Macbeth (5 page)

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

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

        And
bind us further to you
⁴⁷
.

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.

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
.—