Macbeth Read online

  KING DUNCAN

  See, see, our honored hostess!

  The love that follows us sometime is our trouble,12

  Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you

  How you shall bid God 'ield us for your pains14

  And thank us for your trouble.

  LADY MACBETH All our service

  In every point twice done, and then done double,

  Were poor and single business to contend17

  Against those honors deep and broad wherewith

  Your majesty loads our house. For those of old,

  And the late dignities heaped up to them,20

  21 We rest your hermits.

  KING DUNCAN Where's the Thane of Cawdor?

  22 We coursed him at the heels and had a purpose To be his purveyor; but he rides well,

  24 And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess,

  We are your guest tonight.

  LADY MACBETH Your servants ever 27 Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in count, To make their audit at your highness' pleasure,

  29 Still to return your own.

  KING DUNCAN Give me your hand.

  30 Conduct me to mine host; we love him highly And shall continue our graces towards him.

  By your leave, hostess.

  Exeunt.

  1.7Hautboys. Torches. Enter a Sewer, and divers

  Servants with dishes and service over the stage.

  Then enter Macbeth.

  MACBETH

  1 If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly. If th' assassination

  3 Could trammel up the consequence, and catch 4 With his surcease success, that but this blow Might be the be-all and the end-all-here,

  6 But here upon this bank and shoal of time, We'd jump the life to come. But in these cases7

  We still have judgment here, that we but teach8

  Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return9

  To plague th' inventor. This evenhanded justice10

  Commends th' ingredience of our poisoned chalice11

  To our own lips. He's here in double trust:

  First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,

  Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,

  Who should against his murderer shut the door,

  Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan

  Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been17

  So clear in his great office, that his virtues18

  Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued against

  The deep damnation of his taking-off;20

  And pity, like a naked newborn babe

  Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin horsed

  Upon the sightless couriers of the air,23

  Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye

  That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur25

  To prick the sides of my intent, but only

  Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself

  And falls on th' other-

  Enter Lady [Macbeth].

  How now? What news?

  LADY MACBETH

  He has almost supped. Why have you left the chamber?

  MACBETH

  Hath he asked for me?30

  LADY MACBETH Know you not he has?

  MACBETH

  We will proceed no further in this business.

  He hath honored me of late, and I have bought32

  Golden opinions from all sorts of people,

  Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,

  Not cast aside so soon.

  LADY MACBETH Was the hope drunk

  Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?

  37 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 valor As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that

  Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,

  And live a coward in thine own esteem,

  44 Letting "I dare not" wait upon "I would,"

  45 Like the poor cat i' th' adage?

  MACBETH Prithee peace.

  I dare do all that may become a man;

  47 Who dares do more is none.

  LADY MACBETH What beast was't then

  48 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

  52 Did then adhere, and yet you would make both.

  53 They have made themselves, and that their fitness now Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know

  How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:

  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

  59 Have done to this.

  MACBETH If we should fail?

  LADY MACBETH We fail?

  But screw your courage to the sticking place60

  And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep,

  Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey62

  Soundly invite him, his two chamberlains

  Will I with wine and wassail so convince64

  That memory, the warder of the brain,65

  Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason66

  A limbeck only. When in swinish sleep67

  Their drenched natures lies as in a death,

  What cannot you and I perform upon

  Th' unguarded Duncan? what not put upon70

  His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt

  Of our great quell?72

  MACBETH Bring forth men-children only;

  For thy undaunted mettle should compose73

  Nothing but males. Will it not be received,

  When we have marked with blood those sleepy two

  Of his own chamber and used their very daggers,

  That they have done't?77

  LADY MACBETH Who dares receive it other,

  As we shall make our griefs and clamor roar

  Upon his death?

  MACBETH I am settled, and bend up

  Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.80

  Away, and mock the time with fairest show;81

  False face must hide what the false heart doth know.

  Exeunt.

  II.1Enter 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, 'tis later, sir.

  BANQUO

  5 Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven; Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.

  7 A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers,

  Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature

  10 Gives way to in repose.

  Enter Macbeth, and a Servant with a torch.

  Give me my sword!

  Who's there?

  MACBETH

  A friend.

  BANQUO

  What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's abed.

  He hath been in unusual pleasure and

  15 Sent forth great largess to your offices.

  This diamond he greets your wife withal

  17 By the name of most kind hostess, and shut up In measureless content.

  MACBETH Being unprepared,

  19 Our will became the servant to defect, Which else should free have wrought.20

  BANQUO All's well.

  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.

  MACBETH

  If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis,26

  It shall make honor for you.

  BANQUO So I lose none

  In seeking to augment it, but still keep

  My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,29

  I shall be counseled.30

  MACBETH Good repose the while.

  BANQUO

  Thanks, sir. The like to you.

  Exeunt Banquo [and Fleance].

  MACBETH [To Servant]

  Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,

  She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. Exit [Servant].

  Is this a dagger which I see before me,

  The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.

  I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

  Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible

  To feeling as to sight? or art thou but

  A dagger of the mind, a false creation

  Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?40

  I see thee yet, in form as palpable

  As this which now I draw.

  Thou marshal'st me the way that I was going,

  And such an instrument I was to use.

  45 Mine eyes are made the fools o' th' other senses, Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still,

  47 And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, Which was not so before. There's no such thing.

  49 It is the bloody business which informs 50 Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one half-world Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse

  The curtained sleep. Witchcraft celebrates

  53 Pale Hecate's offerings; and withered murder, 54 Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf, Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,

  56 With Tarquin's ravishing side, towards his design Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,

  Hear not my steps which way they walk, for fear

  Thy very stones prate of my whereabout

  60 And take the present horror from the time, 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.

  II.2Enter Lady [Macbeth].

  LADY MACBETH

  That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold;

  What hath quenched them hath given me fire.

  [An owl shrieks.] Hark! Peace.

  It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman3

  Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it.

  The doors are open, and the surfeited grooms

  Do mock their charge with snores.

  I have drugged their6 possets, That death and nature do contend about them7

  Whether they live or die.

  MACBETH [Within]

  Who's there? What, ho?

  LADY MACBETH

  Alack, I am afraid they have awaked,

  And 'tis not done. Th' attempt, and not the deed,10

  Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready-11

  He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled

  My father as he slept, I had done't.

  Enter Macbeth [with two bloody daggers]. My husband!

  MACBETH

  I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?

  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.20

  MACBETH Hark! Who lies i' th' second chamber?

  LADY MACBETH Donalbain.

  MACBETH This is a sorry sight.

  LADY MACBETH

  A foolish thought to say a sorry sight.

  MACBETH

  There's one did laugh in's sleep, and one cried "Murder!"

  26 That they did wake each other. I stood and heard them.

  27 But they did say their prayers and addressed them Again to sleep.

  LADY MACBETH There are two lodged together.

  MACBETH

  One cried "God bless us" and "Amen" the other,

  30 As they had seen me with these hangman's hands.

  List'ning their fear, I could not say "Amen"

  When they did say "God bless us."

  LADY MACBETH Consider it not so deeply.

  MACBETH

  But wherefore could not I pronounce "Amen"?

  I had most need of blessing, and "Amen"

  Stuck in my throat.

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

  MACBETH

  Methought I heard a voice cry "Sleep no more!

  Macbeth does murder sleep"-the innocent sleep,

  40 Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care, The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,

  42 Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, Chief nourisher in life's feast.

  LADY MACBETH What do you mean?

  MACBETH

  Still it cried "Sleep no more!" to all the house;

  "Glamis hath 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 think48

  So brainsickly of things. Go get some water

  And wash this filthy witness from your hand.50

  Why did you bring these daggers from the place?

  They must lie there: go carry them and smear

  The sleepy grooms with blood.

  MACBETH I'll go no more.

  I am afraid to think what I have done;

  Look on't again I dare not.

  LADY MACBETH Infirm of purpose!

  Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead

  Are but as pictures. 'Tis the eye of childhood

  That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,

  I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal,59

  For it must seem their guilt.

  Knock within.

  Exit.60

  MACBETH Whence is that knocking?

  How is't with me when every noise appalls me?

  What hands are here? Ha! they pluck out mine eyes.

  Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood

  Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather

  The multitudinous seas incarnadine,65

  Making the green one red.66 s Enter Lady [Macbeth].

  LADY MACBETH

  My hands are of your color, but I shame

  To wear a heart so white.

  Knock. I hear a knocking At the south entry. Retire we to our chamber.

  70 A little water clears us of this deed.

  How easy is it then! Your constancy

  72 Hath left you unattended.

  Knock. Hark, more knocking.

  73 Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us 74 And show us to be watchers. Be not lost So poorly in your thoughts.

  MACBETH

  To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself.

  Knock.

  Wake Duncan with thy knocking-I would thou couldst.

  Exeunt.

  II.3Enter a Porter. Knocking within.

  PORTER Here's a knocking indeed. If a man were porter 2 of hell gate, he should have old turning the key. (Knock.) Knock, knock, knock. Who's there, i' th' name 4 of Beelzebub? Here's a farmer that hanged himself on th' 5 expectation of plenty. Come in time-have napkins enow about you; here you'll sweat for't. (Knock.) Knock, knock. Who's there, in th' other devil's name? Faith, 8 here's an equivocator,
that could swear in both the scales against either scale; who committed treason enough for 10 God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven. O come in, equivocator. (Knock.) 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 you13 may roast your goose. (Knock.) Knock, knock. Never at14 quiet! What are you?-But this place is too cold for hell. I'll devil-porter it no further. I had thought to have let in some of all professions that go the primrose way to th' everlasting bonfire. (Knock.) Anon, anon! [Opens the door.] I pray you remember the porter.19

  Enter Macduff and Lennox.

  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 second22 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.26 Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes: it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance. Therefore much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on,30 and it takes him off; it persuades him, and disheartens him; makes him stand to, and not stand to; in conclusion,32 equivocates him in a sleep, and, giving him the33 lie, leaves him.

  MACDUFF I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.35

  PORTER That it did, sir, i' the very throat on me; but I36 requited him for his lie; and, I think, being too strong 38 for him, though he took up my legs sometime, yet I 39 made a shift to cast him.

  40MACDUFF Is thy master stirring? Enter Macbeth.

  Our knocking has awaked him: here he comes.

  LENNOX

  Good morrow, noble sir.

  MACBETH Good morrow, both.

  MACDUFF

  Is the king stirring, worthy thane?

  MACBETH Not yet.

  MACDUFF

  44 He did command me to call timely on him; 45 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 'tis one.

  MACBETH

  48 The labor we delight in physics pain.

  This is the door.

  MACDUFF I'll make so bold to call,

  50 For 'tis my limited service.

  Exit Macduff.

  LENNOX

  Goes the king hence today?

  MACBETH He does-he did appoint so.

  LENNOX

  The night has been unruly. Where we lay,

  Our chimneys were blown down; and, as they say,

  Lamentings heard i' th' air, strange screams of death, And prophesying, with accents terrible,

  56 Of dire combustion and confused events New hatched to th' woeful time. The obscure bird57

  Clamored the livelong night. Some say the earth

  Was feverous and did shake.

  MACBETH 'Twas a rough night.

  LENNOX

  My young remembrance cannot parallel60

  A fellow to it. Enter Macduff.

  MACDUFF

  O horror, horror, horror—

  Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee!

  MACBETH AND LENNOX What's the matter?

  MACDUFF

  Confusion now hath made his masterpiece:65

  Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope

  The Lord's anointed temple and stole thence

  The life o' th' building!

  MACBETH What is't you say? the life?