Finger of birth-strangled babe, All. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire, burn; and, cauldron, bubble. 2 Witch Cool it with a baboon's blood, Then the charm is firm and good. Enter HECATE, and the other three WrrcHES. SONG. Black spirits and white, 2 Witch. By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes :Open, locks, whoever knocks. Enter ACBETH. of thee? this, But yet I'll make assurance double sure, All. Listen, but speak not. App. Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care [are: Macb. How now, you secret, black, and Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers midnight hags? What is't you do? All. A deed without a name. Macb. I conjure you, by that which you profess, (Howe'er you come to know it,) answer me: Though you untie the winds, and let them fight Against the churches; though the yesty+ waves Confound and swallow navigation up; Though bladed corn be lodg'd,‡ and trees blown down; Though castle: topple on their warders' heads; Though palaces, and pyramids, do slope Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be, until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill Shall come against him. [Descends. Mach. That will never be; Rebellious head, rise never till the wood art Can tell so much,) shall Banquo's issue ever Their heads to their foundations; though the Reign in this kingdom? treasure Of nature's germins tumble all together, Even till destruction sicken, answer me To what I ask you. 1 Witch. Speak. 2 Witch. Demand. 3 Witch. We'll answer. 1 Witch. Say, if thcud'st rather hear it from our mouths, Or from our master's? Macb. Call them, let me see them. 1 Witch. Pour in sow's blood, that hath Her nine farrow; grease, that's sweaten All. Come, high, or low; rises. All. Show his eyes, and grieve his heart; Come like shadows, so depart. Eight Kings appear, and pass over the Stage in order; the last with a Glass in his hand; BANQUO following. Macb.Thou art too like the spirit of Banque: down! Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls :-And thy hair, [first :Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the A thirds like the former :-Filthy bags! Wy do you show me this?-A fourth-Start, eyes! What! will the line stretch out to the crack of That two fold balls and treble scepters carry: me, And points at them for his.-What, is this so? [Music. The WITHCES dance and vanish. Macb. Where are they? Gone?-Let this pernicious hour Stand aye accursed in the calender!- Enter LENOX. Len. What's your grace's will? Macb. Came they not by you! ? Macb. Infected be the air whereon they ride; And damn'd all those that trust them!-I did hear The galloping of horse: Who was't came by? Len. Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word, Macduff is fled to England. Macb, Time, thou anticipat' t my dread The castle of Macduff I will surprise ; Come, bring me where they are. [Exeunt. Rosse. You know not, Whether it was his wisdom, or his fear L Macd.isdom to leave his wife, to leave his babes, His man ion, an his titles, in a place [not; Rosse. My dearest coz, *Besmeared with blood. I. e. Spirits. Preventest, by taking away the opportunity. Follow. .e. Our flight is considered as evidence of our treaNatural affection. ** Fight for. I pray you, school yourself: But for your hus band, He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows The fits o'the season. I dare not speak much further: rumour But cruel are the times, when we are traitors, To what they were before.-My pretty cousin, L. Macd. Father'd he is, and yet he's fatherless. Rosse. I am so much a fool, should I stay longer, It would be my disgrace, and your discomfort: L Macd. What, with worms and flies? L. Macd Poor bird! thoud'st never fear the net, nor lime, The pit-fall, nor the gin. Son. Why hould I, mother? Poor birds they are not set for. My father is not dead, for all your saying. for a father? Son. Then you'll buy 'em to sell again. L. Macd. Thou speak'st with all thy wit; and yet 'faith, With wit enough for thee. Son. Was my father a traitor, mother? Son. What is a traitor? L. Macd. Why, one that swears and lies. Son. And be all traitors, that do so? L. Macd. Every one that does so is a traitor, and must be hanged. Son And must they all be hanged, that swear and lie? L. Macd Every one. Son. Who must hang them? L. Macd. Why, the honest men. Son. Then the liars and swearers are fools: for there are liars and swearers enough to beat the hones men, and hang up them. L acd. Now, God help thee, poor mon key! But how wilt thou do for a father? Son. If he were dead, you'd weep for him: if you would not, it were a good sign that I should quickly have a new father. L. Macd. Poor prattler! how thou talk'st. Enter a MESSENGER. Mess. Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known, Though in your state of honour I am perfect.t I doubt, some danger does approach you nearIf you will take a homely man's advice, [ly: Be not found here; hence, with your little [men, Hold fast the mortal sword; and like good Bestride our downfall'n Birthdom: Each new [sorrows morn, New widows howl; new orphans cry; new Mal. What I believe; I'll wail; What know, believe; and, what I can redress, As I shall find the time to friend,t I will. What you have spoke, it may be so, perchance, This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues, [well; Was once thought honest: you have lov'd him He hath not touch'd you yet. I am young; but something [dom You may deserve of him through me; and wisTo offer up a weak poor innocent lamb, To appease an angry god. Macd. I am not treacherous. A good and virtuous nature may recoil. [don; pose: of grace, Yet grace must still look so. Macd. I have lost my hopes. Mal. 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, I speak not as in an absolute fear of you. Macd. What should he be ? All the particulars of vice so grafted, Mac Not in the legions Of horrid hell, can come a devil more damn'd In evils to top Macbeth. Mal. I grant him bloody, Luxurious, aviricious, false, deceitful, Suddent malicious, smacking of every sin That has a name: But there's no bottom none, In my voluptuousness: your wives, your daughters, [up Your matrons, and your maids, could not fill The cistern of my lust; and my desire All continent impediments would o'er-bear, That did oppose my will: Better Macbeth, Than such a one to reign. Mac. Boundless intemperance We have willing dames enough; there cannot Mal. With this, there grows, Quarrels unjust against the good, and loyal, Destroying them for wealth. Macd. This avarice [root Sticks deeper; grows with more pernicious Mal. But I have none: The king-becoming graces, *Legally settled byt hose who had the ûnal adjudica ↑ Lasicious. tion. » Plenty. + Passionate. May be endured. As justice, verity, temperance, stableness, In the division of each several crime, [should Macd O Scotland! Scotland! Mal. If such a one be fit to govern, speak: I am as I have spoken. Mucd. Fit to govern! No, not to live.-O nation miserable, [breast, Mal. Macduff, this noble passion, Child of integrity, hath from my soul Wip'd the black scruples, reconcil'd thoughts my [beth To thy good truth and honour. Devilish MacBy 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 foresworn; 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 speakWas 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, All ready at a point, was setting forth: Now we'll together; And the chance, of good[silent? Be like our warranted quarrel! Why are you Macd. Such welcome and unwelcome things Tis hard to reconcile. [at once, ness, [ing Enter a DOCTOR. Mal. Well; more anon.-Comes the king forth, I pray you? Doct. Ay, Sir; there are a crew of wretched souls, That stay his cure: their malady convincest The great assay of art; but, at his touch, Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand, They presently amend. [Exit DOCTOR. Mal. I thank you, doctor. A most miraculous work in this good king; The mere despair of surgery, he cures; Macd. See, who comes here? Mal My countryman; but yet I know him not. Macd. My ever gentle cousin, welcome hi ther. Mal. I know him now: Good God, betimes The means that make us strangers! [remove Rosse. Sir, Amen. Macd. Stands Scotland where it did? But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile; Macd. O, relation, Too nice, and yet too true! Mal. What is the newest grief? Rosse. That of an hour's age doth hiss the Each minute teems a new one. [speaker; Macd. How does my wife? Rosse. Why, well. Macd. And all my children! Rosse. Well too. Macd. The tyrant has not batter'd at their peace? Rosse. No; they were all at peace, when I did leave them. Rosse. When I came hither to transport the Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumour Mal. Be it their comfort, That Christendom gives out. Rosse. '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. Macd. What concern they? The general cause? or is it a fee-grief,|| Rosse. No mind, that's honest, But in it shares some woe; though the main Pertains to you alone. Macd. If it be mine, [part Keep it not from me, quickly let me have it. † Common distress of mind. Catch. Rosse. Let not your ears despise my tongue for ever, [sound, Which shall possess them with the heaviest That ever yet they heard. Macd. Humph! I guess at it. Rosse. Your castle is surpriz'd: your wife, and babes, Savagely slaughter'd to relate the manner, Were, on the quarry* of these murder'd deer, To add the death of you. Mal. Merciful heaven!-[brows; What, man! ne'er pull your hat upon your Give sorrow words: the grief, that does not speak, [break. Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it Macd. My children too? Rosse. Wife, children, servants, all That could be found. Macd. And I must be from thenee! My wife kill'd too? Rosse. I have said. Mal. Be comforted: Let's make us med'cines of our great revenge, To cure this deadly grief. Macd. He has no children.-All my pretty ones? Did you say, all?-O, hell-kite!-All? Mal. Dispute it like a man. But I must also feel it as a man: I cannot but remember such things were, That were not precious to me.-Did heaven look on, [duff, And would not take their part? Sinful MacThey 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! Mal. Be this the whetstone of your sword: let grief [it. Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage Maed. O,I could play the woman with mine eyes, [heaven, And braggart with my tongue-But, gentle Cut short all intermission;t 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! Mal. 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 Doct. A great perturbation in nature! to re ceive at once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching -In this slumbry agitation, besides her walking, and other actual performances, what, at any time, have you heard her say? Gent. That, Sir, which I will not report after her. Doct. You may, to me; and 'tis most meet you should. Gent. Neither to you, nor any one; having no witness to confirm my speech. Enter Lady MACBETH, with a Taper. Lo you here she comes! This is her very guise i and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand close. Doct. How came she by that light? Gent. Why, it stood by her: she has light by her continually; 'tis her command. Doct. You see, her eyes are open. Gent Ay, but their sense is shut. Dect. What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands. Gent. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands; I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour. Lady M. Yet here's a spot. Doct. Hark, she speaks: I will set down what comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly. Lady M. Out, damned spot! out. I say One; Two: Why, t' en 'tis time to do't:Hell is murky !*--Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afear'd? 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? Doct. Do you mark that? Lady M. The thane of Fife had a wife; Where is she now?What, will these hands ne'er be clean?-No more o'that my lord, no more o'that you mar all with this starting. Doct. Go to, go to; you have known what you should not. Gent. She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that: Heaven knows what she has known. Lady M. Here's the smell of the bloodstill: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh! oh! oh! Doct. What a sight is there! The heart is sorely charged. Gent. I would not have such a heart in my bosom, for the dignity of the whole body. Doct Well, well, well, Gent. 'Pray God, it be, Sir, Doct. This disease is beyond my practice; Yet I have known those which have walked in their sleep, who have died holily in their beds. Lady M. Wash your hands, put on your night-gown; look not so pale:-I tell you yet Enter a DOCTOR of Physic, and a waiting GEN- again, Banquo's buried; he cannot come out of his grave. Doct. Even so? at the gate. Come, come, come, come, give me Lady M. To bed, to bed; there's knocking To bed, to bed, to bed. [Exit Lady MACBETH. your hand; What's done, cannot be undone; Doct. Will she go now to bed? Gent. Directly. Gent. Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her night-gown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon it, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet alltural deeds this while in a most fast sleep. The game after it is killed. † All panse. Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad: Upna * Dark. |