The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

FLEANCE, Son to BANQUO,

English Forces.

LADY MACDUFF.

Gentlewoman attending on Lady Macbeth.

HECATE, and three Witches.

Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers,

Attendants, and Messengers.

SIWARD, Earl of Northumberland, General of the The Ghost of Banquo, and several other Appari

SCENE, in the End of the Fourth Act, lies in England; through the rest of the Play, in Scotland; and, chiefly, at Macbeth's Castle.

tions.

SCENE II.-A Camp near Forres. Alarum within. Enter KING DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Soldier.

Dun. What bloody man is that? He can report,
As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt
The newest state.

Mal.
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.
Sold.

Doubtfully 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 villanies of nature

Do swarm upon him) from the western isles
Of Kernes and Gallowglasses was supplied ;o
And fortune on his damned quarrel smiling,
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 smok'd with bloody execution,
Like valor's minion,

Carv'd out his passage, till he faced the slave;
And 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.

1Tumult.

ai. e. Supplied with light and heavy armed troops.

Dun. O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman! Sold. 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 Kernes to trust their heels;
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,
With furbish'd arms, and new supplies of men,
Began a fresh assault.

Dun.

Dismay'd not this Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?

Sold.

Yes;

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

Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,
Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe:
Or memorize another Golgotha,

I cannot tell:-

But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.

Dun. So well thy words become thee, as thy wounds;

They smack of honor both :-Go, get him surgeons. [Exit Soldier, attended.

Enter Rosse.

Who comes here?
Mal.
The worthy thane of Rosse.
Len. What a haste looks through his eyes! So
should he look,

That seems to speak things strange.

Rosse.
God save the king;
Dun. Whence çam'st thou, worthy thane?
Rosse.
From Fife, great king,

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, 'gan 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;-

• Truth.
Shakspeare means Mars.
Defended by armor of proof.

SCENE III-A Heath

Thunder. Enter the three Witches.

1 Witch. Where hast thou been, sister?

2 Witch. Killing swine.

3 Witch. Sister, where thou?

[Exeunt.

1 Witch. A sailor's wife had chesnuts 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 o'the Tiger: But in a sieve I'll thither sail,

And, like a rat without a tail,

I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do.

2 Witch. I'll give thee a wind.

1 Witch. Thou art kind.

3 Witch. And I another.

1 Witch. I myself have all the other;

And the very ports they blow,

All the quarters that they know
I' the shipman's card.s

I will drain him dry as hay:
Sleep shall, neither night nor day
Hang upon his pent-house lid:
He shall live a man forbid:9

Weary seven-nights, 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.

2 Witch. Show me, show me.

So, all hail, Macbeth, and Banquo!

1 Witch. Banquo, and Macbeth, all hail! Macb. 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 [Witches vanish. Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, And these are of them:-Whither are they vanish'd? Macb. Into the air; and what seem'd corporal,

you.

melted

Rosse. The king hath happily receiv'd, 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 self-same day, He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks, Nothing afeard of what thy self didst make, Strange images of death. As thick as tale, Came post with post; and every one did bear [Drum within. Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence, And pour'd them down before him. Ang. We are sent, To give thee, from our royal master, thanks; To herald thee into his sight, not pay thee.

1 Witch. Hero have a pilot's thumb, Wreck'd, as homeward he did come.

3 Witch. A drum, a drum;

Macbeth doth come.

All. The weird sisters,1 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.

Macb. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. Ban. How far is't call'd to Forres?-What are these,

So wither'd, and so wild in their attire;
That looks 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

2 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!

3 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter.

Ban. Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair?-I'the name of truth, Are ye fantastical,2 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;

Ang. Who was the thane, lives yet; But under heavy judgment bears that life Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was Combined with Norway; or did line the rebel 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 prov'd, Have overthrown him.

Ban.

Macb.
Glamis, and thane of Cawdor:
The greatest is behind.-Thanks for your pains,-
Do you not hope your children shall be kings,
When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me,
Promis'd no less to them?
That, trusted home,
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 us
In deepest consequence.-
Cousins, a word I pray you.
Macb.
Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme.-I thank you gentlemen.-
This supernatural soliciting

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
As fast as they could be counted.

Incitement.

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 murder 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.

Ban.

Look, how our partner's rapt.
Mucb. If chance will have me king, why, chance

may crown me,

Without my stir.

Ban.

New honors come upon him Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould,

But with the aid of use.

Macb.
Come what come may;
Time and the hours runs through the roughest day.
Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.
Macb. 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
Think upon what hath chanced: and, at more time,
The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak
Our free hearts each to other.
Ban.
Very gladly.
Macb. Till then, enough.-Come, friends.

The hearing of my wife with your approach;
So, humbly take my leave.
Dun.
My worthy Cawdor!
Macb. The prince of Cumberland!-That is a
step,
[Aside.

On which I must fall down, or else o'er-leap,
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.
Dun. True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant;a
And in his commendations I am fed;

It is a banquet to me. Let us after him,
Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome:
It is a peerless kinsman. [Flourish. Exeunt.
SCENE V.-Inverness. A Room in Macbeth's
Castle.

Enter Lady MACBETH, reading a letter.
Lady M. 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
king.-made themselves-air, into which they vanished.
burned in desire to question them further, they
Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came mis-
sives 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 mightest 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 promis'd:-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

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.-Forres. A Room in the Palace. Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENOX, and Attendants.

Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not Those in commission yet return'd?

My liege,

Mal.
They are not yet come back. But I have spoke
With one that saw him die: who did report,
That very frankly he confess'd his treasons;
Implor'd 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 ow'd,1
As 'twere a careless trifle.

To find the mind's construction in the face:
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.-O worthiest cousin!

Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSSE, and ANGUS.
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 deserv'd.
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.
Much. The service and the loyalty I owe,
In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part
Is to receive our duties: and our duties

Are to your throne and state, children, and servants;
Which do but what they should, by doing every
thing,

Safe toward your love and honor.
Dun.
Welcome hither:
I have begun to plant thee, and will labor
To make thee full of growing.-Noble Banquo,
That hast no less deserv'd, nor must be known
No less to have done so, let me infold thee,
And hold thee to my heart.
Ban.

There if I grow,
The harvest is your own.
Dun.
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, Malcom; 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,
And bind us further to you.

Macb. The rest is labor, which is not used for you:
I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful

highly,

That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,
And yet wouldst wrongly win; thou'dst have, great
Glamis,

That which cries, Thus thou must do, if thou have it;
And that which rather thou dost fear to do,
Thun 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.-What is your tidings?
Enter an Attendant.

Attend. The king comes here to-night.
Is not thy master with him? who, were't so,
Lady M.
Thou'rt mad to say it:
Would have inform'd for preparation.
Attend. 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.
He brings great news. The raven himself is hoarse,
Lady M.
Give him tending,
[Exit Attendant.

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, 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 murd'ring 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! -Great Glamis! worthy
Cawdor!

Your face, my thane, is 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 despatch;
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
Mach. We will speak further.
Lady M.

To alter favor ever is to fear:
Leave all the rest to me.

Only look up clear;

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI.-Before the Castle. Hautboys. Servants of Macbeth attending. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, BANQUO, LENOX, MACDUFF, ROSSE, ANGUS, and Attendants. Dun. This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air Nimbly and sweetly recomiends itself Unto our gentle senses. Ban.

This guest of summer, The temple-haunting martlet, does approve, By his lov'd mansionry, that the heaven's breath Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze, buttress, Nor coigne of vantage, but this bird hath made His pendent bed, and procreant cradle: Where they Most breed and haunt, I have observ'd the air Is delicate.

Dun.

Enter Lady MACBETH.

See, see! our honor'd hostess! The love that follows us, sometime is our trouble, Which still we thank as love. Herein 1 teach you, How you shall bid God yield us for your pains And thank us for your trouble. Lady M.

All our service 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. Dun. Where's the thane of Cawdor? We cours'd 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 to-night. Lady M. 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.

Dun.

Give me your hand.

Conduct me to mine host; we love him highly,
And shall continue our grace towards him.
By your leave, hostess.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VII-A Room in the Castle. Hautboys and torches. Enter, and pass over the stage, a Sewer, and divers Servants with dishes and service. Then enter MACEETH.

Macb. 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'd jump the life to come.-But, in these cases,
We still have judgment here; that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague the inventor: This even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice

To our own lips. He's here in double trust:
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
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 cherubím, hors'd
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'er-leaps itself,
And falls on the other.-How now, what news!
Enter Lady MACBETH.

Lady M. He has almost supp'd: Why have you
left the chamber?
Macb. Hath he ask'd for me?
Lady M.
Know you not, he has?
Mach. 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 M.
Was the hope drunk,
Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time,
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?
Macb.

What beast was it then

Pr'ythee, peace dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more, is none. That made you break this enterprise to me? Lady M. 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

If we should fail,

Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tís, to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck'd my nipple from its boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn, as you
Have done to this.
Macb.
Lady M.
We fail!
But screw your courage to the sticking place,
(Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey
And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep,
Soundly invite him,) his two chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassel' 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?i

Macb.

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 Of his own chamber, and used their very daggers, That they have don't? Lady M.

Who dares receive it other, As we shall make our griefs and clamor roar Upon his death?

Macb.

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.

Winds; sightless is invisible. 6 In the same sense as cohere. 8 Overpower.

1 Murder.

* Supposed.

7 Intemperance. • Sentinel.

& Thrift.

ACT II.

SCENE I.-Court within Macbeth's Castle.

Enter BANQUO and FLEANCE, and a Servant with a torch before them.

Ban. How goes the night, boys?

Fle. The moon is down; I have not heard the

clock.

Ban. And she goes down at twelve.
Fle.

I take't, 'tis later, sir. Ban. Hold, take my sword:-There's husbandry in heaven,

Their candles are all out.-Take thee that too.
A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,
And yet I would not sleep: Merciful powers!
Restrain in me the cursed thoughts, that nature
Gives way to in repose!-Give me my sword:-
Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch.
Who's there?

Macb. A friend.

Ban. What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's a-bed: He hath been in usual pleasure, and

Sent forth great largess to your offices:

This diamond he greets your wife withal,

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

Lady M. 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.

Macb. [Within.] Who's there?-what, ho!
Lady M. 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 them.-Had he not resembled

By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up My father as he slept, I had done't.-My husband?

In measureless content.

Mach.

Being unprepared,

All's well.

Our will became the servant to defect;
Which else should free have wrought.

Ban.

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
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; now witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murder,
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 where-about,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it.-Whiles I threat, he lives;
The rooms appropriated to servants.
Haft. handle.
8 Drops.

• Bounty.

• Conclude.

That they did wake each other; I stood and heard
them:

But they did say their prayers, and address'd them
Again to sleep.
Lady M. There are two lodg'd together.
Macb. 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 M.
Consider it not so deeply.
Macb. But wherefore could not I pronounce,

amen?

I had most need of blessing, and amen
Stuck in my throat.

Lady M. These deeds must not be thought
After these ways; so, it will make us mad.

more!

Macb. Methought, I heard a voice cry, Sleep no
Macbeth doth murder sleep, the innocent sleep;
Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast;-

Lady M. What do you mean?

Macb. Still it cried, Sleep no more! to all the house: Glamis hath murder'd sleep; and therefore Cawdor Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more! Lady M. Who was it that thus cried? Why,

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