The Tragedy of Macbeth

by William Shakespeare

Styled by LimpidSoft
 Contents

Dramatis Personae 1

ACT I 3
SCENE I . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
SCENE II . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
SCENE III . . . . . . . . . . . 9
SCENE IV . . . . . . . . . . . 18
SCENE V . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
SCENE VI . . . . . . . . . . . 26
SCENE VII . . . . . . . . . . . 28

ACT II 33
SCENE I . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
SCENE II . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
SCENE III . . . . . . . . . . . 43
SCENE IV . . . . . . . . . . . 52
iii
ACT III 57
SCENE I . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
SCENE II . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
SCENE III . . . . . . . . . . . 68
SCENE IV . . . . . . . . . . . 71
SCENE V . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
SCENE VI . . . . . . . . . . . 82

ACT IV 85
SCENE I . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
SCENE II . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
SCENE III . . . . . . . . . . . 101

ACT V 115
SCENE I . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
SCENE II . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
SCENE III . . . . . . . . . . . 123
SCENE IV . . . . . . . . . . . 127
SCENE V . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
SCENE VI . . . . . . . . . . . 132
SCENE VII . . . . . . . . . . . 132
SCENE VIII . . . . . . . . . . 135
SCENE IX . . . . . . . . . . . 137

iv
This text is an adaptation of part of the text supplied by
Project Gutenberg [Etext #100] and layout is in light of
that in The Oxford Shakespeare (Clarendon Press, Oxford
1988).
Styling is broadly similar to that in the First Folio,
particularly in the Scene headers. To improve readability,
Speaker lines are outdented, rather than indented, but this
is easy to change in the document preamble.

The present document was derived from text provided

by Project Gutenberg (document 100), which was
made available free of charge. This document is also
free of charge.
 Dramatis Personae
DUNCAN, King of Scotland
MACBETH, Thane of Glamis and Cawdor, a
general in the King’s army
LADY MACBETH, his wife
MACDUFF, Thane of Fife, a nobleman of Scotland
LADY MACDUFF, his wife
MALCOLM, elder son of Duncan
DONALBAIN, younger son of Duncan
BANQUO, Thane of Lochaber, a general in the
King’s army
FLEANCE, his son
LENNOX, nobleman of Scotland
ROSS, nobleman of Scotland
MENTEITH nobleman of Scotland
ANGUS, nobleman of Scotland
CAITHNESS, nobleman of Scotland
SIWARD, Earl of Northumberland, general of the
English forces
1
DRAMATIS PERSONAE

YOUNG SIWARD, his son

SEYTON, attendant to Macbeth
HECATE, Queen of the Witches
The Three Witches
Boy, Son of Macduff
Gentlewoman attending on Lady Macbeth
An English Doctor
A Scottish Doctor
A Sergeant
A Porter
An Old Man
The Ghost of Banquo and other Apparitions
Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murtherers,
Attendants, and Messengers

2
 ACT I
SCENE: S COTLAND AND E NGLAND

SCENE I

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,

3
 ACT I SCENE I

When the battle’s lost and won.

THIRD WITCH That will be ere the set of sun
FIRST WITCH Where the place?
SECOND WITCH Upon the heath
THIRD WITCH There to meet with Macbeth
FIRST WITCH I come, Graymalkin
ALL Paddock calls
Fair is foul, and foul is fair.
Hover through the fog and filthy air. Exeunt

4
 ACT I SCENE II

SCENE II

A camp near Forres. Alarum within.

Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with
Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant
DUNCAN What bloody man is that? He can report,
As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt
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
As thou didst leave it.
SERGEANT Doubtful it stood,
As two spent swimmers that do cling together
And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald–
Worthy to be a rebel, for to that
The multiplying villainies of nature
Do swarm upon him–from the Western Isles
Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied;
And Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,
5
 ACT I SCENE II

Show’d like a rebel’s whore. But all’s too weak;

For brave Macbeth –well he deserves that name–
Disdaining Fortune, with his brandish’d steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like Valor’s minion carved out his passage
Till he faced the slave,
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 gentleman!
SERGEANT As whence the sun ’gins his reflection
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 valor arm’d,
Compell’d these skipping kerns to trust their heels,
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.?
SERGEANT Yes,
6
 ACT I SCENE II

As 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.
Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,
Or memorize another Golgotha,
I cannot tell–
But I am faint; my gashes cry for help.
DUNCAN So well thy words become thee as thy
wounds;
They smack of honor both. Go get him surgeons.
Exit Sergeant, attended
Who comes here?
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.
ROSS God save the King!
DUNCAN Whence camest thou, worthy Thane?
ROSS From Fife, great King,
7
 ACT I SCENE II

Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky

And fan our people cold.
Norway himself, 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,
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
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
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
8
 ACT I SCENE III

won
Exeunt

SCENE III

A heath. Thunder.
Enter the three Witches

FIRST WITCH Where hast thou been, sister?

SECOND WITCH Killing swine

THIRD WITCH Sister, where thou?

FIRST WITCH A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her

lap,
And mounch’d, and mounch’d, and mounch’d.
"Give me," quoth I.
"Aroint thee, witch!" the rump-fed ronyon cries.
Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master the Tiger;
But in a sieve I’ll thither sail,
And, like a rat without a tail,
9
 ACT I SCENE III

I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.

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,
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 penthouse lid;
He shall live a man forbid.
Weary se’nnights nine times nine
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine;
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-toss’d.
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!
10
 ACT I SCENE III

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,
And thrice again, to make up nine.
Peace! The charm’s wound up.
Enter Macbeth and Banquo
MACBETH So foul and fair a day I have not seen
BANQUO How far is’t call’d to Forres? What are
these
So wither’d and so wild in their attire,
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 choppy finger laying
Upon her skinny lips. You should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.
MACBETH Speak, if you can
FIRST WITCH All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane
11
 ACT I SCENE III

of Glamis!

SECOND WITCH All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee,

Thane of Cawdor!

THIRD WITCH All hail, Macbeth, that 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
You greet with present grace and great prediction
Of noble having and of royal hope,
That he 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,
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
12
 ACT I SCENE III

Your favors nor your hate.

FIRST WITCH Hail!
SECOND WITCH Hail!
THIRD WITCH Hail!
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!
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,
No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence
You owe this strange intelligence, or why
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.
Witches vanish
13
 ACT I SCENE III

BANQUO The earth hath bubbles as the water has,

And 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
That takes the reason prisoner?
MACBETH Your children shall be kings
BANQUO You shall be King
MACBETH And Thane of Cawdor too
BANQUO To the selfsame tune and words
Enter Ross and Angus
ROSS The King hath happily 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,
In viewing o’er the rest o’ the selfsame day,
14
 ACT I SCENE III

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
Thy praises in his kingdom’s great defense,
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,
Not pay thee.
ROSS And for an earnest of a greater honor,
He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor.
In which addition, hail, most worthy Thane,
For it is thine.
BANQUO What, can the devil speak true?
MACBETH The Thane of Cawdor lives
In borrow’d robes?
ANGUS Who was the Thane lives yet,
But under heavy judgement bears that life
Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was
combined
With those of Norway, or did line the rebel
15
 ACT I SCENE III

With hidden help and vantage, or that with both

He labor’d in his country’s wreck, I know not;
But treasons capital, confess’d and proved,
Have overthrown him.
MACBETH Aside
The greatest is behind. (To Ross and Angus) Thanks
for your pains.
(Aside to Banquo) Do you not hope your children
shall be kings,
When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me
Promised no less to them?
BANQUO Aside to Macbeth
Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
Besides the Thane of Cawdor. But ’tis strange;
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s
In deepest consequence–
Cousins, a word, I pray you.
MACBETH Aside
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme–I thank you, gentlemen.
(Aside) This supernatural soliciting
16
 ACT I SCENE III

Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill,

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,
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings:
My thought, whose murther yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man that function
Is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is
But what is not.
BANQUO Look, how our partner’s rapt
MACBETH Aside
Without my stir.
BANQUO New honors come upon him,
Like our strange garments, cleave not to their
mould
But with the aid of use.
MACBETH Aside
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
BANQUO Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your
17
 ACT I SCENE IV

leisure
MACBETH Give me your favor; my dull brain was
wrought
With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains
Are register’d where every day I turn
The leaf to read them. Let us toward the King.
Think upon what hath chanced, and at more time,
The interim having weigh’d it, let us speak
Our free hearts each to other.
BANQUO Very gladly
MACBETH Till then, enough

SCENE IV

Forres. The palace.

Flourish. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox,
and Attendants
DUNCAN Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not
Those in commission yet return’d?
MALCOLM My liege,
They are not yet come back. But I have spoke
With one that saw him die, who did report
18
 ACT I SCENE IV

That very frankly he confess’d his treasons,

Implored your Highness’ pardon, and set forth
A deep repentance. Nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it; he died
As one that had been studied in his death,
To throw away the dearest thing he owed
As ’twere a careless trifle.
DUNCAN There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face:
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.
Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, and Angus
O worthiest cousin!
The sin of my ingratitude even now
Was heavy on me. Thou art so far before,
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow
To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved,
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 lowe,
In doing it, pays itself. Your Highness’ part
Is to receive our duties, and our duties
19
 ACT I SCENE IV

Are to your throne and state, children and servants,

Which do but what they should, by doing
everything
Safe toward your love and honor.
DUNCAN Welcome hither
I have begun to plant thee, and will labor
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 infold thee
And hold thee to my heart.
BANQUO There if I grow,
The harvest is your own.
DUNCAN My plenteous joys,
Wanton in fullness, seek to hide themselves
In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes,
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 honor must
Not unaccompanied invest him only,
But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
On all deservers. From hence to Inverness,
20
 ACT I SCENE V

And bind us further to you.

MACBETH The rest is labor, which is not used for
you
I’ll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful
The hearing of my wife with your approach;
So humbly take my leave.
DUNCAN My worthy Cawdor!
MACBETH Aside
On which I must fall down, or else o’erleap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires.
The eye wink 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,
And in his commendations I am fed;
It is a banquet to me. Let’s after him,
Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome.
It is a peerless kinsman. Flourish. Exeunt

SCENE V

21
 ACT I SCENE V

Inverness. Macbeth’s castle.

Enter Lady Macbeth, reading a letter
LADY MACBETH "They met me in the day of
success, and I have 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 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 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.
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,
22
 ACT I SCENE V

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,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear,
And chastise with the valor 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?
MESSENGER The King comes here tonight
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
One of my fellows had the speed of him,
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
Than would make up his message.
LADY MACBETH Give him tending;
23
ACT I SCENE V

He brings great news. Exit Messenger

The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
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
Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose nor keep peace between
The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts,
And take my milk for gall, your murthering
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
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark
To cry, "Hold, hold!"
Enter Macbeth
Great Glamis! Worthy Cawdor!
Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!
Thy letters have transported me beyond
This ignorant present, and I feel now
24
 ACT I SCENE V

The future in the instant.

MACBETH My dearest love,
Duncan comes here tonight.
LADY MACBETH And when goes hence?
MACBETH Tomorrow, 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,
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue; look like the innocent
flower,
But be the serpent under it. He that’s coming
Must be provided for; and you shall put
This night’s great business into my dispatch,
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
MACBETH We will speak further
LADY MACBETH Only look up clear;
To alter favor ever is to fear.
Leave all the rest to me. Exeunt

25
 ACT I SCENE VI

SCENE VI

Before Macbeth’s castle. Hautboys and torches.

Enter Duncan, Malcolm, 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,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve
By his loved mansionry that the heaven’s breath
Smells wooingly here. No jutty, frieze,
Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird
Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle;
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed
The air is delicate.
Enter Lady Macbeth
DUNCAN See, see, our honor’d hostess!
The love that follows us sometime is our trouble,
Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you
How you shall bid God ’ield us for your pains,
And thank us for your trouble.
LADY MACBETH All our service
26
 ACT I SCENE VI

In every point twice done, and then done double,

Were poor and single business to contend
Against those honors 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?
We coursed him at the heels and had a purpose
To be his purveyor; but he rides well,
And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him
To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess,
We are your guest tonight.
LADY MACBETH Your servants ever
Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in
compt,
To make their audit at your Highness’ pleasure,
Still to return your own.
DUNCAN Give me your hand;
Conduct me to mine host. We love him highly,
And shall continue our graces towards him.
By your leave, hostess. Exeunt

27
 ACT I SCENE VII

SCENE VII

Macbeth’s castle. Hautboys and torches.

Enter a Sewer and divers Servants with dishes and
service, who pass over the stage. Then enter Macbeth
MACBETH If it were done when ’tis done, then
’twere well
It were done quickly. If the assassination
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
We still have judgement 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:
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should against his murtherer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
28
 ACT I SCENE VII

So clear in his great office, that his virtues

Will plead like angels trumpet-tongued against
The deep damnation of his taking-off,
And pity, like a naked new-born babe
Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin horsed
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
And falls on the other.
Enter Lady Macbeth
How now, what news?
LADY MACBETH He has almost supp’d
MACBETH Hath he ask’d for me?
LADY MACBETH Know you not he has?
MACBETH We will proceed no further in this
business:
He hath honor’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.
LADY MACBETH Was the hope drunk
29
 ACT I SCENE VII

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
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valor
As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting "I dare not" wait upon "I would"
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 wast then
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, you would
Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both.
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–
30
 ACT I SCENE VII

I would, while it was smiling in my face,

Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums
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 sticking-place
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,
Shall be a fume and the receipt of reason
A limbeck only. When in swinish sleep
Their drenched natures lie as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
The unguarded Duncan? What not put upon
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,
When we have mark’d with blood those sleepy two
31
 ACT I SCENE VII

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 clamor roar
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:
False face must hide what the false heart doth
know.
Exeunt

32
 ACT II

SCENE I

Inverness. Court of Macbeth’s castle.

Enter Banquo and Fleance, bearing a torch before him
BANQUO How goes the night, boy?
FLEANCE The moon is down; 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
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
33
 ACT II SCENE I

Gives way to in repose!

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 abed
He hath been in unusual pleasure and
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.
MACBETH Being unprepared,
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.
MACBETH I think not of them;
Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,
We would spend it in some words upon that
business,
34
 ACT II SCENE I

If you would grant the time.

BANQUO At your kind’st leisure
MACBETH If you shall cleave to my consent, when
’tis,
It shall make honor for you.
BANQUO So I lose none
In seeking to augment it, but still keep
My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,
I shall be counsel’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. 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 thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
35
ACT II SCENE I

A dagger of the mind, a false creation,

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshal’st me the way that I was going,
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:
It is the bloody business which informs
Thus to mine eyes. Now o’er the one half-world
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain’d sleep; witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate’s offerings; and wither’d Murther,
Alarum’d by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose 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
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
And take the present horror from the time,
36
ACT II SCENE I

Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives;

Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
A bell rings.
I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven, or to hell. Exit

37
 ACT II SCENE II

SCENE II

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!
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
That death and nature 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
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.
38
 ACT II SCENE II

Enter Macbeth,
My husband!
MACBETH I have done the deed
LADY MACBETH I heard the owl scream and the
crickets cry
Did not you speak?
MACBETH When?
LADY MACBETH Now
MACBETH As I descended?
LADY MACBETH Ay
MACBETH Hark!
Who lies i’ the second chamber?
LADY MACBETH Donalbain
MACBETH This is a sorry sight
LADY MACBETH A foolish thought, to say a sorry
sight
MACBETH There’s one did laugh in ’s sleep, and
one cried, "Murther!"
That they did wake each other. I stood and heard
them,
39
 ACT II SCENE II

But they did say their prayers and address’d them

Again to sleep.
LADY MACBETH There are two lodged 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,"
When they did say, "God bless us!"
LADY MACBETH Consider it not so deeply
MACBETH But wherefore could not I pronounce
"Amen"?
I had most need of blessing, and "Amen"
Stuck in my throat.
LADY MACBETH These deeds must not be thought
After these ways; so, it will make us mad.
MACBETH I heard a voice cry, "Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murther sleep" –the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravel’d sleave of care,
The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
40
 ACT II SCENE II

Chief nourisher in life’s feast–

LADY MACBETH What do you mean?
MACBETH Still it cried, "Sleep no more!" to all the
house;
"Glamis hath murther’d sleep, and therefore
Cawdor
Shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more."
LADY MACBETH Who was it that thus cried? Why,
worthy Thane,
You do unbend your noble strength, to think
So brainsickly of things. Go, get some water
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
I am afraid to think what I have done;
Look on’t again I dare not.
LADY MACBETH Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead
Are but as pictures; ’tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
41
 ACT II SCENE II

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?
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 incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
Re-enter Lady Macbeth
LADY MACBETH My hands are of your color, but I
shame
To wear a heart so white. (Knocking within) I hear
knocking
At the south entry. Retire we to our chamber.
A little water clears us of this deed.
How easy is it then! Your constancy
Hath left you unattended. Knocking within) Hark,
more knocking.
Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us
And show us to be watchers. Be not lost
42
 ACT II SCENE III

So poorly in your thoughts.

MACBETH To know my deed, ’twere best not know
myself
Knocking within
Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou
couldst!
Exeunt

SCENE III

The same.
Enter a Porter. Knocking within
PORTER Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were
porter of Hell Gate, he should have old turning the
key. (Knocking within) Knock, knock, knock! Who’s
there, i’ the name of Belzebub? Here’s a farmer that
hanged himself on th’ expectation of plenty. Come
in time! Have napkins enow about you; here you’ll
sweat fort.
Knocking within Knock, knock! Who’s there, in th’
other devil’s name? Faith, here’s an equivocator
that could swear in both the scales against either
scale, who committed treason enough for God’s
sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven. O, come
43
 ACT II SCENE III

in, equivocator. (Knocking within) Knock, 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, knock! Never at quiet!
What are you? But this place is too cold for hell. I’ll
devil-porter it no further. I had thought to have let
in some of all professions, that go the primrose way
to the everlasting bonfire. (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 provoker of three
things.
MACDUFF What three things does drink especially
provoke?
PORTER Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine it
provokes and unprovokes: it provokes the desire,
but it takes away the performance. Therefore much
drink may be said to be an equivocator with
44
 ACT II SCENE III

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 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

requited him for his lie, and, I think, being too
strong for him, though he took up my legs
sometime, yet I made shift to cast him.

MACDUFF Is thy master stirring?

Enter Macbeth
Our knocking has awaked him; here he comes.

LENNOX Good morrow, noble sir

MACBETH morrow, both

MACDUFF Is the King stirring, worthy Thane?

MACBETH Not yet

MACDUFF He did command me to call timely on

him;
45
 ACT II SCENE III

I have almost slipp’d the hour.

MACBETH I’ll bring you to him
MACDUFF I know this is a joyful trouble to you,
But yet ’tis one.
MACBETH The labor we delight in physics pain
This is the door.
MACDUFF I’ LL MAKE SO BOLD TO CALL ,
For ’tis my limited service. Exit
LENNOX Goes the King hence today?
MACBETH He does; he did appoint so
LENNOX The night has been unruly
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
New hatch’d to the woeful time. The obscure bird
Clamor’d the livelong night. Some say the earth
Was feverous and did shake.
MACBETH ’Twas a rough fight
LENNOX My young remembrance cannot parallel
46
 ACT II SCENE III

A fellow to it.
Re-enter Macduff
MACDUFF O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor
heart
Cannot conceive nor name thee.
MACBETH LENNOX
MACDUFF Confusion now hath made his
masterpiece
Most sacrilegious murther hath broke ope
The Lord’s anointed temple and stole thence
The life o’ the building.
MACBETH What is’t you say? the life?
LENNOX Mean you his Majesty?
MACDUFF Approach the chamber, and destroy
your sight
With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak;
See, and then speak yourselves.
Exeunt Macbeth and Lennox
Awake, awake!
Ring the alarum bell. Murther and treason!
Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm, awake!
Shake off this downy sleep, death’s counterfeit,
47
 ACT II SCENE III

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
To countenance 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,
’Tis not for you to hear what I can speak:
The repetition in a woman’s ear
Would murther as it fell.
Enter Banquo
O Banquo, Banquo!
Our royal master’s murther’d.
LADY MACBETH Woe, alas!
What, in our house?
BANQUO Too cruel anywhere
Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself,
And say it is not so.
Re-enter Macbeth and Lennox, with Ross
MACBETH Had I but died an hour before this
chance,
48
 ACT II SCENE III

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,
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 blood
Is stopped, the very source of it is stopp’d.
MACDUFF Your royal father’s murther’d
MALCOLM O, by whom?
LENNOX Those of his chamber, as it seem’d, had
done’t
Their hands and faces were all badged with blood;
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,
49
 ACT II SCENE III

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 of my violent love
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 nature
For ruin’s wasteful entrance; there, the murtherers,
Steep’d in the colors of their trade, their daggers
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 MACBETH Help me hence, ho!
MACDUFF Look to the lady
MALCOLM Aside to Donalbain
That most may claim this argument for ours?
DONALBAIN Aside to Malcolm
Hid in an auger hole, may rush and seize us?
Let’s away,
50
 ACT II SCENE III

Our tears are not yet brew’d.

MALCOLM Aside to Donalbain
Upon the foot of motion.
BANQUO Look to the lady
Lady Macbeth is carried out
And when we 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
Against the undivulged pretense I fight
Of treasonous malice.
MACDUFF And so do I
ALL So all
MACBETH Let’s briefly put on manly readiness
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 them
To show an unfelt sorrow is an office
51
 ACT II SCENE IV

Which the false man does easy. I’ll to England.

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 murtherous shaft that’s shot
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.
Exeunt

SCENE IV

Outside Macbeth’s castle.

Enter Ross with an Old Man
OLD MAN Threescore and ten I can remember well,
Within the volume of which time I have seen
Hours dreadful and things strange, but this sore
night
Hath trifled former knowings.
ROSS Ah, good father,
52
 ACT II SCENE IV

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 traveling lamp.
Is’t night’s predominance, or the day’s shame,
That darkness does the face of earth entomb,
When living light should kiss it?
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.
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, flung out,
Contending ’gainst obedience, as they would make
War with mankind.
OLD MAN ’Tis said they eat each other
ROSS They did so, to the amazement of mine eyes
That look’d upon’t.
Enter Macduff
Here comes the good Macduff.
53
 ACT II SCENE IV

How goes the world, sir, now?

MACDUFF Why, see you not?
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:
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
Thine own life’s means! Then ’tis most like
The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.
MACDUFF He is already named, and gone to Scone
To be invested.
ROSS Where is Duncan’s body?
MACDUFF Carried to Colmekill,
The sacred storehouse of his predecessors
54
 ACT II SCENE IV

And guardian of their bones.

ROSS Will you to Scone?
MACDUFF No, cousin, I’ll to Fife
ROSS Well, I will thither
MACDUFF Well, may you see things well done there
Adieu, Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!
ROSS Farewell, father
OLD MAN God’s benison go with you and with
those
That would make good of bad and friends of foes!
Exeunt

55
 ACT III

SCENE I

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,
But that myself should be the root and father
Of many kings. If there come truth from them
(As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine)
Why, by the verities on thee made good,
May they not be my oracles as well
And set me up in hope? But hush, no more.
Sennet sounds. Enter Macbeth as King, Lady Macbeth
57
 ACT III SCENE I

as Queen, Lennox, Ross, Lords, Ladies, and

Attendants.
MACBETH Here’s our chief guest
LADY MACBETH If he had been forgotten,
It had been as a gap in our great feast
And all thing unbecoming.
MACBETH Tonight 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
Forever 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
In this day’s council; but we’ll take tomorrow.
Is’t far you ride’!
BANQUO As far, my lord, as will fill up the time
’Twixt this and supper. Go not my horse the better,
58
 ACT III SCENE I

I must become a borrower of the night

For a dark hour or twain.
MACBETH Fail not our feast
BANQUO My lord, I will not
MACBETH We hear our bloody cousins are bestow’d
In England and in Ireland, not confessing
Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers
With strange invention. But of that tomorrow,
When therewithal we shall have cause of state
Craving us jointly. Hie you to horse; adieu,
Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you?
BANQUO Ay, my good lord
MACBETH I wish your horses swift and sure of foot,
And so I do commend you to their backs.
Farewell. Exit Banquo
Let every man be master of his time
Till seven at night; to make society
The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself
Till supper time alone. While then, God be with
you!
Exeunt all but Macbeth and an Attendant
Sirrah, a word with you. Attend those men
59
 ACT III SCENE I

Our pleasure?
ATTENDANT They are, my lord, without the palace
gate
MACBETH Bring them before us
To be thus is nothing,
But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo.
Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature
Reigns that which would be fear’d. ’Tis much he
dares,
And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor
To act in safety. There is none but he
Whose being I do fear; and under him
My genius is rebuked, as it is said
Mark Antony’s was by Caesar. He chid the sisters
When first they put the name of King upon me
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
And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,
Thence to be wrench’d with an unlineal hand,
No son of mine succeeding. If’t be so,
For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind,
60
 ACT III SCENE I

For them the gracious Duncan have I murther’d,

Put rancors in the vessel of my peace
Only for them, and mine eternal jewel
Given to the common enemy of man,
To make them kings –the seed of Banquo kings!
Rather than so, come, Fate, into the list,
And champion me to the utterance! Who’s there?
Re-enter Attendant, with two Murtherers
Now go to the door, and stay there till we call.
Exit Attendant
Was it not yesterday we spoke together?
FIRST MURTHERER It was, so please your
Highness
MACBETH Well then, now
Have you consider’d of my speeches? Know
That it was he in the times past which held you
So under fortune, which you thought had been
Our innocent self? This I made good to you
In our last conference, pass’d in probation with
you:
How you were borne in hand, how cross’d, the
instruments,
Who wrought with them, and all things else that
might
61
 ACT III SCENE I

To half a soul and to a notion crazed

Say, "Thus did Banquo."
FIRST MURTHERER 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 gospel’d,
To pray for this good man and for his issue,
Whose heavy hand hath bow’d you to the grave
And beggar’d yours forever?
FIRST MURTHERER We are men, my liege
MACBETH Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men,
As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels,
curs,
Shoughs, waterrugs, and demi-wolves are clept
All by the name of dogs. The valued file
Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle,
The housekeeper, the hunter, every one
According to the gift which bounteous nature
Hath in him closed, whereby he does receive
Particular addition, from the bill
That writes them all alike; and so of men.
62
 ACT III SCENE I

Now if you have a station in the file,

Not i’ the worst rank of manhood, say it,
And I will put that business in your bosoms
Whose execution takes your enemy off,
Grapples you to the heart and love of us,
Who wear our health but sickly in his life,
Which in his death were perfect.
SECOND MURTHERER 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.
FIRST MURTHERER And I another
So weary with disasters, tugg’d with fortune,
That I would set my life on any chance,
To mend it or be rid on’t.
MACBETH Both of you
Know Banquo was your enemy.
BOTH MURTHERERS True, my lord
MACBETH So is he mine, and in such bloody
distance
That every minute of his being thrusts
Against my near’st of life; and though I could
63
 ACT III SCENE I

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
That I to your assistance do make love,
Masking the business from the common eye
For sundry weighty reasons.
SECOND MURTHERER We shall, my lord,
Perform what you command us.
FIRST MURTHERER Though our lives–
MACBETH Your spirits shine through you
I will advise you where to plant yourselves,
Acquaint you with the perfect spy o’ the time,
The moment on’t; fort must be done tonight
And something from the palace (always thought
That I require a clearness); and with him–
To leave no rubs nor botches in the work–
Fleance his son, that keeps him company,
Whose absence is no less material to me
Than is his father’s, must embrace the fate
Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart;
64
 ACT III SCENE II

I’ll come to you anon.

BOTH MURTHERERS We are resolved, my lord
MACBETH I’ll call upon you straight
Exeunt Murtherers
It is concluded: Banquo, thy soul’s flight,
If it find heaven, must find it out tonight. Exit

SCENE II

The palace.
Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant
LADY MACBETH Is Banquo gone from court?
SERVANT Ay, madam, but returns again tonight
LADY MACBETH Say to the King I would attend
his leisure
For a few words.
SERVANT Madam, I will
LADY MACBETH Nought’s had, all’s spent,
Where our desire is got without content.
’Tis safer to be that which we destroy
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.
65
 ACT III SCENE II

Enter Macbeth
How now, my lord? Why do you keep alone,
Of sorriest fancies your companions making,
Using those thoughts which should indeed have
died
With them they think on? Things without all
remedy
Should be without regard. What’s done is done.
MACBETH We have scotch’d the snake, not kill’d it
She’ll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice
Remains in danger of her former tooth.
But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds
suffer,
Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep
In the affliction of these terrible dreams
That shake us nightly. Better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave;
After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well.
Treason has done his worst; nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
Can touch him further.
LADY MACBETH Come on,
66
 ACT III SCENE II

Gentle my lord, sleek o’er your rugged looks;

Be bright and jovial among your guests tonight.
MACBETH So shall I, love, and so, I pray, be you
Let your remembrance apply to Banquo;
Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue:
Unsafe the while, that we
Must lave our honors in these flattering streams,
And make our faces vizards to our hearts,
Disguising what they are.
LADY MACBETH You must leave this
MACBETH O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear
wife!
Thou know’st that Banquo and his Fleance lives.
LADY MACBETH But in them nature’s copy’s not
eterne
MACBETH There’s comfort yet; they are assailable
Then be thou jocund. Ere the bat hath flown
His cloister’d flight, ere to black Hecate’s summons
The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums
Hath rung night’s yawning peal, there shall be
done
67
 ACT III SCENE III

A deed of dreadful note.

LADY MACBETH What’s to be done?
MACBETH Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest
chuck,
Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day,
And with thy bloody and invisible hand
Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond
Which keeps me pale! Light thickens, and the crow
Makes wing to the rooky wood;
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,
Whiles night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.
Thou marvel’st at my words, but hold thee still:
Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.
So, prithee, go with me. Exeunt

SCENE III

A park near the palace.

Enter three Murtherers
FIRST MURTHERER But who did bid thee join with
68
 ACT III SCENE III

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
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
69
 ACT III SCENE III

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

70
 ACT III SCENE IV

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
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
71
 ACT III SCENE IV

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
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
With twenty trenched gashes on his head,
The least a death to nature.
MACBETH Thanks for that
72
 ACT III SCENE IV

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,
73
 ACT III SCENE IV

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
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
74
 ACT III SCENE IV

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;
75
 ACT III SCENE IV

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!
76
 ACT III SCENE IV

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,
77
 ACT III SCENE IV

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
78
 ACT III SCENE IV

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
Is the initiate fear that wants hard use.
79
 ACT III SCENE V

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
80
 ACT III SCENE V

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

81
 ACT III SCENE VI

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
82
 ACT III SCENE VI

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
83
 ACT III SCENE VI

Hath so exasperate the King that he

Prepares for some attempt of war.
LENNOX Sent he to Macduff?
LORD He did, and with an absolute "Sir, not I,"
The cloudy messenger turns me his back,
And hums, as who should say, "You’ll rue the time
That clogs me with this answer."
LENNOX And that well might
Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance
His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel
Fly to the court of England and unfold
His message ere he come, that a swift blessing
May soon return to this our suffering country
Under a hand accursed!
LORD I’ll send my prayers with him
Exeunt

84
 ACT IV

SCENE I

A cavern. 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 Harpier cries, "’Tis time, ’tis time
FIRST WITCH Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison’d entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter’d venom sleeping got,
85
 ACT IV SCENE I

Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.

ALL Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn 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,
Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
ALL Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
THIRD WITCH Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witch’s mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg’d i’ the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat and slips of yew
Sliver’d in the moon’s eclipse,
Nose of Turk and Tartar’s lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe
86
 ACT IV SCENE I

Ditch-deliver’d by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab.
Add thereto a tiger’s chawdron,
For the ingredients of our cawdron.
ALL Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
SECOND WITCH Cool it with a baboon’s blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.
Enter Hecate to the other three Witches
HECATE O, well done! I commend your pains,
And everyone shall share i’ the gains.
And now about the cauldron sing,
Like elves and fairies in a ring,
Enchanting all that you put in.
Music and a song, "Black spirits."
Hecate retires
SECOND WITCH By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks!
Enter Macbeth
MACBETH How now, you secret, black, and
midnight hags?
87
 ACT IV SCENE I

What is’t you do?

ALL A deed without a name
MACBETH I conjure you, by that which you profess
(Howeer 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,
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 germaines tumble all together
Even till destruction sicken, answer me
To what I ask you.
FIRST WITCH Speak
SECOND WITCH Demand
THIRD WITCH We’ll answer
FIRST WITCH Say, if thou’dst rather hear it from
our mouths,
88
 ACT IV SCENE I

Or from our masters’?

MACBETH Call ’em, let me see ’em
FIRST WITCH Pour in sow’s blood that hath eaten
Her nine farrow; grease that’s sweaten
From the murtherer’s gibbet throw
Into the flame.
ALL Come, high or low;
Thyself and office deftly show!
Thunder. First Apparition: an armed Head
MACBETH Tell me, thou unknown power–
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;
Thou hast harp’d my fear aright. But one word
more–
FIRST WITCH He will not be commanded
More potent than the first.
89
 ACT IV SCENE I

Thunder. Second Apparition: a bloody Child

SECOND APPARITION Macbeth! Macbeth!
Macbeth!
MACBETH Had I three ears, I’d 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
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,
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
90
 ACT IV SCENE I

Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are.

Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until
Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill
Shall come against him. Descends
MACBETH That will never be
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
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
MACBETH I will be satisfied! Deny me this,
And an eternal curse fall on you! Let me know.
Why sinks that cauldron, and what noise is this?
Hautboys
91
 ACT IV SCENE I

FIRST WITCH Show!

SECOND WITCH Show!
THIRD WITCH
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;
Banquo’s Ghost following
MACBETH Thou are too like the spirit of Banquo
Down!
Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs. And thy hair,
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 stretch out to the crack of doom?
Another yet! A seventh! I’ll see no more!
And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass
Which shows me many more; and some I see
That twofold balls and treble sceptres carry.
Horrible sight! Now I see ’tis true;
For the blood-bolter’d Banquo smiles upon me,
And points at them for his. What, is this so?
FIRST WITCH Ay, sir, all this is so
92
 ACT IV SCENE I

Stands Macbeth thus amazedly?

Come,sisters, cheer we up his sprites,
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.
Music. The Witches dance and
then vanish with Hecate
MACBETH are they? Gone? Let this pernicious hour
Stand ay accursed in the calendar!
Come in, without there!
Enter Lennox
LENNOX What’s your Grace’s will?
MACBETH Saw you the weird sisters?
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
93
 ACT IV SCENE I

The galloping of horse. Who wast came by?

LENNOX ’Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you
word
Macduff is fled to England.
MACBETH Fled to England?
LENNOX Ay, my good lord
MACBETH Aside
The flighty purpose 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,
To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and
done:
The castle 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;
This deed I’ll do before this purpose cool.
But no more sights! –Where are these gentlemen?
Come, bring me where they are. Exeunt

94
 ACT IV SCENE II

SCENE II

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
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.
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,
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
95
 ACT IV SCENE II

So runs against all reason.

ROSS My dearest coz,
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
And do not know ourselves; when we hold rumor
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.
Things at the worst will cease or else climb upward
To what they were before. My pretty cousin,
Blessing upon you!
LADY MACDUFF Father’d he is, and yet he’s
fatherless
ROSS I am so much a fool, should I stay longer,
It would be my disgrace and your discomfort.
I take my leave at once. Exit
LADY MACDUFF Sirrah, your father’s dead
96
 ACT IV SCENE II

And what will you do now? How will you live?

SON As birds do, Mother

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
My father is not dead, for all your saying.

LADY MACDUFF Yes, he is dead

SON Nay, how will you do for a husband?

LADY MACDUFF Why, I can buy me twenty at any

market

SON Then you’ll buy ’em to sell again

LADY MACDUFF Thou speak’st with all thy wit,

and yet, i’ faith,
97
 ACT IV SCENE II

With wit enough for thee.

SON Was my father a traitor, Mother?
LADY MACDUFF Ay, that he was
SON What is a traitor?
LADY MACDUFF Why one that swears and lies
SON And be all traitors that do so?
LADY MACDUFF Everyone that does so is a traitor
and must be hanged.
SON And must they all be hanged that swear and lie?
LADY MACDUFF Everyone
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.
LADY MACDUFF Now, God help thee, poor
monkey! But how wilt thou do for a father?
SON If he were dead, you’ld weep for him; if you
98
 ACT IV SCENE II

would not, it were a good sign that I should

quickly have a new father.
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 honor I am perfect.
I doubt some danger does approach you nearly.
If you will take a homely man’s advice,
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. Exit
LADY MACDUFF Whither should I fly?
I have done 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,
Do I put up that womanly defense,
To say I have done no harm –What are these faces?
Enter Murtherers
99
 ACT IV SCENE II

FIRST MURTHERER Where is your husband?

LADY MACDUFF I hope, in no place so
unsanctified
Where such as thou mayst find him.
FIRST MURTHERER He’s a traitor
SON Thou liest, thou shag-ear’d villain!
FIRST MURTHERER What, you egg!
Stabs him
Young fry of treachery!
SON He has kill’d me, Mother
Run away, I pray you! Dies
Exit Lady Macduff, crying "Murther!"
Exeunt Murtherers, following her

100
 ACT IV SCENE III

SCENE III

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
Hold fast the mortal sword, and like good men
Bestride our downfall’n birthdom. Each new morn
New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows
Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds
As if it felt with Scotland and yell’d out
Like syllable of dolor.
MALCOLM What I believe, I’ll wall;
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.
This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,
Was once thought honest. You have loved him well;
He hath not touch’d you yet. I am young, but
something
101
 ACT IV SCENE III

You may deserve of him through me, and wisdom

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
In an imperial charge. But I shall crave 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,
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,
Without leave-taking? I pray you,
Let not my jealousies be your dishonors,
But mine own safeties. You may be rightly just,
Whatever I shall think.
MACDUFF Bleed, bleed, poor country!
102
 ACT IV SCENE III

Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure,

For goodness dare not check thee. Wear thou thy
wrongs;
The title is affeer’d. Fare thee well, lord.
I would not be the villain that thou think’st
For the whole space 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;
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,
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.
MACDUFF What should he be?
MALCOLM It is myself I mean, in whom I know
All the particulars of vice so grafted
103
 ACT IV SCENE III

That, when they shall be open’d, black Macbeth

Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state
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.
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,
Your matrons, and your maids could not fill up
The cestern of my lust, and my desire
All continent impediments would o’erbear
That did oppose my will. Better Macbeth
Than such an one to reign.
MACDUFF Boundless intemperance
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
104
 ACT IV SCENE III

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,
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,
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 loyal,
Destroying them for wealth.
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
Of your mere own. All these are portable,
With other graces weigh’d.
MALCOLM But I have none
105
 ACT IV SCENE III

As justice, verity, temperance, stableness,

Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,
Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude,
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,
Uproar the universal peace, 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.
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
By his own 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!
These evils thou repeat’st upon thyself
106
 ACT IV SCENE III

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
Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts
To thy good truth and honor. 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
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
Unknown to woman, never was forsworn,
Scarcely have coveted what was mine own,
At no time broke my faith, would not betray
The devil to his fellow, and delight
No less in truth than life. My first false speaking
Was this upon myself. What I am truly
Is thine and my poor country’s to command.
Whither indeed, before thy here-approach,
Old Siward, with ten thousand warlike men
107
 ACT IV SCENE III

Already at a point, was setting forth.

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
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.
MALCOLM I thank you, 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-remain in England,
I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven,
Himself best knows; but strangely-visited people,
All swol’n and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye,
The mere despair of surgery, he cures,
108
 ACT IV SCENE III

Hanging a golden stamp about their necks

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
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
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
Be call’d our mother, but our grave. Where nothing,
But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile;
Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the
air,
109
 ACT IV SCENE III

Are made, not mark’d; where violent sorrow seems

A modern ecstasy. The dead man’s knell
Is there scarce ask’d for who, and good men’s lives
Expire before the flowers in their caps,
Dying or ere they sicken.
MACDUFF O, relation
Too nice, and yet too true!
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
MACDUFF And all my children?
ROSS 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 Be not a niggard of your speech
ROSS When I came hither to transport the tidings,
110
 ACT IV SCENE III

Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumor

Of many worthy fellows that were out,
Which was to my belief witness’d the rather,
For that I saw the tyrant’s power afoot.
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
Lent us good Siward and ten thousand men;
An older and a better soldier none
That Christendom gives out.
ROSS Would I could answer
This comfort with the like! But I have words
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?
ROSS No mind that’s honest
But in it shares some woe, though the main part
111
 ACT IV SCENE III

Pertains to you alone.

MACDUFF If it be mine,
Keep it not from me, quickly let me have it.
ROSS Let not your ears despise my tongue forever,
Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound
That ever yet they heard.
MACDUFF Humh! I guess at it
ROSS Your castle is surprised; your wife and babes
Savagely slaughter’d. To relate the manner
Were, on the quarry of these murther’d deer,
To add the death of you.
MALCOLM Merciful heaven!
What, man! Neer pull your hat upon your brows;
Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak
Whispers the o’erfraught heart, and bids it break.
MACDUFF My children too?
ROSS Wife, children, servants, all
That could be found.
MACDUFF And I must be from thence!
112
 ACT IV SCENE III

My wife kill’d too?

ROSS I have said
MALCOLM Be comforted
Let’s make us medicines of our great revenge,
To cure this deadly grief.
MACDUFF He has no children
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?
MALCOLM Dispute it like a man
MACDUFF I shall do so,
But I must also feel it as a man.
I cannot but remember such things were
That were most precious to me. Did heaven look
on,
And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff,
They were all struck for thee! Naught that I am,
Not for their own demerits, but for mine,
Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them
now!
MALCOLM Be this the whetstone of your sword
113
 ACT IV SCENE III

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
Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself;
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
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

114
 ACT V

SCENE I

Dunsinane. Anteroom in the castle

Enter a Doctor of Physic and 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?
GENTLEWOMAN Since his Majesty went into the
field, have seen her rise from her bed, throw her
nightgown 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.
DOCTOR A great perturbation in nature, to receive
at once the benefit of sleep and do the effects of
watching! In this slumbery agitation, besides her
115
 ACT V SCENE I

walking and other actual performances, what, at

any time, have you heard her say?
GENTLEWOMAN That, sir, which I will not report
after her
DOCTOR You may to me, and ’tis most meet you
should
GENTLEWOMAN Neither to you nor anyone,
having no witness to confirm my speech.
Enter Lady Macbeth with a taper
Lo you, here she comes! This is her very guise, and,
upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand close.
DOCTOR How came she by that light?
GENTLEWOMAN Why, it stood by her continually;
’tis her command.
DOCTOR You see, her eyes are open
GENTLEWOMAN Ay, but their sense is shut
DOCTOR What is it she does now? Look how she
rubs her hands
GENTLEWOMAN It is an accustomed action with
her, to seem thus washing her hands. I have known
116
 ACT V SCENE I

her continue in this a quarter of an hour.

LADY MACBETH Yet here’s a spot
DOCTOR Hark, she speaks! I will set 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 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?
LADY MACBETH The Thane of Fife had a wife;
where is she now? What, will these hands neer 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
GENTLEWOMAN She has spoke what she should
not, I am sure of that
Heaven knows what she has known.
LADY MACBETH Here’s the smell of the blood still
117
 ACT V SCENE I

of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh,

oh!
DOCTOR What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely
charged
GENTLEWOMAN I would not have such a heart in
my bosom for the dignity of the whole body.
DOCTOR Well, well, well–
GENTLEWOMAN Pray God it be, sir
DOCTOR This disease is beyond my practice which
have walked in their sleep who have died holily in
their beds.
LADY MACBETH Wash your hands, put on your
nightgown, look not so pale. I tell you yet again,
Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out on’s grave.
DOCTOR Even so?
LADY MACBETH To bed, to bed; there’s knocking
at the gate come, come, come, give me your
[Link]’s done cannot be undone. To bed, to
bed, to bed.
Exit
118
 ACT V SCENE I

DOCTOR Will she go now to bed?

GENTLEWOMAN Directly
DOCTOR Foul whisperings are abroad
Do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.
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.
I think, but dare not speak.
GENTLEWOMAN Good night, good doctor
Exeunt

119
 ACT V SCENE II

SCENE II

The country near Dunsinane. Drum and colors.

Enter Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, and
Soldiers
MENTEITH The English power is near, led on by
Malcolm,
His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff.
Revenges burn in them, for their dear causes
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?
LENNOX For certain, sir, he is not; I have a file
Of all the gentry. There is Seward’s son
And many unrough youths that even now
Protest their first of manhood.
MENTEITH What does the tyrant?
CAITHNESS Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies
120
 ACT V SCENE II

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 rule.
ANGUS Now does he feel
His secret murthers 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
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
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,
Each drop of us.
LENNOX Or so much as it needs
To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds.
121
ACT V SCENE II

Make we our march towards Birnam. Exeunt

marching

122
 ACT V SCENE III

SCENE III

Dunsinane. A room in the castle.

Enter Macbeth, Doctor, and Attendants

MACBETH Bring me no more reports; let them fly

all!
Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane
I cannot taint with fear. What’s the boy Malcolm?
Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know
All mortal consequences have pronounced me
thus:
"Fear not, Macbeth; no man that’s born of woman
Shall e’er have power upon thee." Then fly, false
Thanes,
And mingle with the English epicures!
The mind I sway by and the heart I bear
Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.
Enter a Servant
The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon!
123
 ACT V SCENE III

Where got’st thou that goose look?

SERVANT There is ten thousand–
MACBETH Geese, villain?
SERVANT Soldiers, sir
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 counselors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?
SERVANT The English force, so please you
MACBETH Take thy face hence
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
Is fall’n into the sear, the yellow leaf,
And that which should accompany old age,
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have; but in their stead,
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath,
Which the poor heart would fain deny and dare
not.
Seyton!
124
 ACT V SCENE III

Enter Seyton
SEYTON What’s your gracious pleasure?
MACBETH What news more?
SEYTON All is confirm’d, my lord, which was
reported
MACBETH I’ll fight, ’til from my bones my flesh be
hack’d
Give me my armor.
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 armor.
How does your patient, doctor?
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
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 antidote
125
 ACT V SCENE III

Cleanse the stuff’d bosom of that perilous stuff

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 armor on; give me my staff.
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,
That should applaud again. Pull’t off, I say.
What rhubarb, cyme, or what purgative drug
Would scour these English hence? Hearst thou of
them?
DOCTOR Ay, my good lord, your royal preparation
Makes us hear something.
MACBETH Bring it after me
I will not be afraid of death and bane
Till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane.
DOCTOR Aside
Profit again should hardly draw me here. Exeunt
126
 ACT V SCENE IV

SCENE IV

Country near Birnam Wood. Drum and colors.

Enter Malcolm, old Seward and his Son, Macduff,
Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, Ross, and
Soldiers, marching
MALCOLM Cousins, I hope the days are near at
hand
That chambers will be safe.
MENTEITH We doubt it nothing
SIWARD What wood is this before us?
MENTEITH The Wood of Birnam
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
SIWARD We learn no other but the confident tyrant
Keeps still in Dunsinane and will endure
127
 ACT V SCENE V

Our setting down before’t.

MALCOLM ’Tis his main hope;
For where there is advantage to be given,
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
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,
But certain issue strokes must arbitrate.
Towards which advance the war.
Exeunt Marching

SCENE V

Dunsinane. Within the castle.

Enter Macbeth, Seyton, and Soldiers, with drum and
colors
128
 ACT V SCENE V

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
Till famine and the ague eat them up.
Were they not forced with those that should be
ours,
We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,
And beat them backward home.
A cry of women within
What is that noise?
SEYTON It is the cry of women, my good lord
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
As life were in’t. I have supp’d full with horrors;
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,
Cannot once start me.
Re-enter Seyton
129
 ACT V SCENE V

Wherefore was that cry?

SEYTON The Queen, my lord, is dead
MACBETH She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time;
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
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Enter a Messenger
Thou comest to use thy tongue; thy story quickly.
MESSENGER Gracious my lord,
I should report that which I say I saw,
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,
130
 ACT V SCENE V

The Wood began to move.

MACBETH Liar and slave!
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,
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
That lies like truth. "Fear not, till Birnam Wood
Do come to Dunsinane," and now a wood
Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out!
If this which he avouches does appear,
There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here.
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

131
 ACT V SCENE VI

SCENE VI

Dunsinane. Before the castle.

Enter Malcolm, old Siward, Macduff, and their Army,
with boughs.
Drum and colors
MALCOLM Now near enough; your leavy screens
throw down,
And show like those you are. You, worthy uncle,
Shall with my cousin, your right noble son,
Lead our first battle. Worthy Macduff and we
Shall take upon ’s what else remains to do,
According to our order.
SIWARD Fare you well
Do we but find the tyrant’s power tonight,
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.
Exeunt

SCENE VII

132
 ACT V SCENE VII

Dunsinane. Before the castle. 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 Siward
YOUNG SIWARD What is thy name?
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
More hateful to mine ear.
MACBETH No, nor more fearful
YOUNG SIWARD O T HOU LIEST, ABHORRED
TYRANT; WITH MY SWORD
I’ll prove the lie thou speak’st.
They fight, and young Seward is slain
133
 ACT V SCENE VII

MACBETH Thou wast born of woman

But swords 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
If thou best slain and with no stroke of mine,
My wife and children’s ghosts will haunt me still.
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 greatest note
Seems bruited. Let me find him, Fortune!
And more I beg not. Exit. Alarums
Enter Malcolm and old 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 bravely in the war,
The day almost itself professes yours,
And little is to do.
MALCOLM We have met with foes
134
 ACT V SCENE VIII

That strike beside us.

SIWARD Enter, sir, the castle
Exeunt. Alarum

SCENE VIII

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, the gashes
Do better upon them.
Enter Macduff
MACDUFF Turn, hell hound, turn!
MACBETH Of all men else I have avoided thee
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! They fight
MACBETH Thou losest labor
135
 ACT V SCENE VIII

As easy 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
To one of woman born.
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.
MACBETH Accursed be 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 patter with us in a double sense,
That keep the word of promise to our ear
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,
Painted upon a pole, and underwrit,
"Here may you see the tyrant."
MACBETH I will not yield,
To kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet,
136
 ACT V SCENE IX

And to be baited with the rabble’s curse.

Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane,
And thou opposed, 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 that first cries, "Hold, enough!"
Exeunt fighting. Alarums

SCENE IX

Retreat. Flourish.
Enter, with drum and colors, Malcolm, old Siward,
Ross, the other Thanes, and Soldiers
MALCOLM I would the friends we miss were safe
arrived
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 son
ROSS Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier’s debt
He only lived but till he was a man,
The which no sooner had his prowess confirm’d
In the unshrinking station where he fought,
137
 ACT V SCENE IX

But like a man he died.

SIWARD Then he is dead?
ROSS Ay, and brought off the field
Must not be measured by his worth, for then
It hath no end.
SIWARD Had he his hurts before?
ROSS Ay, on the front
SIWARD Why then, God’s soldier be he!
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.
SIWARD He’s worth no more:
They say he parted well and paid his score,
And so God be with him! Here comes newer
comfort.
Re-enter Macduff, with Macbeth’s head
MACDUFF Hail, King, for so thou art
The usurper’s cursed head. The time is free.
I see thee compass’d with thy kingdom’s pearl
138
 ACT V SCENE IX

That speak my salutation in their minds,

Whose voices I desire aloud with mine–
Hail, King of Scotland!
ALL Hail, King of Scotland! Flourish
MALCOLM We shall not 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 honor named. What’s more to do,
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,
Who, as ’tis thought, by self and violent 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,
Whom we invite to see us crown’d at Scone.
Flourish. Exeunt
139