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,
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,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
Can touch him further!
Lady M.

Come on;

Gentle, my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks;
Be bright and jovial 'mong your guests to-night.
Macb. So shall I, love; and so, I pray, be you :
Let your remembrance apply to Banquo;

Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue :
Unsafe the while, that we

Must lave our honors in these flattering streams;
And make our faces vizards to our hearts,

Disguising what they are.
Lady M.
You must leave this.
Macb. O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!
Thou know'st, that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives.
Lady M. But in them nature's copy's not eterne.
Macb. There's comfort yet; they are assailable;
Then be thou jocund: Ere the bat hath flown
His cloister'd flight; ere, to black Hecate's summons,
The shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums,
ath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note..

Lady M.

What's to be done?

Macb. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night, Skarf up the tender eye of pitiful day;

And, with thy bloody and invisible hand,

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.

Thou marvell'st at my words: but hold thee still;

Things bad begun, make strong themselves by ill:

So

pray thee, go with me.

7

[Exeunt.

Banquo and Fleance on their return to the Palace, are attacked by "the murderers' Banque is slain, but Fleance escapes.

SCENE IV.—A Room of State in the Palace. A Banquet

prepared.

Enter MACBETH, Lady MACBETH, ROSSE, LENOX, Lords, and Attendants.

Macb. You know your own degrees, sit down: at first

And last, the hearty welcome.

Lords.

Thanks to your majesty.

Macb. Ourself will mingle with society,

And play the humble host.

Our hostess keeps her state; but, in best time,

We will require her welcome.

Lady M. Pronounce it for me, sir, to all my friends;

For my heart speaks they are welcome.

Enter first Murderer, to the door.

Macb. See, they encounter thee with their hearts' thanks:

Both sides are even: Here I'll sit i' the midst :

Be large in mirth; anon, we'll drink a measure

The table round. There's blood upon thy face.
Mur. 'Tis Banquo's then.

Macb. 'Tis better thee without, than he within.

Is he dispatch'd?

Mur. My lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him.

Macb. Thou art the best o' the cut-throats: Yet he's good, That did the like for Fleance: if thou didst it,

Thou art the nonpareil.

Mur.

Fleance is 'scap'd.

Most royal sir,

Macb. 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 cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo's safe?
Mur. Ay, my good lord: safe in a ditch he bides,
With twenty trenched gashes on his head;
The least a death to nature.

Macb.

Thanks for that:

There the grown serpent lies; the worm, that's fled,
Hath nature that in time will venom breed,

No teeth for the present.-Get thee gone: to-morrow
We'll hear, ourselves again.

Lady M.

My royal lord,

You do not give the cheer; the feast is sold,

That is not often vouch'd, while 'tis a making,

[Exit Muraerer

'Tis given with welcome: To feed, were best at home;

From thence, the sauce to meat is ceremony,

Meeting were bare without it.

Macb.

Sweet remembrancer!

Now, good digestion wait on appetite,

And health on both!

Len.

May it please your highness sit?

[The Ghost of BANQUO rises, and sits in MACBETH's place Macb. Here had we now our country's honor roof'd,

Were the grac'd person of our Banquo present;

Who may I rather challenge for unkindness

Than pity for mischance !

Rosse.

His absence, sir,

Please it your highness

Lays blame upon his promise.

To grace us with your royal company?

Macb. The table's full.

Len. Here's a place reserv'd, sir.

Macb. Where?

Len. Here, my lord. What is't that moves your highness?
Macb. Which of you have done this?

Lords.
What, my good lord?
Macb. Thou canst not say, I did it: never shake
Thy gory locks at me.

Rosse. Gentlemen, rise; his highness is not well.
Lady M. Sit, worthy friends :-my lord is often thus,
And hath been from his youth :-'pray you, keep seat;
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?
Macb. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
Which might appal the devil.

Lady M.
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

A woman's story, at a winter's fire,

Authoriz'd by her grandam. Shame itself!

Why do you make such faces? When all's done,

You look but on a stool.

Macb. Pr'ythee, see there! behold! look! lo! how say you? 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.

Lady M.

[Ghost disappears

What! quite unmann'd in folly?

Fye, for shame!

Macb. If I stand here, I saw him.

Lady M.

Macb. Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time,
Ere human statute purg'd the gentle weal;
Ay, and since too, murders have been perform'd
Too terrible for the ear: the times have been,

That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
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 M.

My worthy lord,
Your noble friends do lack you.
Macb.

I do forget:

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,
And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss ;
Would he were here! to all, and him, we thirst,
And all to all.

Lords.

Our duties, and the pledge.

[Ghost rises.

Macb. Avaunt! and quit my sight! Let the earth ide thee ! Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;

Thou hast no speculation in those eyes

Which thou dost glare with!
Lady M.

Think of this, good peers,

But as a thing of custom: 'tis no other;
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
Macb. What man dare, I dare:

Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
The arm'd 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;
If trembling I inhibit thee, protest me

The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow !

Unreal mockery, hence!-Why, so ;-being gone,

I am a man again.-Pray you, sit still.

[Ghost disappears.

Lady M. You have displac'd the mirth, broke the good meeting, With most admir'd disorder.

Macb.

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,

And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,

When mine are blanch'd with fear.

Rosse.

What sights, my lord?

Lady M. 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,

But go at once.

Len.

Good-night, and better health

Attend his majesty !
Lady M.

A kind good-night to all!

[Exeunt Lords and Attendants.

Macb. 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

By magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks, brought forth
The secret'st man of blood.—What is the night?

Lady M. Almost at odds with morning, which is which.
Macb. How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person,
At our great bidding?

Lady M.

Did you send to him, sir?
Macb. 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 to-morrow,
(Betimes I will,) unto the weird sisters:

More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know,
By the worst means, the worst: for mine own good,
All causes shall give way; I am in blood
Stept 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;
Which must be acted, ere they may be scann'd.

Lady M. You lack the season of all natures, sleep.
Macb. 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.

Enter HECATE, meeting the three Witches.

1st Witch. Why, how now, Hecate? you look angerly. Hec. Have I not reason, beldams as you are,

Saucy, and over-bold? How did dare

To trade and traffic with Macbeth,

you

In riddles, and affairs of death;
And I, the mistress of your charms,
The close contriver of all harms,
Was never call'd to bear my part,
Or show the glory of our art?

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,

And at the pit of Acheron

Meet me i' the morning; thither he
Will come to know his destiny.

[Exeunt.