recoil</a><br /><a>In an imperial charge. But I shall crave</a><br /><a>your pardon;</a><br /><a>That which you are my thoughts cannot transpose:</a><br /><a>Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell;</a><br /><a>Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace,</a><br /><a>Yet grace must still look so.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>I have lost my hopes.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>Perchance even there where I did find my doubts.</a><br /><a>Why in that rawness left you wife and child,</a><br /><a>Those precious motives, those strong knots of love,</a><br /><a>Without leave-taking? I pray you,</a><br /><a>Let not my jealousies be your dishonours,</a><br /><a>But mine own safeties. You may be rightly just,</a><br /><a>Whatever I shall think.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Bleed, bleed, poor country!</a><br /><a>Great tyranny! lay thou thy basis sure,</a><br /><a>For goodness dare not cheque thee: wear thou</a><br /><a>thy wrongs;</a><br /><a>The title is affeer'd! Fare thee well, lord:</a><br /><a>I would not be the villain that thou think'st</a><br /><a>For the whole space that's in the tyrant's grasp,</a><br /><a>And the rich East to boot.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>Be not offended:</a><br /><a>I speak not as in absolute fear of you.</a><br /><a>I think our country sinks beneath the yoke;</a><br /><a>It weeps, it bleeds; and each new day a gash</a><br /><a>Is added to her wounds: I think withal</a><br /><a>There would be hands uplifted in my right;</a><br /><a>And here from gracious England have I offer</a><br /><a>Of goodly thousands: but, for all this,</a><br /><a>When I shall tread upon the tyrant's head,</a><br /><a>Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country</a><br /><a>Shall have more vices than it had before,</a><br /><a>More suffer and more sundry ways than ever,</a><br /><a>By him that shall succeed.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>What should he be?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>It is myself I mean: in whom I know</a><br /><a>All the particulars of vice so grafted</a><br /><a>That, when they shall be open'd, black Macbeth</a><br /><a>Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state</a><br /><a>Esteem him as a lamb, being compared</a><br /><a>With my confineless harms.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Not in the legions</a><br /><a>Of horrid hell can come a devil more damn'd</a><br /><a>In evils to top Macbeth.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>I grant him bloody,</a><br /><a>Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful,</a><br /><a>Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin</a><br /><a>That has a name: but there's no bottom, none,</a><br /><a>In my voluptuousness: your wives, your daughters,</a><br /><a>Your matrons and your maids, could not fill up</a><br /><a>The cistern of my lust, and my desire</a><br /><a>All continent impediments would o'erbear</a><br /><a>That did oppose my will: better Macbeth</a><br /><a>Than such an one to reign.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Boundless intemperance</a><br /><a>In nature is a tyranny; it hath been</a><br /><a>The untimely emptying of the happy throne</a><br /><a>And fall of many kings. But fear not yet</a><br /><a>To take upon you what is yours: you may</a><br /><a>Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty,</a><br /><a>And yet seem cold, the time you may so hoodwink.</a><br /><a>We have willing dames enough: there cannot be</a><br /><a>That vulture in you, to devour so many</a><br /><a>As will to greatness dedicate themselves,</a><br /><a>Finding it so inclined.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>With this there grows</a><br /><a>In my most ill-composed affection such</a><br /><a>A stanchless avarice that, were I king,</a><br /><a>I should cut off the nobles for their lands,</a><br /><a>Desire his jewels and this other's house:</a><br /><a>And my more-having would be as a sauce</a><br /><a>To make me hunger more; that I should forge</a><br /><a>Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal,</a><br /><a>Destroying them for wealth.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>This avarice</a><br /><a>Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root</a><br /><a>Than summer-seeming lust, and it hath been</a><br /><a>The sword of our slain kings: yet do not fear;</a><br /><a>Scotland hath foisons to fill up your will.</a><br /><a>Of your mere own: all these are portable,</a><br /><a>With other graces weigh'd.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>But I have none: the king-becoming graces,</a><br /><a>As justice, verity, temperance, stableness,</a><br /><a>Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,</a><br /><a>Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude,</a><br /><a>I have no relish of them, but abound</a><br /><a>In the division of each several crime,</a><br /><a>Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should</a><br /><a>Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell,</a><br /><a>Uproar the universal peace, confound</a><br /><a>All unity on earth.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>O Scotland, Scotland!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>If such a one be fit to govern, speak:</a><br /><a>I am as I have spoken.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Fit to govern!</a><br /><a>No, not to live. O nation miserable,</a><br /><a>With an untitled tyrant bloody-scepter'd,</a><br /><a>When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again,</a><br /><a>Since that the truest issue of thy throne</a><br /><a>By his own interdiction stands accursed,</a><br /><a>And does blaspheme his breed? Thy royal father</a><br /><a>Was a most sainted king: the queen that bore thee,</a><br /><a>Oftener upon her knees than on her feet,</a><br /><a>Died every day she lived. Fare thee well!</a><br /><a>These evils thou repeat'st upon thyself</a><br /><a>Have banish'd me from Scotland. O my breast,</a><br /><a>Thy hope ends here!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>Macduff, this noble passion,</a><br /><a>Child of integrity, hath from my soul</a><br /><a>Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts</a><br /><a>To thy good truth and honour. Devilish Macbeth</a><br /><a>By many of these trains hath sought to win me</a><br /><a>Into his power, and modest wisdom plucks me</a><br /><a>From over-credulous haste: but God above</a><br /><a>Deal between thee and me! for even now</a><br /><a>I put myself to thy direction, and</a><br /><a>Unspeak mine own detraction, here abjure</a><br /><a>The taints and blames I laid upon myself,</a><br /><a>For strangers to my nature. I am yet</a><br /><a>Unknown to woman, never was forsworn,</a><br /><a>Scarcely have coveted what was mine own,</a><br /><a>At no time broke my faith, would not betray</a><br /><a>The devil to his fellow and delight</a><br /><a>No less in truth than life: my first false speaking</a><br /><a>Was this upon myself: what I am truly,</a><br /><a>Is thine and my poor country's to command:</a><br /><a>Whither indeed, before thy here-approach,</a><br /><a>Old Siward, with ten thousand warlike men,</a><br /><a>Already at a point, was setting forth.</a><br /><a>Now we'll together; and the chance of goodness</a><br /><a>Be like our warranted quarrel! Why are you silent?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Such welcome and unwelcome things at once</a><br /><a>'Tis hard to reconcile.</a><br /><p><i>Enter a Doctor</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>Well; more anon.--Comes the king forth, I pray you?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Doctor</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, sir; there are a crew of wretched souls</a><br /><a>That stay his cure: their malady convinces</a><br /><a>The great assay of art; but at his touch--</a><br /><a>Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand--</a><br /><a>They presently amend.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>I thank you, doctor.</a><br /><p><i>Exit Doctor</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>What's the disease he means?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>'Tis call'd the evil:</a><br /><a>A most miraculous work in this good king;</a><br /><a>Which often, since my here-remain in England,</a><br /><a>I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven,</a><br /><a>Himself best knows: but strangely-visited people,</a><br /><a>All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye,</a><br /><a>The mere despair of surgery, he cures,</a><br /><a>Hanging a golden stamp about their necks,</a><br /><a>Put on with holy prayers: and 'tis spoken,</a><br /><a>To the succeeding royalty he leaves</a><br /><a>The healing benediction. With this strange virtue,</a><br /><a>He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy,</a><br /><a>And sundry blessings hang about his throne,</a><br /><a>That speak him full of grace.</a><br /><p><i>Enter ROSS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>See, who comes here?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>My countryman; but yet I know him not.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>My ever-gentle cousin, welcome hither.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>I know him now. Good God, betimes remove</a><br /><a>The means that makes us strangers!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>Sir, amen.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Stands Scotland where it did?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>Alas, poor country!</a><br /><a>Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot</a><br /><a>Be call'd our mother, but our grave; where nothing,</a><br /><a>But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile;</a><br /><a>Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the air</a><br /><a>Are made, not mark'd; where violent sorrow seems</a><br /><a>A modern ecstasy; the dead man's knell</a><br /><a>Is there scarce ask'd for who; and good men's lives</a><br /><a>Expire before the flowers in their caps,</a><br /><a>Dying or ere they sicken.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>O, relation</a><br /><a>Too nice, and yet too true!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>What's the newest grief?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>That of an hour's age doth hiss the speaker:</a><br /><a>Each minute teems a new one.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>How does my wife?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, well.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a> And all my children?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>Well too.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>The tyrant has not batter'd at their peace?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>No; they were well at peace when I did leave 'em.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Be not a niggard of your speech: how goes't?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>When I came hither to transport the tidings,</a><br /><a>Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumour</a><br /><a>Of many worthy fellows that were out;</a><br /><a>Which was to my belief witness'd the rather,</a><br /><a>For that I saw the tyrant's power a-foot:</a><br /><a>Now is the time of help; your eye in Scotland</a><br /><a>Would create soldiers, make our women fight,</a><br /><a>To doff their dire distresses.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>Be't their comfort</a><br /><a>We are coming thither: gracious England hath</a><br /><a>Lent us good Siward and ten thousand men;</a><br /><a>An older and a better soldier none</a><br /><a>That Christendom gives out.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>Would I could answer</a><br /><a>This comfort with the like! But I have words</a><br /><a>That would be howl'd out in the desert air,</a><br /><a>Where hearing should not latch them.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>What concern they?</a><br /><a>The general cause? or is it a fee-grief</a><br /><a>Due to some single breast?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>No mind that's honest</a><br /><a>But in it shares some woe; though the main part</a><br /><a>Pertains to you alone.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>If it be mine,</a><br /><a>Keep it not from me, quickly let me have it.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>Let not your ears despise my tongue for ever,</a><br /><a>Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound</a><br /><a>That ever yet they heard.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Hum! I guess at it.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>Your castle is surprised; your wife and babes</a><br /><a>Savagely slaughter'd: to relate the manner,</a><br /><a>Were, on the quarry of these murder'd deer,</a><br /><a>To add the death of you.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>Merciful heaven!</a><br /><a>What, man! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows;</a><br /><a>Give sorrow words: the grief that does not speak</a><br /><a>Whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>My children too?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a> Wife, children, servants, all</a><br /><a>That could be found.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>And I must be from thence!</a><br /><a>My wife kill'd too?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>I have said.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>Be comforted:</a><br /><a>Let's make us medicines of our great revenge,</a><br /><a>To cure this deadly grief.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>He has no children. All my pretty ones?</a><br /><a>Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?</a><br /><a>What, all my pretty chickens and their dam</a><br /><a>At one fell swoop?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>Dispute it like a man.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>I shall do so;</a><br /><a>But I must also feel it as a man:</a><br /><a>I cannot but remember such things were,</a><br /><a>That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on,</a><br /><a>And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff,</a><br /><a>They were all struck for thee! naught that I am,</a><br /><a>Not for their own demerits, but for mine,</a><br /><a>Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>Be this the whetstone of your sword: let grief</a><br /><a>Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>O, I could play the woman with mine eyes</a><br /><a>And braggart with my tongue! But, gentle heavens,</a><br /><a>Cut short all intermission; front to front</a><br /><a>Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself;</a><br /><a>Within my sword's length set him; if he 'scape,</a><br /><a>Heaven forgive him too!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><a>This tune goes manly.</a><br /><a>Come, go we to the king; our power is ready;</a><br /><a>Our lack is nothing but our leave; Macbeth</a><br /><a>Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above</a><br /><a>Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may:</a><br /><a>The night is long that never finds the day.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></span><span id = 56 ></span><span id = 58 ><h3>SCENE I. </h3><blockquote><i>Enter a Doctor of Physic and a Waiting-Gentlewoman</i></blockquote><a><b>Doctor</b></a><blockquote><a>I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive</a><br /><a>no truth in your report. When was it she last walked?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Gentlewoman</b></a><blockquote><a>Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen</a><br /><a>her rise from her bed, throw her night-gown upon</a><br /><a>her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it,</a><br /><a>write upon't, read it, afterwards seal it, and again</a><br /><a>return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Doctor</b></a><blockquote><a>A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once</a><br /><a>the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of</a><br /><a>watching! In this slumbery agitation, besides her</a><br /><a>walking and other actual performances, what, at any</a><br /><a>time, have you heard her say?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Gentlewoman</b></a><blockquote><a>That, sir, which I will not report after her.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Doctor</b></a><blockquote><a>You may to me: and 'tis most meet you should.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Gentlewoman</b></a><blockquote><a>Neither to you nor any one; having no witness to</a><br /><a>confirm my speech.</a><br /><p><i>Enter LADY MACBETH, with a taper</i></p><a>Lo you, here she comes! This is her very guise;</a><br /><a>and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand close.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Doctor</b></a><blockquote><a>How came she by that light?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Gentlewoman</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, it stood by her: she has light by her</a><br /><a>continually; 'tis her command.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Doctor</b></a><blockquote><a>You see, her eyes are open.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Gentlewoman</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, but their sense is shut.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Doctor</b></a><blockquote><a>What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Gentlewoman</b></a><blockquote><a>It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus</a><br /><a>washing her hands: I have known her continue in</a><br /><a>this a quarter of an hour.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Yet here's a spot.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Doctor</b></a><blockquote><a>Hark! she speaks: I will set down what comes from</a><br /><a>her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Out, damned spot! out, I say!--One: two: why,</a><br /><a>then, 'tis time to do't.--Hell is murky!--Fie, my</a><br /><a>lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we</a><br /><a>fear who knows it, when none can call our power to</a><br /><a>account?--Yet who would have thought the old man</a><br /><a>to have had so much blood in him.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Doctor</b></a><blockquote><a>Do you mark that?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now?--</a><br /><a>What, will these hands ne'er be clean?--No more o'</a><br /><a>that, my lord, no more o' that: you mar all with</a><br /><a>this starting.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Doctor</b></a><blockquote><a>Go to, go to; you have known what you should not.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Gentlewoman</b></a><blockquote><a>She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of</a><br /><a>that: heaven knows what she has known.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Here's the smell of the blood still: all the</a><br /><a>perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little</a><br /><a>hand. Oh, oh, oh!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Doctor</b></a><blockquote><a>What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Gentlewoman</b></a><blockquote><a>I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the</a><br /><a>dignity of the whole body.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Doctor</b></a><blockquote><a>Well, well, well,--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Gentlewoman</b></a><blockquote><a>Pray God it be, sir.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Doctor</b></a><blockquote><a>This disease is beyond my practise: yet I have known</a><br /><a>those which have walked in their sleep who have died</a><br /><a>holily in their beds.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not so</a><br /><a>pale.--I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he</a><br /><a>cannot come out on's grave.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Doctor</b></a><blockquote><a>Even so?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LADY MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>To bed, to bed! there's knocking at the gate:</a><br /><a>come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What's</a><br /><a>done cannot be undone.--To bed, to bed, to bed!</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>Doctor</b></a><blockquote><a>Will she go now to bed?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Gentlewoman</b></a><blockquote><a>Directly.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Doctor</b></a><blockquote><a>Foul whisperings are abroad: unnatural deeds</a><br /><a>Do breed unnatural troubles: infected minds</a><br /><a>To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets:</a><br /><a>More needs she the divine than the physician.</a><br /><a>God, God forgive us all! Look after her;</a><br /><a>Remove from her the means of all annoyance,</a><br /><a>And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night:</a><br /><a>My mind she has mated, and amazed my sight.</a><br /><a>I think, but dare not speak.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Gentlewoman</b></a><blockquote><a>Good night, good doctor.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 59 ><h3>SCENE II.</h3><blockquote><i>Drum and colours. Enter MENTEITH, CAITHNESS, ANGUS, LENNOX, and Soldiers</i></blockquote><a><b>MENTEITH</b></a><blockquote><a>The English power is near, led on by Malcolm,</a><br /><a>His uncle Siward and the good Macduff:</a><br /><a>Revenges burn in them; for their dear causes</a><br /><a>Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm</a><br /><a>Excite the mortified man.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ANGUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Near Birnam wood</a><br /><a>Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CAITHNESS</b></a><blockquote><a>Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LENNOX</b></a><blockquote><a>For certain, sir, he is not: I have a file</a><br /><a>Of all the gentry: there is Siward's son,</a><br /><a>And many unrough youths that even now</a><br /><a>Protest their first of manhood.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MENTEITH</b></a><blockquote><a>What does the tyrant?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CAITHNESS</b></a><blockquote><a>Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies:</a><br /><a>Some say he's mad; others that lesser hate him</a><br /><a>Do call it valiant fury: but, for certain,</a><br /><a>He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause</a><br /><a>Within the belt of rule.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ANGUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Now does he feel</a><br /><a>His secret murders sticking on his hands;</a><br /><a>Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach;</a><br /><a>Those he commands move only in command,</a><br /><a>Nothing in love: now does he feel his title</a><br /><a>Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe</a><br /><a>Upon a dwarfish thief.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MENTEITH</b></a><blockquote><a>Who then shall blame</a><br /><a>His pester'd senses to recoil and start,</a><br /><a>When all that is within him does condemn</a><br /><a>Itself for being there?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CAITHNESS</b></a><blockquote><a>Well, march we on,</a><br /><a>To give obedience where 'tis truly owed:</a><br /><a>Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal,</a><br /><a>And with him pour we in our country's purge</a><br /><a>Each drop of us.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LENNOX</b></a><blockquote><a> Or so much as it needs,</a><br /><a>To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds.</a><br /><a>Make we our march towards Birnam.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt, marching</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 60 ><h3>SCENE III. </h3><blockquote><i>Enter MACBETH, Doctor, and Attendants</i></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Bring me no more reports; let them fly all:</a><br /><a>Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane,</a><br /><a>I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm?</a><br /><a>Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know</a><br /><a>All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus:</a><br /><a>'Fear not, Macbeth; no man that's born of woman</a><br /><a>Shall e'er have power upon thee.' Then fly,</a><br /><a>false thanes,</a><br /><a>And mingle with the English epicures:</a><br /><a>The mind I sway by and the heart I bear</a><br /><a>Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.</a><br /><p><i>Enter a Servant</i></p><a>The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon!</a><br /><a>Where got'st thou that goose look?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Servant</b></a><blockquote><a>There is ten thousand--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Geese, villain!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Servant</b></a><blockquote><a>Soldiers, sir.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Go prick thy face, and over-red thy fear,</a><br /><a>Thou lily-liver'd boy. What soldiers, patch?</a><br /><a>Death of thy soul! those linen cheeks of thine</a><br /><a>Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Servant</b></a><blockquote><a>The English force, so please you.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Take thy face hence.</a><br /><p><i>Exit Servant</i></p><a>Seyton!--I am sick at heart,</a><br /><a>When I behold--Seyton, I say!--This push</a><br /><a>Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now.</a><br /><a>I have lived long enough: my way of life</a><br /><a>Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf;</a><br /><a>And that which should accompany old age,</a><br /><a>As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,</a><br /><a>I must not look to have; but, in their stead,</a><br /><a>Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath,</a><br /><a>Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not. Seyton!</a><br /><p><i>Enter SEYTON</i></p></blockquote><a><b>SEYTON</b></a><blockquote><a>What is your gracious pleasure?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>What news more?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SEYTON</b></a><blockquote><a>All is confirm'd, my lord, which was reported.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>I'll fight till from my bones my flesh be hack'd.</a><br /><a>Give me my armour.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SEYTON</b></a><blockquote><a>'Tis not needed yet.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>I'll put it on.</a><br /><a>Send out more horses; skirr the country round;</a><br /><a>Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armour.</a><br /><a>How does your patient, doctor?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Doctor</b></a><blockquote><a>Not so sick, my lord,</a><br /><a>As she is troubled with thick coming fancies,</a><br /><a>That keep her from her rest.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Cure her of that.</a><br /><a>Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,</a><br /><a>Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,</a><br /><a>Raze out the written troubles of the brain</a><br /><a>And with some sweet oblivious antidote</a><br /><a>Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff</a><br /><a>Which weighs upon the heart?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Doctor</b></a><blockquote><a>Therein the patient</a><br /><a>Must minister to himself.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Throw physic to the dogs; I'll none of it.</a><br /><a>Come, put mine armour on; give me my staff.</a><br /><a>Seyton, send out. Doctor, the thanes fly from me.</a><br /><a>Come, sir, dispatch. If thou couldst, doctor, cast</a><br /><a>The water of my land, find her disease,</a><br /><a>And purge it to a sound and pristine health,</a><br /><a>I would applaud thee to the very echo,</a><br /><a>That should applaud again.--Pull't off, I say.--</a><br /><a>What rhubarb, cyme, or what purgative drug,</a><br /><a>Would scour these English hence? Hear'st thou of them?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Doctor</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, my good lord; your royal preparation</a><br /><a>Makes us hear something.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Bring it after me.</a><br /><a>I will not be afraid of death and bane,</a><br /><a>Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Doctor</b></a><blockquote><a>[Aside] Were I from Dunsinane away and clear,</a><br /><a>Profit again should hardly draw me here.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 61 ><h3>SCENE IV. </h3><blockquote><i>Drum and colours. Enter MALCOLM, SIWARD and YOUNG SIWARD, MACDUFF,MENTEITH, CAITHNESS, ANGUS, LENNOX, ROSS, and Soldiers, marching</i></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand</a><br /><a>That chambers will be safe.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MENTEITH</b></a><blockquote><a>We doubt it nothing.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SIWARD</b></a><blockquote><a>What wood is this before us?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MENTEITH</b></a><blockquote><a>The wood of Birnam.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>Let every soldier hew him down a bough</a><br /><a>And bear't before him: thereby shall we shadow</a><br /><a>The numbers of our host and make discovery</a><br /><a>Err in report of us.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Soldiers</b></a><blockquote><a>It shall be done.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SIWARD</b></a><blockquote><a>We learn no other but the confident tyrant</a><br /><a>Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure</a><br /><a>Our setting down before 't.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>'Tis his main hope:</a><br /><a>For where there is advantage to be given,</a><br /><a>Both more and less have given him the revolt,</a><br /><a>And none serve with him but constrained things</a><br /><a>Whose hearts are absent too.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Let our just censures</a><br /><a>Attend the true event, and put we on</a><br /><a>Industrious soldiership.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SIWARD</b></a><blockquote><a>The time approaches</a><br /><a>That will with due decision make us know</a><br /><a>What we shall say we have and what we owe.</a><br /><a>Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate,</a><br /><a>But certain issue strokes must arbitrate:</a><br /><a>Towards which advance the war.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt, marching</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 62 ><h3>SCENE V. </h3><blockquote><i>Enter MACBETH, SEYTON, and Soldiers, with drum and colours</i></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Hang out our banners on the outward walls;</a><br /><a>The cry is still 'They come:' our castle's strength</a><br /><a>Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie</a><br /><a>Till famine and the ague eat them up:</a><br /><a>Were they not forced with those that should be ours,</a><br /><a>We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,</a><br /><a>And beat them backward home.</a><br /><p><i>A cry of women within</i></p><a>What is that noise?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SEYTON</b></a><blockquote><a>It is the cry of women, my good lord.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>I have almost forgot the taste of fears;</a><br /><a>The time has been, my senses would have cool'd</a><br /><a>To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair</a><br /><a>Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir</a><br /><a>As life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrors;</a><br /><a>Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts</a><br /><a>Cannot once start me.</a><br /><p><i>Re-enter SEYTON</i></p><a>Wherefore was that cry?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SEYTON</b></a><blockquote><a>The queen, my lord, is dead.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>She should have died hereafter;</a><br /><a>There would have been a time for such a word.</a><br /><a>To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,</a><br /><a>Creeps in this petty pace from day to day</a><br /><a>To the last syllable of recorded time,</a><br /><a>And all our yesterdays have lighted fools</a><br /><a>The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!</a><br /><a>Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player</a><br /><a>That struts and frets his hour upon the stage</a><br /><a>And then is heard no more: it is a tale</a><br /><a>Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,</a><br /><a>Signifying nothing.</a><br /><p><i>Enter a Messenger</i></p><a>Thou comest to use thy tongue; thy story quickly.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Messenger</b></a><blockquote><a>Gracious my lord,</a><br /><a>I should report that which I say I saw,</a><br /><a>But know not how to do it.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Well, say, sir.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Messenger</b></a><blockquote><a>As I did stand my watch upon the hill,</a><br /><a>I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought,</a><br /><a>The wood began to move.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Liar and slave!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Messenger</b></a><blockquote><a>Let me endure your wrath, if't be not so:</a><br /><a>Within this three mile may you see it coming;</a><br /><a>I say, a moving grove.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>If thou speak'st false,</a><br /><a>Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive,</a><br /><a>Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth,</a><br /><a>I care not if thou dost for me as much.</a><br /><a>I pull in resolution, and begin</a><br /><a>To doubt the equivocation of the fiend</a><br /><a>That lies like truth: 'Fear not, till Birnam wood</a><br /><a>Do come to Dunsinane:' and now a wood</a><br /><a>Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out!</a><br /><a>If this which he avouches does appear,</a><br /><a>There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here.</a><br /><a>I gin to be aweary of the sun,</a><br /><a>And wish the estate o' the world were now undone.</a><br /><a>Ring the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack!</a><br /><a>At least we'll die with harness on our back.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 63 ><h3>SCENE VI. </h3><blockquote><i>Drum and colours. Enter MALCOLM, SIWARD, MACDUFF, and their Army, with boughs</i></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>Now near enough: your leafy screens throw down.</a><br /><a>And show like those you are. You, worthy uncle,</a><br /><a>Shall, with my cousin, your right-noble son,</a><br /><a>Lead our first battle: worthy Macduff and we</a><br /><a>Shall take upon 's what else remains to do,</a><br /><a>According to our order.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SIWARD</b></a><blockquote><a>Fare you well.</a><br /><a>Do we but find the tyrant's power to-night,</a><br /><a>Let us be beaten, if we cannot fight.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Make all our trumpets speak; give them all breath,</a><br /><a>Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 64 ><h3>SCENE VII.<br /></h3><blockquote><i>Alarums. Enter MACBETH</i></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly,</a><br /><a>But, bear-like, I must fight the course. What's he</a><br /><a>That was not born of woman? Such a one</a><br /><a>Am I to fear, or none.</a><br /><p><i>Enter YOUNG SIWARD</i></p></blockquote><a><b>YOUNG SIWARD</b></a><blockquote><a>What is thy name?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a> Thou'lt be afraid to hear it.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>YOUNG SIWARD</b></a><blockquote><a>No; though thou call'st thyself a hotter name</a><br /><a>Than any is in hell.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>My name's Macbeth.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>YOUNG SIWARD</b></a><blockquote><a>The devil himself could not pronounce a title</a><br /><a>More hateful to mine ear.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>No, nor more fearful.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>YOUNG SIWARD</b></a><blockquote><a>Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with my sword</a><br /><a>I'll prove the lie thou speak'st.</a><br /><p><i>They fight and YOUNG SIWARD is slain</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Thou wast born of woman</a><br /><a>But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn,</a><br /><a>Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p><p><i>Alarums. Enter MACDUFF</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy face!</a><br /><a>If thou be'st slain and with no stroke of mine,</a><br /><a>My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still.</a><br /><a>I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms</a><br /><a>Are hired to bear their staves: either thou, Macbeth,</a><br /><a>Or else my sword with an unbatter'd edge</a><br /><a>I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be;</a><br /><a>By this great clatter, one of greatest note</a><br /><a>Seems bruited. Let me find him, fortune!</a><br /><a>And more I beg not.</a><br /><p><i>Exit. Alarums</i></p><p><i>Enter MALCOLM and SIWARD</i></p></blockquote><a><b>SIWARD</b></a><blockquote><a>This way, my lord; the castle's gently render'd:</a><br /><a>The tyrant's people on both sides do fight;</a><br /><a>The noble thanes do bravely in the war;</a><br /><a>The day almost itself professes yours,</a><br /><a>And little is to do.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>We have met with foes</a><br /><a>That strike beside us.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SIWARD</b></a><blockquote><a>Enter, sir, the castle.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt. Alarums</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 65 ><h3>SCENE VIII. </h3><blockquote><i>Enter MACBETH</i></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Why should I play the Roman fool, and die</a><br /><a>On mine own sword? whiles I see lives, the gashes</a><br /><a>Do better upon them.</a><br /><p><i>Enter MACDUFF</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Turn, hell-hound, turn!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Of all men else I have avoided thee:</a><br /><a>But get thee back; my soul is too much charged</a><br /><a>With blood of thine already.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>I have no words:</a><br /><a>My voice is in my sword: thou bloodier villain</a><br /><a>Than terms can give thee out!</a><br /><p><i>They fight</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Thou losest labour:</a><br /><a>As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air</a><br /><a>With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed:</a><br /><a>Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;</a><br /><a>I bear a charmed life, which must not yield,</a><br /><a>To one of woman born.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Despair thy charm;</a><br /><a>And let the angel whom thou still hast served</a><br /><a>Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb</a><br /><a>Untimely ripp'd.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,</a><br /><a>For it hath cow'd my better part of man!</a><br /><a>And be these juggling fiends no more believed,</a><br /><a>That palter with us in a double sense;</a><br /><a>That keep the word of promise to our ear,</a><br /><a>And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Then yield thee, coward,</a><br /><a>And live to be the show and gaze o' the time:</a><br /><a>We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,</a><br /><a>Painted on a pole, and underwrit,</a><br /><a>'Here may you see the tyrant.'</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MACBETH</b></a><blockquote><a>I will not yield,</a><br /><a>To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet,</a><br /><a>And to be baited with the rabble's curse.</a><br /><a>Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane,</a><br /><a>And thou opposed, being of no woman born,</a><br /><a>Yet I will try the last. Before my body</a><br /><a>I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,</a><br /><a>And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!'</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt, fighting. Alarums</i></p><p><i>Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colours, MALCOLM, SIWARD, ROSS, the other Thanes, and Soldiers</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>I would the friends we miss were safe arrived.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SIWARD</b></a><blockquote><a>Some must go off: and yet, by these I see,</a><br /><a>So great a day as this is cheaply bought.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>Macduff is missing, and your noble son.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt:</a><br /><a>He only lived but till he was a man;</a><br /><a>The which no sooner had his prowess confirm'd</a><br /><a>In the unshrinking station where he fought,</a><br /><a>But like a man he died.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SIWARD</b></a><blockquote><a>Then he is dead?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, and brought off the field: your cause of sorrow</a><br /><a>Must not be measured by his worth, for then</a><br /><a>It hath no end.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SIWARD</b></a><blockquote><a> Had he his hurts before?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ROSS</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, on the front.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SIWARD</b></a><blockquote><a> Why then, God's soldier be he!</a><br /><a>Had I as many sons as I have hairs,</a><br /><a>I would not wish them to a fairer death:</a><br /><a>And so, his knell is knoll'd.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>He's worth more sorrow,</a><br /><a>And that I'll spend for him.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SIWARD</b></a><blockquote><a>He's worth no more</a><br /><a>They say he parted well, and paid his score:</a><br /><a>And so, God be with him! Here comes newer comfort.</a><br /><p><i>Re-enter MACDUFF, with MACBETH's head</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MACDUFF</b></a><blockquote><a>Hail, king! for so thou art: behold, where stands</a><br /><a>The usurper's cursed head: the time is free:</a><br /><a>I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl,</a><br /><a>That speak my salutation in their minds;</a><br /><a>Whose voices I desire aloud with mine:</a><br /><a>Hail, King of Scotland!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ALL</b></a><blockquote><a>Hail, King of Scotland!</a><br /><p><i>Flourish</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MALCOLM</b></a><blockquote><a>We shall not spend a large expense of time</a><br /><a>Before we reckon with your several loves,</a><br /><a>And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen,</a><br /><a>Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland</a><br /><a>In such an honour named. What's more to do,</a><br /><a>Which would be planted newly with the time,</a><br /><a>As calling home our exiled friends abroad</a><br /><a>That fled the snares of watchful tyranny;</a><br /><a>Producing forth the cruel ministers</a><br /><a>Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen,</a><br /><a>Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands</a><br /><a>Took off her life; this, and what needful else</a><br /><a>That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace,</a><br /><a>We will perform in measure, time and place:</a><br /><a>So, thanks to all at once and to each one,</a><br /><a>Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone.</a><br /><p><i>Flourish. Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 2070 ><h2>The Tragedy of Macbeth, by William Shakespeare</h2><h3>Principal annotator: sagittarius</h3><h4>What is “Macbeth”?</h4><p>“The Tragedy of Macbeth” was a play written by William Shakespeare in the early 1600s to be performed by his company, a group of actors known as the King’s Men, the King’s Players, or the King’s Servants.<br /></p><h4>What do we have of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”?</h4>The only available text for “Macbeth” is the one printed in the first edition of Shakespeare’s collected works, usually called the First Folio (1623, seven years after the playwright’s death). But we know that the play was already in the repertory of the King’s Men by 1610. In April of that year, the astrologer Simon Forman saw the play at the Globe Theater, the King’s Men’s main venue, and recorded his impressions in his “Book of Plays,” a journal he was keeping at the time. By 1610, however, Shakespeare had begun his gradual retirement, spending more time in his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon than in the hustle and bustle of the London theatre.<br /><br />It is likely that the play had been in the company’s repertory for a few years by the time Forman saw it. Thematically and formally, “Macbeth” resembles much more the plays that he had been writing between 1599 and 1608 (“Hamlet,” “Henry V,” “Othello,” “King Lear,” “Antony and Cleopatra”) than anything earlier (“Comedy of Errors,” “Richard III”) or later (“Winter’s Tale,” “The Tempest”).<br /><h4>Did Shakespeare write “Macbeth” for King James?</h4>There is no evidence that the king of England, the most important political and religious figure in Britain, ever communicated directly with Shakespeare about his theatrical work.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.electricscotland.com/history/scotland/images/king_james.jpg" border="0" height="340" width="249" /><br /><i>King James of England and Scotland</i><br /><br />Because the play is set in Scotland and three witches are important characters, scholars have decided that Shakespeare wrote the play after March, 1603, when king James of Scotland inherited the English throne and became monarch of both kingdoms. James had written a treatise about witchcraft (the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/kjd/">“Daemonologie”</a> ) and was interested enough in the matter to rearrange his busy schedule so he could attend the trials of people accused of sorcery and necromancy.<br /><h4>Did Shakespeare write “Macbeth” to commemorate the Gunpowder Plot?</h4>Scholars have made much of the comic scene with the porter (the beginning of II.3) and his reference to an “equivocator” who has arrived in hell. The word "equivocator" generally means any person who speaks ambiguously, like the witches with their riddles and paradoxes, or the clowns with their word-play and other verbal comedy. After November 1605, however, the word gained a new, more specific meaning.<br /><br />Shortly before November 5, a plot was discovered by King James: several Catholic noblemen and their servants were accused of attempting to blow up the buildings where Parliament was due to be held in Westminster, killing the representatives of the whole kingdom, most officers of the crown, and the entire royal family. This "Gunpowder Plot" was on everyone's mind in late 1605 and most of 1606.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.show.me.uk/gunpowderplot/images/pictures/img_77_lrg.jpg" border="0" height="252" width="323" /><br /><i>"The Double Deliverance," 1621 engraving showing the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot and comparing it with the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.</i><br /><br />During one of the trials of those accused of masterminding the plot, the testimony of Henry Garnet, a Jesuit priest, was compromised by the fact that he had previously written a treatise on "equivocation," a controversial doctrine that contended that Catholics were allowed to lie to certain government officials (like Protestant judges for example), as long as they answered truthfully in their minds to God himself. The porter's reference has led most scholars to postulate that Shakespeare must have written Macbeth after early 1606 (the date of Garnet's trial), possible shortly after that, when the reference would have been fresh in playgoers' minds.<br /><h4>What are the differences and similarities between the “Macbeth” that Shakespeare wrote and his company acted around 1606 and the play that was printed by his colleagues and friends in 1623?</h4>Nobody knows. Answers are extremely conjectural and depend on very tangential references and shaky assumptions about Shakespeare, his position as an actor in a royally sponsored company, his relationship to the king, his desire to comment on political matters, on political theory or theology, etc.<br /><br />A very famous contextual answer was provided by the scholar Henry Paul in 1950s, who claimed that Macbeth was a “royal play,” especially devised by Shakespeare to entertain the court during the royal visit of king Christian of Denmark, James’s brother-in-law, in the summer of 1606 (this explanation also makes a compelling case for the “equivocator” reference being fresh among the audience).<br /><h4>Are there sections of the 1623 Macbeth that were not written by Shakespeare?</h4>Yes. One of the few things that are fairly agreed upon about the 1623 text is that it interpolates a couple of sections that were not written by Shakespeare (most of III.5 and part of V.1), both featuring the character of Hecate, queen of the witches, and song-and-dance numbers. These scenes are notorious among scholars because they highlight the problems one encounters when trying to identify the "true" text of a Shakespearean play, or when trying to figure out "what Shakespeare actually wrote."<br /><br />Many years ago, it was noticed that the songs in the Hecate scenes were identical to songs in "The Witch," a play written by fellow playwright Thomas Middleton sometime between 1610 and 1615. Further analysis of the tone and meter of those scenes confirmed the initial impression that Shakespeare did not write them.<br /><br />The scholarly consensus is that Shakespeare wrote "Macbeth" around 1606, but sometime before 1623 (when the First Folio was published) Shakespeare's company somehow had "Macbeth" revised for performance by someone else (possibly Middleton himself), who then grafted a couple of crowd-pleasing scenes and songs from Middleton’s "The Witch" onto it.<br /><br />Bearing all this in mind, however, there can be no doubt that by 1623 the text we now have was what the King’s Men, a company that still included many men who had worked closely with Shakespeare, were using at the time to entertain the playgoing public and that it bore at least some similitude to that play they had first performed almost two decades before.<br /><h4>Where did Shakespeare get the basic plot of “Macbeth”?</h4>For most of his plays, and particularly for his tragedies, Shakespeare’s working method used as a point of departure for the plot some story he had read in a book. Shakespeare, though very likely not a book collector or even owner, read voraciously and had an astonishing ability for identifying words, phrases, situations, or wholesale plots that would be suitable for the crafting of his plays.<br /><br />It is accepted that Shakespeare found Macbeth in a very popular book called “Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland,” credited to one Raphael Holinshed. The book was first published in 1577 and was actually written by Holinshed, William Harrison, and Richard Stanyhurst, who in turn combed through many other histories to compose their book. Holinshed died in 1580, but the work was so popular that a second edition was published in 1587. The 1587 edition, the one Shakespeare would have read, was heavily revised. It is generally considered a completely different work, one little affected by the late Holinshed, who nevertheless remained on the title page (very likely for marketing reasons). This has led many people to write that Shakespeare used “Holinshed” (with the quotation marks), to differentiate the 1587 book from the dead writer.<br /><br />The history of Scotland in “Holinshed’s Chronicles” includes <a href="http://www.clicknotes.com/macbeth/Holinshed/">a</a><a target="_blank" href="http://www.clicknotes.com/macbeth/Holinshed/">n account of the reigns of Duncane and Makbeth,</a> who ruled the northern kingdom in the middle of the 11th century (more than 500 years before Shakespeare wrote “Macbeth”).<br /><h4>What did “Holinshed’s Chronicles” say about Macbeth’s period as Duncan’s loyal thane?</h4>Makbeth is first mentioned in the passage about his cousin Duncane becoming king, where he is described as “a valiant gentleman” though somewhat “cruel of nature.” Duncane, in contrast, was “soft and gentle of nature.” Duncane’s kindness over the years, however, led to a deterioration of his authority and “many misruled persons took occasion [...] to trouble the peace and quiet state of the commonwealth by seditious commotions.”<br /><br />One of these revolts was led by Makdowald, who rallied his supporters with slanderous words about Duncane. The king, Makdowald said, was but “a faint-hearted milksop, more meet to govern a sort of idle monks in some cloister, than to have the rule of such valiant and hardy men of war as the Scots.” Soon, Makdowald had gathered a rebel army, aided by “ no small number of Kernes and Galloglasses” from Ireland.<br /><br />According to the “Chronicles,” Duncane, unable to deal with Makdowald’s threat by his own dwindling authority, called a meeting of his noblemen. Makbeth, “speaking much against the kings softness, and overmuch slackness in punishing offenders” promised to defeat the rebels if he and his friend Banquho, another thane who had faced revolts against Duncane before, were given the authority to do so. They were, and Makbeth defeated the rebels, and drove Makdowald’s back to his castle, where the desperate outlaw killed his family before killing himself. “Thus was justice and law restored again to the old accustomed course,” says the chronicle, “by the diligent means of Makbeth.”<br /><br />But immediately after the suppression of Makdowald’s revolt, “word came that Sueno king of Norway was arrived in Fife with a puissant army, to subdue the whole realm of Scotland.” Uncharacteristically, Duncane “set all slothful and lingering delays apart, and began to assemble an army in most spéedy wise, like a very valiant captain.” He split his army in three battalions: one led by Makbeth, another by Banquho, and the third by the king himself.<br /><br />Sueno, however, won the first battle and managed to besiege Duncane in a castle. The king tricked Sueno’s army into eating the sleep-inducing “mekilwoort berries” and then called on Makbeth for relief. Makbeth “making no delay, came with his people to the place, where his enemies were lodged, and first killing the watch, afterwards entered the camp, and made such slaughter on all sides without any resistance, that it was a wonderful matter to behold, for the Danes were so heavy of sleep, that the most part of them were slain and never stirred: other that were awakened either by the noise or other ways forth, were so amazed and dizzy-headed upon their wakening, that they were not able to make any defense: so that of the whole number there escaped no more but only Sueno himself and ten other persons, by whose help he got to his ships.”<br /><br />Shortly after that, Makbeth and Banquho also defeated an invasion by Canute, the Danish king of England.<br /><h4>What did “Holinshed’s Chronicles” say about Macbeth and the supernatural prophecies?</h4>After Makbeth has saved the kingdom from foreign invaders, the chronicle continues, there “happened a strange and uncouth wonder, which afterward was the cause of much trouble in the realm of Scotland [...]. It fortuned as Makbeth and Banquho journeyed towards Fores, where the king then lay, they went sporting by the way together without other company, save only themselves, passing thorough the woods and fields, when suddenly in the midst of a land there met them three women in strange and wild apparel, resembling creatures of elder world, whom when they attentively beheld, wondering much at the sight, the first of them spake and said; ‘All hail Makbeth, thane of Glammis’ (for he had lately entered into that dignity and office by the death of his father Sinell.) The second of them said; ‘Hail Makbeth thane of Cawder.’ But the third said; ‘All hail Makbeth that hereafter shall be king of Scotland.’”<br /><br /><img src="http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/images/Witches.JPG" alt="Engraving of the weird sisters in " title="Engraving of the weird sisters in " holinshed="" s="" chronicle="" border="0" /><br /><i>Engraving showing Makbeth meeting the weird sisters in "Holinshed's Chronicle"</i><br /><br />Banquho then asked them “‘What manner of women [...] are you, that seem so little favorable unto me, whereas to my fellow here, besides high offices, you assign also the kingdom, appointing forth nothing for me at all?’ ‘Yes (said the first of them) we promise greater benefits unto thee, than unto him, for he shall reign in deed, but with an unlucky end: neither shall he leave any issue behind him to succeed in his place, where contrarily thou in deed shall not reign at all, but of thee those shall be borne which shall govern the Scottish kingdom by long order of continual descent.’ Herewith the foresaid women vanished immediately out of their sight.”<br /><br />“This was reputed at the first,” the chronicle continues, “but some vain fantastical illusion by Mackbeth [sic] and Banquho, insomuch that Banquho would call Mackbeth in jest, king of Scotland; and Mackbeth again would call him in sport likewise, the father of many kings. But afterwards the common opinion was, that these women were either the weird sisters, that is (as you would say) the goddesses of destiny, or else some nymphs or fairies, indued with knowledge of prophesy by their necromantical science, because everything came to pass as they had spoken.”<br /><br />The first part of the prophecy proved correct shortly after the strange meeting: “the thane of Cawder being condemned at Fores of treason against the king committed; his lands, livings, and offices were given of the kings liberality to Mackbeth. The same night after, at supper, Banquho jested with him and said: ‘Now Mackbeth thou hast obtained those things which the two former sisters prophesied, there remaineth only for thee to purchase that which the third said should come to pass.’ Whereupon Mackbeth revolving the thing in his mind, began even then to devise how he might attain to the kingdom: but yet he thought with himself that he must tarry a time, which should advance him thereto (by the divine providence) as it had come to passe in his former preferment.”<br /><h4>What did “Holinshed’s Chronicles” say about Macbeth’s decision to assassinate Duncan?</h4>While Mackbeth tarried, Duncane made his elder son Malcolme prince of Cumberland, “as it were thereby to appoint him his successor in the kingdom, immediately after his decease. Mackbeth sore troubled herewith, for that he saw by this means his hope sore hindered (where, by the old laws of the realm, the ordinance was, that if he that should succeed were not of able age to take the charge upon himself, he that was next of blood unto him should be admitted) he began to take counsel how he might usurpe the kingdom by force, having a just quarrel so to do (as he took the matter) for that Duncane did what in him lay to defraud him of all manner of title and claim, which he might in time to come, pretend unto the crown. The words of the three weird sisters also [...] greatly encouraged him hereunto, but especially his wife lay sore upon him to attempt the thing, as she that was very ambitious, burning in unquenchable desire to bear the name of a queen.”<br /><br />Mackbeth communicated “his purposed intent with his trusty friends, amongst whom Banquho was the chiefest,” and “upon confidence of their promised aid, he slew the king at Enuerns, or (as some say) at Botgosuane, in the sixth year of his reign [sic]. Then having a company about him of such as he had made privy to his enterprise, he caused himself to be proclaimed king, and forthwith went unto Scone, where (by common consent) he received the investiture of the kingdom according to the accustomed manner.”<br /><br />Malcolme Cammore and Donald Bane, the sons of king Duncane, “for fear of their lives (which they might well know that Mackbeth would seek to bring to end for his more sure confirmation in the estate) fled into Cumberland, where Malcolme remained, till time that saint Edward the son of Ethelred recovered the dominion of England from the Danish power, the which Edward received Malcolme by way of most friendly entertainment: but Donald passed over into Ireland, where he was tenderly cherished by the king of that land.”<br /><h4>What did “Holinshed’s Chronicles” say about Macbeth’s tenure as king of Scotland?</h4>Unlike Shakespeare’s Macbeth, haunted by his crime from the get-go, according to Holinshed’s Chronicles Mackbeth’s rule was initially far more successful than Duncane’s.<br /><br />The new king smartly “used great liberality towards the nobles of the realm, thereby to win their favor, and when he saw that no man went about to trouble him, he set his whole intention to maintain justice, and to punish all enormities and abuses, which had chanced through the feeble and slothful administration of Duncane. And to bring his purpose the better to pass without any trouble or great business, he devised a subtle wile to bring all offenders and misdoers unto justice, soliciting sundry of his liege people with high rewards, to challenge and appeal such as most oppressed the commons, to come at a day and place appointed, to fight singular combats within barriers, in trial of their accusations. When these thieves, ‘barrettors’ [corrupt officials] and other oppressors of the innocent people were come to darren [ultimate] battle in this wise (as is said) they were straight ways apprehended by armed men, and trussed up in halters on gibbets, according as they had justly deserved.”<br /><br />In fact, Mackbeth was so efficient at combatting crime “that many years after all theft and ‘reiffings’ [robberies] were little heard of, the people enjoying the blissful benefit of good peace and tranquillity. Mackbeth showing himself thus a most diligent punisher of all injuries and wrongs attempted by any disordered persons within his realm, was accounted the sure defense and ‘buckler’ [shield] of innocent people; and hereto he also applied his whole endeavor, to cause young men to exercise themselves in virtuous manners, and men of the church to attend their divine service according to their vocations.”<br /><br />And although the turmoil caused by noblemen (endemic in Scotland) continued unabated--Mackbeth had to execute “sundry thanes, as of Cathnes, Sutherland, Stranauerne, and Ros--“Holinshed’s Chronicle” presents Mackbeth as an exemplary king for most of his rule, one who, “if he had attained [the crown] by rightful means, and continued in uprightness of justice as he began, till the end of his reign, he might well have been numbered amongst the most noble princes that any where had reigned.” This glorious period of his rule lasted for ten years.<br /><h4>Why, according to “Holinshed’s Chronicle” did Macbeth’s rule begin to deteriorate after a decade of good government?</h4>The chronicle had already mentioned Mackbeth’s “cruel nature,” an essential part of himself that he had kept in check during those ten years “to purchase [...] the favor of the people.” But eventually and inevitably “he began to show what he was, in stead of equity practicing cruelty. For the prick of conscience (as it chanceth ever in tyrants, and such as attain to any estate by unrighteous means) caused him ever to fear, least he should be served of the same cup, as he had ministered to his predecessor. The words also of the three weird sisters, would not out of his mind, which as they promised him the kingdom, so likewise did they promise it at the same time unto the posterity of Banquho.”<br /><br />Mackbeth “willed therefore the same Banquho with his son named Fleance, to come to a supper that he had prepared for them which was in deed, as he had devised, present death at the hands of certain murderers, whom he hired to execute that deed, appointing them to meet with the same Banquho and his son without the palace, as they returned to their lodgings, and there to slay them, so that he would not have his house slandered, but that in time to come he might clear himself, if any thing were laid to his charge upon any suspicion that might arise.”<br /><br />But Fleance “by the benefit of the dark night” and “by the help of almighty God reserving him to better fortune, escaped that danger: and afterwards having some inkling (by the admonition of some friends which he had in the court) how his life was sought no less than his father’s, who was slain not by ‘chance meddlie’ [accidental manslaughter] (as by the handling of the matter Makbeth would have had it to appear) but even upon a prepensed [premeditated] devise: whereupon to avoid further peril he fled into Wales.” Fleance went on to become the ancestor of the house of Stewart (or Stuart), all the way up to king James of Scotland (a young king when the “Chronicles” were published, and not yet king of England as well).<br /><br />After the murder of Banquho “nothing prospered with [...] Makbeth: for in manner every man began to doubt his own life, and durst unneth [scarcely] appear in the king’s presence; and even as there were many that stood in fear of him, so likewise stood he in fear of many.” Mackbeth began sending into exile and killing his noblemen and after a while “his earnest thirst after blood in this behalf might in no wise be satisfied: for ye must consider he wan double profit (as he thought) hereby: for first they were rid out of the way whom he feared, and then again his coffers were enriched by their goods which were forfeited to his use, whereby he might better maintain a guard of armed men about him to defend his person from injury of them whom he had in any suspicion.”<br /><h4>How did “Holinshed’s Chronicles” describe Macbeth’s fatal quarrel with Macduff?</h4>To protect himself even further and “so that he might the more cruelly oppress his subjects with all tyrantlike wrongs,” Mackbeth built “a strong castle on the top of an high hill called Dunsinane, situate in Gowrie, ten miles from Perth, on such a proud height, that standing there aloft, a man might behold well near all the countries of Angus, Fife, Stermond, and Ernedale, as it were lying underneath him. This castle then being founded on the top of that high hill, put the realm to great charges before it was finished, for all the stuff necessary to the building, could not be brought up without much toil and business.”<br /><br />Makbeth was determined to finish the work, and “caused the thanes of each shire within the realm, to come and help towards the building, each man his course about. At the last, when the turn fell unto Makduffe thane of Fife to build his part, he sent workmen with all needful provision, and commanded them to show such diligence in every behalf, that no occasion might be given for the king to find fault with him, in that he came not himself as other had done, which he refused to do, for doubt least the king bearing him (as he partly understood) no great good will, would lay violent hands upon him, as he had done upon diverse other.”<br /><br />When Makbeth did not find Makduffe helping with the construction, “he was sore offended, and said; I perceive this man will never obey my commandments, till he be ridden with a snaffle: but I shall provide well enough for him. Neither could he afterwards abide to look upon the said Makduffe, either for that he thought his puissance over great; either else for that he had learned of certain wizards, in whose words he put great confidence (for that the prophesy had happened so right, which the three faeries or weird sisters had declared unto him) how that he ought to take heed of Makduffe, who in time to come should seek to destroy him.”<br /><br />Mackbeth, according to the chronicle, would have had Makduffe killed immediately, but he felt he didn’t have to because “a certain witch, whom he had in great trust, had told that he should never be slain with man born of any woman, nor vanquished till the wood of Bernane came to the castle of Dunsinane. By this prophesy Makbeth put all fear out of his heart, supposing he might do what he would, without any fear to be punished for the same, for by the one prophesy he believed it was unpossible for any man to vanquish him, and by the other unpossible to slay him. This vain hope caused him to do many outrageous things, to the grievous oppression of his subjects.”<br /><br />Saved by Mackbeth’s overconfidence, “Makduffe, to avoid peril of life, purposed with himself to passe into England, to procure Malcolme Cammore to claim the crown of Scotland. But this was not so secretly devised by Makduffe, but that Makbeth had knowledge given him thereof: for kings (as is said) have sharp sight like unto Lynx, and long ears like unto Midas. For Makbeth had in every nobleman’s house, one sly fellow or other in fee with him, to reveal all that was said or done within the same, by which slight he oppressed the most part of the nobles of his realm. Immediately then, being advertised whereabout Makduffe went, he came hastily with a great power into Fife, and forthwith besieged the castle where Makduffe dwelled, trusting to have found him therein. They that kept the house, without any resistance opened the gates, and suffered him to enter, mistrusting none evil. But nevertheless Makbeth most cruelly caused the wife and children of Makduffe, with all other whom he found in that castle, to be slain. Also he confiscated the goods of Makduffe, proclaimed him traitor, and confined him out of all parts of his realm.”<br /><h4>How did “Holinshed’s Chronicle” describe the interview in exile between Macduff and Malcolm?</h4>Makduffe, however, had already “escaped out of danger, and gotten into England unto Malcolme Cammore, to try what purchase he might make by means of his support, to revenge the slaughter so cruelly executed on his wife, his children, and other friends. At his coming unto Malcolme, he declared into what great misery the estate of Scotland was brought, by the detestable cruelties exercised by the tyrant Makbeth, having committed many horrible slaughters and murders, both as well of the nobles as commons, for the which he was hated right mortally of all his liege people, desiring nothing more than to be delivered of that intolerable and most heavy yoke of thralldom, which they sustained at such a caitif’s [villain’s] hands.<br /><br />Makduffe’s words filled Malcolme with sorrow, but he was not sure that Makduffe had been wronged but the tyrant or whether he had been “sent from Makbeth to betray him.” Malcolme put the thane to a test and “dissembling his mind at the first, he answered as followeth: ‘I am truly very sorry for the misery chanced to my country of Scotland, but though I have never so great affection to relive the same, yet by reason of certain incurable vices, which reign in me, I am nothing meet thereto. First, such immoderate lust and voluptuous sensuality (the abominable fountain of all vices) followeth me, that if I were made king of Scots, I should seek to deflower maids and matrons, in such wise that mine intemperance should be more importable unto you, than the bloodie tyranny of Makbeth now is." Hereunto Makduffe answered: "This surely is a very evil fault, for many noble princes and kings have lost both lives and kingdoms for the same; nevertheless there are women enough in Scotland, and therefore follow my counsel. Make thy self king, and I shall convey the matter so wisely that thou shalt be so satisfied at thy pleasure in such secret wise, that no man shall be aware thereof.’<br /><br />“Then said Malcolme, ‘I am also the most avaricious creature on the earth, so that if I were king, I should seek so many ways to get lands and goods, that I would slay the most part of all the nobles of Scotland by surmised accusations, to the end I might enioy their lands, goods, and possessions; and therefore to show you what mischief may ensue on you through mine unsatiable covetousness, I will rehearse unto you a fable. There was a fox having a sore place on him overset with a swarm of flies, that continually sucked out her blood: and when one that came by and saw this manner, demanded whether she would have the flies driven beside her, she answered no: for if these flies that are already full, and by reason thereof suck not very eagerly, should be chased away, other that are empty and ‘fellie an hungred’ [fierce by hunger] should light in their places, and suck out the residue of my blood far more to my grievance than these, which now being satisfied do not much annoy me. Therefore saith Malcolme, suffer me to remain where I am, least if I attain to the regiment of your realm, mine unquenchable avarice may prove such; that ye would think the displeasures which now grieve you, should seem easy in respect of the unmeasurable outrage, which might ensue through my coming amongst you."<br /><br />“Makduffe to this made answer, ‘how it was a far worse fault than the other: for avarice is the root of all mischief, and for that crime the most part of our kings have been slaine and brought to their final end. Yet notwithstanding follow my counsel, and take upon thee the crown. There is gold and riches enough in Scotland to satisfy thy greedy desire.’ Then Malcolme again, ‘I am furthermore inclined to dissimulation, telling of ‘leasings’ [lies], and all other kinds of deceit, so that I naturally rejoyce in nothing so much, as to betray & deceive such as put any trust or confidence in my words. Then since there is nothing that more becometh a prince than constancy, verity, truth, and justice, with the other laudable fellowship of those faire and noble virtues which are comprehended only in soothfastness, and that lying utterly overthroweth the same; you see how unable I am to governe any province or region: and therefore since you have remedies to cloak and hide all the rest of my other vices, I pray you find shift to cloak this vice amongst the residue.’"<br /><br />“Then said Makduffe: ‘This yet is the worst of all, and there I leave thee, and therefore say; Oh ye unhappy and miserable Scottishmen, which are thus scourged with so many and sundry calamities, each one above other! Ye have one cursed and wicked tyrant that now reigneth over you, without any right or title, oppressing you with his most bloody cruelty. This other that hath the right to the crown, is so replete with the inconstant behavior and manifest vices of Englishmen, that he is nothing worthy to enjoy it: for by his own confession he is not only avaricious, and given to unsatiable lust, but so false a traitor withal, that no trust is to be had unto any word he speaketh. Adieu Scotland, for now I account my self a banished man for ever, without comfort or consolation,’ and with those words the brackish tears trickled down his cheeks very abundantly.”<br /><br />“At the last, when he was ready to depart, Malcolme took him by the sleeve, and said: ‘Be of good comfort Makduffe, for I have none of these vices before remembered, but have jested with thee in this manner, onely to prove thy mind: for diverse times heretofore hath Makbeth sought by this manner of means to bring me into his hands, but the more slow I have showed my self to condescend to thy motion and request, the more diligence shall I use in accomplishing the same.’ Incontinently hereupon they embraced each other, and promising to be faithful the one to the other, they fell in consultation how they might best provide for all their business, to bring the same to good effect.”<br /><h4>How did “Holinshed’s Chronicle” describe the invasion of England by Malcolm?</h4>While Makduffe secretly wrote from the border to the dissatisfied thanes and assembled an army against Makbeth, Malcolme “purchased such favor at king Edward’s hands, that old Siward earl of Northumberland was appointed with ten thousand men to go with him into Scotland, to support him in this enterprise, for recovery of his right. After these newes were spread abroad in Scotland, the nobles drew into two several factions, the one taking part with Makbeth, and the other with Malcolme. Hereupon ensued oftentimes sundry bickerings, & diverse light skirmishes: for those that were of Malcolme’s side, would not jeopard to join with their enemies in a ‘pight field’ [pitched battle] till his coming out of England to their support. But after that Makbeth perceived his enemies power to increase, by such aid as came to them forth of England with his adversary Malcolme, he recoiled back into Fife, there purposing to abide in camp fortified, at the Castle of Dunsinane, and to fight with his enemies, if they meant to pursue him.”<br /><br />Though Makbeth’s friends cannily advised him “either to make some agreement with Malcolme, or else to flee with all speed into the Isles, and to take his treasure with him, to the end he might ‘wage’ [bribe] sundry great princes of the realm to take his part, and retain strangers, in whom he might better trust than in his own subjects, which stale daily from him, [...] he had such confidence in his prophesies, that he believed he should never be vanquished, till Birnane wood were brought to Dunsinane; nor yet to be slain with any man, that should be or was borne of any woman.”<br /><br />Malcolme chased Makbeth into Dunsinane, and “came the night before the battle unto Birnane wood. [...] When his army had rested a while there to refresh them, he commanded every man to get a bough of some tree or other of that wood in his hand, as big as he might bear, and to march forth therewith in such wise, that on the next morrow they might come closely and without sight in this manner within view of his enemies. On the morrow when Makbeth beheld them coming in this sort, he first marveled what the matter meant, but in the end remembered himself that the prophesy which he had heard long before that time [...] was likely to be now fulfilled. Nevertheless, he brought his men in order of battle, and exhorted them to do valiantly, howbeit his enemies had scarcely cast from them their boughs, when Makbeth perceiving their numbers, betook him streight to flight.”<br /><h4>How did “Holinshed’s Chronicle” describe Macbeth’s death?</h4>Makduffe pursued him “with great hatred even till he came unto Lunfannaine, where Makbeth perceiving that Makduffe was hard at his back, leapt beside his horse, saying; ‘Thou traitor, what meaneth it that thou shouldest thus in vain follow me that am no appointed to be slain by any creature that is borne of woman, come on therefore, and receive thy reward which thou hast deserved for thy pains,’ and therewithal he lifted up his sword thinking to have slain him. But Makduffe quickly avoiding from his horse, ere he came at him, answered (with his naked sword in his hand) saying: "It is true Makbeth, and now shall thine insatiable cruelty have an end, for I am even he that thy wizards have told thee of, who was never born of my mother, but ripped out of her womb" therewithal he stepped unto him, and slew him in the place. Then cutting his head from his shoulders, he set it upon a pole, and brought it unto Malcolme”<br /><br />The chronicle’s epitaph for the tyrant completes the section: “This was the end of Makbeth, after he had reigned 17 years over the Scottishmen. In the beginning of his reign he accomplished many worthy acts, very profitable to the common-wealth [...] but afterward by illusion of the devil, he defamed the same with most terrible cruelty. He was slain in the year of the incarnation, 1057, and in the 16 year of king Edward’s reign over the Englishmen.” Malcolme rewarded the thanes that had supported him and “created many earls, lords, barons, and knights. Many of them that before were thanes, were at this time made earls, as Fife, Menteth, Atholl, Leuenox, Murrey, Cathnes, Rosse, and Angus. These were the first earls that have been heard of amongst the Scottishmen (as their histories do make mention.)”<br /><h4>How did Shakespeare adapt the material in “Holinshed’s Chronicle”?</h4>“Holinshed’s Chronicle” provided Shakespeare with his characters, the plot, several specific scenes and even part of the dialogue. The playwright took Malcolm’s test of Macduff’s loyalty, the most elaborate scene in the chronicle, directly from his source and merely dramatized the dialogue provided by the historians. But he also provided the play with a much more straightforward structure that he superimposed over the historical facts.<br /><br />Macbeth’s successful decade as a king and Duncan’s shortcomings (Duncan is much more like Shakespeare's disastrous Henry VI in the chronicle) were completely omitted in favor of a greater contrast between Duncan’s saintliness (perhaps borrowed from Edward the Confessor’s) and Macbeth’s satanic ambition and descent into anarchy. Shakespeare collapsed the three “weird sisters” mentioned by the chronicle with the later wizards and witches consulted by Macbeth during his decadence. Banquo is a much less likable character in the chronicle, though part of the reason for this could be that the book was published in England before 1603, when English publishers would not have been too worried about slightly tarnishing the reputation of king James’s ancestor. By the time Shakespeare wrote his play, however, he did away with any mention of Banquo’s complicity in Duncan’s murder, or his own eagerness about the prophecies.<br /><br />The most striking departure from the chronicle (besides the extreme time compression to suppress Macbeth’s successful decade) is Shakespeare’s expansion of a single line (“the words of the three weird sisters also [...] greatly encouraged him hereunto, but especially his wife lay sore upon him to attempt the thing, as she that was very ambitious, burning in unquenchable desire to bear the name of a queen”) into the crucial character of Lady Macbeth.<br /><h4>Did Shakespeare use other works in his portrayal of the witches?</h4>As for the “weird sisters,” Shakespeare had enough to sketch them from the chronicle and from common-knowledge “winter tales” about such characters, but scholars have conjectured a familiarity with contemporary texts about witchcraft, particularly king James’s “Daemonologie” treatise and Reginald Scot’s skeptical <a target="_blank" href="http://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/scot16.htm">“The Discoverie of Witchcraft”</a> (1584).<br /><br />Shakespeare uses in passing the unusual word "auger-hole” (a hole made by carpenters with a tool called an auger) and this mention has suggested to some scholars that the playwright was very familiar with Scot's “Discoverie.” Scot's book was extremely controversial at the time because it insisted that what was thought by the majority to be witchcraft was really a combination of folk medicine and stage magic, and the witch-hunters were mostly prosecuting mentally ill or ignorant poor old women. Scot's book was banned in England and many copies were burnt after 1603 because king James though it went against his own views on the matter.<br /><br />The connection with Macbeth is fairly tenuous: Scot mentions among the supposed abilities of witches that they were able to go "in and out of awger-holes." Since the word is quite rare, those who want to believe that Shakespeare read Scot insist that he must have gotten that word from The Discoverie. This theory owes much to wishful thinking: some modern scholars would really like Shakespeare to share their skepticism and empathy for the victims of witchhunts, rather than the official view at the time.<br /><br /><h4>Additional Reading</h4><br />- <a href="http://www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=919" target="_blank">Folger Library site for Macbeth</a> <br />- <a href="http://dewey.library.upenn.edu/sceti/printedbooksNew/index.cfm?TextID=firstfolio&PagePosition=738" target="_blank">Facsimile of the First Folio</a> <br />- Amanda Mabillard, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sources/macbethsources.html">“An Analysis of Shakespeare's Sources for Macbeth,”</a> Shakespeare Online. 2000. (1/29/08)<br /></span>