Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

Rosse. And, for an earnest of a greater honour,
He bade me from him call thee thane of Cawdor:
In which addition, hail, most worthy thane,

For it is thine.
Ban. What! can the devil speak true?
Macb. The thane of Cawdor lives: why do you
In borrow'd robes ?
[dress me
Ang.
Who was the thane, lives yet;
But under heavy judgment bears that life
Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combin'd
With those of Norway, or did line 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,
Have overthrown him.

Macb.
Glamis, and thane of Cawdor:
The greatest is behind. [Aside.] Thanks for your pains.
Do you not hope your children shall be kings,
When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me,
Promis'd no less to them?

Ban.
That, thrusted3 home,
Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 't is strange :
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths ;
Win us with honest trifles, to betray us

[blocks in formation]

Cannot be ill; cannot be good :—if ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor:
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion,
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings.

My thought, where murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man, that function
Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is,
But what is not.

Ban.
Look, how our partner 's rapt.
Macb. If chance will have me king, why, chance
may crown me,
Without my stir.
Ban.
New honours come upon him,
Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould,
But with the aid of use.

Macb. Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. Macb. Give me your favour: my dull brain was wrought

1 Rowe reads: hail. 2 Can in folio. 3 trusted in f. e.

With things forgotten.-Kind gentlemen, your pains Are register'd where every day I turn

The leaf to read them.-Let us toward the king.[TO BANQUO.] Think upon what hath chanc'd; and, at more time,

Very gladly.

The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak
Our free hearts each to other.
Ban.
Macb. Till then, enough.-Come, friends. [Exeunt.
SCENE IV.—Fores. A Room in the Palace.
Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DonalBAIN,
LENOX, and Attendants.

Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not
Those in commission yet return'd?
Mal.
My liege,
They are not yet come back; but I have spoke
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
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 't were a careless trifle.

[blocks in formation]

To find the mind's construction in the face:
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.—

Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSSE, and ANGUS.
[Embrace.*

O worthiest cousin!

The sin of my ingratitude even now
Was heavy on me. Thou art so far before,
That swiftest wind of recompense is slow

To overtake thee: would thou hadst less deserv'd,
That the proportion both of thanks and payment
Might have been more"! only I have left to say,
More is thy due than more than all can pay.
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;
Which do but what they should, by doing every thing
Safe toward your love and honour.
Dun.

Welcome hither:
I have begun to plant thee, and will labour
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.
Ban.

The harvest is your own. Dun.

[Embrace."

There if I grow,

My plenteous joys,
Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves
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
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,
And bind us farther to you.

Macb. The rest is labour, which is not us'd for you,
I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful
The hearing of my wife with your approach;
So, humbly take my leave.

Dun.
My worthy Cawdor!
Macb. The prince of Cumberland!-That is a step
6 mine: in f. e. 7 Not in f. e.

4 Not in f. e. 5 wing in f. e.

[Aside. You wait on nature's mischief. Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blankness1 of the dark,
To cry, "Hold, hold !”-

On which I must fall down, or else o'er-leap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires:
Let not light see my black and deep desires;
The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be,
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.
Dun. True, worthy Banquo: he is full so valiant,
And in his commendations I am fed;

Let us after him,

[Exit.

When I

Enter MACBETH.

Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor! Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!

[They embrace.

2

Thy letters have transported me beyond
The future in the instant.
This ignorant present, and I feel now
My dearest love,
Duncan comes here to-night.
Lady M.

Macb.

And when goes hence?
O! never

Macb. To-morrow, as he purposes.
Lady M.

It is a banquet to me.
Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome:
It is a peerless kinsman.
[Flourish. Exeunt.
SCENE V.—Inverness. A Room in MACBETH'S Castle.
Enter Lady MACBETH, with a letter.
Lady M. [Reads.] "They met me in the day of suc-
cess; and I have learned by the perfectest report, they
have more in them than mortal knowledge.
burned in desire to question them farther, they made
themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles I
stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the
king, who all-hailed me,' Thane of Cawdor;' by which
title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and re-
ferred 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 might-Must be provided for; and you shall put
est not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of
what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart,
and farewell."

Thou wouldst be great;

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promis'd.-Yet I do fear thy nature :
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness,
To catch the nearest way.
Art not without ambition; but without
The illness should attend it: what thou wouldst highly,
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,
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,
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,
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
To have thee crown'd withal.—

Enter an Attendant.

[blocks in formation]

SCENE VI.-The Same. Before the Castle.
Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, BANQUO, Lenox,
MACDUFF, ROSSE, ANGUS, and Attendants.
Dun. This castle hath a pleasant seat: the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses.
Ban.

This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve,
By his lov'd mansionry, that the heaven's breath
Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze,
Buttress, nor coigne of vantage, but this bird
Hath made his pendent bed, and procreant cradle :
Where they much3 breed and haunt, I have observ'd,

Enter Lady MACBETH.

What is your tidings? The air is delicate.
Atten. The king comes here to-night.
Lady M.
Thou 'rt mad to say it.
Is not thy master with him? who, were 't so,
Would have inform'd for preparation.

Atten. So please you, it is true: our thane is coming.
One of my fellows had the speed of him ;
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
Than would make up his message.
Lady M.

Give him tending: He brings great news. [Exit Attendant.] The raven himself is hoarse,

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full
Of direst cruelty: make thick my blood
Stop up th' access and passage to remorse;
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
Th' effect and it. Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances

1 blanket: in f. e. 2 Not in f. e. factor.

Dun.
See, see! our honour'd hostess.-
The love that follows us sometime is our trouble,
Which still we thank as love: herein I teach you,
How you shall bid God yield us for your pains,
And thank us for your trouble.
Lady M.
All our service,
In every point twice done, and then done double,
Were poor and single business to contend
Against those honours deep and broad, wherewith
Your majesty loads our house. For those of old,
And the late dignities heap'd up to them,
We rest your hermits.*
Dun.

Where's the thane of Cawdor?
We cours'd him at the heels, and had a purpose
To be his purveyor; but he rides well,
And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him
To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess,
We are your guest to-night.

Lady M.

Your servants ever

Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt,
To make their audit at your highness' pleasure,

3 most: in f. e. ; altered by Rowe, from "must," of folio. 4 Beadsmen-bound to pray for a bene

[blocks in formation]

I dare do all that may become a man;

Macb. If it were done, when 't is done, then 't were Who dares do more is none.
well

It were done quickly: if the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal" of time,
We'd jump the life to come.-But in these cases,
We still have judgment here; that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague th' inventor: thus3 even-handed justice
Commends th' ingredients of our poison'd chalice
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 been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead, like angels trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off;
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,

That tears shall drown the wind.-I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'er-leaps itself,
And falls on the other.-

[blocks in formation]

Lady M.
What boast was 't, then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?
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, and yet you would make both:
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know
How tender 't is to love the babe that milks me:

I would, while it was smiling in my face,
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.
Laky M.

If we should fail?

We fail ?7

8

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
Soundly invite him) his two chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassel so convince,
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbeck only: when in swinish sleep
Their drenched natures lie, as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
Th' unguarded Duncan? what not put upon
His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell ?o

Macb.

Bring forth men-children only !
For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing but males. Will
Will it not be receiv'd
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?
Lady M.

Who dares receive it other,
As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar
Upon his death?

[blocks in formation]

ACT II.

Court within the Castle.

SCENE I.-The Same.
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, 't is later, sir.
Ban. Hold, take my sword.-There 's husbandry 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!
Restrain in me the cursed thoughts, that nature
Gives way to in repose !-Give me my sword.-
Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch.
Who's there?

Macb. A friend.

Ban. What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's a-bed: 1 An officer who placed and removed dishes. * schoole in folio. Theobald made the change. 3 this in f. e. : 4 "The cat loves fish, but dares not wet her feet.' 5 no in folio. 6 beast in f. e. * Some eds. place an exclamation, or comma, in place of the interrogation point; such, Dyce informs us, was Mrs. Siddons' delivery of the passage-as if "we fail," was the conclusion of MACBETH's remark. B Overpower. 9 Murder.

« ZurückWeiter »