Macbeth/Source/Act III

SCENE I. Forres. The palace.
[Enter Banquo.]

BANQUO.
 * Thou hast it now,—king, Cawdor, Glamis, all,
 * As the weird women promis'd; and, I fear,
 * Thou play'dst most foully for't; yet it was said
 * It should not stand in thy posterity;
 * But that myself should be the root and father
 * Of many kings. If there come truth from them,—
 * As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine,—
 * Why, by the verities on thee made good,
 * May they not be my oracles as well,
 * And set me up in hope? But hush; no more.

[Sennet sounded. Enter Macbeth as King, Lady Macbeth as Queen; Lennox, Ross, Lords, Ladies, 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.
 * To-night we hold a solemn supper, sir,
 * And I'll request your presence.

BANQUO.
 * Let your highness
 * Command upon me; to the which my duties
 * Are with a most indissoluble tie
 * For ever knit.

MACBETH.
 * Ride you this afternoon?

BANQUO.
 * Ay, my good lord.

MACBETH.
 * We should have else desir'd your good advice,—
 * Which still hath been both grave and prosperous,—
 * In this day's council; but we'll take to-morrow.
 * Is't far you ride?

BANQUO.
 * As far, my lord, as will fill up the time
 * 'Twixt this and supper: go not my horse the better,
 * I must become a borrower of the night,
 * For a dark hour or twain.

MACBETH.
 * Fail not our feast.

BANQUO.
 * My lord, I will not.

MACBETH.
 * We hear our bloody cousins are bestow'd
 * In England and in Ireland; not confessing
 * Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers
 * With strange invention: but of that to-morrow;
 * When therewithal we shall have cause of state
 * Craving us jointly. Hie you to horse: adieu,
 * Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you?

BANQUO.
 * Ay, my good lord: our time does call upon's.

MACBETH.
 * I wish your horses swift and sure of foot;
 * 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
 * Till supper time alone: while then, God be with you!

[Exeunt Lady Macbeth, Lords, Ladies, &c.]


 * Sirrah, a word with you: attend those men
 * Our pleasure?

ATTENDANT.
 * They are, my lord, without the palace gate.

MACBETH.
 * Bring them before us.

[Exit Attendant.]


 * To be thus is nothing;
 * But to be safely thus:—our fears in Banquo.
 * Stick deep; and in his royalty of nature
 * Reigns that which would be fear'd: 'tis much he dares;
 * And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,
 * He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour
 * To act in safety. There is none but he
 * Whose being I do fear: and under him,
 * My genius is rebuk'd; as, it is said,
 * Mark Antony's was by Caesar. He chid the sisters
 * When first they put the name of king upon me,
 * And bade them speak to him; then, prophet-like,
 * They hail'd him father to a line of kings:
 * Upon my head they plac'd a fruitless crown,
 * And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,
 * Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand,
 * No son of mine succeeding. If't be so,
 * For Banquo's issue have I fil'd my mind;
 * For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd;
 * Put rancours in the vessel of my peace
 * Only for them; and mine eternal jewel
 * Given to the common enemy of man,
 * To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings!
 * Rather than so, come, fate, into the list,
 * And champion me to the utterance!—Who's there?—

[Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers.]


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

[Exit Attendant.]


 * Was it not yesterday we spoke together?

FIRST MURDERER.
 * It was, so please your highness.

MACBETH.
 * Well then, now
 * Have you consider'd of my speeches? Know
 * That it was he, in the times past, which held you
 * So under fortune; which you thought had been
 * Our innocent self: this I made good to you
 * In our last conference, pass'd in probation with you
 * How you were borne in hand, how cross'd, the instruments,
 * Who wrought with them, and all things else that might
 * To half a soul and to a notion craz'd
 * Say, "Thus did Banquo."

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 gospell'd,
 * To pray for this good man and for his issue,
 * Whose heavy hand hath bow'd you to the grave,
 * And beggar'd 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,
 * Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves are clept
 * All by the name of dogs: the valu'd file
 * Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle,
 * The house-keeper, the hunter, every one
 * According to the gift which bounteous nature
 * Hath in him clos'd; 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 it;
 * And I will put that business in your bosoms,
 * Whose execution takes your enemy off;
 * Grapples you to the heart and love of us,
 * Who wear our health but sickly in his life,
 * Which in his death were perfect.

SECOND MURDERER.
 * I am one, my liege,
 * Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world
 * Have so incens'd that I am reckless what
 * I do to spite the world.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * And I another,
 * So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune,
 * That I would set my life on any chance,
 * To mend it or be rid on't.

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
 * With barefac'd 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
 * 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,
 * I will advise you where to plant yourselves;
 * Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time,
 * The moment on't; for't must be done to-night
 * And something from the palace; always thought
 * That I require a clearness; and with him,—
 * To leave no rubs nor botches in the work,—
 * Fleance his son, that keeps him company,
 * Whose absence is no less material to me
 * Than is his father's, must embrace the fate
 * Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart:
 * I'll come to you anon.

BOTH MURDERERS.
 * We are resolv'd, 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 to-night.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE II. The palace.
[Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant.]

LADY MACBETH.
 * Is Banquo gone from court?

SERVANT.
 * Ay, madam, but returns again to-night.

LADY MACBETH.
 * Say to the king, I would attend his leisure
 * For a few words.

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.]


 * 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.

MACBETH.
 * We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it;
 * She'll close, and be herself; whilst our poor malice
 * Remains in danger of her former tooth.
 * But let the frame of things disjoint,
 * Both the worlds suffer,
 * Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep
 * In the affliction of these terrible dreams
 * That shake us nightly: better be with the dead,
 * Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
 * Than on the torture of the mind to lie
 * In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave;
 * After life's fitful fever he sleeps well;
 * Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,
 * Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
 * Can touch him further.

LADY MACBETH.
 * Come on;
 * Gently my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks;
 * Be bright and jovial 'mong your guests to-night.

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:
 * Unsafe the while, that we
 * Must lave our honours 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!
 * 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 cloister'd flight, ere to black Hecate's summons,
 * 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,
 * 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 the rooky wood:
 * Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;
 * Whiles night's black agents to their preys do rouse.—
 * Thou marvell'st at my words: but hold thee still;
 * Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill:
 * So, pr'ythee, go with me.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE III. A park near the palace.
[Enter three Murderers.]

FIRST MURDERER.
 * But who did bid thee join with us?

THIRD MURDERER.
 * Macbeth.

SECOND 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.
 * The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day:
 * Now spurs the lated traveller apace,
 * To gain the timely inn; and near approaches
 * The subject of our watch.

THIRD MURDERER.
 * Hark! I hear horses.

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.

THIRD MURDERER.
 * Almost a mile; but he does usually,
 * So all men do, from hence to the palace gate
 * Make it their walk.

SECOND MURDERER.
 * A light, a light!

THIRD MURDERER.
 * 'Tis he.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * Stand to't.

[Enter Banquo, and Fleance with a torch.]

BANQUO.
 * It will be rain to-night.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * Let it come down.

[They set upon Banquo.]

BANQUO.
 * O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!
 * Thou mayst revenge.—O slave!

[Dies. Fleance escapes.]

THIRD MURDERER.
 * Who did strike out the light?

FIRST MURDERER.
 * Was't not the way?

THIRD MURDERER.
 * There's but one down: the son is fled.

SECOND MURDERER.
 * We have lost best half of our affair.

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

[Exeunt.]

SCENE IV. The same. Hall in the palace.
[A 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.

LORDS.
 * Thanks to your majesty.

MACBETH.
 * Ourself will mingle with society,
 * And play the humble host.
 * 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.

MACBETH.
 * See, they encounter thee with their hearts' thanks.—
 * Both sides are even: here I'll sit i' the midst:

[Enter First Murderer to the door.]


 * Be large in mirth; anon we'll drink a measure
 * The table round.—There's blood upon thy face.

MURDERER.
 * 'Tis Banquo's then.

MACBETH.
 * 'Tis better thee without than he within.
 * Is he despatch'd?

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

MACBETH.
 * Thou art the best o' the cut-throats; yet he's good
 * That did the like for Fleance: if thou didst it,
 * Thou art the nonpareil.

MURDERER.
 * Most royal sir,
 * Fleance is 'scap'd.

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 cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd, bound in
 * To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo's safe?

MURDERER.
 * Ay, my good lord: safe in a ditch he bides,
 * With twenty trenched gashes on his head;
 * The least a death to nature.

MACBETH.
 * Thanks for that:
 * There the grown serpent lies; the worm that's fled
 * Hath nature that in time will venom breed,
 * No teeth for the present.—Get thee gone; to-morrow
 * 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 vouch'd, while 'tis a-making,
 * 'Tis given with welcome; to feed were best at home;
 * From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony;
 * 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.

[The Ghost of Banquo rises, and sits in Macbeth's place.]

MACBETH.
 * Here had we now our country's honour roof'd,
 * Were the grac'd 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
 * To grace us with your royal company?

MACBETH.
 * The table's full.

LENNOX.
 * Here is a place reserv'd, 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?

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,
 * You shall offend him, and extend his passion:
 * Feed, and regard him not.—Are you a man?

MACBETH.
 * Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
 * Which might appal the devil.

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
 * A woman's story at a winter's fire,
 * Authoriz'd 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?—
 * 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.

[Ghost disappears.]

LADY MACBETH.
 * What, quite unmann'd in folly?

MACBETH.
 * If I stand here, I saw him.

LADY MACBETH.
 * Fie, for shame!

MACBETH.
 * Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time,
 * Ere humane statute purg'd the gentle weal;
 * Ay, and since too, murders have been perform'd
 * Too terrible for the ear: the time has been,
 * 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.

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 the general joy o' the 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.

[Ghost rises again.]

MACBETH.
 * Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee!
 * 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.

MACBETH.
 * What man dare, I dare:
 * Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
 * The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;
 * Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
 * Shall never tremble: or be alive again,
 * 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!

[Ghost disappears.]


 * Why, so;—being gone,
 * I am a man again.—Pray you, sit still.

LADY MACBETH.
 * You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting,
 * With most admir'd 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,
 * When now I think you can behold such sights,
 * And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,
 * When mine are blanch'd 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,
 * But go at once.

LENNOX.
 * Good-night; and better health
 * Attend his majesty!

LADY MACBETH.
 * A kind good-night to all!

[Exeunt all Lords and Attendants.]

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, have
 * By magot-pies, 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 say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person
 * At our great bidding?

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 to-morrow,
 * (And betimes I will) to the weird sisters:
 * More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know,
 * By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good,
 * All causes shall give way: I am in blood
 * Step't in so far that, should I wade no more,
 * Returning were as tedious as go o'er:
 * Strange things I have in head, that will to hand;
 * Which must be acted ere they may be scann'd.

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:—
 * We are yet but young in deed.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE V. A Heath.

 * Note: Some consider this scene apocryphal and possibly not written by Shakespeare, since it is not in iambic pentameter and the plot is intact without it.

[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
 * In riddles and affairs of death;
 * And I, the mistress of your charms,
 * The close contriver of all harms,
 * Was never call'd to bear my part,
 * Or show the glory of our art?
 * 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,
 * 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.
 * I am for the 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;
 * I'll catch it ere it come to ground:
 * And that, distill'd by magic sleights,
 * Shall raise such artificial sprites,
 * As, by the strength of their illusion,
 * Shall draw him on to his confusion:
 * 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 song within, "Come away, come away" &c.]


 * Hark! I am call'd; my little spirit, see,
 * Sits in a foggy cloud and stays for me.

[Exit.]

FIRST WITCH.
 * Come, let's make haste; she'll soon be back again.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE VI. Forres. The palace.
[Enter Lennox and another Lord.]

LENNOX.
 * My former speeches have but hit your thoughts,
 * Which can interpret further: only, I say,
 * Thing's have been strangely borne. The gracious Duncan
 * Was pitied of Macbeth:—marry, he was dead:—
 * And the right valiant Banquo walk'd too late;
 * Whom, you may say, if't please you, Fleance kill'd,
 * For Fleance fled. Men must not walk too late.
 * Who cannot want the thought, how monstrous
 * It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain
 * To kill their gracious father? damned 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;
 * For 'twould have anger'd 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
 * What 'twere to kill a father; so should Fleance.
 * But, peace!—for from broad words, and 'cause he fail'd
 * 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,
 * From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth,
 * Lives in the English court and is receiv'd
 * Of the most pious Edward with such grace
 * That the malevolence of fortune nothing
 * Takes from his high respect: thither Macduff
 * 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;
 * Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives;
 * Do faithful homage, and receive free honours,—
 * All which we pine for now: and this report
 * Hath so exasperate the king that he
 * Prepares for some attempt of war.

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
 * Advise him to a caution, to 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
 * Under a hand accurs'd!

LORD.
 * I'll send my prayers with him.

[Exeunt.]