When first they put the name of king upon me,
And bade them speak to him; then, prophetlike,
They hailed him father to a line of kings:
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 it be so,
For Banquo's issue have I filed' my mind;
For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered;
Put rancors 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!
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?
1 Mur. It was, so please your highness.
Macb.
Well then, now
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 probation3 with you,
How you were borne in hand; how crossed; the in-
struments;

4

Who wrought with them; and all things else, that might,

To half a soul, and to a notion crazed,

Say, Thus did Banquo.

1 For defiled.

2 To the utterance." This phrase, which is found in writers who preceded Shakspeare, is borrowed from the French; se battre a l'outrance, to fight desperately or to extremity, even to death.

3 i. e. "passed in proving to you."

4 To bear in hand is to delude by encouraging hope and holding out fair prospects, without any intention of performance.

1 Mur.

You made it known to us.

Macb. I did so; and went further, which is now Our point of second meeting. Do you find Your patience so predominant in your nature, That you can let this go? Are you so gospelled1 To pray for that good man, and for his issue, Whose heavy hand has bowed you to the grave, And beggared yours forever?

1 Mur.

2

We are men, my liege.
Macb. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men;
As hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,
Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are cleped 3
All by the name of dogs. The valued file *
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

That writes them all alike and so of men.
Now, if you have a station in the file,
Not in the worst rank of manhood, say it;
And I will put that business in your bosoms,
Whose execution takes your enemy off;
Grapples you to the heart and love of us,
Who wear our health but sickly in his life,
Which in his death were perfect.

2 Mur.

I am one, my liege,

Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world
Have so incensed, that I am reckless what

I do, to spite the world.

1 Mur.

And I another,

So weary with disasters, tugged with fortune,

1 i. e. "are you so obedient to the precept of the gospel, which teaches us to pray for those who despitefully use us?"

2 Shoughs are probably what we now call shocks; dogs bred between wolves and dogs.

3 Cleped, called.

4 The valued file is the descriptive list wherein their value and peculiar qualities are set down.

5 Particular addition, title, description.

That I would set my life on any chance,
To mend it, or be rid on't.

Macb.

Both of you

True, my lord.

Know, Banquo was your enemy.

2 Mur.

Macb. 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 barefaced power sweep him from my sight,
And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not,
For certain friends that are both his and mine,
Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall
Whom I myself struck down; and thence it is,
That I to your assistance do make love;
Masking the business from the common eye,
For sundry weighty reasons.

2 Mur.

Perform what you command us.

1 Mur.

We shall, my lord,

Though our lives

Macb. 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,'
The moment on't: for't must be done to-night,
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,
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.

2 Mur.
We are resolved, my lord.
Macb. I'll call upon you straight; abide within.
It is concluded.Banquo, thy soul's flight,

If it find heaven, must find it out to-night.

[Exeunt.

1 i. e. the exact time when you may look out or lie in wait for him. 2 "Always remembering that I must stand clear of suspicion."

SCENE II. The same.

Another Room.

Enter LADY MACBETH and a Servant.

Lady M. Is Banquo gone from court?

Serv. Ay, madam, but returns again to-night.

Lady M. Say to the king, I would attend his

leisure

For a few words.

Serv. Madam, I will.

Lady M.

[Exit.

Nought's had, all's spent,

Where our desire is got without content.
'Tis safer to be that which we destroy,
Than, by déstruction, dwell in doubtful joy.

Enter MACBETH.

How now, my lord! why do you keep alone,
Of sorriest1 fancies your companions making?
Using those thoughts which should indeed have died
With them they think on? Things without remedy
Should be without regard; what's done is done.

Macb. We have scotched the snake, not killed it; She'll close, and be herself; whilst our poor malice 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,
Whom we, to gain our place, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie

grave;

In restless ecstasy.3 Duncan is in his
After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well.
Treason has done his worst; nor steel, nor poison,

1 Sorriest, most melancholy.

2 The first folio reads peace; the second folio place.

3 Ecstasy, in its general sense, signifies any violent emotion or alienation of the mind. The old dictionaries render it a trance, a dampe, a crampe.

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
Among 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 cloistered flight; ere, to black Hecate's summons, The shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums, Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done A deed of dreadful note.

Lady M.

3

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

1 Present him eminence, do him the highest honor.

2 Ritson has observed, that "Nature's copy" alludes to copyhold tenure, in which the tenant holds an estate for life, having nothing but the copy of the rolls of his lord's court to show for it. A lifehold tenure may well be said to be not eternal. The subsequent speech of Macbeth, in which he says,

"Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond,"

confirms this explanation. Many of Shakspeare's allusions are to legal

customs.

3 That is, the beetle borne along the air by its shards or scaly wings. Steevens had the merit of first showing that shard or sherd was the ancient word for a scale or outward covering, a case or sheath.

4 i. e. blinding: to seel up the eyes of a hawk was to close them by sewing the eyelids together.