MACBETH

		ACT I

		SCENE 1
		
		An open place.
		
		Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches.
		
		FIRST WITCH. When shall we three meet again,
			In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
		SECOND WITCH. When the hurlyburly 's done,
			When the battle 's lost and won.
 5		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. - Anon! -
10			Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
			Hover through the fog and filthy air.
			(Exeunt.)
		
		
		SCENE 2
		
		A camp near Forres.
		
		Alarum within. Enter King Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain,
		Lenox, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Captain.
		
		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
 5			'Gainst my captivity. - Hail, brave friend!
			Say to the King the knowledge of the broil,
			As thou didst leave it.
		CAPTAIN. 						Doubtful it stood,
			As two spent swimmers, that do cling together
			And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald
10			(Worthy to be a rebel, for to that
			The multiplying villainies of nature
			Do swarm upon him) from the western isles
			Of Kernes and Gallowglasses is supplied;
			And Fortune, on his damnŠd quarrel smiling,
15			Showed like a rebel's whore: but all 's too weak;
			For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name),
			Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel,
			Which smoked with bloody execution,
			Like Valour's minion, carved out his passage,
20			Till he faced the slave;
			Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
			Till he unseamed him from the nave to the chaps,
			And fixed his head upon our battlements.
		DUNCAN. O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!
25		CAPTAIN. As whence the sun 'gins his reflection,
			Shipwracking storms and direful thunders break,
			So from that spring, whence comfort seemed to come,
			Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark:
			No sooner justice had, with valour armed,
30			Compelled these skipping Kernes to trust their heels,
			But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,
			With furbished arms, and new supplies of men,
			Began a fresh assault.
		DUNCAN.						Dismayed not this
			Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?
		CAPTAIN.										Yes;
35			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:
40			Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,
			Or memorise another Golgotha,
			I cannot tell -
			But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.
		DUNCAN. So well thy words become thee, as thy wounds:
45			They smack of honour both. - Go, get him surgeons.
			(Exit Captain, attended.
			Enter Rosse and Angus.)
			Who comes here?
		MALCOLM.				The worthy Thane of Rosse.
		LENOX. What a haste looks through his eyes!
			So should he look that seems to speak things strange.
		ROSSE. God save the King!
		DUNCAN.						Whence camest thou, worthy thane?
50		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,
55			The Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict;
			Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapped in proof,
			Confronted him with self-comparisons,
			Point against point, rebellious arm 'gainst arm.
			Curbing his lavish spirit: and, to conclude,
60			The victory fell on us; -
		DUNCAN.							Great happiness:
		ROSSE. That now
			Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition;
			Nor would we deign him burial of his men
			Till he disbursŠd at Saint ColmŠ's Inch
65			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.
		ROSSE. I 'll see it done.
70		DUNCAN. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.
			(Exeunt.)
		
		
		SCENE 3
		
		A heath.
		
		Thunder. Enter 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,
 5			And munched, and munched, and munched: "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,
10			I 'll do, I 'll do, and I 'll do.
		SECOND WITCH. I'll give thee a wind.
		FIRST WITCH. Th' art kind.
		THIRD WITCH. And I another.
		FIRST WITCH. I myself have all the other;
15			And the very ports they blow,
			All the quarters that they know
			I' the shipman's card;
			I 'll drain him dry as hay:
			Sleep shall neither night nor day
20			Hang upon his penthouse lid;
			He shall live a man forbid.
			Weary sev'n-nights nine times nine,
			Shall he dwindle, peak and pine:
			Though his bark cannot be lost,
25			Yet it shall be tempest-tost.
			Look what I have.
		SECOND WITCH. Show me, show me.
		FIRST WITCH. Here I have a pilot's thumb,
			 Wrecked, as homeward he did come.
			(Drum within.)
30		THIRD WITCH. A drum! a drum!
			Macbeth doth come.
		ALL. The weird sisters, hand in hand,
			Posters of the sea and land,
			Thus do go about, about:
35			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 amd fair a day I have not seen
		BANQUO. How far is 't called to Forres? - What are these,
40			So withered amd so wild in their attire,
			That look not like th' 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
45			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: - what are you?
		FIRST WITCH. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!
		SECOND WITCH. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
50		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
55			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,
60			Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear,
			Your favours nor your hate.
		FIRST WITCH. Hail!
		SECOND WITCH. Hail!
		THIRD WITCH. Hail!
65		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 amd Macbeth, all hail!
70		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,
75			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.)
		BANQUO. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
80			And these are of them. - Whither are they vanished?
		MACBETH. Into the air; and what seemed corporal, melted
			As breath into the wind. - Would they had stayed!
		BANQUO. Were such things here, as we do speak about,
			Or have we eaten on the insane root
85			That takes the reason prisoner?
		MACBETH. Your children shall be kings.
		BANQUO.										You shall be king.
		MACBETH. And Thane of Cawdor too; went it not so?
		BANQUO. To the selfsame tune and words. Who 's here?
			(Enter Rosse and Angus.)
		ROSSE. The king hath happily received, Macbeth,
90			The news of thy success; and, when he reads
			Thy personal venture in the rebel's 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,
95			He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,
			Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
			Strange images of death. As thick as hail
			Ran post with post; and every one did bear
			Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence,
100			And poured 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.
		ROSSE. And, for an earnest of a greater honour,
105			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: why do you dress me
			In borrowed robes?
		ANGUS.						ho was the thane lives yet;
110			But under heavy judgment bears that life
			Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined
			With those of Norway, or did line the rebel
			With hidden help and vantage, or that with both
			He laboured in his country's wrack, I know not;
115			But treasons capital, confessed amd proved.
			Have overthrown him.
		MACBETH.				[Aside.] Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor:
			The greatest is behind.
			[To Rosse and Angus.] Thanks for your pains.
			[To Banquo.] Do you not hope your children shall be kings,
			When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me
120			Promised no less to them?
		BANQUO.							That, trusted home,
			Might yet enkindle you unto the crown
			Besides the Thane of Cawdor. But 't is strange:
			Amd oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
			The instruments of darkness tell us truths;
125			Win us with honest trifles, to betray 's
			In deepest consequence. -
			Cousins, a word, I pray you.
		MACBETH.					[Aside.] Two truths are told
			As happy prologues to the swelling act
			Of the imperial theme.
										I thank you, gentlemen -
130			[Aside.] 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
135			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,
140			Shakes so my single state of man, that function
			Is smothered in surmise, and nothing is,
			But what is not.
		BANQUO.				Look, how our partner 's rapt.
		MACBETH. [Aside.] If Chance will have me king, why, Chance may crown me,
			Without my stir.
		BANQUO.				New honours come upon him,
145			Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould,
			But with the aid of use.
		MACBETH.							[Aside.] Come what come may,
			Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
		BANQUO. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.
		MACBETH. Give me your favour: my dull brain was wrought
150			With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains
			Are registered where every day I turn
			The leaf to read them. - Let us toward the king. -
			[To Banquo.] Think upon what hath chanced; and at more time,
			The interim having weighed it, let us speak
155			Our free hearts each to other.
		BANQUO.								Very gladly.
		MACBETH. Till then, enough. Come, friends.
			(Exeunt.)
		
		
		SCENE 4
		
		Forres. A room in the King's palace.
		
		Flourish. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lenox, and Attendants.
		
		DUNCAN. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not
			Those in commission yet returned?
		MALCOLM.									My liege,
			They are not yet come back; but I have spoke
			With one that saw him die: who did report
 5			That very frankly he confessed 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,
10			To throw away the dearest thing he owed
			As 't were 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, Rosse, and Angus.)
									 O worthiest cousin!
15			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
20			Might have been mine! only I have left to say:
			More is thy due than more than all can pay.
		MACBETH. The service and the loyalty I owe,
			In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part
			Is to receive our duties: and our duties
25			Are, to your throne and state, children and servants;
			Which do but what they should, by doing everything
			Safe toward your love and honour.
		DUNCAN.									 Welcome hither:
			I have begun to plant thee, and will labour
			To make thee full of growing. - Noble Banquo,
30			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.
		MACBETH.							There if I grow,
			The harvest is your own.
		DUNCAN.							My plenteous joys,
			Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves
35			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 ot Cumberland: which honour must
40			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.
		MACBETH. The rest is labour, which is not used for you:
45			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.] The Prince of Cumberland! - That is a step
			On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,
50			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,
55			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 5
		
		Inverness. A room in Macbeth's castle.
		
		Enter Lady Macbeth, reading a letter.
		
		LADY MACBETH. "They met me in the day of success; and I have learnt by the
			perfect'st report, they have more in them than mortal know-
			ledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they
			made themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles I stood
 5			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
10			might'st 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:
15			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,
20			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,
			Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither,
			That I may pour my spirits in thine ear,
25			And chastise with the valour of my tongue
			All that impedes thee from the goldem round,
			Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
			To have thee crowned withal. -
			(Enter a Messenger.)					What is your tidings?
		MESSENGER. The king comes here tonight.
		LADY MACBETH.								Thou 'rt mad to say it.
30			Is not thy master with him? who, were 't so,
			Would have informed 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
35			Than would make up his message.
		LADY MACBETH.							Give him tending:
			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,
40			And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full
			Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood,
			Stop up th' access and passage to remorses;
			That no compunctious visitings ot nature
			Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
45			Th' effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
			And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
			Wherever in your sightless substances
			You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night,
			And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
50			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
55			This ignorant present, and I feel now
			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!
60			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 't. He that 's coming
65			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.
		MACBETH. We will speak further.
		LADY MACBETH.						Only look up clear;
70			To alter favour ever is to fear.
			Leave all the rest to me.
			(Exeunt.)
		
		
		SCENE 6
		
		The same. Before the castle.
		
		Hautboys and torches. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain,
		Banquo, Lenox, Macduff, Rosse, 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,
 5			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 pendent bed, and procreant cradle:
			Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed,
10			The air is delicate.
			(Enter Lady Macbeth.)
		DUNCAN.					See, see! our honoured 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 yield us for your pains,
			And thank us for your trouble.
		LADY MACBETH.						All our service,
15			In every point twice done, and then done double,
			Were poor and single business to contend
			Against those honours deep and broad, wherewith
			Your majesty loads our house: for those of old,
			And the late dignities heaped up to them,
20			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,
25			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,
30			And shall continue our graces towards him.
			By your leave, hostess.
			(Exeunt.)


		SCENE 7
		
		The same. 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 Macbeth.
		
		MACBETH. If it were done, when 't is done, then 't were well
			It were done quickly: if the assassination
			Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
			With his surcease success; that but this blow
 5			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
10			To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice
			Commends th' ingredients of our poisoned 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,
15			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
20			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,
25			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 supped. Why have you left the chamber?
30		MACBETH. Hath he asked for me?
		LADY MACBETH.						Know you not he has?
		MACBETH. We will proceed no further in this business:
			He hath honoured me of late; and I have bought
			Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
			Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
35			Not cast aside so soon.
		LADY MACBETH.				  Was the hope drunk,
			Wherein you dressed 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
40			To be the same in thine own act and valour,
			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,"
45			Like the poor cat i' the adage?
		MACBETH.								Pr'ythee, peace.
			I dare do all that may become a man;
			Who dares do more is none.
		LADY MACBETH.					What beast was 't then
			That made you break this enterprise to me?
			When you durst do it, then you were a man;
50			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
55			How tender 't is to love the babe that milks me:
			I would, while it was smiling in my face,
			Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums,
			And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you
			Have done to this.
		MACBETH.					If we should fail, -
		LADY MACBETH.									We fail?
60			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,
65			That memory, the warder of the brain,
			Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
			A limbeck only: when in swinish sleep
			Their drenchŠd natures lie, as in a death,
			What cannot you and I perform upon
70			Th' 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,
75			When we have marked with blood those sleepy two
			Of his own chamber, and used their very daggers,
			That they have done 't?
		LADY MACBETH.					Who dares receive it other,
			As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar
			Upon his death?
		MACBETH.			I am settled, and bend up
80			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.)


		ACT II
		
		SCENE 1
		
		The same. Court within the castle.
		
		Enter Banquo, and Fleance with 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, 't is later, Sir.
		BANQUO. Hold, take my sword. - There 's husbandry in heaven;
 5			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 cursŠd thoughts that nature
			Gives way to in repose!  Give me my sword.
			(Enter Macbeth, and a Servant with a torch.)
10			Who 's there?
		MACBETH. A friend.
		BANQUO. What, Sir! not yet at rest? The king 's a-bed:
			He hath been in unusual pleasure, and
			Sent forth great largess to your offices.
15			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.
20			I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:
			To you they have showed 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,
			If you would grant the time.
		BANQUO.								At your kind'st leisure.
25		MACBETH. If you shall cleave to my consent, when 't is,
			It shall make honour for you.
		BANQUO.								So I lose none
			In seeking to augment it, but still keep
			My bosom franchised, and allegiance clear,
			I shall be counselled.
		MACBETH.						Good repose the while!
30		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.)
		MACBETH. Is this a dagger which I see before me,
			The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee: -
35			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-oppressŠd brain?
40			I see thee yet, in form as palpable
			As this which now I draw.
			Thou marshall'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,
45			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
50			Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
			The curtained sleep: witchcraft celebrates
			Pale Hecate's offerings: and withered Murder,
			Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf,
			Whose howl 's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
55			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,
60			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.)
		
		
		SCENE 2
		
		The same.
		
		Enter Lady Macbeth.
		
		LADY MACBETH. That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold.
			What hath quenched them hath given me fire. - Hark! - Peace!
			It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman,
			Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it.
 5			The doors are open, and the surfeited grooms
			Do mock their charge with snores. I have drugged 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,
10			And 't is 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
			My father as he slept, I had done 't. - My husband!
			(Enter Macbeth.)
		MACBETH. I have done the deed.  Didst thou not hear a noise?
15		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.
20		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, "Murder!"
			That they did wake each other: I stood and heard them;
			But they did say their prayers, and addressed them
25			Again to sleep.
		LADY MACBETH.		 There are two lodged together.
		MACBETH. On 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.
30		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. Methought I heard a voice cry, "Sleep no more!
35			Macbeth does murder sleep," - the innocent sleep;
			Sleep, that knits up the ravelled sleave of care,
			The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath',
			Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
			Chief nourisher in life's feast; -
		LADY MACBETH.							What do you mean?
40		MACBETH. Still it cried, "Sleep no more!" to all the house:
			"Glamis hath murdered 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
45			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:
50			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; 't is the eye of childhood
			That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
55			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
60			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 colour; but I shame
			To wear a heart so white. [Knock.] I hear a knocking
65			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. - [Knock.] Hark! more knocking.
			Get on your night-gown, lest occasion call us,
70			And show us to be watchers. - Be not lost
			So poorly in your thoughts.
		MACBETH. To know my deed, 't were best not know myself.
			 (Knock.)
			Wake Duncan with thy knocking: I would thou couldst!
			(Exeunt.)
		
		
		SCENE 3
		
		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.] Knock, knock,
			knock. Who 's there, i' the name of Belzebub? - Here 's a
			farmer that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty: come
 5			in time; have napkins enough about you; here you 'll sweat
			for 't. [Knocking.] Knock, knock. Who 's there, i' the 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
10			heaven: O! come in, equivocator. [Knocking.] 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.] Knock, knock. Never
			at quiet! What are you? - But this place is too cold for hell.
15			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 ever-
			lasting bonfire. [Knocking.] Anon, anon: I pray you, remember
			the porter.
			(Opens the gate. Enter Macduff and Lenox.)
		MACDUFF. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed,
20			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. Lechery, Sir, it
25			provokes and unprovokes: it provokes the desire, but it takes
			away the performance. Therefore, much drink may be said to
			be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him and it mars
			him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him, and
			disheartens him; makes him stand to, and not stand to: in
30			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 o' me: but I requited him
35			for his lie; and, I think, being too strong for him, though he
			took up my legs sometime, yet I made a shift to cast him.
		MACDUFF. Is thy master stirring?
			(Enter Macbeth.)
			Our knocking has awaked him; here he comes.
		LENOX. Good morrow, noble Sir!
		MACBETH.								Good morrow,both!
40		MACDUFF. Is the king stirring, worthy thane?
		MACBETH.												Not yet.
		MACDUFF. He did command me to call timely on him:
			I have almost slipped the hour.
		MACBETH.									I 'll bring you to him.
		MACDUFF. I know this is a joyful trouble to you;
			But yet 't is one.
45		MACBETH. The labour we delight in physics pain.
			This is the door.
		MACDUFF.				I 'll make so bold to call.
			For 't is my limited service.
			(Exit.)
		LENOX. Goes the king hence today?
		MACBETH.									He does: - he did appoint so.
		LENOX. The night has been unruly: where we lay,
50			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 hatched to the woeful time.
55			The obscure bird clamoured the livelong night:
			Some say the earth was feverous, and did shake.
		MACBETH. 'T was a rough night.
		LENOX. My young remembrance can not parallel
			A fellow to it.
			(Re-enter Macduff.)
60		MACDUFF. O horror! horror! horror! Tongue, nor heart,
			Cannot conceive, nor name thee!
		MACBETH, LENOX.						What is 't you say?
		MACDUFF. Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!
			Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope
			The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence
65			The life o' the building!
		MACBETH.							What is 't you say? the life?
		LENOX. 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 Lenox.)
													Awake! awake! -
70			Ring the alarum-bell. - Murder and treason!
			Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm! awake!
			Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit,
			And look on death itself! - up, up, amd see
			The great doom's image! - Malcolm! Banquo!
75			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,
80			'T is not for you to hear what I can speak:
			The repetition, in a woman's ear,
			Would murder as it fell.
			(Enter Banquo.)			O Banquo! Banquo!
			Our royal master 's murdered!
		LADY MACBETH.						Woe, alas!
			What! in our house?
		BANQUO.					Too cruel anywhere.
85			Dear Duff, I pr'ythee, contradict thyself,
			And say it is not so.
			(Re-enter Macbeth and Lenox.)
		MACBETH. Had I but died an hour before this chance,
			I had lived a blessed time; for, from this instant,
			There 's nothing serious in mortality;
90			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
95			Is stopped; the very source of it is stopped.
		MACDUFF. Your royal father 's murdered.
		MALCOLM.											O! by whom?
		LENOX. Those of his chamber, as it seemed, had done 't:
			Their hands and faces were all badged with blood;
			So were their daggers, which, unwiped, we found
100			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,
			That I did kill them.
		MACDUFF.						Wherefore did you so?
105		MACBETH. Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,
			Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:
			The expedition of my violent love
			Outran the pauser reason. - Here lay Duncan,
			His silver skin laced with his golden blood;
110			And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature
			For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,
			Steeped in the colours of their trade, their daggers
			Unmannerly breeched with gore. Who could refrain,
			That had a heart to love, and in that heart
115			Courage, to make 's love known?
		LADY MACBETH.							Help me hence, ho!
		MACDUFF. Look to the lady.
		MALCOLM. [Aside to Donalbain.] Why do we hold our tongues,
			That most may claim this argument for ours?
		DONALBAIN. [Aside to Malcolm.] What should be spoken
120			Here where our fate, hid in an auger-hole,
			May rush and seize us? Let 's away: our tears
			Are not yet brewed.
		MALCOLM. [Aside to Donalbain.] Nor our strong sorrow
			Upon the foot of motion.
		BANQUO.						 Look to the lady: -
			(Lady Macbeth is carried out.)
			And when we have our naked frailties hid,
125			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 pretence I fight
130			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
135			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 murderous shaft that 's shot
140			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 4
		
		Outside the castle.
		
		Enter Rosse and 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.
		ROSSE.									Ha, good father,
 5			Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act,
			Threatens his bloody stage: by the clock 't is day,
			And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp.
			Is 't night's predominance, or the day's shame,
			That darkness does the face of earth entomb,
10			When living light should kiss it?
		OLD MAN.										'T is unnatural,
			Even like the deed that 's done. On Tuesday last,
			A falcon, towering in her pride of place,
			Was by a mousing owl hawked at, and killed.
		ROSSE. And Duncan's horses (a thing most strange and certain)
15			Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race,
			Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,
			Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make
			War with mankind.
		OLD MAN.				'T is said, they ate each other.
		ROSSE. They did so; to th' amazement of mine eyes,
20			That looked upon 't -
			(Enter Macduff.)		Here comes the good Macduff. -
			How goes the world, Sir, now?
		MACDUFF.								Why, see you not?
		ROSSE. Is 't known, who did this more than bloody deed?
		MACDUFF. Those that Macbeth hath slain.
		ROSSE.												Alas, the day!
			What good could they pretend?
		MACDUFF.									They were suborned.
25			Malcolm and Donalbain, the king's two sons,
			Are stol'n away and fled; which puts upon them
			Suspicion of the deed.
		ROSSE.							'Gainst nature still:
			Thriftless Ambition, that wilt ravin up
			Thine own life's means! - Then 't is most like
30			The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.
		MACDUFF. He is already named, and gone to Scone
			To be invested.
		ROSSE.					Where is Duncan's body?
		MACDUFF. Carried to Colme-kill,
			The sacred storehouse of his predecessors,
35			And guardian of their bones.
		ROSSE.									Will you to Scone?
		MACDUFF. No cousin; I 'll to Fife.
		ROSSE.									Well, I will thither.
		MACDUFF. Well, may you see things well done there: - adieu! -
			Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!
		ROSSE. Farewell, father.
40		OLD MAN. God's benison go with you; and with those
			That would make good of bad, and friends of foes!
			(Exeunt.)


		ACT III
		
		SCENE 1
		
		Forres. A room in the palace.
		
		Enter Banquo.
		
		BANQUO. Thou hast it now, King, Cawdor, Glamis, all,
			As the weird women promised; and, I fear,
			Thou playedst most foully for 't; yet it was said,
			It should not stand in thy posterity;
 5			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,
10			And set me up in hope? But, hush; no more.
			(Sennet sounded. Enter Macbeth as King; Lady Macbeth as
			Queen; Lenox, Rosse, Lords, and Attendants.)
		MACBETH. Here 's our chief guest.
		LADY MACBETH.						If he had been forgotten,
			It had been as a gap in our feast,
			And all-thing unbecoming.
		MACBETH. Tonight we hold a solemn supper, Sir,
15			And I 'll request your presence.
		BANQUO.								Let your highness
			Command upon me, to the which my duties
			Are with a most indissoluble tie
			For ever knit.
		MACBETH. Ride you this afternoon?
		BANQUO.								Ay, my good lord.
20		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
25			'Twixt this and supper: go not my horse the better,
			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 bestowed
30			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,
35			Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you?
		BANQUO. Ay, my good lord: our time does call upon 's.
		MACBETH. I wish your horses swift, and sure of foot;
			And so I do commend you to their backs.
			Farewell. -
			(Exit Banquo.)
40			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 Lady Macbeth, Lords, etc.)
			Sirrah, a word with you. Attend those men
45			Our pleasure?
		SERVANT. They are, my lord, without the palace gate.
		MACBETH. Bring them before us.
			(Exit Attendant.)
												To be thus is nothing,
			But to be safely thus. - Our fears in Banquo
			Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature
50			Reigns that which would be feared; 't is much he dares;
			And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,
			He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour
			To act in safety. There is none but he
			Whose being I do fear: and under him
55			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 hailed him father to a line of kings.
60			Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown,
			And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,
			Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand,
			No son of mine succeeding. If 't be so,
			For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind;
65			For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered;
			Put rancours in the vessel of my peace
			Only for them; and mine eternal jewel
			Given to the common enemy of man,
			To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings!
70			Rather than so, come, fate, into the list,
			And champion me to the utterance! - Who 's there? -
			(Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers.)
			Now, go to the door, and stay there till we call.
			(Exit Attendant.)
			Was it not yesterday we spoke together?
		FIRST MURDERER. It was, so please your highness.
		MACBETH.													Well then,now
75			Have you considered 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; passed in probation with you
80			How you were borne in hand; how crossed; the instruments;
			Who wrought with them; and all things else, that might,
			To half a soul, and to a notion crazed,
			Say, "Thus did Banquo".
		FIRST MURDERER.				You made it known to us.
		MACBETH. I did so; and went further, which is now
85			Our point of second meeting. Do you find
			Your patience so predominant in your nature
			That you can let this go? Are you so gospelled
			To pray for this good man, and for his issue,
			Whose heavy hand hath bowed you to the grave,
90			And beggared yours for ever?
		FIRST MURDERER.						We are men, my liege.
		MACBETH. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men;
			As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,
			Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are clept
			All by the name of dogs: the valued file
95			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
100			That writes them all alike; and so of men.
			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,
105			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 MURDERER.						I am one, my liege,
			Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world
			Have so incensed, that I am reckless what
110			I do to spite the world.
		FIRST MURDERER.					And I another,
			So weary with disasters, tugged 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.
		SECOND MURDERER.						True, my Lord.
115		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
			With bare-faced power sweep him from my sight,
			And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not,
120			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,
125			For sundry weighty reasons.
		SECOND MURDERER.					We shall, my lord,
			Perform what you command us.
		FIRST MURDERER.						Though our lives-
		MACBETH. Your spirits shine through you. Within this hour at most
			I will advise you where to plant yourselves,
			Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time,
130			The moment on 't; for 't 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,
135			Whose absence is no less material to me
			Than is his father's, must embrace the fate
			Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart;
			I 'll come to you anon.
		SECOND MURDERER.			We are resolved, my lord.
		MACBETH. I 'll call upon you straight: abide within. -
			(Exeunt Murderers.)
140			It is concluded: Banquo, thy soul's flight,
			If it find heaven, must find it out tonight.
			(Exit.)
		
		
		SCENE 2
		
		The same. Another room.
		
		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.
		(Exit.)
		LADY MACBETH.							Nought 's had, all 's spent,
 5			Where our desire is got without content:
			'T is safer to be that which we destroy,
			Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.
			(Enter Macbeth.)
			How now, my lord? Why do you keep alone,
			Of sorriest fancies your companions making,
10			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 scotched the snake, not killed it:
			She 'll close, and be herself; whilst our poor malice
15			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
20			Whom we, to gain our place, 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,
25			Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing
			Can touch him further.
		LADY MACBETH.				Come on;
			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.
30			Let your remembrance apply to Banquo:
			Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue:
			Unsafe the while, that we
			Must lave our honours in these flattering streams,
			And make our faces vizards to our hearts,
35			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:
40			Then be thou jocund. Ere the bat hath flown
			His cloistered flight; ere to black Hecate's summons
			The shard-born beetle , with his drowsy hums,
			Hath run night's yawning peal,
			There shall be done a deed of dreadful note.
45		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,
50			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 prey do rouse.
55			Thou marvellest at my words: but hold thee still;
			Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.
			So pr'ythee, go with me.
			(Exeunt.)
		
		
		SCENE 3
		
		The same. A park, with a road leading to the palace.
		
		Enter three Murderers.
		
		FIRST MURDERER. But who did bid thee join with us?
		THIRD MURDERER.												Macbeth.
		SECOND MURDERER. He needs not our mistrust, since he delivers
			Our offices, and what we have to do,
			To the direction just.
		FIRST MURDERER.				Then stand with us.
 5			The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day:
			Now spurs the lated traveller apace,
			To gain the timely inn; and near approaches
			The subject of our watch.
		THIRD MURDERER.					Hark, I hear horses.
		BANQUO. [Within.] Give us a light there, ho!
		SECOND MURDERER.									Then 'tis he: the rest
10			That are within the note of expectation,
			Already are i' the court.
		FIRST MURDERER.					His horses go about.
		THIRD MURDERER. Almost a mile, but he does usually,
			So all men do, from hence to the palace gate
			Make it their walk.
			(Enter Banquo, Fleance, with torch.)
		SECOND MURDERER.		A light, a light!
		THIRD MURDERER.								'T is he.
15		FIRST MURDERER. Stand to 't.
		BANQUO. It will he rain tonight.
		FIRST MURDERER.					  Let it come down.
			(The First Murderer strikes out the light while the others
			assault Banquo.)
		BANQUO. O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!
			Thou mayest revenge - O slave!
			(Dies. Fleance escapes.)
		THIRD MURDERER. Who did strike out the light?
		FIRST MURDERER.										Was 't not the way?
20		THIRD MURDERER. There 's but one down: the son is fled.
		SECOND MURDERER.												We have lost
			Best half of our affair.
		FIRST MURDERER.				Well, let 's away, and say how much is done.
			(Exeunt.)
		
		
		SCENE 4
		
		A room of state in the palace.
		
		A banquet prepared. Enter Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Rosse,
		Lenox, Lords, and Attendants.
		
		MACBETH. You know your own degrees, sit down; at first and last,
			The hearty welcome.
		LORDS.						Thanks to your majesty.
		MACBETH. Ourself will mingle with society,
			And play the humble host.
 5			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 Murderer, to the door.)
		MACBETH. See, they encounter thee with their hearts' thanks.
10			Both sides are even: here I 'll sit i' the midst.
			Be large in mirth; anon, we 'll drink a measure
			The table round.
			(Goes to door.)
								There 's blood upon thy face.
		MURDERER. 'T is Banquo's then.
		MACBETH. 'T is better thee without, than he within.
15			Is he despatched?
		MURDERER. My Lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him.
		MACBETH. Thou art the best o' th' cut-throats; yet he 's good
			That did the like for Fleance: if thou didst it,
			Thou art the nonpareil.
		MURDERER.					Most royal Sir,
20			 Fleance is 'scaped.
		MACBETH. Then comes my fit again: I had else been perfect;
			Whole as the marble, founded as the rock,
			As broad and general as the casing air:
			But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in
25			To saucy doubts and fears. - But Banquo 's safe?
		MURDERER. Ay, my good lord, safe in a ditch he bides,
			With twenty trenchŠd gashes on his head,
			The least a death to nature.
		MACBETH.							  Thanks for that. -
			There the grown serpent lies: the worm, that 's fled,
30			Hath nature that in time will venom breed,
			No teeth for the present. - Get thee gone; tomorrow
			We 'll hear ourselves again.
			(Exit Murderer.)
		LADY MACBETH.						My royal lord,
			You do not give the cheer: the feast is sold
			That is not often vouched, while 't is a-making,
35			'T is 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!
		LENOX.					 May it please your highness sit?
40		MACBETH. Here had we now our country's honour roofed,
			Were the graced person of our Banquo present;
			(The Ghost of Banquo enters, and sits in Macbeth's place.)
			Who may I rather challenge for unkindness,
			Than pity for mischance!
		ROSSE.							 His absence, Sir,
			Lays blame upon his promise. Pleas 't your highness
45			To grace us with your royal company?
		MACBETH. The table 's full.
		LENOX.						Here is a place reserved, Sir.
		MACBETH. Where?
		LENOX. Here, my good lord. What is 't that moves your highness?
		MACBETH. Which of you have done this?
		LORDS.											What, my good lord?
50		MACBETH. Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake
			Thy gory locks at me.
		ROSSE. Gentlemen, rise; his highness is not well.
		LADY MACBETH. Sit, worthy friends. My lord is often thus,
			And hath been from his youth: pray you, keep seat;
55			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
60			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
65			A woman's story at a winter's fire,
			Authorised by her grandam. Shame itself!
			Why do you make such faces? When all 's done,
			You look but on a stool.
		MACBETH. Pr'ythee, see there! behold! look! lo! how say you?
70			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.
			(Ghost disappears.)
		LADY MACBETH.						What! quite unmanned in folly?
		MACBETH. If I stand here, I saw him.
		LADY MACBETH.							Fie! for shame!
75		MACBETH. Blood hath been shed ere now, i' th' olden time,
			Ere humane statute purged the gentle weal;
			Ay, and since too. murders have been performed
			Too terrible for the ear: the time has been
			That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
80			And there an end; but now they rise again,
			With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,
			And push us from our stools. This is more strange
			Than such a murder is.
		LADY MACBETH.				My worthy lord,
			Your noble friends do lack you.
		MACBETH.								 I do forget. -
85			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 of the whole table,
90			And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss;
			Would he were here.
			(Re-enter Ghost.)		To all, and him, we thirst,
			And all to all.
		LORDS.				 Our duties, and the pledge.
		MACBETH. Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee!
			Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;
95			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: 't is no other;
			Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
		MACBETH. What man dare, I dare:
100			Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
			The armed 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;
105			If trembling I inhabit then, protest me
			The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!
			Unreal mockery, hence! -
			(Ghost disappears.)			Why, so; - being gone,
			I am a man again. - Pray you, sit still.
		LADY MACBETH. You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting,
110			With most admired disorder.
		MACBETH.							Can such things be,
			And overcome us like a summer's cloud,
			Without our special wonder? You make me strange
			Even to the disposition that I owe,
			When now I think you can behold such sights,
115			And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,
			When mine is blanched with fear.
		ROSSE.										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,
120			But go at once.
		LENOX.				Goodnight, and better health
			Attend his majesty!
		LADY MACBETH.			A kind good night to all!
			(Exeunt Lords and Attendants.)
		MACBETH. It will have blood, they say, blood will have blood:
			Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak;
			Augurs, and understood relations, have
125			By magot-pies and choughs, and rooks, brought forth
			The secret'st man of blood. - What is the night?
		LADY MACBETH. Almost at odds with morning, which is which.
		MACBETH. How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person
			At our great bidding?
		LADY MACBETH.				Did you send to him, Sir?
130		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 fee'd. I will tomorrow
			(And betimes I will) to the weird sisters:
			More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know,
135			By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good
			All causes shall give way: I am in blood
			Stepped 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,
140			Which must be acted, ere they may be scanned.
		LADY MACBETH. You lack the season of all natures, sleep.
		MACBETH. Come, we 'll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse
			Is the initiate fear, that wants hard use:
			We are yet but young in deed.
			(Exeunt.)
		
		
		SCENE 5
		
		The 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,
 5			In riddles, and affairs of death;
			And I, the mistress of your charms,
			The close contriver of all harms,
			Was never called to bear my part,
			Or show the glory of our art?
10			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,
15			And at the pit of Acheron
			Meet me i' the morning: thither he
			Will come to know his destiny.
			Your vessels and your spells provide,
			Your charms, and everything beside.
20			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;
25			I 'll catch it ere it come to ground:
			And that, distilled by magic sleights,
			Shall raise such artificial sprites,
			As, by the strength of their illusion,
			Shall draw him on to his confusion.
30			He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear
			His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace and fear;
			And you all know, security
			Is mortals' chiefest enemy.
			(Song within: "Come away, come away," etc.)
			Hark! I am called: my little spirit, see,
35			Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me.
			(Exit.)
		FIRST WITCH. Come, let 's make haste: she 'll soon be back again.
			(Exeunt.)
		
		
		SCENE 6
		
		Somewhere in Scotland
		
		Enter Lenox and another Lord.
		
		LENOX. My former speeches have but hit your thoughts,
			Which can interpret farther: only, I say,
			Things have been strangely borne. The gracious Duncan
			Was pitied of Macbeth: - marry, he was dead; -
5			And the right-valiant Banquo walked too late;
			Whom, you may say, if 't please you, Fleance killed,
			For Fleance fled. Men must not walk too late.
			Who cannot want the thought how monstrous
			It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain
10			To kill their gracious father? damnŠd 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;
15			For 't would have angered any heart alive
			To hear the men deny 't. So that, I say,
			He has borne all things well; and I do think
			That, had he Duncan's sons under his key
			(As, and 't please Heaven, he shall not), they should find
20			What 't were to kill a father; so should Fleance.
			But, peace! - for from broad words, and 'cause he failed
			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,
25			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
30			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,
35			Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives,
			Do faithful homage, and receive free honours,
			All which we pine for now. And this report
			Hath so exasperate the king that he
			Prepares for some attempt of War.
		LENOX.									Sent he to Macduff?
40		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."
		LENOX.									And that well might
			Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance
45			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 accursŠd!
		LORD.								I 'll send my prayers with him.
		(Exeunt.)


		ACT IV
		
		SCENE 1
		
		A dark cave. In the middle, a boiling cauldron.
		
		Thunder. Enter the three Witches.
		
		FIRST WITCH. Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed.
		SECOND WITCH. Thrice, and once the hedge-pig whined.
		THIRD WITCH. Harpier cries, 't is time, 't is time.
		FIRST WITCH. Round about the cauldron go;
 5			In the poisoned entrails throw. -
			Toad, that under cold stone
			Days and nights has thirty-one
			Sweltered venom, sleeping got,
			Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.
10		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,
15			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.
20		ALL. Double, double, toil and trouble:
			Fire, burn; and cauldron, bubble.
		THIRD WITCH. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf;
			Witches' mummy: maw, and gulf,
			Of the ravined salt-sea shark;
25			Root of hemlock, digged i' th' dark;
			Liver of blaspheming Jew;
			Gall of goat, and slips of yew
			Slivered in the moon's eclipse;
			Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips;
30			Finger of birth-strangled babe,
			Ditch-delivered by a drab,
			Make the gruel thick and slab:
			Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
			For th' ingredients of our cauldron.
35		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.)
		HECATE. O, well done! I commend your pains,
40			And every one shall share i' th' 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," etc.)
		SECOND WITCH. By the pricking of my thumbs,
45			Something wicked this way comes. -
			(Knocking.)
			Open, locks,
			Whoever knocks.
			(Enter Macbeth.)
		MACBETH. How now, you secret, black and midnight hags!
			What is 't you do?
		ALL.						A deed without a name.
50		MACBETH. I conjure you, by that which you profess,
			Howe'er you come to know it, answer me:
			Though you untie the winds. and let them fight
			Against the churches, though the yesty waves
			Confound and swallow navigation up;
55			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 germen tumble all together,
60			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,
			Or from our masters?
		MACBETH.						Call 'em; let me see 'em.
		FIRST WITCH. Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten
65			Her nine farrow, grease, that 's sweaten
			From the murderer's gibbet, throw
			Into the flame.
		ALL.					Come, high or low;
			Thyself, and office, deftly show.
			(Thunder. First Apparition, an armed head.)
		MACBETH. Tell me, thou unknown power, -
		FIRST WITCH.										He knows thy thought:
70			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 harped my fear aright. - But one word more: -
75		FIRST WITCH. He will not be commanded. Here 's another.
			More potent than the first.
			(Thunder. Second Apparition, a bloody child.)
		SECOND APPARITION. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! -
		MACBETH. Had I three ears, I 'd hear thee.
		SECOND APPARITION. Be bloody, bold, and resolute: laugh to scorn
80			The power of man, for none of woman born
			Shall harm Macbeth.
			(Descends.)
		MACBETH. Then live, Macduff: what need I fear of thee?
			But yet I 'll make assurance double sure,
			And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live;
85			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.
90		THIRD APPARITION. Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care
			Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are:
			Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until
			Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill
			Shall come against him.
			(Descends.)
		MACBETH.							That will never be:
95			Who can impress the forest; bid the tree
			Unfix his earth-bound root? Sweet bodements! good!
			Rebellious dead, rise never, till the wood
			Of Birnam rise; and our high-placed Macbeth
			Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath
100			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,
105			And an eternal curse fall on you! let me know. -
			Why sinks that cauldron? and what noise is this?
			(Hautboys.)
		FIRST WITCH. Show!
		SECOND WITCH. Show!
		THIRD WITCH. Show!
110		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 art too like the spirit of Banquo: down!
			Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls: and thy hair,
			Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first: -
115			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 th' crack of doom.
			Another yet? - A seventh? - I 'll see no more: -
			And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass,
120			Which shows me many more; and some I see,
			That two-fold balls and treble sceptres carry.
			Horrible sight! - Now, I see 't is true;
			For the blood-boltered Banquo smiles upon me,
			And points at them for his. - What! is this so?
125		FIRST WITCH. Ay, Sir, all this is so: - but why
			Stands Macbeth thus amazŠdly?
			Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites,
			And show the best of our delights.
			I 'll charm the air to give a sound,
130			While you perform your antic round;
			That this great king may kindly say,
			Our duties did his welcome pay.
			(Music. The Witches dance, and vanish with Hecate.)
		MACBETH. Where are they? Gone? - Let this pernicious hour
			Stand aye accursŠd in the calendar! -
135			Come in, without there!
			(Enter Lenox.)
		LENOX.						What 's your grace's will?
		MACBETH. Saw you the weird sisters?
		LENOX.									No, my lord.
		MACBETH. Came they not by you?
		LENOX.								No, indeed, my lord.
		MACBETH. Infected be the air whereon they ride;
			And damned all those that trust them! - I did hear
140			The galloping of horse: who was 't came by?
		LENOX. 'T is two or three, my lord, that bring you word,
			Macduff is fled to England.
		MACBETH.							Fled to England?
		LENOX. Ay, my good Lord.
		MACBETH. [Aside.] Time, thou anticipat'st my dread exploits:
145			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:
150			The castle of Macduff I will surprise,
			Seize upon Fife; give to th' edge o' th' 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:
155			But no more sights! - Where are these gentlemen?
			Come, bring me where they are.
			(Exeunt.)
		
		
		SCENE 2
		
		Fife. A room in Macduff's castle.
		
		Enter Lady Macduff, her Son, and Rosse.
		
		LADY MACDUFF. What had he done, to make him fly the land?
		ROSSE. 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.
		ROSSE.									You know not
 5			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,
10			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
			So runs against all reason.
		ROSSE.								My dearest coz,
15			I pray you, school yourself: but, for your husband,
			He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows
			The fits o' th' season. I dare not speak much further:
			But cruel are the times, when we are traitors,
			And do not know ourselves; when we hold rumour
20			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
25			To what they were hefore. - My, pretty cousin,
			Blessing upon you.
		LADY MACDUFF. Fathered 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:
30			I take my leave at once.
			(Exit.)
		LADY MACDUFF. Sirrah, your father 's dead:
			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.
35		LADY MACDUFF. Poor bird! thou 'dst never fear the net, nor lime,
			The pit-fall, 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: how wilt thou do for a father?
40		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, with wit enough for thee.
45		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?
50		LADY MACDUFF. Every one that does so is a traitor, and must be hanged.
		SON. And must they all be hanged that swear and lie?
		LADY MACDUFF. Every one.
		SON. Who must hang them?
		LADY MACDUFF. Why, the honest men.
55		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 'd weep for him: if you would not, it
60			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 honour I am perfect.
			I doubt, some danger does approach you nearly:
65			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!
70			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,
75			Do I put up that womanly defence,
			To say, I have done no harm? What are these faces?
			(Enter Murderers.)
		MURDERER. Where is your husband?
		LADY MACDUFF. I hope, in no place so unsanctified,
			Where such as thou may'st find him.
		MURDERER.									He 's a traitor.
80		SON. Thou liest, thou shag-eared villain!
		MURDERER.									What, you egg!
			(Stabbing him.)
			Young fry of treachery!
		SON.							He has killed me, mother:
			Run away, I pray you!
			(Dies.
			Exit Lady Macduff. crying " Murder!" and pursued by the Murderers.)
		
		
		SCENE 3
		
		England. A room in 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 down-fall birthdom. Each new morn,
 5			New widows howl, new orphans cry; new sorrows
			Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds
			As if it felt with Scotland, and yelled out
			Like syllable of dolour.
		MALCOLM.						What I believe, I 'll wail;
			What know, believe; and what I can redress,
10			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 touched you yet. I am young; but something
15			You may deserve of him through me, and wisdom
			To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb,
			T' appease an angry god.
		MACDUFF. I am not treacherous.
		MALCOLM. 							But Macbeth is.
			A good and virtuous nature may recoil,
20			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.
25		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 dishonours,
30			But mine own safeties: you may be rightly just,
			Whatever I shall think.
		MACDUFF.						Bleed, bleed, poor country!
			Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure,
			For goodness dare not check thee! wear thou thy wrongs;
			The title is affeered! Fare thee well, lord:
35			I would not be the villain that thou thinkest
			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;
40			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,
45			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?
50		MALCOLM. It is myself, I mean; in whom I know
			All the particulars of vice so grafted,
			That, when they shall be opened, black Macbeth
			Will seem as pure as snow; and the poor state
			Esteem him as a lamb, being compared
55			With my confineless harms.
		MACDUFF.							Not in the legions
			Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned
			In evils, to top Macbeth.
		MALCOLM.							I grant him bloody,
			Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful,
			Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin
60			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 cistern of my lust; and my desire
			All continent impediments would o'erbear,
65			That did oppose my will: better Macbeth
			Than such an one to reign.
		MACDUFF.							 Boundless intemperance
			In nature is a tyranny; it hath been
			Th' untimely emptying of the happy throne,
			And fall of many kings. But fear not yet
70			To take upon you what is yours; you may
			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
75			As will to greatness dedicate themselves,
			Finding it so inclin'd.
		MALCOLM.						With this, there grows
			In my most ill-composed affection such
			A staunchless avarice, that, were I king,
			I should cut off the nobles for their lands;
80			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
85			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,
90			With other graces weighed.
		MALCOLM. But I have none: the king-becoming graces,
			As justice, verity, temperance, stableness,
			Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,
			Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude,
95			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
100			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-sceptered,
105			When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again,
			Since that the truest issue of thy throne
			By his own interdiction stands accused,
			And does blaspheme his breed? Thy royal father
			Was a most sainted king: the queen that bore thee,
110			Oft'ner upon her knees than on her feet,
			Died every day she lived. Fare thee well!
			These evils thou repeat'st upon thyself
			Hath banished me from Scotland. - O my breast,
			Thy hope ends here!
		MALCOLM.					Macduff, this noble passion,
115			Child of integrity, hath from my soul
			Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts
			To thy good truth and honour. Devilish Macbeth
			By many of these trains hath sought to win me
			Into his power, and modest wisdom plucks me
120			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,
125			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
130			No less in truth than life: my first false speaking
			Was this upon myself. What I am truly
			Is thine, and my poor conntry's, to command:
			Whither, indeed, before thy here-approach,
			Old Siward, with ten thousand warlike men,
135			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,
			'T is hard to reconcile.
			(Enter a Doctor.)
		MALCOLM.						Well, more anon.
140			Comes the King forth, I pray you?
		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,
145			They presently amend.
		MALCOLM.						I thank you, doctor.
			(Exit Doctor.)
		MACDUFF. What 's the disease he means?
		MALCOLM.										'T is called 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,
150			Himself best knows; but strangely-visited people,
			All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye,
			The mere despair of surgery, he cures;
			Hanging a golden stamp about their necks,
			Put on with holy prayers: and 't is spoken,
155			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 Rosse.)
		MACDUFF.								See, who comes here.
160		MALCOLM. My countryman; but yet I know him not.
		MACDUFF. My ever-gentle cousin, welcome hither.
		MALCOLM. I know him now. Good God betimes remove
			The means that makes us strangers!
		ROSSE.											Sir, amen.
		MACDUFF. Stands Scotland where it did?
		ROSSE.											Alas, poor country!
165			Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot
			Be called 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
			Are made, not marked; where violent sorrow seems
170			A modern ecstasy: the dead man's knell
			Is there scarce asked 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?
175		ROSSE. That of an hour's age doth hiss the speaker;
			Each minute teems a new one.
		MACDUFF.								How does my wife?
		ROSSE. Why, well.
		MACDUFF.			And all my children?
		ROSSE.											Well, too.
		MACDUFF. The tyrant has not battered at their peace?
		ROSSE. No; they were well at peace when I did leave 'em.
180		MACDUFF. Be not a niggard of your speech: how goes 't?
		ROSSE. When I came hither to transport the tidings,
			Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumour
			Of many worthy fellows that were out;
			Which was, to my belief, witnessed the rather,
185			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
190			Lent us good Siward, and ten thousand men;
			An older and a better soldier none
			That Christendom gives out.
		ROSSE.								 Would I could answer
			This comfort with the like! But I have words,
			That would be howled out in the desert air.
195			Where hearing should not latch them.
		MACDUFF.										What concern they?
			The general cause? or is it a fee-grief
			Due to some single breast?
		ROSSE.								No mind that 's honest
			But in it shares some woe, though the main part
			Pertains to you alone.
		MACDUFF.						If it be mine,
200			Keep it not from me; quickly let me have it.
		ROSSE. Let not your ears despise my tongue for ever,
			Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound
			That ever yet they heard.
		MACDUFF.							Humph! I guess at it.
		ROSSE. Your castle is surprised; your wife and babes,
205			Savagely slaughtered: to relate the manner
			Were, on the quarry of these murdered deer,
			To add the death of you.
		MALCOLM.							Merciful Heaven!-
			What, man! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows:
			Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak
210			Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break.
		MACDUFF. My children too?
		ROSSE.							Wife, children, servants, all
			That could be found.
		MACDUFF. 				And I must be from thence!
			My wife killed too?
		ROSSE.						I have said.
		MALCOLM.									Be comforted:
			Let 's make us medicines of our great revenge,
215			To cure this deadly grief.
		MACDUFF. He has no children. - All my pretty ones?
			Did you say all? - O hell-kite! - All?
			What, all my pretty chickens, and their dam,
			At one fell swoop?
220		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!
225			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: let grief
			Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it.
230		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 Sotland and myself;
			Within my sword's length set him; if he 'scape,
235			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;
240			The night is long that never finds the day.
			(Exeunt.)


		ACT V
		
		SCENE 1
		
		Dunsinane. A room 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, I have seen her rise
			from her bed, throw her night-gown upon her, unlock her closet,
 5			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 walking and other actual performances,
10			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 't is most meet you should.
		GENTLEWOMAN. Neither to you, nor any one, having no witness to confirm my
			speech.
			(Enter Lady Macbeth, with a taper.)
15			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: she has light by her continually; 't is
			her command.
20		DOCTOR. You see, her eyes are open.
		GENTLEWOMAN. Ay, but their sense are 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 her continue in this a quarter of an hour.
25		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 't is
			time to do 't. - Hell is murky. - Fie, my Lord, fie! a soldier,
30			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,
35		will these hands ne'er be clean? - No more o' that, my lord,
		no more o' that: you mar all with this starting.
		DOCTOR. Go to, go to: you have known what you should not.
		GENTLEWOMAN. She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that: heaven
			knows what she has known.
40		LADY MACBETH. Here 's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes 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.
45		DOCTOR. Well, well, well -
		GENTLEWOMAN. Pray God it be, sir.
		DOCTOR. 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 MACBETH. Wash your hands, put on your night-gown; look not so pale.
50			- I tell you yet again, Banquo 's buried: he cannot come out
			on 's grave.
		LADY MACBETH. To bed, to bed: there 's knocking at the gate. Come, come,
55			come, come, give me your hand. What 's done cannot be
			undone. To bed, to bed, to bed.
		(Exits)
		DOCTOR. Will she go now to bed?
		GENTLEWOMAN. Directly.
		DOCTOR. Foul whisp'rings are abroad. Unnatural deeds
60			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,
65			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.)
		
		
		SCENE 2
		
		The country near Dunsinane.
		
		Enter, with drums and colours, Menteth, Cathness, Angus,
		Lenox, and Soldiers.
		
		MENTETH. 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,
 5			Excite the mortified man.
		ANGUS.								  Near Birnam wood
			Shall we well meet them: that way are they coming.
		CATHNESS. Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?
		LENOX. For certain, Sir, he is not. I have a file
			Of all the gentry: there is Siward's son,
10			And many unrough youths, that even now
			Protest their first of manhood.
		MENTETH.										What does the tyrant?
		CATHNESS. Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies.
			Some say he 's mad; others, that lesser hate him,
			Do call it valiant fury; but, for certain,
15			He cannot buckle his distempered cause
			Within the belt of rule.
		ANGUS.							Now does he feel
			His secret murders sticking on his hands;
			Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach:
			Those he commands move only in command,
20			Nothing in love: now does he feel his title
			Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe
			Upon a dwarfish thief.
		MENTETH.						Who then shall blame
			His pestered senses to recoil and start,
			When all that is within him does condemn
25			Itself for being there?
		CATHNESS.						Well; march we on,
			To give obedience where 't is truly owed:
			Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal;
			And with him pour we, in our country's purge,
			Each drop of us.
		LENOX.				Or so much as it needs
30			To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds.
			Make we our march towards Birnam.
			(Exeunt, marching.)
		
		
		SCENE 3
		
		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
 5			All mortal consequence 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,
10			Shall never sag with doubt, nor shake with fear.
			(Enter a Servant.)
			The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon!
			Where gott'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,
15			Thou lily-livered boy. What soldiers, patch?
			Death of thy soul! those linen cheeks of thine
			Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?
		SERVANT. The English force, so please you.
		MACBETH. Take thy face hence.
			(Exit Servant.)					- Seyton! - I am sick at heart,
20			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 sere, the yellow leaf;
			And that which should accompany old age,
25			As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,
			I must not look to have; but, in their stead,
			Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath,
			Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.
			Seyton! -
			(Enter Seyton.)
30		SEYTON. What 's your gracious pleasure?
		MACBETH.										What news more?
		SEYTON. All is confirmed, my lord, which was reported.
		MACBETH. I 'II fight, till from my bones my flesh be hacked.
			Give me my armour.
		SEYTON.					'T is not needed yet.
		MACBETH. I 'll put it on.
35			Send out more horses, skirr the country round;
			Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armour. -
			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:
40			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
			Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff
45			Which weighs upon the heart?
		DOCTOR.								Therein the patient
			Must minister to himself.
		MACBETH. Throw physic to the dogs; I 'll none of it. -
			Come, put mine armour on; give me my staff. -
			Seyton, send out. - Doctor, the thanes fly from me. -
50			Come, Sir, despatch. - 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. -
55			What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug,
			Would scour these English hence? - Hear'st thou of them?
		DOCTOR. Ay, my good lord: your royal preparation
			Makes us hear something.
		MACBETH.							Bring it after me. -
			I will not be afraid of death and bane
60			Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane.
			(Exit.)
		DOCTOR: [Aside.] Were I from Dunsinane away and clear,
			Profit again should hardly draw me here.
			(Exeunt.)
		
		
		SCENE 4
		
		Country near Dunsinane. A wood in view.
		
		Enter, with drum and colours, Malcolm, old Siward, and his
		Son, Macduff, Menteth, Cathness, Angus, Lenox, Rosse, and
		Soldiers, marching.
		
		MALCOLM. Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand,
			That chambers will be safe.
		MENTETH.							We doubt it nothing.
		SIWARD. What wood is this before us?
		MENTETH.									The wood of Birnam.
		MALCOLM. Let every soldier hew him down a bough,
 5			And bear 't before him: thereby shall we shadow
			The number of our host, and make discovery
			Err in report of us.
		SOLDIER.					It shall be done.

		SIWARD. We learn no other but the confident tyrant
			Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure
10			Our setting down before 't.
		MALCOLM.							'T is his main hope;
			For where there is advantage to be gone,
			Both more or less have given him revolt,
			And none serve with him but constrainŠd things,
			Whose hearts are absent too.
		MACDUFF.								Let our just censures
15			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,
20			But certain issue strokes must arbitrate;
			Towards which advance the war.
			(Exeunt.)
		
		
		SCENE 5
		
		Dunsinane. Within the castle.
		
		Enter, with drum and colours, Macbeth, Seyton, and Soldiers.

		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.
 5			Were they not forced with those that should be ours,
			We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,
			And bear them backward home.
			(A cry within, of women.)
			What is that noise?
		SEYTON. It is the cry of women, my good lord.
			(Exit.)
		MACBETH. I have almost forgot the taste of fears.
10			The time has been, my senses would have cooled
			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 supped full with horrors:
			Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,
15			Cannot once start me.
			(Re-enter Seyton.)		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,
20			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,
25			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 com'st to use thy tongue; thy story quickly.
30		MESSENGER. Gracious my Lord,
			I should report that which I say I saw,
			But know not how to do 't.
		MACBETH.							Well, say, sir.
		MESSENGER. As I did stand my watch upon the hill,
			I looked toward Birnam, and anon, methought,
35			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,
40			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 th' equivocation of the fiend,
			That lies like truth: "Fear not, till Birnam wood
45			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,
50			And wish th' estate o' th' world were now undone. -
			Ring the alarum bell! - Blow, wind! come, wrack!
			At least we 'll die with harness on our back.
			(Exeunt.)
		
		
		SCENE 6
		
		The same. A plain before the castle.
		
		Enter, with drum and colours, Malcolm, old Siward, Macduff
		etc., and their army, with boughs.
		
		MALCOLM. Now, near enough: your leafy 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,
 5			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.
		MALCOLM. Make all our trumpets speak; give them all breath,
10			Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.
		(Exeunt. Alarums continued.)
		
		
		SCENE 7
		
		The same. Another part of the plain.
		
		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.)
 5		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.
10		YOUNG SIWARD. Thou liest, abhorrŠd tyrant: with my sword
			I 'll prove the lie thou speak'st. 
			(They fight, and young Siward is slain.)
		MACBETH.									Thou wast born of woman: -
			But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn,
			Brandished by man that 's of a woman born.
			(Exit.
			Alarums. Enter Macduff.)
		MACDUFF. That way the noise is. - Tyrant, show thy face:
15			If thou be'st slain, and with no stroke of mine,
			My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still.
			I cannot strike at wretched Kernes, whose arms
			Are hired to bear their staves: either thou, Macbeth,
			Or else my sword, with an unbattered edge,
20			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. Alarum.
			Enter Malcolm and old Siward.)
		SIWARD. This way, my lord; - the castle 's gently rendered:
25			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
			That strike beside us.
		SIWARD.						Enter, Sir, the castle.
			(Exeunt. Alarum.)
		
		
		SCENE 8
		
		Another part of the field.
		
		Enter Macbeth.
		
		MACBETH. Why should I play the Roman fool, and die
			On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes
			Do better upon them.
		(Enter Macduff.)
		MACDUFF.					Turn, hell-hound, turn!
		MACBETH. Of all men else I have avoided thee:
 5			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 labour:
			As easy may'st thou the intrenchant air
10			With thy keen sword impress, as make me bleed:
			Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests:
			I bear a charmŠd life, which must not yield
			To one of woman born.
		MACDUFF.							Despair thy charm;
			And let the angel whom thou still hast served
15			Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb
			Untimely ripped.
		MACBETH. AccursŠd be that tongue that tells me so,
			For it hath cowed my better part of man:
			And be these juggling fiends no more believed.
20			That palter 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' th' time:
25			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,
			And to be baited with the rabble's curse.
30			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 damned be him that first cries, "Hold, enough!"
			(Exeunt, fighting. Alarums. Re-enter fighting, and Macbeth
			slain.)
		
		
		SCENE 9
		
		Within the castle.
		
		Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colours, Malcolm, old
		Siward, Rosse, 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.
 5		ROSSE. 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 confirmed,
			In the unshrinking station where he fought,
			But like a man he died.
		SIWARD.						Then he is dead?
10		ROSSE. Ay, and brought off the field. Your cause of sorrow
			Must not be measured by his worth, for then
			It hath no end.
		SIWARD.				Had he his hurts before?
		ROSSE. Ay, on the front.
		SIWARD.					Why, then, God's soldier be he!
			Had I as many sons as I have hairs,
15			I would not wish them to a fairer death:
			And so, his knell is knolled.
		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.
			(Enter Macduff, with Macbeth's head.)
20		MACDUFF. Hail, King! for so thou art. Behold, where stands
			Th' usurper's cursŠd head: the time is free.
			I see thee compassed with thy kingdom's pearl,
			That speak my salutation in their minds;
			Whose voices I desire aloud with mine, -
25			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
30			In such an honour 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 tyrrany;
			Producing forth the cruel ministers
35			Of this dead butcher, and his fiend-like queen,
			Who, as 't is 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.
40			So thanks to all at once, and to each one,
			Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone.
			(Flourish. Exeunt.)