Macbeth by William Shakespeare (top 100 books to read TXT) 📕

bid thee join with us?
  THIRD MURTHERER. Macbeth.
  SECOND MURTHERER. He needs not our mistrust, since he delivers
    Our offices and what we have to do
    To the direction just.
  FIRST MURTHERER. Then stand with us.
    The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day;
    Now spurs the lated traveler apace
    To gain the timely inn, and near approaches
    The subject of our watch.
  THIRD MURTHERER. Hark! I hear horses.
  BANQUO. [Within.] Give us a light there, ho!
  SECOND MURTHERER. Then 'tis he; the rest
    That are within the note of expectation
    Already are i' the court.
  FIRST MURTHERER. His horses go about.
  THIRD MURTHERER. Almost a mile, but he does usually-
    So all men do -from hence to the palace gate
    Make it their walk.
  SECOND MURTHERER. A light, a light!

Enter Banquo, and Fleance with a torch.

  THIRD MURTHERER. 'Tis he.
  FIRST MURTHERER. Stand to't.
  BANQUO. It will be rain tonight.
  FIRST MURTHERER. Let it come down.
                                           They set upon Banquo.
  BANQUO. O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!
    Thou mayst revenge. O slave! Dies. Fleance escapes.
  THIRD MURTHERER. Who did strike out the light?
  FIRST MURTHERER. Wast not the way?
  THIRD MURTHERER. There's but one down; the son is fled.
  SECOND MURTHERER. We have lost
    Best half of our affair.
  FIRST MURTHERER. Well, let's away and say how much is done.
                                                         Exeunt.

SCENE IV. A Hall in the palace. A banquet prepared.

Enter Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Ross, Lennox, Lords, and Attendants.

  MACBETH. You know your own degrees; sit down. At first
    And last the hearty welcome.
  LORDS. Thanks to your Majesty.
  MACBETH. Ourself will mingle with society
    And play the humble host.
    Our hostess keeps her state, but in best time
    We will require her welcome.
  LADY MACBETH. Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends,
    For my heart speaks they are welcome.

Enter first Murtherer to the door.

  MACBETH. See, they encounter thee with their hearts' thanks.
    Both sides are even; here I'll sit i' the midst.
    Be large in mirth; anon we'll drink a measure
    The table round. [Approaches the door.] There's blood upon
thy
      face.
  MURTHERER. 'Tis Banquo's then.
  MACBETH. 'Tis better thee without than he within.
    Is he dispatch'd?
  MURTHERER. My lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him.
  MACBETH. Thou art the best o' the cut-throats! Yet he's good
    That did the like for Fleance. If thou didst it,
    Thou art the nonpareil.
  MURTHERER. Most royal sir,
    Fleance is 'scaped.
  MACBETH. [Aside.] Then comes my fit again. I had else been
perfect,
    Whole as the marble, founded as the rock,
    As broad and general as the casing air;
    But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd, bound in
    To saucy doubts and fears -But Banquo's safe?
  MURTHERER. Ay, my good lord. Safe in a ditch he bides,
    With twenty trenched gashes on his head,
    The least a death to nature.
  MACBETH. Thanks for that.
    There the grown serpent lies; the worm that's fled
    Hath nature that in time will venom breed,
    No teeth for the present. Get thee gone. Tomorrow
    We'll hear ourselves again.
                                                 Exit Murtherer.
  LADY MACBETH. My royal lord,
    You do not give the cheer. The feast is sold
    That is not often vouch'd, while 'tis amaking,
    'Tis given with welcome. To feed were best at home;
    From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony;
    Meeting were bare without it.
  MACBETH. Sweet remembrancer!
    Now good digestion wait on appetite,
    And health on both!
  LENNOX. May't please your Highness sit.

The Ghost of Banquo enters and sits in Macbeth's place.

  MACBETH. Here had we now our country's honor roof'd,
    Were the graced person of our Banquo present,
    Who may I rather challenge for unkindness
    Than pity for mischance!
  ROSS. His absence, sir,
    Lays blame upon his promise. Please't your Highness
    To grace us with your royal company?
  MACBETH. The table's full.
  LENNOX. Here is a place reserved, sir.
  MACBETH. Where?
  LENNOX. Here, my good lord. What is't that moves your Highness?
  MACBETH. Which of you have done this?
  LORDS. What, my good lord?
  MACBETH. Thou canst not say I did it; never shake
    Thy gory locks at me.
  ROSS. Gentlemen, rise; his Highness is well.
  LADY MACBETH. Sit, worthy friends; my lord is often thus,
    And hath been from his youth. Pray you, keep seat.
    The fit is momentary; upon a thought
    He will again be well. If much you note him,
    You shall offend him and extend his passion.
    Feed, and regard him not-Are you a man?
  MACBETH. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
    Which might appal the devil.
  LADY MACBETH. O proper stuff!
    This is the very painting of your fear;
    This is the air-drawn dagger which you said
    Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts,
    Impostors to true fear, would well become
    A woman's story at a winter's fire,
    Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!
    Why do you make such faces? When all's done,
    You look but on a stool.
  MACBETH. Prithee, see there! Behold! Look! Lo! How say you?
    Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.
    If charnel houses and our graves must send
    Those that we bury back, our monuments
    Shall be the maws of kites. Exit Ghost.
  LADY MACBETH. What, quite unmann'd in folly?
  MACBETH. If I stand here, I saw him.
  LADY MACBETH. Fie, for shame!
  MACBETH. Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time,
    Ere humane statute purged the gentle weal;
    Ay, and since too, murthers have been perform'd
    Too terrible for the ear. The time has been,
    That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
    And there an end; but now they rise again,
    With twenty mortal murthers on their crowns,
    And push us from our stools. This is more strange
    Than such a murther is.
  LADY MACBETH. My worthy lord,
    Your noble friends do lack you.
  MACBETH. I do forget.
    Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends.
    I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing
    To those that know me. Come, love and health to all;
    Then I'll sit down. Give me some wine, fill full.
    I drink to the general joy o' the whole table,
    And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss.
    Would he were here! To all and him we thirst,
    And all to all.
  LORDS. Our duties and the pledge.

Re-enter Ghost.

  MACBETH. Avaunt, and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee!
    Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;
    Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
    Which thou dost glare with.
  LADY MACBETH. Think of this, good peers,
    But as a thing of custom. 'Tis no other,
    Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
  MACBETH. What man dare, I dare.
    Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
    The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;
    Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
    Shall never tremble. Or be alive again,
    And dare me to the desert with thy sword.
    If trembling I inhabit then, protest me
    The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!
    Unreal mockery, hence! Exit Ghost.
    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.
  MACBETH. Can such things be,
    And overcome us like a summer's cloud,
    Without our special wonder? You make me strange
    Even to the disposition that I owe
    When now I think you can behold such sights
    And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks
    When mine is blanch'd with fear.
  ROSS. What sights, my lord?
  LADY MACBETH. I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse;
    Question enrages him. At once, good night.
    Stand not upon the order of your going,
    But go at once.
  LENNOX. Good night, and better health
    Attend his Majesty!
  LADY MACBETH. A kind good night to all!
                        Exeunt all but Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
  MACBETH. will have blood; they say blood will have blood.
    Stones have been known to move and trees to speak;
    Augures and understood relations have
    By maggot pies and choughs and rooks brought forth
    The secret'st man of blood. What is the night?
  LADY MACBETH. Almost at odds with morning, which is which.
  MACBETH. How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person
    At our great bidding?
  LADY MACBETH. Did you send to him, sir?
  MACBETH. I hear it by the way, but I will send.
    There's not a one of them but in his house
    I keep a servant feed. I will tomorrow,
    And betimes I will, to the weird sisters.
    More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know,
    By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good
    All causes shall give way. I am in blood
    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.
  LADY MACBETH. You lack the season of all natures, sleep.
  MACBETH. Come, we'll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse
    Is the initiate fear that wants hard use.
    We are yet but young in deed. Exeunt.

SCENE V. A heath. Thunder.

Enter the three Witches, meeting Hecate.

  FIRST WITCH. Why, how now, Hecate? You look angerly.
  HECATE. Have I not reason, beldams as you are,
    Saucy and overbold? How did you dare
    To trade and traffic with Macbeth
    In riddles and affairs of death,
    And I, the mistress of your charms,
    The close contriver of all harms,
    Was never call'd to bear my part,
    Or show the glory of our art?
    And, which is worse, all you have done
    Hath been but for a wayward son,
    Spiteful and wrathful, who, as others do,
    Loves for his own ends, not for you.
    But make amends now. Get you gone,
    And at the pit of Acheron
    Meet me i' the morning. Thither he
    Will come to know his destiny.
    Your vessels and your spells provide,
    Your charms and everything beside.
    I am for the air; this night I'll spend
    Unto a dismal and a fatal end.
    Great business must be wrought ere noon:
    Upon the corner of the moon
    There hangs a vaporous drop profound;
    I'll catch it ere it come to ground.
    And that distill'd by magic sleights
    Shall raise such artificial sprites
    As by the strength of their illusion
    Shall draw him on to his confusion.
    He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear
    His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and fear.
    And you all know security
    Is mortals' chiefest enemy.
                                        Music and a song within,
                                         "Come away, come away."
    Hark! I am call'd; my little spirit, see,
    Sits in a foggy cloud and stays for me. Exit.
  FIRST WITCH. Come, let's make haste; she'll soon be back again.
                                                         Exeunt.

SCENE VI. Forres. The palace.

Enter Lennox and another Lord.

  LENNOX. My former speeches have but hit your thoughts,
    Which can interpret farther; only I say
    Thing's have been strangely borne. The gracious Duncan
    Was pitied of Macbeth; marry, he was dead.
    And the right valiant Banquo walk'd too late,
    Whom, you may say, if't please you, Fleance kill'd,
    For Fleance fled. Men must not walk too late.
    Who cannot want the thought, how monstrous
    It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain
    To kill their gracious father? Damned fact!
    How it did grieve Macbeth! Did he not straight,
    In pious rage, the two delinquents tear
    That were the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep?
    Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely too,
    For 'twould have anger'd any heart alive
    To hear the men deny't. So that, I say,
    He has borne all things well; and I do think
    That, had he Duncan's sons under his key-
    As, an't please heaven, he shall not -they should find
    What 'twere to kill a father; so should Fleance.
    But, peace! For from broad words, and 'cause he fail'd
    His presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear,
    Macduff lives in disgrace. Sir, can you tell
    Where he bestows himself?
  LORD. The son of Duncan,
    From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth,
    Lives in the English court and is received
    Of the most pious Edward with such grace
    That the malevolence of fortune nothing
    Takes from his high respect. Thither Macduff
    Is gone to pray the holy King, upon his aid
    To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward;
    That by the help of these, with Him above
    To ratify the work, we may again
    Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights,
    Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives,
    Do faithful homage, and receive free honors-
    All which we pine for now. And this report
    Hath