Macbeth (5 page)
Authors: William Shakespeare
BANQUO
The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
And these are of them. Whither are they vanished?
MACBETH
Into the air: and what seemed
corporal
83
Melted as breath into the wind.
Would
84
they had stayed.
BANQUO
Were such things here as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten
on
86
the
insane root
That takes the reason prisoner?
MACBETH
Your children shall be kings.
BANQUO
You shall be king.
MACBETH
And Thane of Cawdor too: went it not so?
BANQUO
To
th’selfsame
91
tune and words. Who’s here?
Enter Ross and Angus
ROSS
The king hath happily received, Macbeth,
The news of thy success, and when he
reads
93
Thy personal
venture
94
in the rebels’ fight,
His wonders and his
95
praises do contend
Which should be thine or his: silenced with that,
In viewing o’er the rest o’th’selfsame day,
He finds thee in the
stout
98
Norwegian ranks,
Nothing afeard
99
of
what thyself didst make
,
Strange images of death.
As thick as tale
Can post with post
100
, and every one did bear
Thy praises in his kingdom’s great defence,
And poured them down before him.
ANGUS
We are sent
To give thee from our royal master thanks,
Only to herald thee
106
into his sight,
Not pay thee.
ROSS
And for an
earnest
108
of a greater honour,
He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor:
In which
addition
110
, hail, most worthy thane,
For it is thine.
BANQUO
What, can the devil speak true?
MACBETH
The Thane of Cawdor lives:
Why do you dress me in borrowed robes?
ANGUS
Who
115
was the thane lives yet,
But under heavy
judgement
116
bears that life
Which he deserves to lose.
Whether he was
combined
118
with those of Norway,
Or did
line
119
the
rebel
with hidden help
And vantage, or that with both he laboured
In his country’s wreck, I know not:
But treasons
capital
122
, confessed and proved,
Have overthrown him.
MACBETH
Glamis and Thane of Cawdor:
Aside
The greatest is
behind
125
.—Thanks for your
pains.—
To Ross and Angus
Do you not hope your children shall be kings
Aside to Banquo
When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me
Promised no less to them?
BANQUO
That, trusted
home
129
,
Aside to Macbeth
Might yet
enkindle
130
you unto the crown,
Besides the Thane of Cawdor. But ’tis strange:
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of
darkness
133
tell us truths,
Win us with honest
trifles
134
, to betray’s
In
deepest consequence
135
.—
Cousins, a word, I pray you.
To Ross and Angus; they converse apart
MACBETH
Two truths are told,
Aside
As
happy
138
prologues
to the
swelling
act
Of the
imperial theme
139
.—
To Ross and Angus
I thank you, gentlemen.—
This supernatural
soliciting
140
Aside
Cannot be ill, cannot be good: if ill,
Why hath it given me
earnest
142
of success
Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor.
If good, why do I yield to that
suggestion
144
Whose
horrid
145
image doth
unfix my hair
And make my
seated
146
heart knock at my ribs
Against the
use
147
of nature? Present fears
Are
less
148
than horrible imaginings:
My thought,
whose murder
149
yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my
single state
150
of man
That
function is smothered in surmise
151
,
And
nothing is, but what is not
152
.
BANQUO
Look how our partner’s rapt.
MACBETH
If chance will have me king, why, chance
Aside
may crown me
Without my
stir
155
.
BANQUO
New honours come upon him,
Like our
strange
157
garments,
cleave not to their mould
But with the aid of use
.
MACBETH
Come what come may,
Aside
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day
160
.
BANQUO
Worthy Macbeth, we
stay
161
upon your leisure.
MACBETH
Give me your
favour
162
:
My dull brain was
wrought
163
with things forgotten.
Kind gentlemen, your pains are
registered
164
Where every day I turn the leaf to read them
165
.
Let us toward the king.—
Think upon what hath
chanced
167
,
and at more time
,
Aside to Banquo
The interim having weighed it
168
, let us speak
Our
free
169
hearts each to other.
BANQUO
Very gladly.
MACBETH
Till then, enough.—Come, friends.
Exeunt
running scene 4
Location: Scotland, exact location unspecified
Flourish
. Enter King
[
Duncan
]
, Lennox, Malcolm, Donalbain and Attendants
DUNCAN
Is execution done on Cawdor,
or not
1
Those
in commission
2
yet returned?
MALCOLM
My
liege
3
,
They are not yet come back. But I have spoke
With one that saw him die, who did report
That very frankly he confessed his treasons,
Implored your highness’ pardon and set forth
A deep repentance: nothing in his life
Became
9
him like the leaving it. He died
As one that had been
studied
10
in his death
To throw away the dearest thing he
owed
11
As ’twere a
careless
12
trifle.
DUNCAN
There’s no
art
13
To find the mind’s
construction
14
in the face:
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.—
Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Ross and Angus
O worthiest cousin,
The sin of my ingratitude even now
Was heavy on me. Thou art so far
before
18
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow
To overtake thee.
Would thou hadst less deserved,
That the proportion both of thanks and payment
Might have been mine
20
. Only I have left to say,
More is thy due than more than
all
23
can pay.
MACBETH
The service and the loyalty I owe,
In doing it, pays itself
25
. 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 everything
Safe toward
29
your love and honour.
DUNCAN
Welcome hither:
I have begun to plant thee and will labour
To make thee full of growing.—Noble Banquo,
That hast no less deserved,
nor must be known
No less to have done so
33
, let me
enfold
34
thee
Embraces him
And hold thee to my heart.
BANQUO
There if I grow, the harvest is your own.
DUNCAN
My plenteous joys,
Wanton
38
in fullness, seek to hide themselves
In
drops of sorrow
39
.—Sons, kinsmen, thanes,
And you whose places are the
nearest
40
, know
We will
establish our estate
41
upon
Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter
The
Prince of Cumberland
43
,
which honour must
Not unaccompanied
invest
44
him only,
But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
On all deservers.—From hence to
Inverness
46
,
To Macbeth
MACBETH
The rest is labour which is not used for you
48
:
I’ll be myself the
harbinger
49
and make joyful
The hearing of my wife with your approach:
So humbly take my leave.
DUNCAN
My worthy Cawdor.
MACBETH
The Prince of Cumberland: that is a step
Aside
On which I must fall down or else o’erleap,
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
57
; yet let that
be
Which the eye fears when it is done to see.
Exit
DUNCAN
True, worthy Banquo,
he is full so valiant
59
,
And in
his commendations
60
I am fed:
It is a banquet to me. Let’s after him,
Whose
care
62
is gone before to bid us welcome:
It is a
peerless
63
kinsman.
Flourish. Exeunt.
running scene 5
Location: Macbeth’s castle, Inverness
Enter Macbeth’s Wife, alone with a letter
LADY MACBETH
‘ They met me in the day of success:
Reads
and I have learned by the
perfect’st report
2
, they have more in
them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to
question them further, they made themselves air into which
they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came
missives
6
from the king, who all-hailed me “Thane of
Cawdor”, by which title before, these weyard sisters saluted
me, and referred me to the coming on of time with “Hail,
king that shalt be!” This have I thought good to
deliver
thee
9
—my dearest partner of greatness—that thou mightst
not lose the dues of rejoicing by being ignorant of what
greatness is promised thee.
Lay it to thy heart
12
, and farewell.’
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be
What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature:
It is too full
o’th’milk
15
of human kindness
To
catch
16
the
nearest
way. Thou
wouldst
be great,
Art not without ambition, but without
The
illness should attend it
18
. What thou wouldst
highly
,
That wouldst thou
holily
19
: wouldst not
play false
,
And yet wouldst wrongly win.
Thou’dst have
20
, great Glamis,
That which cries ‘Thus thou must do’ if thou
have
21
it,
And that which rather thou dost fear to do
Than wishest should be undone
22
.
Hie
23
thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear
And
chastise
25
with the valour of my tongue
All that
impedes
26
thee from the
golden round
,
Which fate and
metaphysical
27
aid doth seem
To have thee crowned
withal
28
.—