The feast is sold33
That is not often vouched, while ’tis a-making,34
’Tis given with welcome. To feed were best at home;35
From thence, the sauce to meat is ceremony:36
Meeting were bare without it.
MACBETH Sweet remembrancer!
Now good digestion wait on appetite,
And health on both.
LENNOX May’t please your highness sit.
MACBETH
Here had we now our country’s honor roofed40
Were the graced person of our Banquo present–
Enter the Ghost of Banquo,
and sits in Macbeth’s place.
Who may I rather challenge for unkindness42
Than pity for mischance.
ROSS His absence, sir,
Lays blame upon his promise. Please’t your highness
To grace us with your royal company?
MACBETH
The table’s full.
LENNOX Here is a place reserved, sir.
MACBETH
Where?
LENNOX
Here, my good lord. What is’t that moves your highness?
MACBETH
Which of you have done this?
LORDS
50 What, my good lord?
MACBETH
Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake
Thy gory locks at me.
ROSS
Gentlemen, rise. His highness is not well.
LADY MACBETH
Sit, worthy friends. My lord is often thus,
And hath been from his youth. Pray you keep seat.
The fit is momentary; upon a thought
He will again be well. If much you note him,
58 You shall offend him and extend his passion.
Feed, and regard him not.–Are you a man?
MACBETH
60 Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
Which might appall the devil.
LADY MACBETH O proper stuff!
This is the very painting of your fear.
63 This is the air-drawn dagger which you said
64 Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts,
65 Impostors to true fear, would well become
A woman’s story at a winter’s fire,
67 Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!
Why do you make such faces? When all’s done,
You look but on a stool.
MACBETH Prithee see there!
70 Behold! Look! Lo!–How say you?
Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.
If charnel houses and our graves must send
Those that we bury back, our monuments73
Shall be the maws of kites.
[Exit Ghost.]74
LADY MACBETH What, quite unmanned in folly?
MACBETH
If I stand here, I saw him.
LADY MACBETH Fie, for shame!
MACBETH
Blood hath been shed ere now, i’ th’ olden time,
Ere humane statute purged the gentle weal;77
Ay, and since too, murders have been performed
Too terrible for the ear. The time has been
That, when the brains were out, the man would die,80
And there an end. But now they rise again,
With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,82
And push us from our stools. This is more strange
Than such a murder is.
LADY MACBETH My worthy lord,
Your noble friends do lack you.
MACBETH I do forget.
Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends:
I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing
To those that know me. Come, love and health to all,
Then I’ll sit down. Give me some wine, fill full.
I drink to th’ general joy o’ th’ whole table,90
And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss.
Would he were here! Enter Ghost.92
To all, and him we thirst,
And all to all.93
LORDS Our duties, and the pledge.
MACBETH
Avaunt, and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee!
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;
96 Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
Which thou dost glare with.
LADY MACBETH Think of this, good peers,
98 But as a thing of custom. ’Tis no other.
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
MACBETH
100 What man dare, I dare.
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
102 The armed rhinoceros, or th’ Hyrcan tiger;
103 Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
Shall never tremble. Or be alive again
105 And dare me to the desert with thy sword.
106 If trembling I inhabit then, protest me
107 The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!
Unreal mock’ry, hence!
[Exit Ghost.]
Why, so; being gone,
I am a man again.–Pray you sit still.
LADY MACBETH
110 You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting
111 With most admired disorder.
MACBETH Can such things be,
112 And overcome us like a summer’s cloud
113 Without our special wonder? You make me strange
114 Even to the disposition that I owe,
When now I think you can behold such sights
And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks
When mine is blanched with fear.
ROSS What sights, my lord?
LADY MACBETH
I pray you speak not: he grows worse and worse;
Question enrages him. At once, good night.
Stand not upon the order of your going,120
But go at once.
LENNOX Good night and better health
Attend his majesty.
LADY MACBETH A kind good night to all.
Exeunt Lords.
MACBETH
It will have blood, they say: blood will have blood.
Stones have been known to move and trees to speak;
Augurs and understood relations have125
By maggotpies and choughs and rooks brought forth126
The secret’st man of blood. What is the night?127
LADY MACBETH
Almost at odds with morning, which is which.
MACBETH
How sayst thou, that Macduff denies his person
At our great bidding?130
LADY MACBETH
Did you send to him, sir?
MACBETH
I hear it by the way; but I will send.131
There’s not a one of them but in his house
I keep a servant fee’d. I will tomorrow,133
And betimes I will, to the weïrd sisters.134
More shall they speak, for now I am bent to know135
By the worst means the worst. For mine own good
All causes shall give way. I am in blood
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er.
140 Strange things I have in head, that will to hand,
141 Which must be acted ere they may be scanned.
LADY MACBETH
142 You lack the season of all natures, sleep.
MACBETH
143 Come, we’ll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse
144 Is the initiate fear that wants hard use.
We are yet but young in deed.
Exeunt.
III.5Thunder. Enter the three Witches, meeting Hecate.
FIRST WITCH
Why, how now, Hecate? You look angerly.
HECATE
2 Have I not reason, beldams as you are,
Saucy and overbold? How did you dare
To trade and traffic with Macbeth
In riddles and affairs of death;
And I, the mistress of your charms,
7 The close contriver of all harms,
8 Was never called to bear my part
Or show the glory of our art?
10 And, which is worse, all you have done
11 Hath been but for a wayward son,
Spiteful and wrathful, who, as others do,
Loves for his own ends, not for you.
But make amends now: get you gone
15 And at the pit of Acheron
Meet me i’ th’ morning. Thither he
Will come to know his destiny.
Your vessels and your spells provide,18
Your charms and everything beside.
I am for th’ air. This night I’ll spend20
Unto a dismal and a fatal end.
Great business must be wrought ere noon.
Upon the corner of the moon
There hangs a vap’rous drop profound;24
I’ll catch it ere it come to ground;
And that, distilled by magic sleights,26
Shall raise such artificial sprites27
As by the strength of their illusion
Shall draw him on to his confusion.29
He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear30
His hopes ’bove wisdom, grace, and fear;
And you all know security32
Is mortals’ chiefest enemy.
Music, and a song.
[FIRST SPIRIT Within]
Hecate, Hecate, Hecate, O come away!
HECATE
Hark, I am called. My little spirit, see,
Sits in a foggy cloud and stays for me.
FIRST SPIRIT Within
Come away, Hecate, Hecate, O come away!
HECATE
I come, I come, with all the speed I may.
Where’s Stadling?
SECOND SPIRIT Within Here.
HECATE Where’s Puckle?
SECOND SPIRIT Within
Here.
FIRST SPIRIT Within
40 And Hopper too, and Hellway too;
41 We want but you, we want but you!
Come away, make up the count.
HECATE
43 I will but ’noint, and then I mount;
I will but ’noint, and then I mount.
FIRST SPIRIT Within
Here comes down one to fetch his due,
46 A kiss, a cull, a sip of blood;
And why thou stay’st so long I muse,
Since the air’s so sweet and good.
HECATE
O, art thou come? What news?
SECOND SPIRIT Within
50 All goes for our delight.
Either come, or else refuse.
Now I am furnished for the flight;
Now I go, and now I fly,
Malkin my sweet spirit and I.
THIRD SPIRIT Within
O what a dainty pleasure’s this,
To sail i’ th’ air while the moon shines fair,
To sing, to toy, to dance, and kiss.
Over woods, high rocks and mountains,
Over hills and misty fountains,
60 Over steeples, towers and turrets
We fly by night ’mongst troops of spirits.
No ring of bells to our ears sounds,
No howls of wolves nor yelps of hounds,
64 No, nor the noise of water’s breach,
Nor cannons’ throats our height can reach.
[Exit Hecate.]
FIRST SPIRIT Within
Come, let’s make haste, she’ll soon be back again.
SECOND SPIRIT Within
But whilst she moves through the foggy air,
Let’s to the cave and our dire charms prepare.
Exeunt.
III.6Enter Lennox and another Lord.
LENNOX
My former speeches have but hit your thoughts,1
Which can interpret farther. Only I say2
Things have been strangely borne.
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