Act III, Scene 4

The same. Hall in the palace.

[A banquet prepared. Enter MACBETH, LADY MACBETH,] [p]ROSS, LENNOX, Lords, and Attendants]

• Macbeth. You know your own degrees; sit down: at first
  And last the hearty welcome.

• Lords. Thanks to your majesty.

• Macbeth. Ourself will mingle with society, 1275
  And play the humble host.
  Our hostess keeps her state, but in best time
  We will require her welcome.

• Lady Macbeth. Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends;
  For my heart speaks they are welcome. 1280

[First Murderer appears at the door]

• Macbeth. 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
  The table round. 1285
  [Approaching the door]
  There's blood on thy face.

• First Murderer. 'Tis Banquo's then.

• Macbeth. 'Tis better thee without than he within.
  Is he dispatch'd? 1290

• 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
  That did the like for Fleance: if thou didst it,
  Thou art the nonpareil.

• First Murderer. Most royal sir, 1295
  Fleance is 'scaped.

• Macbeth. 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, confined, bound in 1300
  To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo's safe?

• First Murderer. Ay, my good lord: safe in a ditch he bides,
  With twenty trenched gashes on his head;
  The least a death to nature.

• Macbeth. Thanks for that: 1305
  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]

• Lady Macbeth. My royal lord,
  You do not give the cheer: the feast is sold
  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; 1315
  Meeting were bare without it.

• Macbeth. Sweet remembrancer!
  Now, good digestion wait on appetite,
  And health on both!

• Lennox. May't please your highness sit. 1320
  [The GHOST OF BANQUO enters, and sits in]
  MACBETH's place]

• Macbeth. Here had we now our country's honour roof'd,
  Were the graced person of our Banquo present;
  Who may I rather challenge for unkindness 1325
  Than pity for mischance!

• Ross. His absence, sir,
  Lays blame upon his promise. Please't your highness
  To grace us with your royal company.

• Macbeth. The table's full. 1330

• 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? 1335

• Macbeth. Thou canst not say I did it: never shake
  Thy gory locks at me.

• Ross. Gentlemen, rise: his highness is not well.

• Lady Macbeth. Sit, worthy friends: my lord is often thus,
  And hath been from his youth: pray you, keep seat; 1340
  The fit is momentary; upon a thought
  He will again be well: if much you note him,
  You shall offend him and extend his passion:
  Feed, and regard him not. Are you a man?

• Macbeth. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that 1345
  Which might appal the devil.

• Lady Macbeth. O proper stuff!
  This is the very painting of your fear:
  This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said,
  Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts, 1350
  Impostors to true fear, would well become
  A woman's story at a winter's fire,
  Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!
  Why do you make such faces? When all's done,
  You look but on a stool. 1355

• Macbeth. Prithee, see there! behold! look! lo!
  how say you?
  Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.
  If charnel-houses and our graves must send
  Those that we bury back, our monuments 1360
  Shall be the maws of kites.

[GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes]

• Lady Macbeth. What, quite unmann'd in folly?

• Macbeth. If I stand here, I saw him.

• Lady Macbeth. Fie, for shame! 1365

• Macbeth. Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time,
  Ere human statute purged 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, 1370
  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 Macbeth. My worthy lord, 1375
  Your noble friends do lack you.

• Macbeth. I do forget.
  Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends,
  I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing
  To those that know me. Come, love and health to all; 1380
  Then I'll sit down. Give me some wine; fill full.
  I drink to the general joy o' the whole table,
  And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss;
  Would he were here! to all, and him, we thirst,
  And all to all. 1385

• Lords. Our duties, and the pledge.

[Re-enter GHOST OF BANQUO]

• Macbeth. Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee!
  Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;
  Thou hast no speculation in those eyes 1390
  Which thou dost glare with!

• Lady Macbeth. Think of this, good peers,
  But as a thing of custom: 'tis no other;
  Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.

• Macbeth. What man dare, I dare: 1395
  Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
  The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;
  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; 1400
  If trembling I inhabit then, protest me
  The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!
  Unreal mockery, hence!
  [GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes]
  Why, so: being gone, 1405
  I am a man again. Pray you, sit still.

• Lady Macbeth. You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting,
  With most admired disorder.

• Macbeth. Can such things be,
  And overcome us like a summer's cloud, 1410
  Without our special wonder? 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 cheeks,
  When mine is blanched with fear. 1415

• Ross. What sights, my lord?

• Lady Macbeth. 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. 1420

• Lennox. Good night; and better health
  Attend his majesty!

• Lady Macbeth. A kind good night to all!

[Exeunt all but MACBETH and LADY MACBETH]

• Macbeth. It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood: 1425
  Stones have been known to move and trees to speak;
  Augurs and understood relations have
  By magot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth
  The secret'st man of blood. What is the night?

• Lady Macbeth. Almost at odds with morning, which is which. 1430

• Macbeth. How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person
  At our great bidding?

• Lady Macbeth. Did you send to him, sir?

• Macbeth. I hear it by the way; but I will send:
  There's not a one of them but in his house 1435
  I keep a servant fee'd. I will to-morrow,
  And betimes I will, to the weird 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 1440
  Stepp'd 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'd.

• Lady Macbeth. You lack the season of all natures, sleep. 1445

• Macbeth. Come, we'll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse
  Is the initiate fear that wants hard use:
  We are yet but young in deed.

[Exeunt]