With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,
And push us from our stools: this is more strange
Than such a murder is.

341
Lady. My worthy lord,
Your noble friends do lack you. .

Mac. 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,

Re-enter Ghost.

And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss;
Would he were here! to all, and him, we thirst, 351
And all to all.

Lords. Our duties and the pledge.
Mac. Avant! and quit my sight! Let the eart

hide thee!
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
Which thou dost glare with!

Lady. Think of this, good peers,
But as a thing of custom: 'tis no other;
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.

Mac. What man dare, I dare :
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tyger,
Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
Shall never tremble: Or, be alive again,

And

360

And dare me to the desert with thy sword;
If trembling I inhabit, then 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.

370 Lady. You have displac'd the mirth, broke thie

good meeting, With most admir'd disorder.

Mac. 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 cheek, When mine is blanch'd with fear. Rosse. Whát sights, my lord ?

320 Lady. 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. A kind good night to all ! [Exeunt Lords. Mac. 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 390 By magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks, brought forth The secret'st man of blood.—What is the night?

Fij

Lady.

Lady. Almost at odds with morning, which is

which. Mac. How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his

person, At our great bidding?

Lady. Did you send to him, sir?

Mac. 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'l. I will to-morrow, (And betimes I will) unto the weird sisters : 400 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. You lack the season of all natures, sleep. Mac. Come, we'll to sleep: my strange and self

abuse Is the initiate fear, that wants hard use : 410 We are yet but young in deed.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V.

Thunder. Enter the three Witches, meeting Hecate. 1 Witch. Why, how now, Hecat’? you look angerly.

Hec. Have I not reason, beldams, as you are, Saucy, and overbold ? How did you dare

To

To trade and traffic with Macbeth,
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 shew the glory of our art?

420
And, which is worse, all you have done,
Hath been but for a wayward son,
Spightful, 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.
Your vessels, and your spells, provide,
Your charms, and every thing beside :
I am for the air ; this night I'll spend
Unto a dismal and a fatal end.
Great business must be wrought ere noon:
Upon the corner of the moon
There hangs a vaporous drop profound;
I'll catch it ere it come to ground :
And that, distill'd by magic slights,
Shall raise such artificial sprights,
As, by the strength of their illusion,
Shall draw him on to his confusion :

440 He shall spurn fatę, scorn death, and bear His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and fear: And you all know, security Is mortals' chiefest enemy.

[ Musick and a Song Fiij

Hark,

430

Hark, I am call'd; my little spirit, see,
Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me.

[Sing within. Come away, come away, &c. 1 Witch. Come, let's make haste, she'll soon be back again.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI.

Enter LENOX, and another Lord. Len. My former speeches have but hit your

thoughts, Which can interpret further: only, I say, Things have been strangely borne : the gracious Duncan

450 Was pitied of Macbeth :-marry, he was dead :And the right-valiant Banquo walk's too late ; Whom, you may say, if it please you, Fleance kill'd, For Fleance fled. Men must not walk too late. Who cannot want the thought, how monsterous It was for Malcolm, and for Donalbain, To kill their gracious father? damned fact ! How it did grieve Macbeth! did he not straight, In pious rage, the two delinquents tear, That were the slaves of drink, and thralls of sleep? Was not that nobly done? and wisely too;

461 For 'twould have anger'd any heart alive, To hear the men deny it. So that, I say, He has borne all things well: and I do think, That, had he Duncan's sons under his key

(As,