Discussion questions

Appendix B: The Tragedy of Macbeth The Tragedy of Macbeth William Shakespeare Dramatis Personae DUNCAN, King of Scotland. MALCOLM & DONALBAIN: his sons MACBETH & BANQUO: generals of the King’s army. MACDUFF, LENNOX, ROSS, MENTEITH, ANGUS & CAITHNESS: n oblemen of Scotland.

FLEANCE, son to Banquo. SIWARD, earl of Northumberland. Young SIWARD, his son. SEYTON, an officer attending on Macbeth. Boy, son to Macduff. An English Doctor. A Scotch Doctor. A Captain. A Porter. An Old Man. LADY MACBETH. LADY MACDUF F.

Gentlew oman attending on Lady Macbeth. HECATE. Three Witches. Apparitions. Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants, and Messengers SCENE: SCOTLAND; ENGLAND All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php Act I, Scene 1 A desert place. [Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches] FIRST WITCH: When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain? SECOND WITCH: When the hurlyburly's done, When the battle's lost and won. THIRD WITCH: That will be ere the set of sun. 5 FIRST WITCH: Where the place? SECOND WITCH: Upon the heath. THIRD WITCH: There to meet with Macbeth. FIRST WITCH: I come, Graymalkin! SECOND WITCH: Paddock calls. 10 THIRD WITCH: Anon. ALL: Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy a ir. [Exeunt] Act I, Scene 2 A camp near Forres. [Alarum within. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN,] [p]LENNOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant] DUNCAN: What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his pligh t, of the revolt 15 The newest state. MALCOLM: This is the sergeant Who like a good and hardy soldier fought 'Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend! Say to the king the knowledge of the broil 20 As thou didst leave it. All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php SERGEANT: Doubtful i t stood; As two spent swimmers, that do cling together And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald — Worthy to be a rebel, for to that 25 The multiplying villanies of nature Do swarm upon him —from the western isles Of kerns and gallowglasses i s supplied; And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, Show'd like a rebel's whore: but all's too weak: 30 For brave Macbeth —well he deserves that name — Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel, Which smoked with bloody execution, Like valour's minion carved out his passage Till he faced the slave; 35 Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps, And fix'd his head upon our battlements. DUNCAN: O valiant cousin! worthy gentlem an! SERGEANT: As whence the sun 'gins his reflection 40 Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break, So from that spring whence comfort seem'd to come Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark: No sooner justice had with valour arm'd Com pell'd these skipping kerns to trust their heels, 45 But the Norweyan lord surveying vantage, With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men Began a fresh assault. DUNCAN: Dismay'd not this Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo? 50 SERGEANT: Yes; A s sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. If I say sooth, I must report they were As cannons overcharged with double cracks, so they Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe: 55 Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, Or memorise another Golgot ha, I cannot tell. But I am faint, my gashes cry for help. DUNCAN: So well thy words become thee as thy wounds; 60 They smack of hon our both. Go get him surgeons. [Exit Sergeant, attended] Who comes here? All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php [Enter ROSS] MALCOLM: The worthy thane of Ross. LENNOX: What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look That seems to speak things strange. 65 ROSS: God save the king! DUNCAN: Whence camest thou, worthy thane? ROSS: From Fife, great king; Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky And fan our people cold. Norway himself, 70 With terrible numbers, Assisted by that most disloyal traitor The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict; Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof, Confronted him with self -comparisons, 75 Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm. Curbing his lavish spirit: and, to conclude, The victory fell on us. DUNCAN: Great happiness! ROSS: That now 80 Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition: Nor would we deign him burial of his men Till he disbursed at Saint Colme's inch Ten thousand dollars to our general use. DUNCAN: No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive 85 Our bosom interest: go pronounce his present death, And with his former title greet Macbeth. ROSS: I'll see it done. DUNCAN: What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won. [Exeunt] Act I, Scene 3 A heath near Forres. [Thunder. Enter the three Witches] FIRST WITCH: Where hast thou been, sister? 90 SECOND WITCH: Killing swine. All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php THIRD WITCH: Sister, where thou? FIRST WITCH: A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap, And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd: — 'Give me,' quoth I: 95 'Aroint thee, witch!' the rump -fed ronyon cries. Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger: But in a sieve I'll thither sail, And, like a rat without a tail, I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do. 100 SECOND WITCH: I'll give thee a wind. FIRST WITCH: Thou'rt kind. THIRD WITCH: And I another. FIRST WITCH: I myself have all the other, And the very ports they blow, 105 All the quarters that they know I' the shipman's card. I will drain him dry as hay: Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang upon his pent- house lid; 110 He shall live a man forbid: Weary se'nnights nine times ni ne Shall he dwindle, peak and pine: Though his bark cannot be lost, Yet it shall be tempest -tost. 115 Look what I have. SECOND WITCH: Show me, show me. FIRST WITCH: Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wreck'd as homeward he did come. [Drum within] THIRD WITCH: A drum, a drum! 120 Macbeth doth come. ALL: The weird sisters, hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land, Thus do go about, about: Thrice to thine and thrice to mine 125 And thrice again, to make up nine. Peace! the charm's wo und up. [Enter MACBETH and BANQUO] MACBETH : So foul and fair a day I have not seen. All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php BANQUO: How far is't call'd to Forres? What are these So wither'd and so wild in their attire, 130 That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth, And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught That man may question? You seem to understand me, By each at once her chappy finger laying Upon her skinny lips: you should be women, 135 And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so. MACBETH: Speak, if you can: what are you? FIRST WITCH: All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis! SECOND WITCH: All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! 140 THIRD WITCH: All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter! BANQUO: Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair? I' the name of truth, Are ye fantastical, or that indeed Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner 145 You greet with present grace and great prediction Of noble having and of royal hope, That h e seems rapt withal: to me you speak not. If you can look into the seeds of time, And say which grain will grow and which will not, 150 Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear Your favours nor your hate. FIRST WITCH: Hail! SECOND WITCH: Hail! THIRD WITCH: Hail! 155 FIRST WITCH: Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. SECOND WITCH: Not so happy, yet much happier. THIRD WITCH: Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none: So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo! FIRST WITCH: Banquo and Macbeth, all hail! 160 MACBETH: Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more: By Sinel's death I know I am thane of Glamis; But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives, A prosperous gentleman; and to be king Stands not within the prospect of belief, 165 No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence You owe this strange intelligence? or why All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php Upon this blasted heath you stop our way With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you. [Witches vanish] BANQUO: The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, 170 An d these are of them. Whither are they vanish'd? MACBETH: Into the air; and what seem'd corporal melted As breath into the wind. Would they had stay'd! BANQUO: Were such things here as we do speak about? Or have we eaten on the insane root 175 That takes the reason prisoner? MACBETH: Your children shall be kings. BANQUO: You shall be king. MACBETH: And thane of Cawdor too: went it not so?

BANQUO: To the selfsame tune and words. Who's here? 180 [Enter ROSS and ANGUS] ROSS : The king hath happi ly received, Macbeth, The news of thy success; and when he reads Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight, His wonders and his praises do contend Which should be thine or his: silenced with that, 185 In viewing o'er the rest o' the selfsame day, He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks, Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make, Strange images of death. As thick as hail Came post with post; and every one did bear 190 Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence, And pour'd them down before him. ANGUS : We are sent To give thee from our royal master thanks; Only to herald thee into his sight, 195 Not pay thee. ROSS: And, for an earnest of a greater honour, He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor: In which addition, hail, mo st worthy thane! For it is thine. 200 BANQUO: What, can the devil speak true? MACBETH: The thane of Cawdor lives: why do you dress me In borrow'd robes? All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php ANGUS: Who was the thane lives yet; But under heavy judgment bears that life 205 Whic h he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined With those of Norway, or did line the rebel With hidden help and vantage, or that with both He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not; But treasons capital, confess'd and proved, 210 Have overthro wn him. MACBETH: [Aside] Glamis, and thane of Cawdor! The greatest is behind. [To ROSS and ANGUS] Thanks for your pains. [To BANQUO] Do you not hope your children shall be kings, 215 When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me Promised no le ss to them? BANQUO: That trusted home Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange: 220 And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betr ay's In deepest consequence. Cousins, a word, I pray you. 225 MACBETH: [Aside] . Two truths are told, As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme. —I thank you, gentlemen. [Aside] This supernatural soliciting Cannot be ill, cannot be good: if ill, 230 Why hath it given me earnest of success, Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor: If good, why do I yield to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, 235 Again st the use of nature? Present fears Are less than horrible imaginings: My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man that function Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is 240 But what is not. BANQUO: Look, how o ur partner's rapt. All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php MACBETH: [Aside] If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, Without my stir. BANQUO: New horrors come upon him, 245 Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould But with the aid of use. MACBETH: [Aside] Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. BANQUO: Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. 250 MACBETH: Give me your favour: my dull brain was wrought With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains Are register'd where ev ery day I turn The leaf to read them. Let us toward the king. Think upon what hath chanced, and, at more time, 255 The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak Our free hearts each to other. BANQUO: Very gladly. MACBETH: Till then, enough. Come, fri ends. [Exeunt] Act I, Scene 4 Forres. The palace. [Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, and Attendants] DUNCAN: Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not 260 Those in commission yet return'd? MALCOLM: My liege, They are not yet come back. But I have spoke With one t hat saw him die: who did report That very frankly he confess'd his treasons, 265 Implored your highness' pardon and set forth A deep repentance: nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it; he died As one tha t had been studied in his death To throw away the dearest thing he owed, 270 As 'twere a careless trifle. DUNCAN: There's no art To find the mind's construction in the face: All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php He was a gentleman on whom I built An absolute tr ust. 275 [Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSS, and ANGUS] O worthiest cousin! The sin of my ingratitude even now Was heav y on me: thou art so far before That swiftest wing of recompense is slow To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved, 280 That the proportion both of thanks and payment Might have been mine! only I have left to say, More is thy due than more than all can pay. MACBETH : The service and the loyalty I owe, In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part 285 Is to receive o ur duties; and our duties Are to your throne and state children and servants, Which do but what they should, by doing every thing Safe toward your love and honour. DUNCAN: Welcome hither: 290 I have begun to plant thee, and will labour To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo, That hast no less deserved, nor must be known No less to have done so, let me enfold thee And hold thee to my heart. 295 BANQUO: There if I grow, The harvest is your own. DUNCAN: My plenteous joys, Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes, 300 And you whose places are the nearest, know We will establish our estate upon Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter The Prince of Cumberland; which honour must Not unaccompanied invest him only, 305 But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine On all deservers. From hence to Invernes s, And bind us further to you. MACBETH: The rest is labour, which is not used for you: I'll be myself the harbinger and make joyful 310 The hearing of my wife with your approach; So humbly take my leave. DUNCAN: My worthy Cawdor! All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php MACBETH: [Aside] The Prince of Cumberland! that is a step On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, 315 For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires: The eye win k at the hand; yet let that be, Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. [Exit] DUNCAN: True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant, 320 And in his commendations I am fed; It is a ba nquet to me. Let's after him, Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome: It is a peerless kinsman. [Flourish. Exeunt] Act I, Scene 5 Inverness. Macbeth’s castle. [Enter LADY MACBETH, reading a letter] LADY MACBET H: 'They met me in the day of success: and I have 325 learned by the perfectest report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who 330 all- hailed me 'Thane of Cawdor;' by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on of time, with 'Hail, king that shalt be!' This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou 335 mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell.' Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature; 340 It is too full o' the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great; Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it: what thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, 345 All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou'ldst have, great Glamis, That which cries 'Thus thou must do, if thou have it; And that which rather thou dost fear to do Than wishest should be undone.' Hie thee hither, T hat I may pour my spirits in thine ear; 350 And chastise with the valour of my tongue All that impedes thee from the golden round, Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem To have thee crown'd withal. [Enter a Messenger] What is your tidings? 355 MESSENGER : The king comes here to -night. LADY MACBETH: Thou'rt mad to say it: Is not thy master with him? who, were't so, Would have inform'd for preparation. MESSENGER: So please you, it is true: our thane is coming: 360 One of my fello ws had the speed of him, Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more Than would make up his message. LADY MACBETH: Give him tending; He brings great news. 365 [Exit Messenger] The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Du ncan Under my battlements. Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top- full 370 Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood; Stop up the access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious vi sitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts, 375 And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers, Wherever in your sightless substances You wait on nature 's mischief! Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, 380 Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, To cry 'Hold, hold!' [Enter MACBETH] Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor! All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter! Thy letters have transported me beyond 385 This ignorant present, and I feel now The future in the instant. MACBETH : My dearest love, Duncan comes here to -night. LADY MACBETH: And when goes hence? 390 MACBETH: To -morrow, as he purposes. LADY MACBETH: O, never Shall sun that morrow see! Your face, my thane, is as a book where men May read strange matters. To beguile the time, 395 Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue: look like the inno cent flower, But be the serpent under't. He that's coming Must be provided for: and you shall put This night's great business into my dispatch; 400 Which shall to all our nights and days to come Give solel y sovereign sway and masterdom. MACBETH: We will speak further. LADY MACBETH: Only look up clear; To alter favour ever is to fear: 405 Leave all the rest to me. [Exeunt] Act I, Scene 6 Before Macbeth’s castle. [Hautboys and torches. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM,] [p]DONALBAIN, BANQUO, LENNOX, MACDUFF, ROSS, ANGUS, and Attendants] DUNCAN: This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself Unto our gentle senses. BANQUO: This guest of summer, 410 The temple -haunting martlet, does appr ove, By his loved mansionry, that the heaven's breath Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze, All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle: 415 Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed, The ai r is delicate. [Enter LADY MACBETH] DUNCAN: See, see, our honour'd hostess! The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you 420 How you shall bid God 'ild us for your pains, And thank us for your trouble. LADY MACBETH : All our service In every point twice done and then done double Were poor and single business to contend 425 Against those honours deep and broad wherewith Your majesty loads our house: for those of old, And the late dignities heap'd up to them, We rest your hermits. DUNCAN: Where's the thane of Cawdor? 430 We coursed him at the heels, and had a purpose To be his purveyor: but he rides well; And his great love, s harp as his spur, hath holp him To his home before us. F air and noble hostess, We are your guest to -night. 435 LADY MACBETH: Your servants ever Have theirs, themselves and what is theirs, in compt, To make their au dit at your highness' pleasure, Still to return your own. DUNCAN: Give me your hand; 440 Conduct me to mine host: we love him highly, And shall continue our graces towards him. By your leave, hostess. [Exeunt] Act I, Scene 7 Macbeth’s castle. [Hautboys and torches. Enter a Sewer, and divers] [p]Servants with dishes and service, and pass over the stage. Then enter MACBETH] All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php MACBETH: If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly: if the assassination 445 Could trammel up the consequence, and catch With his surcease success; that but this blow Might be the be -all and the end -all here, But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, We'ld jump the life to come. But in these cases 450 We still have judgment here; that we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague the inventor: this even- handed justice Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice To our own lips. He's here in double trust; 455 First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, Who sh ould against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been 460 So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels, trumpet -tongued, against The deep damna tion of his taking-off; And pity, like a naked new -born babe, Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsed 465 Upon the sightless couriers of the air, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself 470 And falls on the other. [Enter LADY MACBETH] How now! what news? LADY MACBETH : He has almost supp'd: why have you left the chamber? MACBETH: Hath he ask'd for me ?

LADY MACBETH : Know you not he has? 475 MACBETH: We will proceed no further in this business: He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people, Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, Not cast aside so soon. 480 LADY MACBETH : Was the hope drunk Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since? And wakes it now, to look so green and pale At what it did so freely? From this time All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard 485 To be the s ame in thine own act and valour As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, And liv e a coward in thine own esteem, Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would,' 490 Like the poor cat i' the adage? MACBETH: Prithee, peace: I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more is none. LADY MACBETH : What beast was't, then, 495 That made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man; And, to be more than what you were, y ou would Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place Did then adhere, and yet you would make both: 500 They have made themselves, and that their fitness now Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums, 505 And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you Have done to this. MACBETH: If we should fail? LADY MACBETH : We fail! But screw your courage to the sti cking-place, 510 And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep — Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey Soundly invite him —his two chamberlains Will I with wine and wassail so convince That memory, the warder of the brain, 515 Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason A limbeck only: when in swinish sleep Their drenched natures lie as in a death, Wha t cannot you and I perform upon The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon 520 His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt Of our great quell? MACBETH: Bring forth men- children only; For thy undaunted mettle should compose Nothing but males. Will it not be received, 525 When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php Of his own chamber and used their very daggers, That they have done't? LADY MACBETH : Who dares receive it other, As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar 530 Upon his death? MACBETH: I am settled, and bend up Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. Away, and mock the time with fairest show: F alse face must hide what the false heart doth know. 535 [Exeunt] Act II, Scene 1 Court of Macbeth’s castle. [Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE bearing a torch before him] BANQUO : How goes the night, boy? FLEANCE: The moon is do wn; I have not heard the clock. BANQUO: And she goes down at twelve. FLEANCE: I take't, 'tis later, sir. BANQUO: Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven; 540 Their candles are all out. Take thee that too. A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, And yet I would not sleep: merciful powers, Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature Gives way to in repose! 545 [Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch] Give me my sword. Who's there? MACBETH : A friend. BANQUO: What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's a -bed: He hath been in unusual pleasure, and 550 Sent forth great largess to your offices. This diamond he greets your wife withal, By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up In measureless content. All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php MACBETH: Being unprepared, 555 Our will became the servant to defect; Which else should free have wrought. BANQUO: All's well. I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters: To you they have show'd some truth. 560 MACBETH: I think not of them: Yet, when we can entr eat an hour to serve, We would spend it in some words upon that business, If you would grant the time. BANQUO: At your kind'st leisure. 565 MACBETH: If you shall c leave to my consent, when 'tis, It shall make honour for you. BANQUO: So I lose no ne In seeking to augment it, but still keep My bosom franchised and allegiance clear, 570 I shall be counsell'd. MACBETH: Good repose the while! BANQUO: Thanks, sir: the like to you! [Exeunt BANQUO and FLEANCE] MACBETH: Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. 575 [Exit Servant] Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art t hou not, fatal vision, s ensible To feeling as to sight? or art thou but 580 A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat- oppressed brain? I see thee yet, in form as palp able As this which now I draw. Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going; 585 And such an instrument I was to use. Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still, And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, Which was not so before. There's no such thing: 590 It is the bloody business which informs Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworld All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder, 595 Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf, Whos e howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace. With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm -set earth, Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear 600 Thy very stones prate of my whereabout, And take the present horror from the time, Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives: Words to the heat o f deeds too cold breath gives. [A bell rings] I go, and it is done; the bell invites me. 605 Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell Th at summons thee to heaven or to hell. [Exit] Act II, Scene 2 The same. [Enter LADY MACBETH] LADY MACBETH: That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold; What hath quench'd them hath given me fire. Hark! Peace! 610 It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, Which gives the stern'st good -night. He is about it: The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms Do mock their charge with snores: I have drugg'd their possets, 615 That death and natur e do contend about them, Whether they live or die. MACBETH : [Within] Who's there? what, ho! LADY MACBETH: Alack, I am afraid they have awaked, And 'tis not done. The attempt and not the deed 620 Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready; He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done't. All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php [Enter MACBETH] My husband! MACBETH : I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise? 625 LADY MACBETH: I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Did not you speak? MACBETH : When? LADY MACBETH: Now. MACBETH : As I descended? 630 LADY MACBETH: Ay. MACBETH : Hark! Who lies i' the second chamber? LADY MACBETH: Donalbain. MACBETH : This is a sorry sight. 635 [Looking on his hands] LADY MACBETH: A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight. MACBETH : There's one did laugh in's sleep, and one cried 'Murder!' That they did wake each other: I stood and heard them: But they did say their prayers, and address'd them 640 Again to sleep. LADY MACBETH: There are two lo dged together. MACBETH : One cried 'God bless us!' and 'Amen' the other; As they had seen me with these hangman's hands. Listening their fear, I could not say 'Amen,' 645 When they did say 'God bless us!' LADY MACBETH: Consider it not so deeply. MA CBETH : But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'? I had mo st need of blessing, and 'Amen' Stuck in my throat. 650 LADY MACBETH: These deeds must not be thought After these ways; so, it will make us mad. MACBETH : Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep', the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care, 655 The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, Chief nourisher in life's feast, — All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php LADY MACBETH: What do you mean? MACBETH : Still it cried 'Sleep no more!' to all the house: 660 'Glamis hath murder'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more.' LADY MACBETH: Who was it that thus cried? Why, wor thy thane, You do unbend your noble strength, to think So brainsickly of things. Go get some water, 665 And wash this filthy witness from your hand. Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must lie there: go carry them; and smear The sleepy grooms with blood. MACBETH : I'll go no more: 670 I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on't again I dare not. LADY MACBETH: Infirm of purpose! Give me the dag gers: the sleeping and the dead Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of chil dhood 675 That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal; For it must seem their guilt. [Exit. Knocking within] MACBETH : Whence is that knocking? How is't with me, when every noise appals me? 680 What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes. Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas in incarnadine, Making the green one red. 685 [Re -enter LADY MACBETH] LADY MACBETH : My hands are of your colour; but I shame To wear a heart so w hite.

[Knocking within] I hear a knocking At the south entry: retire we to our chamber; A little water clears us of this deed: 690 How e asy is it, then! Your constancy Hath left you u nattended. [Knocking within] Hark! more knocking. Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us, All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php And show us to be watchers. Be not lost 695 So poorly in your thoughts. MACBETH : To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself. [Knocking within] Wak e Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst! [Exeunt] Act II, Scene 3 The same. [Knocking within. Enter a Porter] PORTER: Here's a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell- gate, he should have 700 old turning the key . [Knocking within] Knock, knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of Beelzebub? Here's a farmer, that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty: come in 705 time; have napkins enow about you; here you'll sweat for't. [Knocking within] Kn ock, knock! Who's there, in the other devil's name? Faith, here's an equivocator, that could 710 swear in both the scales against either scale; who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to hea ven: O, come in, equivocat or. [Knocking within] Knock, 715 knock, knock! Who's there? Faith, here's an English tailor come hither, for stealing out of a French hose: come in, tailor; here you may roast your goose. [Knocking within] Knock, 720 knock; never at quiet! What are you? But All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php this place is too cold for hell. I'll devil-porter it no furthe r: I had thought to have let in some of all professions that go the primrose w ay to the everlasting bonfire. 725 [Knocking within] Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the porter. [Opens the gate] [Enter MACDUFF and LENNOX] MACDUFF: Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed, That you do lie so late? PORTER: 'Faith sir, we were carousing till the second cock: and drink, sir, is a great 730 provoke r of three things. MACDUFF: What three things does drink especially provoke? PORTER: Marry, sir, nose -painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes; it provokes the desire, but it takes 735 away the performance: therefore, much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him, and disheartens him; makes him stand to, and 740 not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him. MACDUFF: I believe drink gave thee the lie last night. PORTER: That it did, sir, i' the very throat on me: but I requited him for his lie; and, I 745 think, being too strong for him, though he took up my legs sometime, yet I made a shift to cast him. MACDUFF: I s thy master stirring? [Enter MACBETH] Our knocking has awaked him; here he comes. 750 LENNOX: Good morrow, noble sir. MACBETH : Good morrow, both. MACDUFF: Is the king stirring, worthy tha ne? MACBETH : Not yet. All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php MACDUFF: He did command me to call timely on him: 755 I have almost slipp'd the hour. MACBETH : I'll bring you to him. MACDUFF: I know this is a joyful tro uble to you; But yet 'tis one. MACBETH : The labour we delight in physic s pain. 760 This is the door. MACDUFF: I'll make so bold to call, For 'tis my limited service. [Exit] LENNOX: Goes the king hence to -day? MACBETH : He does: he did appoint so. 765 LENNOX: The night has been unruly: where we lay, Our chimneys were blown down; and, as they say, Lamentings heard i' the air; strange screams of death, And prophesying with accents terrible Of dire combustion and confused events 770 New hatch'd to the woeful time: the obscure bird Clamour'd the livelong ni ght: some say, the earth Was feverous and did shake. MACBETH : 'Twas a rough night. LENNOX: My young remembrance cannot parallel 775 A fellow to it. [Re -enter MACDUFF] MACDUFF: O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart Cannot conceive nor name th ee! MACBETH : [with Lennox] What's the matter. MACDUFF: Confusion now hath made his masterpiece! 780 Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence The life o' the building! MACBETH : What is 't you say? the li fe? LENNOX: Mean you his majesty? 785 MACDUFF: Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight With a new Gorgon: do not bid me speak; S ee, and then speak yourselves. [Exeunt MACBETH and LENNOX] Awake, awake! All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php Ring the alarum-bell. Murder and trea son! 790 Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm! awake! Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit, And look on death itself! up, up, and see The great doom's image! Malcolm! Banquo! As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites, 795 To counte nance this horror! Ring the bell. [Bell rings] [Enter LADY MACBETH] LADY MACBETH : What's the business, That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley The sleepers of the house? speak, speak! MACDUFF: O gentle lady, 800 'Tis not for you to hear w hat I can speak: The repetition, in a woman's ear, Would murder as it fell. [Enter BANQUO] O Banquo, Banquo, 805 Our royal master 's murder'd! LADY MACBETH : Woe, alas! What, in our house? BA NQUO: Too cruel any where. Dear Duff, I prithee, co ntradict thyself, 810 And say it is not so. [Re -enter MACBETH and LENNOX, with ROSS] MACBETH : Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had lived a blessed time; for, from this instant, There 's nothing serious in mortality: All is but toys: renown and grace is dead; 815 The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees Is left this vault to brag of. [Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN] DONALBAIN : What is amiss? MACBETH : You are, and do not know't: The spring, the head, the fountain of your bloo d 820 Is stopp'd; the very source of it is stopp'd. MACDUFF: Your royal father 's murder'd. MALCOLM: O, by whom? All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php LENNOX: Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done 't: Their hands and faces were an badged with blood; 825 So were their daggers, which unwiped we found Upon their pillows: They stared, and were distracted; no man's life Was to be trusted with them. MACBETH : O, yet I do repent me of my fury, 830 That I did kill them. MACDUFF: Wherefore did you so? MACBETH : Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious, Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man: The expedition my violent love 835 Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan, His silver skin laced with his golden blood; And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in natu re For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murderers, Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers 840 Unmannerly breech'd with gore: who could refrain, That had a heart to love, and in that heart Courage to make 's love known? LADY MACBE TH: Help me hence, ho! MACDUFF: Look to the lady. 845 MALCOLM: [Aside to DONALBAIN] Why do we hold our tongues, That most may claim this argument for ours? DONALBAIN : [Aside to MALCOLM] What should be spoken here, where our fate, Hid in an auge r-hole, may rush, and seize us? 850 Let 's away; Our tears are not yet brew'd. MALCOLM: [Aside to DONALBAIN] Nor our strong sorrow Upon the foot of motion. BA NQUO: Look to the lady: 855 [LADY MACBETH is carried out] And when w e have our naked frailties hid, That suffer in exposure, let us meet, And question this most bloody piece of work, To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us: In the great hand of God I stand; and thence 860 Against the undivulged pretence I fight Of trea sonous malice. All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php MACDUFF: And so do I. ALL: So all. MACBETH : Let's briefly put on manly readiness, 865 And meet i' the hall together. ALL: Well contented. [Exeunt all but Malcolm and Donalbain.] MALCOLM: What will you do? Let's not consort with the m: To show an unfelt sorrow is an office Which the false man does easy. I'll to England. 870 DONALBAIN : To Ireland, I; our separated fortune Shall keep us both the safer: where we are, There's daggers in men's smiles: the near in blood, The nearer bloody. MALCOLM: This murderous shaft that's shot 875 Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way Is to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse; And let us not be dainty of leave -taking, But shift away: there's warrant in that theft Which steals itself , when there's no mercy left. 880 [Exeunt] Act II, Scene 4 Outside Macbeth’s castle. [Enter ROSS and an old Man] OLD MAN : Threescore and ten I can remember well: Within the volume of which time I have seen Hours dreadful a nd things strange; but this sore night Hath trifled former knowings. ROSS : Ah, good father, 885 Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, Threaten his bloody stage: by the clock, 'tis day, And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp: Is't night's predominance, or the day's shame, That darkness does the face of earth entomb, 890 When living light should kiss it? All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php OLD MAN: 'Tis unnatural, Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last, A falcon, towering in her pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd. 895 ROSS : And Duncan's horses —a thing most strange and certain — Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flu ng out, Contending 'gainst obedience, as th ey would make War with mankind. 900 OLD MAN : 'Tis said they eat each other. ROSS : They did so, to the amazement of mine eyes That look'd upon' t. Here comes the good Macduff. [Enter MACDUFF] How goes the world, sir, now? MACDUFF: Why, see you n ot? 905 ROSS : Is't known who did this more than bloody deed? MACDUFF: Those that Macbeth hath slain. ROSS : Alas, the day! What good could they pretend? MACDUFF: They were suborn'd: 910 Malcolm and Donalbain, the king's two sons, Are stol'n away and fled; which puts upon them Suspicion of the deed. ROSS : 'Gainst nature still! Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up 915 Thine own life's means! Then 'tis most like The sove reignty will fall upon Macbeth. MACDUFF: He is already named, and gone to Scone To be invested. ROSS : Where is Duncan's body? 920 MACDUFF: Carried to Colmekill, The sacred storehouse of his predecessors, And guardian of their bones. ROSS : Will you to Scone? MACDUFF: No, cousin, I'll to Fife. 925 RO SS: Well, I will thither. MACDUFF: Well, may you see things well done there: adieu! Lest our old robes sit easier than our new! All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php ROSS: Farewell, father. OLD MAN : God's benison go with you; and with those 930 That would make good of bad, and friends o f foes! [Exeunt] Act III, Scene 1 Forres. The palace. [Enter BANQUO] BANQUO : Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all, As the weird women promised, and, I fear, Thou play'dst most foully for't: yet it was said It should not stand in thy posterity, 935 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, 940 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. 945 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 950 For e ver knit. MACBETH: Ride you this afternoon? BANQUO : Ay, my good lord. MACBETH: We should have else desired your good advice, Which still hath been both grave and prosperous, 955 All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php In this day's council; but we'll take to-morrow. Is't far you ride? B ANQUO : 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 960 For a dark hour or twain. MACBETH: Fail not our feast. BANQUO : My lord, I will not. MACBETH: We hear, ou r bloody cousins are bestow'd In England and in Ireland, not confessing 965 Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers With strange invention: but of that to -morrow, When therewith al we shall have cause of state Craving us jointly. Hie you to horse: adieu, Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you? 970 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 commen d you to their backs. Farewell. [Exit BANQUO] Let every man be master of his time Till seven at night: to make society 975 The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself Till supper -time alon e: while then, God be with you! [Exeunt all but MACBETH, and an attendant] Sirrah, a word with you: attend those men Ou r pleasure? ATTENDANT: They are, my lord, without the palace gate . 980 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 wou ld be fear'd: 'tis much he dares; 985 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 rebuked; as, it is said, 9 90 Mark Antony's was by Caesar. He chid the sisters When first they put the name of king upon me, All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php And bade them speak to him: then prophet-like They hail'd him father to a line of kings: Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, 995 And put a ba rren 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 filed my mind; For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd; 1000 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. 1005 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 n ot yesterday we spoke together? FIRST MURDERER: It was, so please your highness. MACBETH: Well then, now 1010 Have you consider'd of my speeches? Know That it was he i n 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, 1015 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 crazed Say 'Thus did Banquo.' 1020 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 1025 To pray for this good man and for his issue, Whose heavy hand hath bow'd you to the grav e And beggar'd yours for ever? FIRST MURDERER: We are men, my liege. MACBETH: Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men; 1030 As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php Shoughs, water-rugs and demi -wolves, are clept All by th e name of dogs: the valued file Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle, The house keeper, the hunter, every one 1035 According to the gift which bounteous nature 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, 1040 Not i' the worst rank of manhood, say 't; 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, 1045 Which in his death were pe rfect. SECOND MURDERER: I am one, my liege, Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world Have so incensed that I am reckless what I do to spite the world. 1050 FIRST MURDERER: And I another So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune, That I would set my lie on any chance, To mend it, or be rid on't. MACBETH: Both of you 1055 Know Banquo was your enemy. FIRST MURDERER: [with Second Murderer] True, my lord. MACBETH: So is he mine; and in such bloody distance, That every minute of hi s being thrusts Against my near'st of life: and though I could 1060 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, 1065 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. 1070 FIRST MU RDERER: Though our lives — All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php 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, 1075 And something from the palace; always thought That I require a clearness: and with him— To leave n o rubs nor botches in the work— Fleance his son, that keeps him company, Whose absence is no less material to me 1080 Than is his father's, must embrace the fate Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart: I'll come to you anon. FIRST MURDERER: [With Second Murderer] We are resolved, my lord. MACBETH: I'll call up on you straight: abide within. 1085 [Exeunt Murderers] It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul's fli ght, If it find heaven, must find it out to -night. [Exit] Act III, Scene 2 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 1090 For a few words. SERVANT : Madam, I will. [Exit] LADY MACBETH: Nought's had, all's spent, Where our desire is got without content: 'Tis safer to be that which we destroy 1095 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 All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php With them they think on? Things without all remedy 1100 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 1105 worlds suffer, Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep In the affl iction of these terrible dreams That shake us nightly: better be with the dead, Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, 1110 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, 1115 Can touch him further. LADY MACBETH: Come on; Gentle my lord , sleek o'er your rugged looks; Be bright and jovial among your guests to -night. MACBETH: So shall I, love; and so, I pray, be you: 1120 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, 1125 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: Bu t in them nature's copy's not eterne. 1130 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 nig ht's yawning peal, there shall be done 1135 A deed of dreadful note. LADY MACBETH: What's to be done? MACBETH: Be innocent o f the knowledge, dearest chuck, Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night, Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day; 1140 All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php 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; 1145 While 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, prithee, go with me. [Exeunt] Act III, Scene 3 A park near the palace. [Enter three Murderers] FIRST MURDERER: But who did bid thee join with us? 1150 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. 1155 The west yet gli mmers 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. 1160 BANQUO : [Within] Give us a light there, ho! SECOND MURDER ER: Then 'tis he: the rest That are within the note of expectation Already are i' the court. FIRST MURDERER: His horses go about. 1165 THIRD MURDERER: Almo st 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! [Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE with a torch] All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php THIRD MURDERER: 'Tis he. 1170 FIRST MURDERER: Stand to't. 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! 1175 [Dies. FLEANCE escapes] THIRD MURDERER: Who did strike out the light? FIRST MURDERER: Wast not the way? THIRD MURDERER: There's but one down; the son is fled. SECOND MURDERER: We have lost Best half of our affair. 1180 FIRST MURDERER: Well, let's away, and say how much is done. [Exeunt] Act III, Scene 4 The same. Hall in the palace. [A banquet prepared. Enter MACBETH, LADY MACBETH,] [p]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, 1185 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. 1190 [First Murderer appears at the door] MACBETH : See, they encounter thee with their he arts' thanks. Both sides are even: here I'll sit i' the midst: All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php Be large in mirth; anon we'll drink a measure The table round. [Approaching the door] There's blood on thy face. 1195 FIRST MURDERER: 'Tis Banquo's then. MACBETH : 'Tis better thee w ithout than he wit hin. Is he dispatch'd? FIRST 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 1200 That did the like for Fleance: if thou didst it, Thou art the nonpareil. FIRST MURDERER: Most royal sir, Fleance is 'scaped. MACBETH : Then comes my fit again: I had else been perfect, 1205 Whole as the marble, founded as the rock, As broad and general as the casing air: But now I am cabin 'd, cribb'd, confined, bound in To sauc y doubts and fears. But Banquo's safe? FIRST MURDERER: Ay, my good lord: safe in a ditch he bides, 1210 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, 1215 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, 1220 '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, 1225 And health on both! LENNOX : May't please your highness sit. [ The GHOST OF BANQUO enters, and sits in MACBETH's place] All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php MACBETH: Here had we now our country's honour roof'd, Were the graced person of our Banquo present; Who may I rather challenge for unkindness 1230 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. 1235 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? 1240 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; 1245 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 1250 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, 1255 Impostors to true fear, would well become 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. 1260 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 1265 Shall be the maws of kites. All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php [GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes] 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, 1270 Ere human statute purged the gentle weal; Ay, and since too, murders have been perform'd Too terrible for the ear: the times have been, That, when the brains were out, the man would die, And there an end; but now they rise again, 1275 With twenty mortal murders on their crowns, And push us from our stools: this is more strang e Than such a murder is. LADY MACBETH : My worthy lord, Your noble friends do lack you. 1280 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. 1285 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. 1290 [Re -enter GHOST OF BANQUO] MACBETH : Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee! Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; Thou ha st no speculation in those eyes Which thou dost glare with! LADY MACBETH : Think of this, g ood peers, 1295 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; 1300 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 All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow! 1305 Unreal mockery, hence! [GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes] 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 admired disorder. 1310 MACBETH : Can such things be, And ove rcome us like a summer's cloud, Without our speci al wonder? You make me strange Even to the disposition that I owe, When now I think you can behold such sights, 1315 And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, When mine is blanched with fear. ROSS : What sights, my lord? LADY MACBETH : I pray you, s peak not; he grows worse and worse; Question enrages him. At once, good night: 1320 Stand not upon the order of your going, But g o at once. LENNOX : Good night; and better health Attend his majesty! LADY MACBETH : A kind good night to all! 1325 [Exeunt all but MACBETH and LADY MACBETH] 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 sec ret'st man of blood. What is the night? 1330 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: 1335 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 ow n good, 1340 All causes shall give way: I am in blood All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php Stepp'd 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. 1345 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] Act III, Scene 5 A Heath. [Thunder. E nter the three Witches meeting HECATE] FIRST WITCH: Why, how now, Hecate! you look angerly. 1350 HECATE: Have I not reason, beldams as you are, Saucy and overbold? How did you dare To trade and traffic with Macbeth I n riddles and affairs of death; And I, the mistress of your charms, 1355 The close contriver of all harms, Was never call'd to bear my part, Or show the glory of our art? And, which is wors e, all you have done Hath been but for a wayward son, 1360 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 1365 Will come to know his destiny: Your vessels and your spells provide, Your charms and every thing beside. I am for the air; this night I'll spend Unto a dismal and a fatal end: 1370 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: All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php And that distill'd by magic sleights 1375 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 He hopes 'bove wisdom, grace and fear: 1380 And you all know, security Is mortals' chiefest enemy. [Music and a 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. 1385 [Exeunt] Act III, Scene 6 Forres. The palace. [Enter LENNOX and another Lord] LENNOX: My former speeches have but hit your thoughts, Which can interpret further: only, I say, Things have been strangely borne. The grac ious Duncan Was pitied of Macbeth: marry, he was dead: 1390 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 1395 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 do ne? Ay, and wisely too; 1400 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 1405 All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php 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 1410 Where he bestows himself? LORD : The s on of Duncan, 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 1415 That the malevolence of fortune nothing Takes from his high respect: thither Macduff Is gone to p ray the holy king, upon his aid To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward: That, by the help of these —with Him above 1420 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 1425 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, 1430 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 1435 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 accursed! LORD : I'll send my prayers with him. 1440 [Exeunt] All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php Act IV, Scene 1 A ca vern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron. [Thunder. Enter the three Witches] FIRST WITCH: Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd. SECOND WITCH: Thrice and once the hedge -pig whined. THIRD WITCH: Harp ier cries 'Tis time, 'tis time. FIRST WITCH: Ro und about the cauldron go; In the poison'd entrails throw. 1445 Toad, that under cold stone Days and nights has thirty -one Swelter'd venom sleeping got, Boil thou first i' the charmed pot. ALL: Double, double toil and trouble; 1450 Fire bu rn, and cauldron bubble. SECOND WITCH: Fillet of a fenny snake, In the cauldron boil and bake; Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog, 1455 Adder's fork and blind -worm's sting, Lizard's leg and owlet's wing, For a charm of p owerful trouble, Like a hell -broth boil and bubble. ALL: Double, double toil and trouble; 1460 Fire burn and cauldron bubble. THIRD WITCH: Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf , Witches' mummy, maw and gulf Of the ravin'd salt -sea shark, Root of hemloc k digg'd i' the dark, 1465 Liver of blaspheming Jew, Gall of goat, and slips of yew Silver'd in the moon's eclipse, Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips, Finger of birth -strangled babe 1470 Ditch -deliver'd by a drab, Make the gruel thick and sl ab: Add thereto a tiger's chaudron, For the ingredients of our cauldron. All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php ALL: Double, double toil and trouble; 1475 Fire burn and cauldron bubble. SECOND WITCH: Cool it with a baboon's blood, T hen the charm is firm and good. [Enter HECATE to the other three Witches] HECATE : O well done! I commend your pains; And every one shall share i' the gains; 1480 And now about the cauldron sing, Li ve elves and fairies in a ring, Enchanting all that you put in. [Music and a song: 'Black spirits,' &c] [HECATE retires] SECOND WITCH: By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes. 1485 Open, locks, Whoever knocks! [Enter MACBETH] MACBETH : How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags! What is't you do? ALL: A deed without a na me. 1490 MACBETH : I conjure you, by that which you profess, Howe'er you come to know it, answer me: Though you untie the winds and let them fight Against the churches; though the yesty waves Confound and swallow navigation up; 1495 Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down; Though castles topple on their warders' heads; Though palaces and pyramids do slope Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure Of nature's germens tumble all together, 1500 Even till destructi on sicken; answer me To what I ask you. FIRST WITCH: Speak. SECOND WITCH: Demand. THIRD WITCH: We'll answer. 1505 FIRST WITCH: Say, if thou'dst rather hear it from our mouths, Or from our masters? MACBETH : Call 'em; let me see 'em. All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php FIRST WITCH: Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten Her nine farrow; grease that's sweaten 1510 From the murderer's gibbet throw Into the flame. ALL: Come, high or low; Thyself and office deftly show! [Thunder. First Apparition: an armed Head] MACBETH : Tel l me, thou unknown power, — 1515 FIRST WITCH: He knows thy thought: Hear his speech, but say thou nought. FIRST APPARITION : Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff; Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough. [Descends] MACBETH : Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks; 1520 Thou hast harp'd my fear aright: but one word more, — FIRST WITCH: He will not be commanded: here's another, More potent than the first. [Thunder. Second Apparition: A bloody Child] SECOND APPARITION : Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! 1525 MACBETH : Had I three ears, I'ld hear thee. SECOND APPARITION : Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn The power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth. [Descends] MACBETH : Then live, Macduff: what need I fea r of thee? 1530 But yet I'll make assurance double sure, And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live; That I may tell pale -hearted fear it lies, And sleep in spite of thunder. [Thunder. Third Apparition: a Child crowned, with a tree in his hand] What is this 1535 That rises like the issue of a king, And wears upon his baby -brow the round And top of sovereignty? ALL: Listen, but speak not to't. THIRD APPARITION : Be lion -mettled, proud; and take no care 1540 Who chafes, who frets, or w here conspirers are: All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill Shall come against him. [Descends] MACBETH : That will never be 1545 Who can impress the forest, bid the tree Unfix his earth- bound root? Sweet bodements! good! Rebellion's head, rise never till the wood Of Birnam rise, and our high -placed Macbeth Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath 1550 To time and mortal custom. Yet my heart Throbs to know one thing: tell me, if your art Can tell so much: shall Banquo's issue ever Reign in this kingdom? ALL: Seek to know no more. 1555 MACBETH : I will be satisfied: deny me this, And an eternal curse fall on you! Let me know. Why sinks that ca uldron? and what noise is this? [Hautboys ] FIRST WITCH: Show! SECOND WITCH: Show! 1560 THIRD WITCH: Show! ALL: Show his eyes, and grieve his heart; Come like shadows, so depart! [A show of Eight Kings, the last with a glass in his hand; GHOST OF BANQUO following ] MACBETH : Thou art to o like the spirit of Banquo: down! Thy crown does sear mine eye -balls. And thy hair, 1565 Thou other gold -bound brow, is like the first. A third is like the former. Filthy hags! Why do you show me this? A fourth! Start, eyes! What, will the line st retch out to the crack of doom? Another yet! A seventh! I'll see no more: 1570 And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass Which shows me many more; and some I see That two -fold balls and treble scepters carry: Horrible sight! Now, I see, 'tis t rue; For the blood -bolter'd Banquo smiles upon me, 1575 And points at them for his. [Apparitions vanish] What, is this so? All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php FIRST WITCH: Ay, sir, all this is so: but why Stands Macbeth thus amazedly? Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites, 1 580 And show the best of our delights: I'll charm the air to give a sound, While you perform your antic round: That this great king may kindly say, Our duties did his welcome pay. 1585 [Music. The witches dance and then vanish, with HECATE] MACB ETH: Where are they? Gone? Let this pernicious hour Stand aye accursed in the calendar! Come in, without there! [Enter LENNOX] LENNOX : What's your grace's will? MACBETH : Saw you the weird sisters? 1590 LENNOX : No, my lord. MACBETH : Came they not by you?

LENNOX : No, indeed, my lord. MACBETH : Infected be the air whereon they ride; And damn'd all those that trust them! I did hear 1595 The galloping of horse: who was't came by? LENNOX : 'Tis two or thre e, my lord, that bring you word Macduff is fled to England. MACBETH : Fled to England! LENNOX : Ay, my good lord. 1600 MACBETH : Time, thou anticipatest my dread exploits: The flighty purpo se never is o'ertook Unless the deed go with it; from this moment The very firstlings of my heart shall be The firstlings of my hand. And even now, 1605 To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done: The cas tle of Macduff I will surprise; Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o' the sword His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool; 1610 This deed I'll do before this purpose cool. But no more sig hts!—Where are these gentlemen? Come, bring me where they are. [Exeunt] All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php Act IV, Scene 2 Fife. Macduff’s castle. [Enter LADY MACDUFF, her Son, and ROSS] LADY MACDUFF: What had he done, to make him fly the land? ROSS : You must have patience, madam. 1615 LADY MACDUFF: He had none: His flight was madness: when our actions do not, Our fears do make us traitors. ROSS : You know not Whether it was his wisdom or his fear. 1620 LADY MACDUFF: Wisdom! to leave his wife, to leave his babes, His mansion and his titles in a place From whence himself does fly? He loves us not; He wants the natural touch: for the poor wren, The most diminutive of birds, will fight, 1625 Her young ones in her nest, against the owl. All is the fear and nothing is the love; As little is the wisdom, where the flight So runs against all reason. ROSS : My dearest coz, 1630 I pray you, school yourself: but for your husband, He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows The fits o' the season. I dare not speak much further; But cruel are the times, when we are traitors 1635 And do not know ourselves, when we hold rumour From what we fear, yet know not what we fear, But float upon a wild and violent sea Each way and move. I take my leave of you: Shall not be long but I'll be here again: 1640 Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward To what the y were before. My pretty cousin, Blessing upon you! LADY MACDUFF: Father'd he is, and yet he's fatherless. All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php ROSS: I am so much a fool, should I stay longer, 1645 It would be my disgrace and your discomfort: I take my leave at once. [Exit] LADY MA CDUFF: Sirrah, your father's dead; And what will you do now? How will you live? SON : As birds do, mother. 1650 LADY MACDUFF: What, with worms and flies? SON : With what I get, I mean; and so do they. LADY MACDUFF: Poor bird! thou'ldst never fear the net nor lime, The pitfall nor the gin. SON : Why should I, mother? Poor birds they are not set for. 1655 My father is not dead, for all your saying. LADY MACDUFF: Yes, he is dead; how wilt thou do for a father? SON : Nay, how will you do for a hus band? LADY MACDUFF: Why, I can buy me twenty at any market. SON : Then you'll buy 'em to sell again. 1660 LADY MACDUFF: Thou speak'st with all thy wit: and yet, i' faith, With wit enough for thee. SON : Was my father a traitor, mother? LADY MACDUF F: Ay, that he was. SON : What is a traitor? 1665 LADY MACDUFF: Why, one that swears and lies. SON : And be all traitors that do so? LADY MACDUFF: Every one that does so is a traitor, and must be hanged. SON : And must they all be hanged that swear and lie? LADY MACDUFF: Every one. 1670 SON : Who must hang them? LADY MACDUFF: Why, the honest men. SON : Then the liars and swearers are fools, for there are liars and swearers enow to beat the honest men and hang up them. 1675 LADY MACDUF F: Now, God help thee, poor monkey! But how wilt thou do for a father? All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php SON: If he were dead, you'ld weep for him: if you would not, it were a good sign that I should quickly have a new father. 1680 LADY MACDUFF: Poor prattler, how thou talk'st! [ Enter a Messenger] MESSENGER : Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known, Though in your state of honour I am perfect. I doubt some danger does approach you nearly: If you will take a homely man's advice, 1685 Be not found here; hence, with your little ones. To fright you thus, methinks, I am too savage; To do worse to you were fell cruelty, Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you! I dare abide no longer. 1690 [Exit] LADY MACDUFF: Whither should I fly? I have d one no harm. But I remember now I am in this earthly world; where to do harm Is often laudable, to do good sometime Accounted dangerous folly: why then, alas, 1695 Do I put up that womanly defenc e, To say I have done no harm? [Enter Murderers] What are these f aces? FIRST MURDERER: Where is your husband? LADY MACDUFF: I hope, in no place so unsanctified 1700 Whe re such as thou mayst find him. FIRST MURDERER: He's a traitor. SON : Thou liest, thou shag -hair'd villain! FIRST MURDERER: What, you egg! [Stabbing him] Young fry of treachery! 1705 SON : He has kill'd me, mother: Run away, I pray you! [Dies] [Exit LADY MACDUFF, crying 'Murder!' Exeunt] Murderers, following her ] All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php Act IV, Scene 3 England. Before the King’s palace. [Enter MALCOLM and MACDUFF] MALCOLM: Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there Weep our sad bosoms empty. MACDUFF: Let us rather 1710 Hold fast the mortal sword, and like good men Bestride our down -fall'n birthdom: each new morn New wi dows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds As if it felt with Scotland and yell'd out 1715 Like syllable of dolour. MALCOLM: What I believe I'll wail, What know believe, and what I can redress, As I shall find the time to friend, I will. What you have spoke, it may be so perchance. 1720 This tyrant, whose sole name b listers our tongues, Was once thought honest: you have loved him well. He hath not touch'd you yet. I am young; but something You may deserve of him through me, and wisdom 1725 To offer up a weak poor innocent lamb To appease an angry god. MACDUFF: I am not treacherous. MALCOLM: But Macbeth is. A good and virtuous nature may recoil 1730 In an imperial charge. But I shall c rave your pardon; That which you are my thoughts cannot transpose: Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell; Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace, 1735 Yet grace must still look so. MACDUFF: I have lost my hopes. MALCOLM: Perchance even there where I did find my doubts. Why in that rawness left you wife and child, Those precious motives, those strong knots of love, 1740 Wi thout leave -taking? I pray you, Let not my jealousies be your dishonours, All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php But mine own safeties. You may be rightly just, Whatever I shall think. MACDUFF: Bleed, bleed, poor country! 1745 Great ty ranny! lay thou thy basis sure, For goodness dare not cheque thee: wear thou thy wrongs; The title is affeer'd! Fare thee well, lord: I would not be the villain that thou think'st 1750 For the whole spac e that's in the tyrant's grasp, And the rich East to boot. MALCOLM: Be not offended: I speak not as in absolute fear of you. I think our country sinks beneath the yoke; 1755 It weeps, it bleeds; and each new day a gash Is added to her wounds: I think withal There would be hands uplifted in my right; And here from gracious England have I offer Of goodly thousands: but, for all this, 1760 When I shall tread upon the tyrant's head , Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country Shall have more vices than it had before, More suffer and more sundry ways than ever, By him that shall succeed. 1765 MACDUFF: What should he be? MALCOLM: It is myself I mean: in whom I know All the particulars of vice so grafted That, when they shall be open'd, black Macbeth Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state 1770 Esteem him as a lamb, being compared With my confineless harms. MACDUFF: Not in the legions Of horrid hell can come a devil more damn'd In evils to top Macbeth. 1775 MALCOLM: I grant him bloody, Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin That has a name: but there's no bottom, none, In my voluptuousness: your wives, your daughters, 1780 Your matrons an d your maids, could not fill up The cistern of my lust, and my desire All continent impediments would o'erbear All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php That did oppose my will: better Macbeth Than such an one to reign. 1785 MACDUFF: Boundless intempera nce In nature is a tyranny; it hath been The untimely emptying of the happy throne And fall of many kings. But fear not yet To take upon you what is yours: you may 1790 Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty, And yet seem cold, the time you may so hoodwink. We have willing dames enough: there cannot be That vulture in you, to devour so many As will to greatness dedicate themselves, 1795 Finding it so inclined. MALCOLM: With this there grows In my most ill -composed affection such A stanchless avarice that, were I king, I should cut off the nobles for their lands, 1800 Desire his jewels and this other's house: And my more -having would be as a sauce To make me hunger more; that I should forge Quarrels unjust against the good and lo yal, Destroying them for wealth. 1805 MACDUFF: This avarice Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root Than summer- seeming lust, and it hath been The sword of our slain kings: yet do not fear; Scotland hath foisons to fill up your will. 1810 Of your me re own: all these are portable, With other graces weigh'd. MALCOLM: But I have none: the king -becoming graces, As justice, verity, temperance, stableness, Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, 1815 Devotion , patience, courage, fo rtitude, I have no relish of them, but abound In the division of each several crime, Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, 1820 Uproar the universal pe ace, confound All unity on earth. MACDUFF: O Scotland, Scotland! MALCOLM: If such a one be fit to govern, speak: I am as I have spoken. 1825 All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php MACDUFF: Fit to govern! No, not to live. O nation miserable, With an untitled tyrant bloody -scepter'd, When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again, Since that the truest issue of thy throne 1830 By his ow n interdiction stands accursed, And does blaspheme his breed? Thy royal father Was a most sainted king: the queen that bore thee, Oftener upon her knees than on her feet, Died every day she lived. Fare thee well! 1835 These ev ils thou repeat'st upon thyself Have banish'd me from Scotland. O my breast, Thy hope ends here! MALCOLM: Macduff, this noble passion, Child of integrity, hath from my soul 1840 Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts To thy good truth and honour. Devilish Macbeth By many of these trains hath sought to win me Into his power, and modest wisdom plucks me From over -credulous haste: but God above 1845 Deal between thee and me! for even now I put myself to thy direction, and Unspeak mine own detraction, here abjure The taints and blames I laid upon myself, For strangers to my nature. I am yet 1850 Unknow n to woman, never was forsworn, Scarcely have coveted what was mine own, At no ti me broke my faith, would not betray The devil to his fellow and delight No less in truth than life: my first false speaking 1855 Was thi s upon myself: what I am truly, Is thine and my poor country's to command: Whither indeed, before thy here -appro ach, Old Siward, with ten thousand warlike men, Already at a point, was setting forth. 1860 Now we'll together; and the chance of goodness Be like our warranted quarrel! Why are you silent? MACDUFF: Such welcome and unwelcome things at once 'Tis hard to reconcile. [Enter a Doctor] MALCOLM: Well; more anon. —Co mes the king forth, I pray you? 1865 All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php DOCTOR: Ay, sir; there are a crew of wretched souls That stay his cure: their malady convinces The great assay of art; but at his touch— Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand— They presently amend. 1870 MALCOLM: I thank you, doctor. [Exit Doctor] MACDUFF: What's the disease he means? MALCOLM: 'Tis call'd the evil: A most miraculous work in this good king; Which often, since my here -re main in England, 1875 I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven, Himself best knows: but strangely -visited people, All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, The mer e despair of surgery, he cures, Hanging a golden stamp about their necks, 1880 Put on with holy prayers: and 'tis spoken, To the succeeding royalty he leaves The healing benediction. With this strange virtue, He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy, And sundry blessings hang about his throne, 1885 That speak him full of grace . [Enter ROSS] MACDUFF: See, who comes here? MALCOLM: My countryman; but yet I know him not. MACDUFF: My ever -gentle cousin, welcome hither. MALCOLM: I know him now. Good God, betimes remove 1890 The means that makes us strangers! ROSS : Sir, amen . MACDUFF: Stands Scotland where it did? ROSS : Alas, poor country! Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot 1895 Be call'd our mother, but our grave; where nothing, But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile; Where sighs and groan s and shrieks that rend the air Are made, not mark'd; where violent sorrow seems A modern ecstasy; the dead man's knell 1900 Is there scarce ask'd for who; and good men's lives Expire before the flowers in their caps, Dying or ere they sicken. All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php MACDUFF: O, rel ation Too nice, and yet too true! 1905 MALCOLM: What's the newest grief? ROSS : That of an hour's age doth hiss the speaker : Each minute teems a new one. MACDUFF: How does my wife? ROSS : Why, well. 1910 MACDUFF: And all my children? ROS S: Well too. MACDUFF: The tyrant has not batter'd at their peace? ROSS : No; they were well at peace when I did leave 'em. MACDUFF: But not a niggard of your speech: how goes't? 1915 ROSS : When I came hither to transport the tidings, Which I have he avily borne, there ran a rumour Of many worthy fellows that were out; Which was to my belief witness'd the rather, For that I saw the tyrant's power a -foot: 1920 Now is the time of help; your eye in Scotland Would create soldiers, make our women fight, To doff their dire distresses. MALCOLM: Be't their comfort We are coming thither: gracious England hath 1925 Lent us good Siward and ten thousand men; An older and a better soldier no ne That Christendom gives out. ROSS : Would I could answer This comfort with the like! But I have words 1930 That would be howl'd out in the desert air, Where hearing should not latch them. MACDUFF: What concern they? The general cause? or is it a fee -grief Due to some single breast? 1935 ROSS : No mind that's honest But in it shares some woe; though the main part Pertains to you alone. MACDUFF: If it be mine, Keep it not from me, quickly let me have it. 1940 All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php ROSS: Let not your ears despise my tongue for ever, Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound That ever yet they heard. MACDUFF: Hum! I guess at it. ROSS : Your castle is surprised; your wife and babes 1945 Savagely slaughter'd: to relate the manner, Were, on the quarry of these murder'd deer, To add the death of you. MAL COLM: Merciful heaven! What, man! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows; 1950 Give sorrow words: the grief that does not speak Whispers the o'er -fraught heart and bids it break. MACDUFF: My children too? ROSS : Wife, children, servants, all That could be found. 1955 MACDUFF: And I must be from thence! My wife kill'd too? ROSS : I have said. MALCOLM: Be comforted: Let's make us medicines of our great revenge, 1960 To cure this deadly grief. MACDUFF: He has no children. All my pretty one s? Did you say all? O hell- kite! All? What, all my pretty chickens and their dam At one fell swoop? 1965 MALCOLM: Dispute it like a man. MACDUFF: I shall do so; Bu t I must also feel it as a man: I cannot but remember such things were, That we re most precious to me. Did heaven look on, 1970 And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff, They were all struck for thee! naught that I am, Not for th eir own demerits, but for mine, Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now! MALCOLM: Be this the whetstone of your sword: let grief 1975 Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it. MACDUFF: O, I could play the woman with mine eyes And braggart with my tongue! But, gentle heavens, Cut short all intermission; front to front All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself; 1980 Within my sword's length set him; if he 'scape, Heaven forgive him too! MALCOLM: This tune goes manly. Come, go we to the king; our power is ready; Our lack is nothing but our leave; Macbeth 1985 Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may: The night is long that never finds the day. [Exeunt] Act V, Scene 1 Dunsinane. Ante -room in the castle. [Enter a Doctor of Physic an d a Waiting-Gentlewoman] DOCTOR : I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walked? 1990 GENTLEWOMAN: Since his majesty w ent into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her night -gow n upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon't, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep. 1995 DOCTOR : A great perturbatio n in nature, to receive at once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching! In this slumbery agitation, besides her walking and other actual performances, what, at any time, have you heard her say? 2000 GENTLEWOMAN: That, sir, which I will not report after her. DOCTOR : You may to me: a nd 'tis most meet you should. GENTLEWOMAN: Neither to you nor any one; having no witness to confirm my speech. [Enter LADY MACBETH, with a taper] Lo you, here she comes! This is her very guise; 2005 and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand close. DOCTOR : How came she by that light? GENTLEWOMAN: Why, it stood by her: she has light by her continually; 'tis her command. All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php DOCTOR: You see, her eyes are open. 2010 GENTLEWOMAN: Ay, but their sense is shut. DOCTOR : What is it she does n ow? Look, how she rubs her hands. GENTLEWOMAN: It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands: I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour. 2015 LADY MACBETH : Yet here's a spot. DOCTOR : Hark! she speaks: I will s et down what comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly. LADY MACBETH : Out, damned spot! out, I say! —One: two: why, then, 'tis time to do't. —Hell is murky! —Fie, my 2020 lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? —Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him. DOCTOR : Do you mark that? 2025 LADY MACBETH : The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now? — What, will these hands ne'er be clean? —No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that: you mar all with this starting. DOCTOR : Go to, go to; you have known what you should not. 2030 GENTLEWOMAN: She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that: heaven knows what she has known. LA DY MACBETH : Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh! 2035 DOCTOR : What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged. GENTLEWOMAN: I would not have such a heart in my bosom fo r the dignity of the whole body. DOCTOR : Well, well, well, — GENTLEWOMAN: Pray God it be, sir. 2040 DOCTOR : This disease is beyond my practise: yet I have known those which have walked in their sleep who have died holily in their beds. LADY MAC BETH: Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not so pale. —I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he 2045 cannot come out on's grave. DOCTOR : Even so? All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php LADY MACBETH: To bed, to bed! there's knocking at the gate: come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What's done cannot be undone. —To bed, to bed, to bed! 2050 [Exit] DOCTOR : Will she go now to bed? GENTLEWOMAN: Directly. DOCTOR : Foul whisperings are abroad: unnatural deeds Do breed unn atural troubles: infected minds To their deaf pil lows will discharge their secrets: 2055 More needs she the divine than the physician. God, God forgive us all! Look after her; Remove from her the means of all annoyance, And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night: My mind she has mated, and amazed my sight. 2060 I think, but dare not speak. GENTLEWOMAN: Good night, good doctor. [Exeunt] Act V, Scene 2 The country near Dunsinane. [Drum and colours. Enter MENTEITH, CAITHNESS, ANGUS,] [p]LENNOX, and Soldiers] MENTEIT H: The English power is near, led on by Malcolm, His uncle Siward and the good Macduff: Revenges burn in them; for their dear causes 2065 Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm Excite the mortified man. ANGUS: Near Birnam wood Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming. CAITHNESS: Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother? 2070 LENNOX : For certain , sir, he is not: I have a file Of all the gentry: there is Siward's son, And many unrough youths that even now Protest their first of ma nhood. MENTEITH : What does the tyrant? 2075 All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php CAITHNESS: Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies: Some say he's mad; others that lesser hate him Do call it valiant fury: but, for certain, He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause Within the belt of rul e. 2080 ANGUS: Now does he feel His secret murders sticking on his hands; Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith -breach; Those he commands move only in command, Nothing in love: now does he feel his title 2085 Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe Upon a dwarfish thief. MENTEITH : Who then shall blame His pester'd senses to recoil and start, When all that is within him does condemn 2090 Itself for being there? CAITHNESS: Well, march we on, To give obedience where 'tis truly owed: Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal, And with him pour we in our country's purge 2095 Each drop of us. LENNOX : Or so much as it needs, To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds. Make we our march towards Birnam. [Exeunt, marching] Act V, Scene 3 Dunsinane. A room in the castle. [Enter MACBETH, Doctor, and Attendants] MACBETH : Bring me no more reports; let them fly all: 2100 Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane, I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Mal colm? Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know All mortal conseq uences have pronounced me thus: 'Fear not, Macbeth; no man that's born of woman 2105 Shall e'er have power upon thee.' Then fly, false thanes, And mingle with the English epicur es: All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php The mind I sway by and the heart I bear Shall never sag w ith doubt nor shake with fear. 2110 [Enter a Servant] The devil damn thee black, thou cream -faced loon! Where got'st thou that goose look? SERVANT : There is ten thousand— MACBETH : Geese, villain! SERVANT : Soldiers, sir. 2115 MACBETH : Go prick thy face, and over -red thy fear, Thou lily -liver'd boy. What soldiers, patch? Death of thy soul! those linen cheeks of thine Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey -face? SERVANT : Th e English force, so please you. 2120 MACBETH : Take thy face hence. [Exit Servant] Seyton! —I am sick at heart, When I behold— Seyton, I say!—This push Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now. I have lived long enough: my way of life 2125 Is fal l'n into the sear, the yellow leaf; And that which should accompany old age, As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have; but, in their stead, Curses, not loud but deep, mouth- honour, breath, 2130 Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not. Seyton! [Enter SEYTON] SEYTON: What is your gracious pleasure? MACBETH : What news more? SEYTON: All is confirm'd, my lord, which was reported. MACBETH : I'll fight till from my bones my flesh be hack'd. 2135 Give me my a rmour.

SEYTON: 'Tis not needed yet. MACBETH : I'll put it on. Send out more horses; skirr the country round; Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armour. 2140 How does your patient, doctor? All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php DOCTOR: Not so sick, my lord, As she is troubled with thick coming fancies, That keep her from her rest. MACBETH : Cure her of that. 2145 Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Raze out the written troubles of the brain And with some sweet oblivious anti dote Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff 2150 Which weighs upon the heart? DOCTOR : Therein the patient Must minister to himself. MACBETH : Throw physic to the dogs; I'll none of it. Come, put mine armour on; give me my staff. 2155 Seyton, send out. Doctor, the thanes fly from me. Come, sir, dispatch. If thou couldst, doctor, cast The water of my land, find her disease, And purge it to a sound and pristine health, I would applaud thee to the very echo, 2160 That should app laud again. —Pull't off, I say. — What rhubarb, cyme, or what purgative drug, Would scour these English hence? Hear'st thou of them? DOCTOR : Ay, my good lord; your royal preparation Makes us hear something. 2165 MACBETH : Bring it after me. I will no t be afraid of death and bane, Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane. DOCTOR : [Aside] Were I from Dunsinane away and clear, Profit again should hardly draw me here. 2170 [Exeunt] Act V, Scene 4 Country near Birnam wood. [Dr um and colours. Enter MALCOLM, SIWARD and YOUNG ] [p]SIWARD, MACDUFF, MENTEITH, CAITHNESS, ANGUS, [p]LENNOX, ROSS, and Soldiers, marching] MALCOLM: Cousins, I hope the days are near at h and That chambers will be safe. All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php MENTEITH: We doubt it nothing. SIWARD : What wood is this before us? MENTEITH : The wood of Birnam. 2175 MALCOLM: Let every soldier hew him down a bough And bear't before him: thereby shall we shadow The numbers of our host and make discovery Err in report of us. SOLDIERS : It shall be done. 2180 SIWARD : We learn no other but the confident tyrant Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure Our setting down before 't. MALCOLM: 'Tis his main hope: For where there is advantage to be given, 2185 Both more and less have given him the revolt, And none serve with him but constrained things Whose hearts are absent too. MACDUFF: Let our just censures Attend the true event, and put we on 2190 Industrious soldiership. SIWARD : The time approaches That will with due decision make us know What we shall say we have and what we owe. Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate, 2195 But certain issue strokes must arbitrate: Towards which advance the war. [Exeunt, marching] Act V, Scene 5 Dunsinane. Within t he castle. [Enter MACBETH, SEYTON, and Soldiers, with drum and colours] MACBETH : Hang out our banners on the outward walls; The cry is still 'They come:' our castle's strength Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie 2200 Till famine and the ague eat them up: Were they not forced with those that should be ours, All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php We might have met them dareful, beard to beard, And beat them backward home. [A cry of women within] What is that noise? 2205 SEYTON: It is the cry of women, my good lord. [Exit] MACBETH : I have almost forgot the taste of fears; The time has been, my senses would have cool'd To hear a night -shriek; and my fell of hair Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir 2210 As life were in't: I have supp'd full w ith horrors; Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts Cannot once start me. [Re -enter SEYTON] Wherefore was that cry? SEYTON: The queen, my lord, is dead. 2215 MACBETH : She should have died hereafter; There would ha ve been a time for such a word. To- morrow, and to -morrow, and to -morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, 2220 And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale 2225 Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. [Enter a Messenger] Thou comest to use thy tongue; thy story quickly. M ESSENGER : Gracious my lord, I should report that which I say I saw, 2230 But know not how to do it. MACBETH : Well, say, sir. MESSENGER : As I did stand my watch upon the hill, I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought, The wood began to move. 2235 MACBETH : Liar and slave! All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php MESSENGER: Let me endure your wrath, if't be not so: Within this three mile may you see it coming; I say, a moving grove. MACBETH : If thou speak'st false, 2240 Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive, Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth, I care not if thou dost for me as much. I pull in resolution, and begin To doubt the equivocation of the fiend 2245 That lies like truth: 'Fear not, till Birnam wood Do come to Dunsinane:' and now a wood Com es toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out! If this which he avouches does appear, There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here. 2250 I gin to be aweary of the sun, And wish the estate o' the world were now undone. Ring the alarum- bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack! At least we'll die with harness on our back. [Exeunt] Act V, Scene 6 Dunsinane. Before the castle. [Drum and colours. Enter MALCOLM, SIWARD, MACDUFF,] [p]and their Army, with boughs] MALCOLM: Now near enough: your leafy screens throw down. 2255 And show like those you are. You, worthy uncle, Shall, with my cousin, your right -noble son, Lead our firs t battle: worthy Macduff and we Shall take upon 's what else remains to do, According to our order. 2260 SIWA RD: Fare you well. Do we but find the tyrant's power to -night, Let us be beaten, if we cannot fight. MACDUFF: Make all our trumpets speak; give them all breath, Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death. 2265 [Exeunt] All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php Act V, Scen e 7 Another part of the field. [Alarums. Enter MACBETH] MACBETH : They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, But, bear- like, I must fight the course. What's he That was not born of woman? Such a one Am I to fear, or none. [Enter YOUNG SIWA RD] YOUNG SIWARD : What is thy name? 2270 MACBETH : Thou'lt be afraid to hear it. YOUNG SIWARD : No; though thou call'st thyself a hotter name Than any is in hell. MACBETH : My name's Macbeth. YOUNG SIWARD : The devil himself could not pronounce a title 2275 More hateful to mine ear. MACBETH : No, nor more fearful. YOUNG SIWARD : Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with my sword I'll prove the lie thou speak'st. [They fight and YOUNG SIWARD is slain] MACBETH : Thou wast born of woman 2280 But swo rds I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born. [Exit] [Alarums. Enter MACDUFF] MACDUFF: That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy face! If thou be'st slain and with no stroke of mine, My wife and children's ghosts wil l haunt me still. 2285 I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms Are hired to bear their staves: either thou, Macbeth, Or else my sword with an unbatter'd edge I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be; By this great clatter, one of great est note 2290 All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php Seems bruited. Let me find him, fortune! And more I beg not. [Exit. Alarums] [Enter MALCOLM and SIWARD] SIWARD : This way, my lord; the castle's gently render'd: The tyrant's people on both sides do fight; The noble thanes do br avely in the war; 2295 The day almost itself professes yours, And little is to do. MALCOLM: We have met with foes That strike beside us. SIWARD : Enter, sir, the castle. 2300 [Exeunt. Alarums] Act V, Scene 8 Another part of the field. [Enter MACBETH] MACBETH : Why should I play the Roman fool, and die On mine own sword? whiles I see lives, t he gashes Do better upon them. [Enter MACDUFF] MACDUFF: Turn, hell -hound, turn! MACBETH : Of all men else I have avoided the e: 2305 But get thee back; my soul is too much charged With blood of thine already. MACDUFF: I have no words: My voice is in my sword: thou bloodier villain Than terms can give thee out! 2310 [They fight] MACBETH : Thou losest labour: As eas y mayst thou the intrenchant air With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed: Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests; I bear a charmed life, which must not yield, 2315 To one of woman born. All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php MACDUFF: Despair thy charm; And let the angel whom thou still hast served Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb Untimely ripp'd. 2320 MACBETH : Accursed b e that tongue that tells me so, For it hath cow'd my better part of man! And be these juggling fiends no more believed, That palter with us in a double sense; That keep the word of promise to our ear, 2325 And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee. MACDUFF: Then yield thee, coward, And live to be the show and gaze o' the time: We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are, Pa inted on a pole, and underwrit, 2330 'Here may you see the tyrant.' MACBETH : I will not yield, To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, And to be baited with the rabble's curse. Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane, 2335 And thou o pposed, being of no woman born, Yet I will try the last. Before my body I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff, And damn'd be him tha t first cries, 'Hold, enough!' [Exeunt, fighting. Alarums] [Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colours,] MALCOL M, SIWARD, ROSS, the other Thanes, and Soldiers ] MALCOLM: I would the friends we miss were safe arrived. 2340 SIWARD : Some must go off: and yet, by these I see, So great a day as this is cheaply bought. MALCOLM: Macduff is missing, and your noble so n.

ROSS : Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt: He only lived but till he was a man; 2345 The which no sooner had his prowess confirm'd In the unshrinking station where he f ought, But like a man he died. SIWARD : Then he is dead? ROSS : Ay, and brought off the field: your cause of sorrow 2350 Must not be measured by his worth, for then It hath no end. SIWARD : Had he his hurts before? All Rights Reserved. Not for resale. Use of this e-book is subject to the Terms of Service available at https://www.thuze.com/terms_and_conditions.php ROSS: Ay, on the front. SIWARD : Why then, God's soldier be he! 2355 Had I as many sons as I have hairs, I would not wish them to a fairer death: And so, his knell is knoll'd. MALCOLM: He's worth more sorrow, And that I'll spend for him. 2360 SIWARD : He's worth no more They say he parted well, and paid his score: And so, God be with him! He re comes newer comfort. [Re -enter MACDUFF, with MACBETH's head] MACDUFF: Hail, king! for so thou art: behold, where stands The usurper's cursed head: the time is free: 2365 I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl, That spea k my salutation in their minds; Whose voices I desire aloud with mine: Hail, King of Scotland! ALL: Hail, King of Scotland! 2370 [Flourish] MALCOLM: We shall no t spend a large expense of time Before we reckon with your several loves, And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen, Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland In such an honour named. What's more to do, 2375 Which would be planted newly with the time, As calling home our exiled friends abroad That fled the snares of watchful tyranny; Producing forth the cruel ministers Of this dead butcher and his fiend -like queen, 2380 Who, as 'tis thought, by self and viole nt hands Took off her life; this, and what needful else That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace, We will perform in measure, time and place: So, thanks to all at once and to each one, 2385 Whom we inv ite to see us crown'd at Scone. [Flourish. Exeunt] This selection is in the public domain.

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