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! yet let that be,
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.
Dun. True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant;
And in his commendations I am fed;

It is a banquet to me.

Let's after him,

Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome :
It is a peerless kinsman.

[Exit.

[Flourish. Exeunt.

SCENE V.-Inverness. A Room in Macbeth's Castle.
Enter LADY MACBETH, reading a letter.

Lady M. "They met me in the day of success; and I have learned by the perfectest report, 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 from the king, who all hailed me, 'Thane of Cawdor;' by which title, before, these weird 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, my dearest partner of greatness; that thou mightest not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell.'

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promis'd:-Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness,

To catch the nearest way: Thou wouldst be great;
Art not without ambition; but without

The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly,
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,

And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou 'dst have, great Glamis,
That which cries, "Thus thou must do, if thou have it :

And that which rather thou dost fear to do,

Than wishest should be undone." Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;
And chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round,1
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem

To have thee crown'd withal.. -What is your tidings?
Enter an Attendant.

Attend. The king comes here to-night.

Lady M.

Thou'rt mad to say it:

Is not thy master with him? who, wer 't so,

Would have inform'd for preparation.

Attend. So please you, it is true; our thane is coming :

One of my fellows had the speed of him ;

(1) All that impedes thee, &c., i.e. all that hinders you from getting the golden round (diadem) which fate and metaphysical (supernatural) aid seem to have bestowed on you.

Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
Than would make up his message.

Lady M.

Give him tending,

He brings great news. The raven himself is hoarse

[Exit Attendant.

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal1 thoughts, unsex me here;
And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and passage to remorse;
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murthering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances

You wait on nature's mischief! 2 Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell!

That my keen knife see not the wound it makes;
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry, "Hold, hold!"- -Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor!

Enter MACBETH.

Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!
Thy letters have transported me beyond

This ignorant present, and I feel now

The future in the instant.

Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men
May read strange matters :--To beguile the time,
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue : look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under it. He that's coming
Must be provided for: and you shall put
This night's great business into my despatch;
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
Macb. We will speak further.

(1) Mortal here means deadly, murderous.

(2) Nature's mischief is mischief done to nature, any violation of nature's order wickedly perpetrated.

(3) Pall thee, i.e. wrap thyself in a pall.

To alter favour ever is to fear:

Lady M.

Leave all the rest to me.

Only look up clear;

SCENE VI.—The same. Before the Castle.

Hautboys. Servants of Macbeth attending.

[Exeunt.

Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, BANQUO, LENOX, MACDUFF, ROSSE, ANGUS, and Attendants.

Dun. This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself

Unto. our gentle senses.

Ban.

This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve,
By his lov'd mansionry, that the heaven's breath
Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze,
Buttress, nor coigne of vantage, but this bird
Hath made his pendent bed, and procreant cradle :
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observ'd,
The air is delicate.

Dun.

Enter LADY MACBETH.

See, see! our honour'd hostess!
The love that follows us sometime is our trouble,
Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you,
How you shall bid God yield us 1 for your pains,
And thank us for your trouble.

Lady M.
All our service
In every point twice done, and then done double,
Were poor and single business, to contend
Against those honours deep and broad, wherewith
Your majesty loads our house: For those of old,
And the late dignities heap'd up to them,

We rest your hermits.2

Dun.

Where's the thane of Cawdor?
We cours'd him at the heels, and had a purpose
To be his purveyor :3 but he rides well;

And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him
To his home before us: Fair and noble hostess,

We are your guest to-night.

Lady M.

Your servants ever

Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt,

(1) God yield us. To bid any one God yield him, is the same as God reward him. (2) We rest your hermits. Hermits is here used for beadsmen; persons bound to pray for their benefactor.

(3) To be his purveyor,-to anticipate him; to get before him and prepare

for him.

To make their audit at your highness' pleasure,
Still to return your own.

Dun.
Give me your hand :
Conduct me to mine host; we love him highly,
And shall continue our graces towards him.
By your leave, hostess.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VII.-The same. A Room in the Castle. Hautboys and torches. Enter, and pass over the stage, a Sewer, and divers Servants with dishes and service. Then enter Macbeth.

Macb. If it were done, when 't is done, then 't were well It were done quickly: If the assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch, With his surcease, success; that but this blow Might be the be-all and the end-all, here, But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, We'd jump the life to come.-But in these cases, We still have judgment here; that we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague the inventor: This even-handed justice Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice To our own lips. He's here in double trust: First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed: then, as his host, Who should against his murtherer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek,1 hath been So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against The deep damnation of his taking-off: And pity, like a naked new-born babe, Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd Upon the sightless couriers of the air,2 Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, That tears shall drown the wind.-I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,

And falls on the other.-How now, what news?

Enter LADY MACBETH.

Lady M. He has almost supp'd: why have you left the chamber?

(1) Hath borne his faculties so meek, i.e. hath exercised his office, as king, so meekly and gently.

(2) The sightless couriers of the air. By this are meant the unseen (sightless) winds of the air.

Macb. Hath he ask'd for me?
Lady M.

Know you not he has ?
Macb. We will proceed no further in this business:
He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,

Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon.

Lady M.

Was the hope drunk,

Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since?
And wakes it now to look
At what it did so freely?
Such I account thy love.

so green and pale
From this time,
Art thou afeard

To be the same in thine own act and valour,
As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem;
Letting I dare not wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat i' the adage?1

Prithee, peace:

Macb.
I dare do all that may become a man ;
Who dares do more, is none.
Lady M.
What beast was 't then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And, to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man. Nor time, nor place,
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
Does unmake you. I have given suck; and know
How tender 't is to love the babe that milks me:

2

I would, while it was smiling in my face,

Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn,

As you have done to this.

Macb.

Lady M.

If we should fail,

But screw your courage to the sticking place,
And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep,
(Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey
Soundly invite him,) his two chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassel so convince,3

We fail.

(1) We find the adage in Heywood's Proverbs, 1566 :-"The cat would eat fish and would not wet her feet."

(2) Some editors propose cohere instead of adhere, and affirm that it means "did then suit, fit."

(3) Will I with wine and wassel so convince, i.e. I will so overpower them with wine and strong drink.