TPTT The Tragedy of Macbeth: ACT III
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
SCENE I. Forres. The palace.
SCENE II. The palace.
SCENE III. A park near the palace.
SCENE IV. The same. Hall in the palace.
SCENE V. A Heath.
SCENE VI. Forres. The palace.
ACT IV
ACT V
About the Play
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SCENE IV. The same. Hall in the palace.
A banquet prepared. Enter MACBETH, LADY MACBETH, ROSS, LENNOX, Lords, and Attendants
MACBETH
      You know your own degrees; sit down: at first
      And last the hearty welcome.
Lords
      Thanks to your majesty.
MACBETH
      Ourself will mingle with society,
5     And play the humble host.
      Our hostess keeps her state, but in best time
      We will require her welcome.
LADY MACBETH
      Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends;
      For my heart speaks they are welcome.
First Murderer appears at the door
MACBETH
10    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.

Approaching the door

      There's blood on thy face.
First Murderer
15    'Tis Banquo's then.
MACBETH
      'Tis better thee without than he within.
      Is he dispatch'd?
First Murderer
      My lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him.
MACBETH
      Thou art the best o' the cut-throats: yet he's good
20    That did the like for Fleance: if thou didst it,
      Thou art the nonpareil.
First Murderer
      Most royal sir,
      Fleance is 'scaped.
MACBETH
      Then comes my fit again: I had else been perfect,
25    Whole as the marble, founded as the rock,
      As broad and general as the casing air:
      But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confined, bound in
      To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo's safe?
First Murderer
      Ay, my good lord: safe in a ditch he bides,
30    With twenty trenched gashes on his head;
      The least a death to nature.
MACBETH
      Thanks for that:
      There the grown serpent lies; the worm that's fled
      Hath nature that in time will venom breed,
35    No teeth for the present. Get thee gone: to-morrow
      We'll hear, ourselves, again.
Exit Murderer
LADY MACBETH
      My royal lord,
      You do not give the cheer: the feast is sold
      That is not often vouch'd, while 'tis a-making,
40    'Tis given with welcome: to feed were best at home;
      From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony;
      Meeting were bare without it.
MACBETH
      Sweet remembrancer!
      Now, good digestion wait on appetite,
45    And health on both!
LENNOX
      May't please your highness sit.
The GHOST OF BANQUO enters, and sits in MACBETH's place
MACBETH
      Here had we now our country's honour roof'd,
      Were the graced person of our Banquo present;
      Who may I rather challenge for unkindness
50    Than pity for mischance!
ROSS
      His absence, sir,
      Lays blame upon his promise. Please't your highness
      To grace us with your royal company.
MACBETH
      The table's full.
LENNOX
55    Here is a place reserved, sir.
MACBETH
      Where?
LENNOX
      Here, my good lord. What is't that moves your highness?
MACBETH
      Which of you have done this?
Lords
      What, my good lord?
MACBETH
60    Thou canst not say I did it: never shake
      Thy gory locks at me.
ROSS
      Gentlemen, rise: his highness is not well.
LADY MACBETH
      Sit, worthy friends: my lord is often thus,
      And hath been from his youth: pray you, keep seat;
65    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?
MACBETH
      Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
70    Which might appal the devil.
LADY MACBETH
      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,
75    Impostors to true fear, would well become
      A woman's story at a winter's fire,
      Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!
      Why do you make such faces? When all's done,
      You look but on a stool.
MACBETH
80    Prithee, 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
85    Shall be the maws of kites.
GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes
LADY MACBETH
      What, quite unmann'd in folly?
MACBETH
      If I stand here, I saw him.
LADY MACBETH
      Fie, for shame!
MACBETH
      Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time,
90    Ere human statute purged 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,
95    With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,
      And push us from our stools: this is more strange
      Than such a murder is.
LADY MACBETH
      My worthy lord,
      Your noble friends do lack you.
MACBETH
100   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.
105   I drink to the general joy o' 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.
Re-enter GHOST OF BANQUO
MACBETH
110   Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee!
      Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;
      Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
      Which thou dost glare with!
LADY MACBETH
      Think of this, good peers,
115   But as a thing of custom: 'tis no other;
      Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
MACBETH
      What man dare, I dare:
      Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
      The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;
120   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 inhabit then, protest me
      The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!
125   Unreal mockery, hence!

GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes

      Why, so: being gone,
      I am a man again. Pray you, sit still.
LADY MACBETH
      You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting,
      With most admired disorder.
MACBETH
130   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,
135   And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,
      When mine is blanched with fear.
ROSS
      What sights, my lord?
LADY MACBETH
      I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse;
      Question enrages him. At once, good night:
140   Stand not upon the order of your going,
      But go at once.
LENNOX
      Good night; and better health
      Attend his majesty!
LADY MACBETH
      A kind good night to all!
Exeunt all but MACBETH and LADY MACBETH
MACBETH
145   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 MACBETH
150   Almost at odds with morning, which is which.
MACBETH
      How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person
      At our great bidding?
LADY MACBETH
      Did you send to him, sir?
MACBETH
      I hear it by the way; but I will send:
155   There's not a one of them but in his house
      I keep a servant fee'd. I will to-morrow,
      And betimes I will, to the weird sisters:
      More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know,
      By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good,
160   All causes shall give way: I am in blood
      Stepp'd 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 MACBETH
165   You lack the season of all natures, sleep.
MACBETH
      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.
Exeunt
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