SCENE IV.
A banquet prepared. Enter Macbeth, Lady, Rosse, Lenox, Lords, and Attendants.
Macb.
4 note
You know your own degrees, sit down: at first,
And last, the hearty welcome.
Lords.
Thanks to your majesty.
Macb.
Ourself will mingle with society,
And play the humble host.
Our hostess keeps her state5 note; but, in best time,
We will require her welcome.
Lady.
Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends;
For my heart speaks, they are welcome.
Enter first Murderer, to the door.
Macb.
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
-- 538 --
The table round.—There's blood upon thy face.
Mur.
'Tis Banquo's then.
Macb.
6 note
'Tis better thee without, than he within.
Is he dispatch'd?
Mur.
My lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him.
Macb.
Thou art the best o'the cut-throats: Yet he's good,
That did the like for Fleance: if thou did'st it,
Thou art the non-pareil.
Mur.
Most royal sir,
Fleance is 'scap'd.
Macb.
Then comes my fit again: I had else been perfect;
Whole as the marble, founded as the rock;
As broad, and general, as the casing air:
But now, I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo's safe?
Mur.
Ay, my good lord: safe in a ditch he bides,
With twenty trenched gashes7 note
on his head;
The least a death to nature.
Macb.
Thanks for that:—
There the grown serpent lies; the worm, that's fled,
Hath nature that in time will venom breed,
No teeth for the present.—Get thee gone; to-morrow
We'll hear, ourselves again.
[Exit Murderer.
-- 539 --
Lady.
My royal lord,
You do not give the cheer: the feast is sold8 note
,
That is not often vouch'd while 'tis a making,
'Tis given with welcome: To feed, were best at home;
From thence, the sauce to meat is ceremony;
Meeting were bare without it.
[Enter the ghost of Banquo9 note
, and sits in Macbeth's place.
Macb.
Sweet remembrancer!—
Now, good digestion wait on appetite,
And health on both!
Len.
May it please your highness sit?
Macb.
Here had we now our country's honour roof'd,
Were the grac'd person of our Banquo present;
Who may I rather challenge for unkindness,
Than pity for mischance!
Rosse.
His absence, sir,
Lays blame upon his promise. Please it your highness
To grace us with your royal company?
Macb.
The table's full.
-- 540 --
Len.
Here is a place reserv'd, sir.
Macb.
Where?
Len.
Here, my good lord. What is't that moves your highness?9Q0546
Macb.
Which of you have done this?
Lords.
What, my good lord?
Macb.
Thou can'st not say, I did it: never shake
Thy goary locks at me.
Rosse.
Gentlemen, rise; his highness is not well.
Lady.
Sit worthy friends:—my lord is often thus,
And hath been from his youth: pray you, keep seat;
The fit is momentary; upon a thought
He will again be well: If much you note him,
You shall offend him, and 1 noteextend his passion;
Feed, and regard him not.—Are you a man?
Macb.
Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
Which might appall the devil.
Lady.
2 noteO proper stuff!
This is the very painting of your fear:
This is the air-drawn-dagger, which, you said,
Led you to Duncan. 3 note
Oh, these flaws, and starts,
-- 541 --
(Impostors to true fear,) would well become
A woman's story, at a winter's fire,
Authoriz'd by her grandam. Shame itself!
Why do you make such faces? When all's done,
You look but on a stool.
Macb.
Pr'ythee, see there! behold! look! lo! how say you?—
Why, what care I? If thou can'st nod, speak too.—
If charnel-houses, and our graves, must send
Those that we bury, back; our monuments
Shall be the maws of kites4 note
.
Lady.
What! quite unmann'd in folly?
Macb.
If I stand here, I saw him.
Lady.
Fie, for shame!
Macb.
Blood hath been shed ere now, i'the olden time,
5 note
Ere human statute purg'd 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,
With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,
And push us from our stools: This is more strange
Than such a murder is.
Lady.
My worthy lord,
Your noble friends do lack you.
Macb.
I do forget:—
-- 542 --
Do not muse at me6 note
, 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,
7 note
And all to all.
Lords.
Our duties, and the pledge.
Macb.
Avant! 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.
Think of this, good peers,
But as a thing of custom: 'tis no other;
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
Macb.
What man dare, I dare:
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
-- 543 --
The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tyger8 note,
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;
9 note
If trembling I inhabit, then protest me
The baby of a girl.9Q0548 Hence, horrible shadow!
Unreal mockery, hence!—Why, so;—being gone,
I am a man again.—Pray you, sit still.
Lady.
You have displac'd the mirth, broke the good meeting,
With most admir'd disorder.
Macb.
1 note
Can such things be,
-- 544 --
And overcome us like a summer's cloud,
Without our special wonder? 2 note
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 fear3 note
.
-- 545 --
Rosse.
What sights, my lord?
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.
Macb.
It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood:
Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak;
4 note
Augurs, and understood relations, have
-- 546 --
By magot-pies,9Q0551 and choughs, and rooks, brought forth
The secret'st man of blood.—What is the night?
Lady.
Almost at odds with morning, which is which.
Macb.
5 note
How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person,
At our great bidding?
Lady.
Did you send to him, sir?
Macb.
I hear it by the way; but I will send:
6 noteThere's not a one of them, but in his house
I keep a servant fee'd. I will to-morrow,
(And betimes I will) unto the weïrd sisters:
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
-- 547 --
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'd7 note
.
Lady.
8 note
You lack the season of all natures, sleep.
Macb.
Come, we'll to sleep: My strange and self-abuse
Is the initiate fear, that wants hard use:—
9 note
We are yet but young in deed.
[Exeunt.
Samuel Johnson [1778], The plays of William Shakspeare. In ten volumes. With the corrections and illustrations of various commentators; to which are added notes by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. The second edition, Revised and Augmented (Printed for C. Bathurst [and] W. Strahan [etc.], London) [word count] [S10901].
