Introductory Note
 
 
AMONG the tragedies of Shakespeare, “Macbeth” is noted for the exceptional simplicity of the plot and the directness of the action. Here is no underplot to complicate or enrich, hardly more than a glimpse of humor to relieve the dark picture of criminal ambition, only the steady march toward an inevitable catastrophe.     1
  The story belongs to the half-legendary history of Scotland, and was drawn by Shakespeare from the “Chronicles of Holinshed.” For the most part, he follows the historian with considerable fidelity, but details such as the drugging of the grooms by Lady Macbeth, the portents described in the fourth scene of the second act, and the voice that called, “Sleep no more!” were suggested by other parts of the “Chronicle” than that dealing with the reigns of Duncan and Macbeth.     2
  Even the witches occur in Holinshed, who says: “The common opinion was that these women were either the weird sisters, that is (as ye would say) the goddesses of destiny, or else some nymphs or fairies, indued with knowledge of prophecy by their necromantical science.” While keeping this aspect of these figures as Fates, Shakespeare added details from the witch lore of his time, and made them capable of a symbolical and spiritual signification that brought them into vital relation with the change in the character of Macbeth.     3
  This tragedy illustrates in its close the conventional poetic justice that demands the triumph of the righteous cause and the downfall of the wicked. But there is not lacking that more subtle justice, so impressive in “Lear” because unaccompanied by the temporal reward of the good, which reveals itself in the subduing of character to what it works in. Far more terrible than the defeat and death of Macbeth is the picture of the degradation of his nature, when he appears in the scene before the battle like a beast at bay.

Act I
 
Scene I
 
 
[A heath]
Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches

  1. Witch  WHEN shall we three meet again   
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?   
  2. Witch.  When the hurlyburly’s done,   
When the battle’s lost and won.           4
  3. Witch.  That will be ere the set of sun.   
  1. Witch.  Where the place?   
  2. Witch.  Upon the heath.   
  3. Witch.  There to meet with Macbeth.           8
  1. Witch.  I come, Graymalkin! 1   
  [2. Witch.]  Paddock 2 calls:—Anon!   
  All.  Fair is foul, and foul is fair;   
Hover through the fog and filthy air.  Exeunt.           12
 
Note 1. Cat. [back]
Note 2. Toad. There are the names of the witches’ familiars, devils in the form of animals.

Scene II
 
 
[A camp near Forres]
Alarum within. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Captain

  Dun.  What bloody man is that? He can report,   
As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt   
The newest state.   
  Mal.        This is the sergeant           4
Who like a good and hardy soldier fought   
’Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend!   
Say to the King the knowledge of the broil   
As thou didst leave it.           8
  Cap.        Doubtful it stood,   
As two spent swimmers that do cling together   
And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald—   
Worthy to be a rebel, for to that 1           12
The multiplying villainies of nature   
Do swarm upon him—from the Western Isles   
Of kerns 2 and gallowglasses 3 is suppli’d;   
And Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,           16
Show’d like a rebel’s whore. 4 But all’s too weak;   
For brave Macbeth—well he deserves that name—   
Disdaining Fortune, with his brandish’d steel,   
Which smok’d with bloody execution,           20
Like Valour’s minion 5 carv’d out his passage   
Till he fac’d the slave;   
Which 6 ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,   
Till he unseam’d him from the nave to the chaps, 7           24
And fix’d his head upon our battlements.   
  Dun.  O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!   
  Cap.  As whence the sun gins his reflection   
Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break,           28
So from that spring 8 whence comfort seem’d to come   
Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark!   
No sooner justice had, with valour arm’d,   
Compell’d these skipping kerns to trust their heels,           32
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage, 9   
With furbish’d arms and new supplies of men   
Began a fresh assault.   
  Dun.        Dismay’d not this           36
Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?   
  Cap.        Yes;   
As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.   
If I say sooth, I must report they were           40
As cannons overcharg’d with double cracks; so they   
Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe.   
Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,   
Or memorize another Golgotha, 10           44
I cannot tell.   
But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.   
  Dun.  So well thy words become thee as thy wounds;   
They smack of honour both. Go get him surgeons.  [Exit Captain, attended.]           48
 
Enter Ross and ANGUS

Who comes here?   
  Mal.        The worthy thane of Ross.   
  Len.  What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look   
That seems to speak things strange.           52
  Ross.        God save the King!   
  Dun.  Whence cam’st thou, worthy thane?   
  Ross.        From Fife, great king;   
Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky           56
And fan our people cold. Norway himself,   
With terrible numbers,   
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor,   
The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict;           60
Till that Bellona’s 11 bridegroom, lapp’d in proof, 12   
Confronted him with self-comparisons, 13   
Point against point, rebellious arm ’gainst arm,   
Curbing his lavish 14 spirit; and, to conclude,           64
The victory fell on us;—   
  Dun.        Great happiness!   
  Ross.        That now   
Sweno, the Norways’ king, craves composition; 15           68
Nor would we deign him burial of his men   
Till he disbursed at Saint Colme’s inch 16   
Ten thousand dollars to our general use.   
  Dun.  No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive           72
Our bosom interest. 17Go pronounce his present death,   
And with his former title greet Macbeth.   
  Ross.  I’ll see it done.   
  Dun.  What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.  Exeunt.           76
 
Note 1. To that end. [back]
Note 2. Light-armed foot-soldiers. [back]
Note 3. Heavy-armed foot-soldiers. [back]
Note 4. I. e., fickle. [back]
Note 5. Favorite. [back]
Note 6. I. e., Macbeth. [back]
Note 7. Ripped him up from navel to jaws. [back]
Note 8. Source. [back]
Note 9. Noticing a favorable opportunity. [back]
Note 10. Make a scene of slaughter as memorable as Calvary. [back]
Note 11. The goddess of war. [back]
Note 12. Clothed in tested armor. [back]
Note 13. Opposed him with a strength equal to his own. [back]
Note 14. Insolent. [back]
Note 15. Terms of peace. [back]
Note 16. Island. [back]
Note 17. Intimate affection.

Scene III
 
 
[A heath near Forres]
Thunder. Enter the three Witches

  1. Witch.  Where hast thou been, sister?   
  2. Witch.  Killing swine.   
  3. Witch.  Sister, where thou?   
  1. Witch.  A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap,           4
And munch’d, and munch’d, and munch’d. “Give me!” quoth I.   
“Aroint thee, witch!” the rump-fed ronyon 1 cries.   
Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master o’ the Tiger;   
But in a sieve I’ll thither sail,           8
And, like a rat without a tail,   
I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.   
  2. Witch.  I’ll give thee a wind.   
  1. Witch.  Thou’rt kind.           12
  3. Witch.  And I another.   
  1. Witch.  I myself have all the other,   
And the very ports they blow,   
All the quarters that they know           16
I’ the shipman’s card. 2   
I’ll drain him dry as hay.   
Sleep shall neither night nor day   
Hang upon his pent-house 3 lid;           20
He shall live a man forbid. 4   
Weary sevennights nine times nine   
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.   
Though his bark cannot be lost,           24
Yet it shall be tempest-tost.   
Look what I have.   
  2. Witch.  Show me, show me.   
  1. Witch.  Here I have a pilot’s thumb,           28
Wreck’d as homeward he did come.  Drum within.   
  3. Witch.  A drum, a drum!   
Macbeth doth come.   
  All.  The weird sisters, hand in hand,           32
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.           36
Peace! the charm’s wound up.   
 
Enter MACBETH and BANQUO

  Macb.  So foul and fair a day I have not seen.   
  Ban.  How far is ’t call’d to Forres? What are these   
So wither’d and so wild in their attire,           40
That look not like the inhabitants o’ the earth,   
And yet are on ’t? Live you? or are you aught   
That man may question? You seem to understand me,   
By each at once her choppy finger laying           44
Upon her skinny lips. You should be women,   
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret   
That you are so.   
  Macb.        Speak, if you can. What are you?           48
  1. Witch.  All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis!   
  2. Witch.  All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!   
  3. Witch.  All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter!   
  Ban.  Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear           52
Things that do sound so fair? [To the Witches.] I’ the name of truth,   
Are ye fantastical, 5 or that indeed   
Which outwardly ye show? 6 My noble partner   
You greet with present grace and great prediction           56
Of noble having 7 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.   
  1. Witch.  Hail!   
  2. Witch.  Hail!           64
  3. Witch.  Hail!   
  1. Witch.  Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.   
  2. Witch.  Not so happy, yet much happier.   
  3. Witch.  Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none;           68
So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!   
  1. Witch.  Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!   
  Macb.  Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more.   
By Sinel’s death I know I am thane of Glamis;           72
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           76
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.   
  Ban.  The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,           80
And these are of them. Whither are they vanish’d?   
  Macb.  Into the air; and what seem’d corporal melted   
As breath into the wind. Would they had stay’d!   
  Ban.  Were such things here as we do speak about,           84
Or have we eaten on the insane root   
That takes the reason prisoner?   
  Macb.  Your children shall be kings.   
  Ban.        You shall be King.           88
  Macb.  And thane of Cawdor too; went it not so?   
  Ban.  To the self-same tune and words. Who’s here?   
 
Enter ROSS and ANGUS

  Ross.  The King hath happily receiv’d, Macbeth,   
The news of thy success; and when he reads           92
Thy personal venture in the rebels’ fight,   
His wonders and his praises do contend   
Which should be thine or his. Silenc’d with that,   
In viewing o’er the rest o’ the self-same day,           96
He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,   
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,   
Strange images of death. As thick as hail   
Came post with post; and every one did bear           100
Thy praises in his kingdom’s great defence,   
And pour’d them down before him.   
  Ang.        We are sent   
To give thee from our royal master thanks;           104
Only to herald thee into his sight,   
Not pay thee.   
  Ross.  And, for an earnest 8 of a greater honour,   
He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor;           108
In which addition, 9 hail, most worthy thane!   
For it is thine.   
  Ban.  [Aside.]  What, can the devil speak true?   
  Macb.  The thane of Cawdor lives; why do you dress me           112
In borrowed robes?   
  Ang.        Who was the thane lives yet;   
But under heavy judgement bears that life   
Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combin’d           116
With those of Norway, or did line 10 the rebel   
With hidden help and vantage, or that with both   
He labour’d in his country’s wreck, I know not;   
But treasons capital, confess’d and prov’d,           120
Have overthrown him.   
  Macb.  [Aside.]  Glamis, and thane of Cawdor!   
The greatest is behind. [To ROSS and ANGUS.] Thanks for your pains.   
[To BAN.]  Do you not hope your children shall be kings,           124
When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me   
Promis’d no less to them?   
  Ban.        That trusted home 11   
Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,           128
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           132
In deepest consequence.   
Cousins, a word, I pray you.   
  Macb.        [Aside.]  Two truths are told,   
As happy prologues to the swelling act           136
Of the imperial theme. 12—I thank you, gentlemen.   
[Aside.] This supernatural soliciting   
Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill,   
Why hath it given me earnest of success,           140
Commencing in a truth? I’m thane of Cawdor.   
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion 13   
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair   
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,           144
Against the use 14 of nature? Present fears   
Are less than horrible imaginings.   
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, 15   
Shakes so my single state of man 16 that function 17           148
Is smother’d in surmise, 18 and nothing is   
But what is not.   
  Ban.        Look, how our partner’s rapt.   
  Macb.  [Aside.]  If chance will have me King, why, chance may crown me,           152
Without my stir.   
  Ban.        New honours come upon him,   
Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould   
But with the aid of use.           156
  Macb.        [Aside.]  Come what come may,   
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. 19   
  Ban.  Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.   
  Macb.  Give me your favour; 20my dull brain was wrought 21           160
With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains   
Are regist’red where every day I turn   
The leaf to read them. Let us toward the King.   
[To BAN.] Think upon what hath chanc’d, and, at more time,           164
The interim having weigh’d it, let us speak   
Our free 22 hearts each to other.   
  Ban.        Very gladly.   
  Macb.  Till then, enough. Come, friends.  Exeunt.           168
 
Note 1. A contemptuous term for a woman. [back]
Note 2. Chart, or dial of the compass. [back]
Note 3. Like a lean-to. [back]
Note 4. Accursed. [back]
Note 5. Imaginary. [back]
Note 6. Seem. [back]
Note 7. Present possession. [back]
Note 8. Instalment in advance. [back]
Note 9. Title. [back]
Note 10. Strengthen. [back]
Note 11. Thoroughly. [back]
Note 12. Drama of kingship. [back]
Note 13. Temptation. [back]
Note 14. Custom. [back]
Note 15. In my imagination. [back]
Note 16. Weak human condition. [back]
Note 17. Power of action. [back]
Note 18. Speculation. [back]
Note 19. The thing appointed arrives whatever obstacles seem to lie between. [back]
Note 20. Pardon. [back]
Note 21. Perplexed. [back]
Note 22. Frank. [back]

Scene IV
 
 
[Forres. The palace]
Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, and Attendants

  Dun.  Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not   
Those in commission 1 yet return’d?   
  Mal.        My liege,   
They are not yet come back. But I have spoke           4
With one that saw him die; who did report   
That very frankly he confess’d his treasons,   
Implor’d your Highness’ pardon, and set forth   
A deep repentance. Nothing in his life           8
Became him like the leaving it. He died   
As one that had been studied in his death   
To throw away the dearest thing he ow’d,   
As ’twere a careless trifle.           12
  Dun.        There’s no art   
To find the mind’s construction in the face.   
He was a gentleman on whom I built   
An absolute trust.           16
 
Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSS, and ANGUS

        O worthiest cousin!   
The sin of my ingratitude even now   
Was heavy on me. Thou art so far before   
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow           20
To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserv’d,   
That the proportion both of thanks and payment   
Might have been mine! Only I have left to say,   
More is thy due than more than all can pay.           24
  Macb.  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,           28
Which do but what they should, by doing everything   
Safe toward 2 your love and honour.   
  Dun.        Welcome hither!   
I have begun to plant thee, and will labour           32
To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo,   
That hast no less deserv’d, nor must be known   
No less to have done so, let me infold thee   
And hold thee to my heart.           36
  Ban.        There if I grow,   
The harvest is your own.   
  Dun.        My plenteous joys,   
Wanton 3 in fulness, seek to hide themselves           40
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           44
The Prince of Cumberland; which honour must   
Not unaccompanied invest him only,   
But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine   
On all deservers. From hence to Inverness,           48
And bind us further to you.   
  Macb.  The rest is labour, which is not us’d for you.   
I’ll be myself the harbinger 4 and make joyful   
The hearing of my wife with your approach;           52
So humbly take my leave.   
  Dun.        My worthy Cawdor!   
  Macb.  [Aside.]  The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step   
On which I must fall down, or else o’erleap,           56
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;   
Let not light see my black and deep desires;   
The eye wink 5 at the hand; yet let that be   
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.  Exit.           60
  Dun.  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.           64
It is a peerless kinsman.  Flourish. Exeunt.   
 
Note 1. Commissioned to carry it out. [back]
Note 2. So as to preserve. [back]
Note 3. Unrestrained. [back]
Note 4. Forerunner. [back]
Note 5. Refuse to see. [back]

Scene V
 
 
[Inverness. Macbeth’s castle]
Enter LADY MACBETH, alone, with a letter

  Lady M.  [Reads.]  “They met me in the day of success; and I have learn’d by the perfect’st report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burn’d in desire to question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanish’d. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the King, who all-hail’d me ‘Thane of Cawdor;’ by which title, before, these weird sisters 1 saluted me, and referr’d 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 mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promis’d thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell.”   
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be   
What thou art promis’d. Yet do I fear thy nature;   
It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness           4
To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great,   
Art not without ambition, but without   
The illness 2 should attend it. What thou wouldst highly,   
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,           8
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           12
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear,   
And chastise with the valour of my tongue   
All that impedes thee from the golden round 3   
Which fate and metaphsical 4 aid doth seem           16
To have thee crown’d withal.   
 
Enter a Messenger

        What is your tidings?   
  Mess.  The King comes here to-night.   
  Lady M.          Thou ’rt mad to say it!           20
Is not thy master with him? who, were ’t so,   
Would have inform’d for preparation.   
  Mess.  So please you, it is true; our thane is coming.   
One of my fellows had the speed of him,           24
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more   
Than would make up his message.   
  Lady M.        Give him tending;  Exit Messenger.   
He brings great news.           28
        The raven himself is hoarse   
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan   
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits   
That tend on mortal 5 thoughts, unsex me here,           32
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full   
Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood;   
Stop up the access and passage to remorse, 6   
That no compunctious visitings of nature 7           36
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between   
The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts   
And take 8 my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers,   
Wherever in your sightless 9 substances           40
You wait on nature’s mischief! Come, thick night,   
And pall 10 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           44
To cry, “Hold, hold!”   
 
Enter MACBETH

      Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor!   
Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!   
Thy letters have transported me beyond           48
This ignorant present, and I feel now   
The future in the instant.   
  Macb.        My dearest love,   
Duncan comes here to-night.           52
  Lady M.        And when goes hence?   
  Macb.  To-morrow, as he purposes.   
  Lady M.        O, never   
Shall sun that morrow see!           56
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men   
May read strange matters. To beguile the time, 11   
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,   
Your hand, your tongue; look like the innocent flower,           60
But be the serpent under ’t. He that’s coming   
Must be provided for; and you shall put   
This night’s great business into my dispatch,   
Which shall to all our nights and days to come           64
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.   
  Macb.  We will speak further.   
  Lady M.        Only look up clear;   
To alter favour 12 ever is to fear.           68
Leave all the rest to me.  Exeunt.   
 
Note 1. The three Fates. [back]
Note 2. Wickedness. [back]
Note 3. Crown. [back]
Note 4. Supernatural. [back]
Note 5. Murderous. [back]
Note 6. Pity. [back]
Note 7. Natural feelings of compunction. [back]
Note 8. Change. [back]
Note 9. Invisible. [back]
Note 10. Wrap. [back]
Note 11. Deceive onlookers. [back]
Note 12. Countenance. [back]

Scene VI
 
 
[Before Macbeth’s castle]
Hautboys and torches. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, BANQUO, LENNOX, MACDUFF, ROSS, ANGUS, and Attendants

  Dun.  This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air   
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself   
Unto our gentle 1 senses.   
  Ban.        This guest of summer,           4
The temple-haunting martlet, 2 does approve,   
By his loved masonry, that the heaven’s breath   
Smells wooingly here; no jutty, 3 frieze,   
Buttress, nor coign 4 of vantage, but this bird           8
Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle.   
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observ’d   
The air is delicate.   
 
Enter LADY MACBETH

  Dun.        See, see, our honour’d hostess!           12
The love that follows us sometime is our trouble,   
Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you   
How you shall bid God ’eild 5 us for your pains,   
And thank us for your trouble.           16
  Lady M.        All our service   
In every point twice done and then done double   
Were poor and single 6 business to contend   
Against those honours deep and broad wherewith           20
Your Majesty loads our house. For those of old,   
And the late dignities heap’d up to them,   
We rest your hermits. 7   
  Dun.        Where’s the thane of Cawdor?           24
We cours’d him at the heels, and had a purpose   
To be his purveyor; 8 but he rides well,   
And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him   
To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess,           28
We are your guest to-night.   
  Lady M.        Your servants ever   
Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt, 9   
To make their audit at your Highness’ pleasure,           32
Still to return your own.   
  Dun.        Give me your hand;   
Conduct me to mine host. We love him highly,   
And shall continue our graces towards him.           36
By your leave, hostess.  Exeunt.   
 
Note 1. Soothed. [back]
Note 2. Martin. [back]
Note 3. Forerunner. [back]
Note 4. Corner. [back]
Note 5. Reward. [back]
Note 6. Weak. [back]
Note 7. I. e., We will pray for you. [back]
Note 8. Forerunner. [back]
Note 9. Subject to account.

Scene VII
 
 
[Corridor in Macbeth’s castle]
Hautboys and torches. Enter a Sewer, and divers Servants with dishes and service, over the stage. Then enter MACBETH

  Macb.  If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well   
It were done quickly. If the assassination   
Could trammel 1 up the consequence, and catch   
With his surcease 2 success; that but this blow           4
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,   
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,   
We’d jump 3 the life to come. But in these cases   
We still 4 have judgement here, that we but teach           8
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return   
To plague the inventor. This even-handed justice   
Commends 5 the ingredients of our poison’d chalice   
To our own lips. He’s here in double trust:           12
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           16
Hath borne his faculties 6 so meek, hath been   
So clear 7 in his great office, that his virtues   
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongu’d, against   
The deep damnation of his taking-off;           20
And pity, like a naked new-born babe   
Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin hors’d   
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,   
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,           24
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—           28
 
Enter LADY MACBETH

        How now! what news?
  Lady M.  He has almost supp’d. Why have you left the chamber?   
  Macb.  Hath he ask’d for me?   
  Lady M.        Know you not he has?   
  Macb.  We will proceed no further in this business.           32
He hath honour’d me of late; and I have bought   
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,   
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,   
Not cast aside so soon.           36
  Lady M.        Was the hope drunk   
Wherein you dress’d yourself? Hath it slept since?   
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale   
At what it did so freely? From this time           40
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard   
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,           44
And live a coward in thine own esteem,   
Letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would,”   
Like the poor cat i’ the adage? 8   
  Macb.        Prithee, peace!           48
I dare do all that may become a man;   
Who dares do more is none.   
  Lady M.        What beast was’t, then,   
That made you break this enterprise to me?           52
When you durst do it, then you were a man;   
And, to be more than what you were, you would   
Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place   
Did then adhere, 9 and yet you would make both.           56
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,           60
Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums   
And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you   
Have done to this.   
  Macb.        If we should fail?           64
  Lady M.        We fail!   
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           68
Soundly invite him—his two chamberlains   
Will I with wine and wassail 10 so convince 11   
That memory, the warder of the brain,   
Shall be a fume, and the receipt 12 of reason           72
A limbeck 13 only. When in swinish sleep   
Their drenched 14 natures lie as in a death,   
What cannot you and I perform upon   
The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon           76
His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt   
Of our great quell? 15   
  Macb.        Bring forth men-children only;   
For thy undaunted mettle should compose           80
Nothing but males. Will it not be receiv’d, 16   
When we have mark’d with blood those sleepy two   
Of his own chamber, and us’d their very daggers,   
That they have done ’t?           84
  Lady M.        Who dares receive it other,   
As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar   
Upon his death?   
  Macb.        I am settled, and bend up           88
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.   
 
Note 1. Catch, as in a net. [back]
Note 2. Cessation of the consequence. [back]
Note 3. Risk. [back]
Note 4. Always. [back]
Note 5. Presents. [back]
Note 6. Official powers. [back]
Note 7. Blameless. [back]
Note 8. The proverb runs: “The cat would eat fish, but she will not wet her feet.” [back]
Note 9. Suit. [back]
Note 10. Carousing. [back]
Note 11. Overcome. [back]
Note 12. Receptacle. [back]
Note 13. Alembic, still. [back]
Note 14. Drowned. [back]
Note 15. Murder. [back]
Note 16. Believed.

Act II
 
Scene I
 
 
[Within Macbeth’s castle]
Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE with a torch before him

  Ban.  How goes the night, boy?   
  Fle.  The moon is down; I have not heard the clock.   
  Ban.  And she goes down at twelve.   
  Fle.        I take ’t, ’tis later, sir.           4
  Ban.  Hold, take my sword. There’s husbandry 1 in heaven;   
Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.   
A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,   
And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers,           8
Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature   
Gives way to in repose!   
 
Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch

        Give me my sword.   
Who’s there?           12
  Macb.  A friend.   
  Ban.  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. 2           16
This diamond he greets your wife withal,   
By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up 3   
In measureless content.   
  Macb.        Being unprepar’d,           20
Our will became the servant to defect; 4   
Which else should free have wrought.   
  Ban.        All’s well.   
I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:           24
To you they have show’d some truth.   
  Macb.        I think not of them;   
Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,   
We would spend it in some words upon that business,           28
If you would grant the time.   
  Ban.        At your kind’st leisure.   
  Macb.  If you shall cleave to my consent, 5 when ’tis, 6   
It shall make honour for you.           32
  Ban.        So I lose none   
In seeking to augment it, but still keep   
My bosom franchis’d 7 and allegiance clear,   
I shall be counsell’d.           36
  Macb.        Good repose the while!   
  Ban.  Thanks, sir; the like to you!  Exeunt BANQUO [and FLEANCE].   
  Macb.  Go bid thy mistress, when my drink 8 is ready,  Exit [Servant].   
She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.           40
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 9 vision, sensible           44
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but   
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,   
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?   
I see thee yet, in form as palpable           48
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,           52
Or else worth all the rest. 10 I see thee still,   
And on thy blade and dudgeon 11 gouts 12 of blood,   
Which was not so before. There’s no such thing.   
It is the bloody business which informs 13           56
Thus to mine eyes. Now o’er the one half-world   
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse 14   
The curtain’d sleep. Witchcraft celebrates   
Pale Hecate’s offerings, and wither’d murder,           60
Alarum’d by his sentinel, the wolf,   
Whose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,   
With Tarquin’s ravishing strides, towards his design   
Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm set earth,           64
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear   
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,   
And take the present horror 15 from the time,   
Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:           68
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.   
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.  A bell rings.
Exit.
           72
 
Note 1. Thrift. [back]
Note 2. Servants’ rooms. [back]
Note 3. Concluded. [back]
Note 4. Was forced to act as our limitations compelled it. [back]
Note 5. Side with my party. [back]
Note 6. When I have a party. [back]
Note 7. Conscience clear. [back]
Note 8. The cup drunk before retiring. [back]
Note 9. Sent by fate. [back]
Note 10. As alone trustworthy. [back]
Note 11. Handle. [back]
Note 12. Drops. [back]
Note 13. Presents forms. [back]
Note 14. Fill with deceptive appearances. [back]
Note 15. I. e., silence. [back]
 

Scene III
 
 
[The same]
Enter a Porter. Knocking within

  Porter.  Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hellgate, he should have old turning 1 the key. (Knocking.) Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there, i’ the name of Beelzebub? Here’s a farmer, that hang’d himself on the expectation of plenty. 2 Come in time; have napkins enow about you; here you’ll sweat for ’t. (Knocking.) Knock, knock! Who’s there, in 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 heaven. O, come in, equivocator. (Knocking.) Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there? Faith, here’s an English tailor come hither, for stealing 3 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. 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 everlasting bonfire. (Knocking.) Anon, anon. I pray you, remember the porter.  [Opens the gate.]   
 
Enter MACDUFF and LENNOX

  Macd.  Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed,   
That you do lie so late?   
  Port.  Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock; and drink,           4
sir, is a great provoker of three things.   
  Macd.  What three things does drink especially provoke?   
  Port.  Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep and urine. 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, and it takes him off; it persuades him, and disheartens him; makes him stand to, and not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him.   
  Macd.  I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.           8
  Port.  That it did, sir, i’ the very throat on me. But I requited him 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.   
 
Enter MACBETH

  Macd.  Is thy master stirring?   
Our knocking has awak’d him; here he comes.   
  Len.  Good morrow, noble sir.           12
  Macb.        Good morrow, both.   
  Macd.  Is the King stirring, worthy thane?   
  Macb.        Not yet.   
  Macd.  He did command me to call timely 4 on him.           16
I have almost slipp’d the hour.   
  Macb.        I’ll bring you to him.   
  Macd.  I know this is a joyful trouble to you;   
But yet ’tis one.           20
  Macb.  The labour we delight in physics pain.   
This is the door.   
  Macd.        I’ll make so bold to call,   
For ’tis my limited 5 service.  [Exit.           24
  Len.  Goes the King hence to-day?   
  Macb.        He does;—he did appoint so.   
  Len.  The night has been unruly. Where we lay,   
Our chimneys were blown down; and, as they say,           28
Lamentings heard i’ the air; strange screams of death,   
And prophesying with accents terrible   
Of dire combustion 6 and confus’d events   
New hatch’d to the woeful time. The obscure bird           32
Clamour’d the livelong night; some say, the earth   
Was feverous and did shake.   
  Macb.        ’Twas a rough night.   
  Len.  My young remembrance cannot parallel           36
A fellow to it.   
 
Re-enter MACDUFF

  Macd.  O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart   
Cannot conceive nor name thee!   
  Macb. & Len.        What’s the matter?           40
  Macd.  Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!   
Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope   
The Lord’s anointed temple, and stole thence   
The life o’ the building!           44
  Macb.        What is ’t you say? The life?   
  Len.  Mean you his Majesty?   
  Macd.  Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight   
With a new Gorgon. 7 Do not bid me speak;           48
See, and then speak yourselves.  Exeunt MACBETH and LENNOX.   
        Awake, awake!   
Ring the alarum-bell. Murder and treason!   
Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm! awake!           52
Shake off this downy sleep, death’s counterfeit,   
And look on death itself! Up, up, and see   
The great doom’s 8 image! Malcolm! Banquo!   
As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites,           56
To countenance this horror. Ring the bell.  Bell rings.   
 
Enter LADY MACBETH

  Lady M.  What’s the business,   
That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley   
The sleepers of the house? Speak, speak!           60
  Macd.        O gentle lady,   
’Tis not for you to hear what I can speak;   
The repetition in a woman’s ear   
Would murder as it fell.           64
 
Enter BANQUO

      O Banquo, Banquo,   
Our royal master’s murder’d!   
  Lady M.        Woe, alas!   
What, in our house?           68
  Ban.        Too cruel anywhere.   
Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself,   
And say it is not so.   
 
Re-enter MACBETH and LENNOX, with Ross

  Macb.  Had I but died an hour before this chance,           72
I had liv’d a blessed time; for, from this instant,   
There’s nothing serious in mortality. 9   
All is but toys; 10 renown and grace is dead;   
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees           76
Is left this vault to brag of.   
 
Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN

  Don.  What is amiss?   
  Macb.        You are, and do not know ’t.   
The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood           80
Is stopp’d; the very source of it is stopp’d.   
  Macd.  Your royal father’s murder’d.   
  Mal.        O, by whom?   
  Len.  Those of his chamber, as it seem’d, had done ’t.           84
Their hands and faces were all badg’d 11 with blood;   
So were their daggers, which unwip’d we found   
Upon their pillows.   
They star’d, and were distracted; no man’s life           88
Was to be trusted with them.   
  Macb.  O, yet I do repent me of my fury,   
That I did kill them.   
  Macd.        Wherefore did you so?           92
  Macb.  Who can be wise, amaz’d, temperate and furious,   
Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man.   
The expedition 12 of my violent love   
Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,           96
His silver skin lac’d with his golden blood,   
And his gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in nature   
For ruin’s wasteful entrance; there, the murderers,   
Steeped in the colours of their trade, their daggers           100
Unmannerly breech’d 13 with gore. Who could refrain,   
That had a heart to love, and in that heart   
Courage to make’s love known?   
  Lady M.        Help me hence, ho!           104
  Macd.  Look to the lady.   
  Mal.  [Aside to DON.]  Why do we hold our tongues,   
That most may claim this argument 14 for ours?   
  Don.  [Aside to MAL.]  What should be spoken here, where our fate,           108
Hid in an auger-hole, may rush and seize us?   
Let’s away;   
Our tears are not yet brew’d.   
  Mal.  [Aside to DON.]        Nor our strong sorrow           112
Upon the foot of motion. 15   
  Ban.        Look to the lady;  [LADY MACBETH is carried out.]   
And when we have our naked frailties 16 hid,   
That suffer in exposure, let us meet           116
And question 17 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 undivulg’d pretence 18 I fight           120
Of treasonous malice.   
  Macd.        And so do I.   
  All.        So all.   
  Macb.  Let’s briefly put on manly readiness, 19           124
And meet i’ the hall together.   
  All.        Well contented.  Exeunt [all but MALCOLM and DONALBAIN].   
  Mal.  What will you do? Let’s not consort with them;   
To show an unfelt sorrow is an office           128
Which the false man does easy. I’ll to England.   
  Don.  To Ireland, I; our separated fortune   
Shall keep us both the safer. Where we are,   
There’s daggers in men’s smiles; the near 20 in blood,           132
The nearer bloody.   
  Mal.        This murderous shaft that’s shot   
Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way   
Is to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse;           136
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.]   
 
Note 1. Slang. Plenty of turning. [back]
Note 2. Having hoarded grain. [back]
Note 3. Stealing part of the cloth supplied. [back]
Note 4. Early. [back]
Note 5. Appointed. [back]
Note 6. Turmoil. [back]
Note 7. Which will turn you to stone, like Medusa’s head. [back]
Note 8. Judgment day. [back]
Note 9. Human life. [back]
Note 10. Trifles. [back]
Note 11. Marked. [back]
Note 12. Haste. [back]
Note 13. Smeared to the handles. [back]
Note 14. Subject of discussion. [back]
Note 15. Begun to move. [back]
Note 16. Frail bodies. [back]
Note 17. Discuss. [back]
Note 18. Undiscovered purpose. [back]
Note 19. Men’s clothes. [back]
Note 20. Nearer. [back]