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. 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
Shall be the maws of kites.

Lady M.

What! quite unmann'd in folly?

Fie, for shame!

Macb. If I stand here, I saw him.

Lady M.

Macb. Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden

time,

Ere human statute purg'd the gentle weal;

Ay, and since too, murthers 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 murthers on their crowns,
And push us from our stools: This is more strange
Than such a murther is.

Lady M.

My worthy lord, Your noble friends do lack you.

Macb.

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; Then I'll sit down :-Give me some wine, fill full :

Enter Ghost.

I drink to the general joy of 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.

Lords.

Our duties, and the pledge.

Macb. Avaunt! and quit my sight! Let the earth

hide thee!

Thy bones are marrow less, thy blood is cold;

Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
Which thou dost glare with!

Lady M.

Think of this, good peers,

But as a thing of custom: 't is no other;
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
Macb. What man dare, I dare:

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;
If trembling I inhabit then,a protest me
The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow !

[Ghost disappears. Unreal mockery, hence!-Why, so ;-being gone, I am a man again.-Pray you, sit still.

Lady M. You have displac'd the mirth, broke the good meeting,

With most admir'd disorder.

Macb.

Can such things be,

And overcome us like a summer's cloud,

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 are blanch'd with fear.

Rosse.

Lady M.

What sights, my lord?

pray you, speak not; he grows worse and

worse;

Question enrages him: at once, good night :

a Inhabit then.-This is the original reading, which has been changed into inhibit thee. Horne Tooke was the first to denounce this alteration; contending that the true meaning is, that if he were dared to the desert he would not skulk within his house.

[Exeunt Lords and Attendants.

Macb. It will have blood; they say, blood will have

blood:

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 M. Almost at odds with morning, which is which.

Macb. How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person,

At our great bidding?

Lady M.

Did you send to him, sir?
Macb. I hear it by the way; but I will send :
There'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 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
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 M. 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 :-
We are yet but young in deed.

[Exeunt.

VOL. IX.

E

SCENE V.-The Heath. Thunder.

Enter HECATE, meeting the three Witches.

1 Witch. Why, how now, Hecate? you look angerly.
Hec. Have I not reason, beldams as you are,
Saucy, and over-bold? How did you dare
To trade and traffic with Macbeth,
In riddles, and affairs of death;
And I, the mistress of your charms,
The close contriver of all harms,
Was never call'd to bear my part,
Or show the glory of our art?

And, which is worse, all you have done
Hath been but for a wayward son,
Spiteful, and wrathful; who, as others do,
Loves for his own ends, not for you.
But make amends now: Get you gone,
And at the pit of Acheron

Meet me i' the morning; thither he
Will come to know his destiny.
Your vessels, and your spells, provide,
Your charms, and everything beside:
I am for the air; this night I'll spend
Unto a dismal and a fatal end.

Great business must be wrought ere noon:
Upon the corner of the moon

There hangs a vaporous drop, profound;
I'll catch it ere it come to ground:
And that, distill'd by magic slights,
Shall raise such artificial sprites,
As, by the strength of their illusion,
Shall draw him on to his confusion:
He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear
His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and fear:
And you all know, security

Is mortal's chiefest enemy.

SONG. [Within.] "Come away, come away," &c.
Hark, I am call'd; my little spirit, see,

Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me.

[Exit.

1 Witch. Come, let's make haste: she 'll soon be back again.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI.-Forres. A Room in the Palace.

Enter LENOX, and another Lord.

Len. My former speeches have but hit your thoughts, Which can interpret farther: only, I say,

Things have been strangely borne: The gracious
Duncan

Was pitied of Macbeth:-marry, he was dead :-
And the right-valiant Banquo walked too late;
Whom, you may say, if't please you, Fleance kill'd,
For Fleance fled. Men must not walk too late.
Who cannot want the thought, how monstrous
It was for Malcolm, and for Donalbain,
To kill their gracious father? damned fact!
How it did grieve Macbeth! did he not straight,
In pious rage, the two delinquents tear,

That were the slaves of drink, and thralls of sleep:
Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely too;
For 't would have anger'd any heart alive
To hear the men deny it. So that, I say,
He has borne all things well: and I do think,
That, had he Duncan's sons under his key,

(As, an 't please heaven, he shall not,) they should find
What 't were to kill a father; so should Fleance.
But, peace!--for from broad words, and 'cause he fail'd
His presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear,

Macduff lives in disgrace: Sir, can you tell
Where he bestows himself?

Lord.

The son of Duncan,

From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth,
Lives in the English court; and is receiv'd