Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Act 3 - Scene 4
The same. Hall in the palace.
Macbeth : You know your own degrees; sit down: at first
[p]And last the hearty
welcome.
Lords : Thanks to your majesty.
Macbeth : Ourself will mingle with society,
[p]And play the humble host.
[p]Our
hostess keeps her state, but in best time
[p]We will require her
welcome.
Lady Macbeth : Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends;
[p]For my heart speaks
they are welcome.
Macbeth : See, they encounter thee with their hearts' thanks.
[p]Both sides are
even: here I'll sit i' the midst:
[p]Be large in mirth; anon we'll
drink a measure
[p]The table round.
[p][Approaching the
door]
[p]There's blood on thy face.
First Murderer : 'Tis Banquo's then.
Macbeth : 'Tis better thee without than he within.
[p]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
[p]That did the
like for Fleance: if thou didst it,
[p]Thou art the nonpareil.
First Murderer : Most royal sir,
[p]Fleance is 'scaped.
Macbeth : Then comes my fit again: I had else been perfect,
[p]Whole as the
marble, founded as the rock,
[p]As broad and general as the casing
air:
[p]But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confined, bound in
[p]To saucy
doubts and fears. But Banquo's safe?
First Murderer : Ay, my good lord: safe in a ditch he bides,
[p]With twenty trenched
gashes on his head;
[p]The least a death to nature.
Macbeth : Thanks for that:
[p]There the grown serpent lies; the worm that's
fled
[p]Hath nature that in time will venom breed,
[p]No teeth for the
present. Get thee gone: to-morrow
[p]We'll hear, ourselves, again.
Lady Macbeth : My royal lord,
[p]You do not give the cheer: the feast is sold
[p]That
is not often vouch'd, while 'tis a-making,
[p]'Tis given with welcome:
to feed were best at home;
[p]From thence the sauce to meat is
ceremony;
[p]Meeting were bare without it.
Macbeth : Sweet remembrancer!
[p]Now, good digestion wait on appetite,
[p]And
health on both!
Lennox : May't please your highness sit.
[p][The GHOST OF BANQUO enters, and
sits in]
[p]MACBETH's place]
Macbeth : Here had we now our country's honour roof'd,
[p]Were the graced person
of our Banquo present;
[p]Who may I rather challenge for
unkindness
[p]Than pity for mischance!
Ross : His absence, sir,
[p]Lays blame upon his promise. Please't your
highness
[p]To grace us with your royal company.
Macbeth : The table's full.
Lennox : 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 : Thou canst not say I did it: never shake
[p]Thy gory locks at me.
Ross : Gentlemen, rise: his highness is not well.
Lady Macbeth : Sit, worthy friends: my lord is often thus,
[p]And hath been from his
youth: pray you, keep seat;
[p]The fit is momentary; upon a
thought
[p]He will again be well: if much you note him,
[p]You shall
offend him and extend his passion:
[p]Feed, and regard him not. Are
you a man?
Macbeth : Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
[p]Which might appal the
devil.
Lady Macbeth : O proper stuff!
[p]This is the very painting of your fear:
[p]This is
the air-drawn dagger which, you said,
[p]Led you to Duncan. O, these
flaws and starts,
[p]Impostors to true fear, would well become
[p]A
woman's story at a winter's fire,
[p]Authorized by her grandam. Shame
itself!
[p]Why do you make such faces? When all's done,
[p]You look
but on a stool.
Macbeth : Prithee, see there! behold! look! lo!
[p]how say you?
[p]Why, what
care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.
[p]If charnel-houses and our
graves must send
[p]Those that we bury back, our monuments
[p]Shall be
the maws of kites.
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,
[p]Ere human statute
purged the gentle weal;
[p]Ay, and since too, murders have been
perform'd
[p]Too terrible for the ear: the times have been,
[p]That,
when the brains were out, the man would die,
[p]And there an end; but
now they rise again,
[p]With twenty mortal murders on their
crowns,
[p]And push us from our stools: this is more strange
[p]Than
such a murder is.
Lady Macbeth : My worthy lord,
[p]Your noble friends do lack you.
Macbeth : I do forget.
[p]Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends,
[p]I have a
strange infirmity, which is nothing
[p]To those that know me. Come,
love and health to all;
[p]Then I'll sit down. Give me some wine; fill
full.
[p]I drink to the general joy o' the whole table,
[p]And to our
dear friend Banquo, whom we miss;
[p]Would he were here! to all, and
him, we thirst,
[p]And all to all.
Lords : Our duties, and the pledge.
Macbeth : Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee!
[p]Thy bones are
marrowless, thy blood is cold;
[p]Thou hast no speculation in those
eyes
[p]Which thou dost glare with!
Lady Macbeth : Think of this, good peers,
[p]But as a thing of custom: 'tis no
other;
[p]Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
Macbeth : What man dare, I dare:
[p]Approach thou like the rugged Russian
bear,
[p]The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;
[p]Take any shape
but that, and my firm nerves
[p]Shall never tremble: or be alive
again,
[p]And dare me to the desert with thy sword;
[p]If trembling I
inhabit then, protest me
[p]The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible
shadow!
[p]Unreal mockery, hence!
[p][GHOST OF BANQUO
vanishes]
[p]Why, so: being gone,
[p]I am a man again. Pray you, sit
still.
Lady Macbeth : You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting,
[p]With most
admired disorder.
Macbeth : Can such things be,
[p]And overcome us like a summer's
cloud,
[p]Without our special wonder? You make me strange
[p]Even to
the disposition that I owe,
[p]When now I think you can behold such
sights,
[p]And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,
[p]When mine is
blanched with fear.
Ross : What sights, my lord?
Lady Macbeth : I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse;
[p]Question enrages
him. At once, good night:
[p]Stand not upon the order of your
going,
[p]But go at once.
Lennox : Good night; and better health
[p]Attend his majesty!
Lady Macbeth : A kind good night to all!
Macbeth : It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood:
[p]Stones have
been known to move and trees to speak;
[p]Augurs and understood
relations have
[p]By magot-pies and choughs and rooks brought
forth
[p]The secret'st man of blood. What is the night?
Lady Macbeth : Almost at odds with morning, which is which.
Macbeth : How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person
[p]At our great
bidding?
Lady Macbeth : Did you send to him, sir?
Macbeth : I hear it by the way; but I will send:
[p]There's not a one of them
but in his house
[p]I keep a servant fee'd. I will to-morrow,
[p]And
betimes I will, to the weird sisters:
[p]More shall they speak; for
now I am bent to know,
[p]By the worst means, the worst. For mine own
good,
[p]All causes shall give way: I am in blood
[p]Stepp'd in so far
that, should I wade no more,
[p]Returning were as tedious as go
o'er:
[p]Strange things I have in head, that will to hand;
[p]Which
must be acted ere they may be scann'd.
Lady Macbeth : You lack the season of all natures, sleep.
Macbeth : Come, we'll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse
[p]Is the initiate
fear that wants hard use:
[p]We are yet but young in deed.
Previous: Act 3 - Scene 3
Next: Act 3 - Scene 5
