Act 3 Macbeth

Scene 1^°

Enter Banquo.

BANQUO Thou hast it now — King, Cawdor, Glamis, all

As the weird women promised, and I fear

Thou played’st most foully for ’t. Yet it was said

It should not stand^° in thy posterity,

5 But that myself should be the root and father

Of many kings. If there come truth from them —

As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine^° —

Why, by the verities on thee made good,

May they not be my oracles as well

10 And set me up in hope? But hush, no more.

Sennet^° sounded. Enter Macbeth as King, Lady [Macbeth], Lennox, Ross, lords, and attendants.

MACBETH Here’s our chief guest.

LADY MACBETH If he had been forgotten,

It had been as a gap in our great feast

And all-thing^° unbecoming.

MACBETH Tonight we hold a solemn^° supper, sir,

And I’ll request your presence.

15 BANQUO Let Your Highness

Command^° upon me, to the which my duties

Are with a most indissoluble tie

Forever knit.

MACBETH Ride you this afternoon?

20 BANQUO Ay, my good lord.

MACBETH We should have else desired your good advice,

Which still^° hath been both grave^° and prosperous,^°

In this day’s council; but we’ll take tomorrow.

Is ’t far you ride?

25 BANQUO As far, my lord, as will fill up the time

Twixt this and supper. Go not my horse the better,^°

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I must become a borrower of the night

For a dark hour or twain.

MACBETH Fail not our feast.

30 BANQUO My lord, I will not.

MACBETH We hear our bloody cousins are bestowed^°

In England and in Ireland, not confessing

Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers

With strange invention.^° But of that tomorrow,

35 When therewithal^° we shall have cause of state

Craving us jointly.^° Hie you to horse. Adieu,

Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you?

BANQUO Ay, my good lord. Our time does call upon ’s.

MACBETH I wish your horses swift and sure of foot,

40 And so I do commend^° you to their backs.

Farewell. Exit Banquo.

Let every man be master of his time

Till seven at night. To make society

The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself^°

45 Till suppertime alone. While^° then, God be with you!

Exeunt Lords [and all but Macbeth and a Servant].

Sirrah,^° a word with you. Attend those men

Our pleasure?

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

MACBETH Bring them before us. Exit Servant.

To be thus^° is nothing,

50 But^° to be safely thus. — Our fears in^° Banquo

Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature^°

Reigns that which would be^° feared. ’Tis much he dares;

And to^° that dauntless temper of his mind

He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor

55 To act in safety. There is none but he

Whose being I do fear; and under him

My genius is rebuked,^° as it is said

Mark Antony’s was by Caesar.^° He chid the sisters

When first they put the name of king upon me,

60 And bade them speak to him. Then, prophetlike,

They hailed him father to a line of kings.

Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown

And put a barren scepter in my grip,

Thence to be wrenched with^° an unlineal^° hand,

65 No son of mine succeeding. If’t be so,

For Banquo’s issue have I filed^° my mind;

For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered,

Put rancors^° in the vessel of my peace

Only for them, and mine eternal jewel^°

70 Given to the common enemy of man^°

To make them kings, the seeds of Banquo kings.

Rather than so, come fate into the list,^°

And champion me^° to th’ utterance!^° — Who’s there?

Enter Servant and two Murderers.

Now go to the door, and stay there till we call.

Exit Servant.

75 Was it not yesterday we spoke together?

MURDERERS It was, so please Your Highness.

MACBETH Well then, now

Have you considered of my speeches? Know

That it was he in the times past which held you

So under fortune,^° which you thought had been

80 Our innocent self. This I made good to you

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In our last conference, passed in probation^° with you

How you were borne in hand,^° how crossed,^° the instruments,^°

Who wrought with them, and all things else that might

To half a soul^° and to a notion^° crazed

Say, “Thus did Banquo.”

85 FIRST MURDERER You made it known to us.

MACBETH I did so, and went further, which is now

Our point of second meeting. Do you find

Your patience so predominant in your nature

That you can let this go? Are you so gospeled^°

90 To pray for this good man and for his issue,

Whose heavy hand hath bowed you to the grave

And beggared yours^° forever?

FIRST MURDERER We are men, my liege.

MACBETH Ay, in the catalogue ye go for^° men,

As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,

95 Shoughs,^° water-rugs,^° and demi-wolves^° are clept^°

All by the name of dogs. The valued file^°

Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle,

The housekeeper,^° the hunter, every one

According to the gift which bounteous nature

100 Hath in him closed,^° whereby he does receive

Particular addition from the bill

That writes them all alike;^° and so of men.

Now, if you have a station in the file,^°

Not i’ the worst rank of manhood, say ’t,

105 And I will put that business in your bosoms

Whose execution^° takes your enemy off,

Grapples you to the heart and love of us,

Who wear our health but sickly in his life,^°

Which in his death were perfect.

SECOND MURDERER I am one, my liege,

110 Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world

Hath so incensed that I am reckless what

I do to spite the world.

FIRST MURDERER And I another,

So weary with disasters, tugged with^° fortune,

That I would set^° my life on any chance

To mend it or be rid on ’t.

115 MACBETH Both of you

Know Banquo was your enemy.

BOTH MURDERERS True, my lord.

MACBETH So is he mine, and in such bloody distance^°

That every minute of his being thrusts^°

Against my near’st of life.^° And though I could

120 With barefaced power^° sweep him from my sight

And bid my will avouch it,^° yet I must not,

For^° certain friends that are both his and mine,

Whose loves I may not drop, but wail^° his fall

Who^° I myself struck down. And thence it is

125 That I to your assistance do make love,^°

Masking the business from the common eye

For sundry weighty reasons.

SECOND MURDERER We shall, my lord,

Perform what you command us.

FIRST MURDERER Though our lives —

MACBETH Your spirits shine through you.^° Within this hour at most

130 I will advise^° you where to plant yourselves,

Acquaint you with the perfect spy^° o’ the time,

The moment on ’t,^° for ’t must be done tonight,

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And something from^° the palace; always thought^°

That I require a clearness.^° And with him —

135 To leave no rubs^° nor botches in the work —

Fleance his son, that keeps him company,

Whose absence is no less material to me

Than is his father’s, must embrace the fate

Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart;^°

I’ll come to you anon.

140 BOTH MURDERERS We are resolved, my lord.

MACBETH I’ll call upon you straight. Abide within. Exeunt [Murderers].

It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul’s flight,

If it find heaven, must find it out tonight.

[Exit.]

Scene 2^°

Enter Macbeth’s Lady and a Servant.

LADY MACBETH Is Banquo gone from court?

SERVANT Ay, madam, but returns again tonight.

LADY MACBETH Say to the King I would attend his leisure

For a few words.

5 SERVANT Madam, I will. Exit.

LADY MACBETH Naught’s had, all’s spent,

Where our desire is got without content.^°

’Tis safer to be that which we destroy

Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.^°

Enter Macbeth.

10 How now, my lord? Why do you keep alone,

Of sorriest^° fancies your companions making,

Using^° those thoughts which should indeed have died

With them they think on? Things without^° all remedy

Should be without regard.^° What’s done is done.

15 MACBETH We have scorched^° the snake, not killed it.

She’ll close^° and be herself, whilst our poor malice^°

Remains in danger of her former tooth.^°

But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,^°

Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep

20 In the affliction of these terrible dreams

That shake us nightly. Better be with the dead,

Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,^°

Than on the torture^° of the mind to lie

In restless ecstasy.^° Duncan is in his grave;

25 After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well.

Treason has done his worst; nor steel,^° nor poison,

Malice domestic,^° foreign levy,^° nothing

Can touch him further.

LADY MACBETH Come on,

30 Gentle my lord, sleek o’er your rugged looks.^°

Be bright and jovial among your guests tonight.

MACBETH So shall I, love, and so, I pray, be you.

Let your remembrance apply^° to Banquo;

Present him eminence,^° both with eye and tongue —

35 Unsafe the while, that we

Must lave our honors in these flattering streams^°

And make our faces vizards^° to our hearts,

Disguising what they are.

LADY MACBETH You must leave this.

MACBETH O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!

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40 Thou know’st that Banquo and his Fleance lives.

LADY MACBETH But in them nature’s copy’s^° not eterne.^°

MACBETH There’s^° comfort yet; they are assailable.

Then be thou jocund. Ere the bat hath flown

His cloistered^° flight, ere to black Hecate’s^° summons

45 The shard-borne^° beetle with his drowsy hums

Hath rung night’s yawning^° peal, there shall be done

A deed of dreadful note.

LADY MACBETH What’s to be done?

MACBETH Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,^°

Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling^° night,

50 Scarf up^° the tender eye of pitiful^° day,

And with thy bloody and invisible hand

Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond^°

Which keeps me pale!^° Light thickens,^°

And the crow^° makes wing to th’ rooky^° wood;

55 Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,

Whiles night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.^°

Thou marvel’st at my words, but hold thee still.

Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.

So, prithee, go with me.

Exeunt.

Scene 3^°

Enter three Murderers.

FIRST MURDERER But who did bid thee join with us?

THIRD MURDERER Macbeth.

SECOND MURDERER [to the First Murderer]

He needs not our mistrust, since he delivers

Our offices^° and what we have to do

To^° the direction just.^°

FIRST MURDERER Then stand with us.

5 The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day.

Now spurs the lated^° traveler apace

To gain the timely^° inn, and near approaches

The subject of our watch.

THIRD MURDERER Hark, I hear horses.

10 BANQUO (within) Give us a light there, ho!

SECOND MURDERER Then ’tis he. The rest

That are within the note of expectation^°

Already are i’ the court.

FIRST MURDERER His horses go about.^°

15 THIRD MURDERER Almost a mile; but he does usually —

So all men do — from hence to th’ palace gate

Make it their walk.

Enter Banquo and Fleance, with a torch.

SECOND MURDERER A light, a light!

THIRD MURDERER ’Tis he.

20 FIRST MURDERER Stand to ’t.

BANQUO It will be rain tonight.

FIRST MURDERER Let it come down! [They attack Banquo.]

BANQUO O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!

Thou mayst revenge. — O slave! [He dies. Fleance escapes.]

THIRD MURDERER Who did strike out the light?

25 FIRST MURDERER Was ’t not the way?^°

THIRD MURDERER There’s but one down; the son is fled.

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SECOND MURDERER We have lost best half of our affair.

FIRST MURDERER Well, let’s away and say how much is done.

Exeunt.^°

Scene 4^°

Banquet prepared. Enter Macbeth, Lady [Macbeth], Ross, Lennox, Lords, and attendants.

MACBETH You know your own degrees;^° sit down. At first

And last,^° the hearty welcome. [They sit.]

LORDS Thanks to Your Majesty.

MACBETH Ourself will mingle with society^°

And play the humble host.

5 Our hostess keeps her state,^° but in best time^°

We will require her welcome.^°

LADY MACBETH Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends,

For my heart speaks they are welcome.

Enter First Murderer [to the door].

MACBETH See, they encounter^° thee with their hearts’ thanks.

10 Both sides are even.^° Here I’ll sit i’ the midst.

Be large^° in mirth; anon we’ll drink a measure^°

The table round. [He goes to the Murderer.] There’s blood upon thy face.

MURDERER ’Tis Banquo’s, then.

MACBETH ’Tis better thee without than he within.^°

15 Is he dispatched?

MURDERER My lord, his throat is cut. That I did for him.

MACBETH Thou art the best o’ the cutthroats.

Yet he’s good that did the like for Fleance;

If thou didst it, thou art the nonpareil.^°

20 MURDERER Most royal sir, Fleance is scaped.

MACBETH Then comes my fit again. I had else been perfect,

Whole as the marble, founded^° as the rock,

As broad and general^° as the casing^° air.

But now I am cabined, cribbed,^° confined, bound in

25 To saucy^° doubts and fears. But Banquo’s safe?

MURDERER Ay, my good lord. Safe in a ditch he abides,

With twenty trenchèd gashes on his head,

The least a death to nature.

MACBETH Thanks for that.

There the grown serpent lies; the worm^° that’s fled

30 Hath nature that in time will venom breed,

No teeth for th’ present. Get thee gone. Tomorrow

We’ll hear ourselves^° again. Exit Murderer.

LADY MACBETH My royal lord,

You do not give the cheer.^° The feast is sold

That is not often vouched, while ’tis a-making,

35 ’Tis given with welcome.^° To feed were best at home;^°

From thence,^° the sauce to meat^° is ceremony;

Meeting were bare^° without it.

Enter the Ghost of Banquo, and sits in Macbeth’s place.

MACBETH Sweet remembrancer!

Now, good digestion wait on^° appetite,

And health on both!

LENNOX May ’t please Your Highness sit?

40 MACBETH Here had we now our country’s honor roofed^°

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Were the graced person of our Banquo present,

Who may I^° rather challenge for^° unkindness

Than pity for mischance.

ROSS His absence, sir,

Lays blame upon his promise. Please ’t Your Highness

45 To grace us with your royal company?

MACBETH [seeing his place occupied]

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 What, my good lord?

50 MACBETH Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake

Thy gory locks at me.

ROSS Gentlemen, rise. His Highness is not well. [They start to rise.]

LADY MACBETH Sit, worthy friends. My lord is often thus,

And hath been from his youth. Pray you, keep seat.

55 The fit is momentary; upon a thought^°

He will again be well. If much you note him

You shall offend him^° and extend^° his passion.

Feed, and regard him not. — [She confers apart with Macbeth.] Are you a man?

MACBETH Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that

Which might appall the devil.

60 LADY MACBETH O, proper stuff!^°

This is the very painting of your fear.

This is the air-drawn^° dagger which, you said,

Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws^° and starts,

Impostors to^° true fear, would well become^°

65 A woman’s story at a winter’s fire,

Authorized by^° her grandam. Shame itself!

Why do you make such faces? When all’s done,

You look but on a stool.

MACBETH Prithee, see there!

Behold, look! Lo, how say you?

70 Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.

If charnel houses^° and our graves must send

Those that we bury back, our monuments

Shall be the maws of kites.^°[Exit Ghost.]

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LADY MACBETH What, quite unmanned in folly?

MACBETH If I stand here, I saw him.

75 LADY MACBETH Fie, for shame!

MACBETH Blood hath been shed ere now, i’ th’ olden time,

Ere humane^° statute purged the gentle weal;^°

Ay, and since too, murders have been performed

Too terrible for the ear. The time has been

80 That, when the brains were out, the man would die,

And there an end; but now they rise again

With twenty mortal murders^° on their crowns,^°

And push us from our stools.^° This is more strange

Than such a murder is.

LADY MACBETH My worthy lord,

Your noble friends do lack you.

85 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. [He is given wine.]

Enter Ghost.

90 I drink to the general joy o’ th’ whole table,

And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss.

Would he were here! To all, and him, we thirst,^°

And all to all.^°

LORDS Our duties and the pledge.^°

[They drink.]

MACBETH [seeing the Ghost]

Avaunt, and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee!

95 Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;

Thou hast no speculation^° in those eyes

Which thou dost glare with!

LADY MACBETH Think of this, good peers,

But as a thing of custom. ’Tis no other;

Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.

100 MACBETH What man dare, I dare.

Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,

The armed^° rhinoceros, or th’ Hyrcan^° tiger;

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.

If trembling I inhabit then,^° protest^° me

The baby of a girl.^° Hence, horrible shadow!

Unreal mockery, hence! [Exit Ghost.] Why, so; being gone,

I am a man again. Pray you, sit still.

110 LADY MACBETH You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting

With most admired^° disorder.^°

MACBETH Can such things be,

And overcome^° us like a summer’s cloud,

Without our special wonder? You make me strange

Even to the disposition that I owe,^°

115 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.

120 Stand not upon the order of your going,^°

But go at once.^°

LENNOX Good night, and better health

Attend His Majesty!

LADY MACBETH A kind good night to all!

Exeunt Lords [and attendants].

288

MACBETH It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood.

Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak;^°

125 Augurs^° and understood relations^° have

By maggotpies and choughs^° and rooks brought forth^°

The secret’st man of blood.^° What is the night?^°

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.

There’s not a one of them but in his house

I keep a servant fee’d.^° I will tomorrow —

And betimes^° I will — to the Weird Sisters.

135 More shall they speak, for now I am bent^° to know

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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,

Which must be acted ere they may be scanned.^°

LADY MACBETH You lack the season^° of all natures, sleep.

MACBETH Come, we’ll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse^°

Is the initiate fear^° that wants hard use.^°

145 We are yet but young in deed. Exeunt.

Scene 5^°

Thunder. Enter the three Witches, meeting Hecate.

FIRST WITCH Why, how now, Hecate? You look angerly.^°

HECATE Have I not reason, beldams^° as you are?

Saucy and overbold, how did you dare

To trade and traffic with Macbeth

5 In riddles and affairs of death,

And I, the mistress of your charms,

The close^° contriver of all harms,

Was never called to bear my part

Or show the glory of our art?

10 And, which is worse, all you have done

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’ the morning. Thither he

Will come to know his destiny.

Your vessels and your spells provide,

Your charms and everything beside.

20 I am for th’ air. This night I’ll spend

Unto a dismal^° and a fatal end.

Great business must be wrought ere noon.

Upon the corner of the moon

There hangs a vaporous drop profound;^°

25 I’ll catch it ere it come to ground,

And that, distilled by magic sleights,

Shall raise such artificial sprites^°

As by the strength of their illusion

Shall draw him on to his confusion.^°

30 He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear

His hopes ’bove wisdom, grace, and fear.

And you all know, security^°

Is mortals’ chiefest enemy. Music and a song.

Hark! I am called. My little spirit, see,

35 Sits in a foggy cloud and stays for me. [Exit.]

Sing within, “Come away, come away,”^° etc.

FIRST WITCH Come, let’s make haste. She’ll soon be back again.

Exeunt.

Scene 6^°

Enter Lennox and another Lord.

LENNOX My former speeches have but hit your thoughts,

Which can interpret farther.^° Only I say

Things have been strangely borne.^° The gracious Duncan

Was pitied of Macbeth; marry, he was dead.^°

5 And the right valiant Banquo walked too late,

Whom you may say, if’t please you, Fleance killed,

For Fleance fled. Men must not walk too late.

Who cannot want the thought^° how monstrous

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It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain

10 To kill their gracious father? Damnèd fact!^°

How it did grieve Macbeth! Did he not straight^°

In pious^° rage the two delinquents tear

That were the slaves of drink and thralls^° of sleep?

Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely too;

15 For ’twould have angered any heart alive

To hear the men deny ’t. So that I say

He has borne all things well;^° and I do think

That had he Duncan’s sons under his key —

As, an ’t^° please heaven, he shall not — they should^° find

20 What ’twere to kill a father. So should Fleance.

But peace! For from broad words,^° and ’cause he failed

His presence^° at the tyrant’s feast, I hear

Macduff lives in disgrace. Sir, can you tell

Where he bestows himself?^°

LORD The son of Duncan,

25 From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth,^°

Lives in the English court, and is received

Of ^° the most pious Edward^° with such grace

That the malevolence of fortune nothing

Takes from his high respect.^° Thither Macduff

30 Is gone to pray the holy king, upon his aid,^°

To wake Northumberland^° and warlike Siward,

That by the help of these — with Him above

To ratify the work — we may again

Give to our tables meat,^° sleep to our nights,

35 Free from our feasts and banquets^° bloody knives,

Do faithful homage, and receive free^° honors —

All which we pine for now. And this report

Hath so exasperate the King^° that he

Prepares for some attempt of war.

40 LENNOX Sent he to Macduff?

LORD He did; and with an absolute “Sir, not I,”^°

The cloudy^° messenger turns me^° his back

And hums, as who should say,^° “You’ll rue the time

That clogs^° me with this answer.”

LENNOX And that well might

45 Advise him to a caution, t’ hold what distance

His wisdom can provide.^° Some holy angel

Fly to the court of England and unfold

His message ere he come, that a swift blessing

May soon return to this our suffering country

50 Under^° a hand accursed!

LORD I’ll send my prayers with him.

Exeunt.