Macbeth Read online

  They smack of honor both. Go get him surgeons.

  [Exit Captain, attended.]

  Enter Ross and Angus.

  Who comes here?45

  MALCOLM The worthy Thane of Ross.

  LENNOX

  What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look46

  That seems to speak things strange.47

  ROSS God save the king.

  KING DUNCAN

  Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane?

  ROSS From Fife, great king, Where the Norwegian banners flout the sky

  50 And fan our people cold.

  51 Norway himself, with terrible numbers, Assisted by that most disloyal traitor

  53 The Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict, 54 Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapped in proof, 55 Confronted him with self-comparisons, 56 Point against point, rebellious arm 'gainst arm, Curbing his lavish spirit; and to conclude,

  The victory fell on us.

  KING DUNCAN Great happiness!

  ROSS

  That now

  60 Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition; Nor would we deign him burial of his men

  62 Till he disbursed, at Saint Colme's Inch, 63 Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

  KING DUNCAN

  No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive

  65 Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death And with his former title greet Macbeth.

  ROSS

  I'll see it done.

  KING DUNCAN

  What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won.

  Exeunt.

  I.3Thunder. Enter the three Witches.

  FIRST WITCH

  Where hast thou been, sister?

  SECOND WITCH

  Killing swine.

  THIRD WITCH

  Sister, where thou?

  FIRST WITCH

  A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap

  And munched and munched and munched. "Give

  me," quoth I.

  "Aroint thee, witch!" the rump-fed runnion cries.6

  Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' th' Tiger:7

  But in a sieve I'll thither sail

  And, like a rat without a tail,

  I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do.

  SECOND WITCH

  I'll give thee a wind.

  FIRST WITCH

  Thou'rt kind.

  THIRD WITCH

  And I another.

  FIRST WITCH

  I myself have all the other,

  And the very ports they blow,15

  All the quarters that they know

  I' th' shipman's card.17

  I'll drain him dry as hay.

  Sleep shall neither night nor day

  Hang upon his penthouse lid.20

  He shall live a man forbid.21

  Weary sev'nights, nine times nine,

  23 Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.

  Though his bark cannot be lost,

  Yet it shall be tempest-tossed.

  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.

  THIRD WITCH

  30 A drum, a drum; Macbeth doth come.

  ALL

  32 The weird sisters, hand in hand, 33 Posters of the sea and land, Thus do go about, about,

  Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine,

  And thrice again, to make up nine.

  Peace, the charm's wound up.

  Enter Macbeth and Banquo.

  MACBETH

  So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

  BANQUO

  39 How far is't called to Forres? What are these, 40 So withered and so wild in their attire That look not like th' inhabitants o' th' earth

  And yet are on't? Live you, or are you aught

  That man may question? You seem to understand me,

  44 By each at once her choppy finger laying Upon her skinny lips. You should be women,

  And yet your beards forbid me to interpret

  That you are so.

  MACBETH Speak, if you can. What are you?

  FIRST WITCH

  All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!48

  SECOND WITCH

  All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!

  THIRD WITCH

  All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!50

  BANQUO

  Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear

  Things that do sound so fair? [To the Witches] I' th'name of truth, Are ye fantastical, or that indeed53

  Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner

  You greet with present grace and great prediction55

  Of noble having and of royal hope,

  That he seems rapt withal. To me you speak not.57

  If you can look into the seeds of time58

  And say which grain will grow and which will not,

  Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear60

  Your favors nor your hate.

  FIRST WITCH Hail!

  SECOND WITCH Hail!

  THIRD WITCH Hail!

  FIRST WITCH

  Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.

  SECOND WITCH

  Not so happy, yet much happier.66

  THIRD WITCH

  Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.67

  So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!

  FIRST WITCH

  Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!

  MACBETH

  70 Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more: 71 By Finel's death I know I am Thane of Glamis, But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives,

  A prosperous gentleman; and to be king

  Stands not within the prospect of belief,

  No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence

  You owe this strange intelligence, or why

  Upon this blasted heath you stop our way

  With such prophetic greeting. Speak, I charge you.

  Witches vanish.

  BANQUO

  The earth hath bubbles as the water has,

  80 And these are of them. Whither are they vanished?

  MACBETH

  81 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?

  84 Or have we eaten on the insane root That takes the reason prisoner?

  MACBETH

  Your children shall be kings.

  BANQUO You shall be king.

  MACBETH

  And Thane of Cawdor too. Went it not so?

  BANQUO

  To th' selfsame tune and words. Who's here?

  Enter Ross and Angus.

  ROSS

  The king hath happily received, Macbeth,

  90 The news of thy success; and when he reads Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight,

  His wonders and his praises do contend92

  Which should be thine or his. Silenced with that,

  In viewing o'er the rest o' th' selfsame day,

  He finds thee in the stout Norwegian ranks,

  Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,

  Strange images of death. As thick as tale97

  Came post with post, and every one did bear98

  Thy praises in his kingdom's great defense

  And poured them down before him.100

  ANGUS We are sent

  To give thee from our royal master thanks;

  Only to herald thee into his sight,

  Not pay thee.

  ROSS

  And for an earnest of a greater honor,

  He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor;

  In which addition, hail, most worthy thane,106

  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 Who was the thane lives yet, But under heavy judgment bears that life110

  Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined111

  With those of Norway, or did line the rebel112

  With hidden help and vantage, or that with both113

  He labored in his country's wrack, I know not;

  But treasons capital, confessed and proved,

  Have overthrown him.

  MACBETH [Aside] Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor-

  117 The greatest is behind.

  [To Ross and Angus] Thanks for your pains.

  [Aside to Banquo]

  Do you not hope your children shall be kings,

  When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me

  120 Promised no less to them?

  BANQUO [To Macbeth] That, trusted home, Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,

  Besides the Thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange;

  And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,

  The instruments of darkness tell us truths,

  Win us with honest trifles, to betray's

  126 In deepest consequence.-

  127 Cousins, a word, I pray you.

  MACBETH [Aside] Two truths are told, 128 As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme.-I thank you, gentlemen.-[Aside]

  130 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

  Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair

  136 And make my seated heart knock at my ribs 137 Against the use of nature? Present fears Are less than horrible imaginings:

  139 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 honors come upon him,

  Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mold145

  But with the aid of use.

  MACBETH [Aside] Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.147

  BANQUO

  Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.

  MACBETH

  Give me your favor. My dull brain was wrought149

  With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains150

  Are registered where every day I turn

  The leaf to read them. Let us toward the king.

  [Aside to Banquo]

  Think upon what hath chanced, and at more time,

  The interim having weighed it, let us speak

  Our free hearts each to other.155

  BANQUO Very gladly.

  MACBETH

  Till then, enough.-Come, friends.

  Exeunt.

  I.4Flourish. Enter King [Duncan], Lennox, Malcolm, Donalbain, and Attendants.

  KING DUNCAN

  Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not

  Those in commission yet returned?2

  MALCOLM My liege,

  They are not yet come back. But I have spoke

  With one that saw him die, who did report

  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

  9 As one that had been studied in his death 10 To throw away the dearest thing he owed As 'twere a careless trifle.

  KING DUNCAN There's no art

  To find the mind's construction in the face.

  He was a gentleman on whom I built

  An absolute trust.

  Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, and Angus.

  [To Macbeth] O worthiest cousin,

  The sin of my ingratitude even now

  16 Was heavy on me. Thou art so far before That swiftest wing of recompense is slow

  To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved,

  19 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

  Are to your throne and state children and servants,

  Which do but what they should by doing everything

  27 Safe toward your love and honor.

  KING DUNCAN Welcome hither.

  28 I have begun to plant thee and will labor 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 enfold thee

  And hold thee to my heart.

  BANQUO There if I grow,

  The harvest is your own.

  KING DUNCAN My plenteous joys, Wanton in fullness, seek to hide themselves34

  In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes,

  And you whose places are the nearest, know

  We will establish our estate upon

  Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter

  The Prince of Cumberland; which honor must39

  Not unaccompanied invest him only,40

  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 labor which is not used for you.

  I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful

  The hearing of my wife with your approach;

  So, humbly take my leave.

  KING DUNCAN My worthy Cawdor!

  MACBETH [Aside]

  The Prince of Cumberland-that is a step

  On which I must fall down or else o'erleap,

  For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;50

  Let not light see my black and deep desires.

  The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be52

  Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.

  Exit.

  KING DUNCAN

  True, worthy Banquo: he is full so valiant,

  And in his commendations I am fed;

  It is a banquet to me. Let's after him,

  Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome.

  It is a peerless kinsman.

  Flourish. Exeunt.

  I.5Enter Macbeth's Wife, alone, with a letter.

  LADY MACBETH[Reads.] "They met me in the day of 2 success; and I have learned by the perfect'st report they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles I 6 stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who all-hailed me Thane of Cawdor, by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on of time with 'Hail, king that shalt 10 be!' This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou 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.

  It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness

  17 To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without

  19 The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly, 20 That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou'dst have, great Glamis, That which cries "Thus thou must do" if thou have it; And that which rather thou dost fear to do

  Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither,

  That I may pour my spirits in thine ear

  And chastise with the valor of my tongue

  All that imped
es thee from the golden round27

  Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem28

  To have thee crowned withal.

  Enter Messenger.29 What is your tidings?

  MESSENGER

  The king comes here tonight.30

  LADY MACBETH Thou'rt mad to say it!

  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 more35

  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 topfull

  Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood;

  Stop up th' access and passage to remorse,43

  That no compunctious visitings of nature44

  Shake my fell purpose nor keep peace between45

  Th' effect and it. Come to my woman's breasts

  And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers,47

  Wherever in your sightless substances48

  49 You wait on nature's mischief. Come, thick night, 50 And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,

  Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark

  To cry "Hold, hold." Enter Macbeth.

  Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor,

  Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter,

  Thy letters have transported me beyond

  56 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

  60 Shall sun that morrow see.

  Your face, my thane, is as a book where men

  62 May read strange matters. To beguile the time, 63 Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue; look like th' innocent flower, But be the serpent under't. He that's coming

  Must be provided for; and you shall put

  67 This night's great business into my dispatch, Which shall to all our nights and days to come

  Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.

  MACBETH

  70 We will speak further.

  LADY MACBETH Only look up clear.

  71 To alter favor ever is to fear.

  Leave all the rest to me.

  Exeunt.

  I.6Hautboys and torches. Enter King [Duncan], Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff,

  Ross, Angus, and Attendants.

  KING DUNCAN

  This castle hath a pleasant seat. The air1

  Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself

  Unto our gentle senses.3

  BANQUO This guest of summer,

  The temple-haunting martlet, does approve4

  By his loved mansionry that the heaven's breath5

  Smells wooingly here. No jutty, frieze,6

  Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird7

  Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle.8

  Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed

  The air is delicate.10Enter Lady [Macbeth].