The arden shakespeare co.., p.344
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works, page 344
There’s not a one of them, but in his house
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I keep a servant fee’d. I will to-morrow
(And betimes I will) to 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
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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.
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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.
3.5 Thunder. Enter the three Witches, meeting HECATE.
1 WITCH Why, how now, Hecate? you look angerly.
HECATE Have I not reason, beldams as you are,
Saucy, and overbold? How did you dare
To trade and traffic with Macbeth,
In riddles, and affairs of death;
5
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
10
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
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Meet me i’th’ morning: thither he
Will come to know his destiny.
Your vessels, and your spells, provide,
Your charms, and everything beside.
I am for th’air; this night I’ll spend
20
Unto a dismal and a fatal end:
Great business must be wrought ere noon.
Upon the corner of the moon
There hangs a vap’rous drop profound;
I’ll catch it ere it come to ground:
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And that, distill’d by magic sleights,
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
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His hopes ‘bove wisdom, grace, and fear;
And you all know, security
Is mortals’ chiefest enemy.
[Song within: ‘ Come away, come away,’ etc.]
Hark! I am call’d: my little spirit, see,
Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me. Exit.
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1 WITCH
Come, let’s make haste: she’ll soon be back again.
Exeunt.
3.6 Enter LENOX and another Lord.
LENOX 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 walk’d too late;
5
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!
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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 ’twould have anger’d any heart alive
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To hear the men deny’t. So that, I say,
He has borne all things well: and I do think,
That, had he Duncan’s sons under his key
(As, and’t please Heaven, he shall not), they should find
What ’twere to kill a father; so should Fleance.
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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,
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Lives in the English court; and is receiv’d
Of the most pious Edward with such grace,
That the malevolence of fortune nothing
Takes from his high respect. Thither Macduff
Is gone to pray the holy King, upon his aid
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To wake Northumberland, and warlike Siward;
That, by the help of these (with Him above
To ratify the work), we may again
Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights,
Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives,
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Do faithful homage, and receive free honours,
All which we pine for now. And this report
Hath so exasperate the King, that he
Prepares for some attempt of war.
LENOX Sent he to Macduff?
LORD He did: and with an absolute ‘Sir, not I,’
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The cloudy messenger turns me his back,
And hums, as who should say, ‘You’ll rue the time
That clogs me with this answer.’
LENOX And that well might
Advise him to a caution, t’hold what distance
His wisdom can provide. Some holy Angel
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Fly to the court of England, and unfold
His message ere he come, that a swift blessing
May soon return to this our suffering country
Under a hand accurs’d!
LORD I’ll send my prayers with him.
Exeunt.
4.1 Thunder. Enter the three Witches.
1 WITCH Thrice the brinded cat hath mew’d.
2 WITCH Thrice, and once the hedge-pig whin’d.
3 WITCH Harpier cries: – ’Tis time, ’tis time.
1 WITCH Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison’d entrails throw. –
5
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter’d venom, sleeping got,
Boil thou first i’th’ charmed pot.
ALL Double, double toil and trouble:
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Fire, burn; and, cauldron, bubble.
2 WITCH Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
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Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
ALL Double, double toil and trouble:
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Fire, burn; and, cauldron, bubble.
3 WITCH Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf;
Witches’ mummy; maw, and gulf,
Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark;
Root of hemlock, digg’d i’th’ dark;
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Liver of blaspheming Jew;
Gall of goat, and slips of yew,
Sliver’d in the moon’s eclipse;
Nose of Turk, and Tartar’s lips;
Finger of birth-strangled babe,
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Ditch-deliver’d by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron,
For th’ingredience of our cauldron.
ALL Double, double toil and trouble:
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Fire, burn; and, cauldron, bubble.
2 WITCH Cool it with a baboon’s blood:
Then the charm is firm and good.
Enter HECATE, and the other three witches.
HECATE O, well done! I commend your pains,
And every one shall share i’th’ gains.
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And now about the cauldron sing,
Like elves and fairies in a ring,
Enchanting all that you put in.
[Music and a song, ‘Black spirits,’etc.]
[Exeunt Hecate and the three other witches.]
2 WITCH By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes. –
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[knocking]
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks.
Enter MACBETH.
MACBETH
How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!
What is’t you do?
ALL A deed without a name.
MACBETH I conjure you, by that which you profess,
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Howe’er you come to know it, answer me:
Though you untie the winds, and let them fight
Against the Churches; though the yesty waves
Confound and swallow navigation up;
Though bladed corn be lodg’d, and trees blown down;
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Though castles topple on their warders’ heads;
Though palaces, and pyramids, do slope
Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure
Of Nature’s germens tumble all together,
Even till destruction sicken, answer me
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To what I ask you.
1 WITCH Speak.
2 WITCH Demand.
3 WITCH We’ll answer.
1 WITCH
Say, if thou’dst rather hear it from our mouths,
Or from our masters?
MACBETH Call ‘em; let me see ‘em.
1 WITCH Pour in sow’s blood, that hath eaten
Her nine farrow; grease, that’s sweaten
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From the murderer’s gibbet, throw
Into the flame.
ALL Come, high, or low;
Thyself and office deftly show.
Thunder. First Apparition, an armed head.
MACBETH Tell me, thou unknown power, –
1 WITCH He knows thy thought:
Hear his speech, but say thou nought.
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1 APPARITION
Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff;
Beware the Thane of Fife. – Dismiss me. – Enough.
Descends.
MACBETH
Whate’er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks:
Thou hast harp’d my fear aright. – But one word more: –
1 WITCH He will not be commanded. Here’s another,
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More potent than the first.
Thunder. Second Apparition, a bloody child.
2 APPARITION Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! –
MACBETH Had I three ears, I’d hear thee.
2 APPARITION
Be bloody, bold, and resolute: laugh to scorn
The power of man, for none of woman born
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Shall harm Macbeth. Descends.
MACBETH
Then live, Macduff: what need I fear of thee?
But yet I’ll make assurance double sure,
And take a bond of Fate: thou shalt not live;
That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies,
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And sleep in spite of thunder. –
Thunder. Third Apparition, a child crowned,
with a tree in his hand.
What is this,
That rises like the issue of a king;
And wears upon his baby brow the round
And top of sovereignty?
ALL Listen, but speak not to’t.
3 APPARITION Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care
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Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are:
Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be, until
Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill
Shall come against him. Descends.
MACBETH That will never be:
Who can impress the forest; bid the tree
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Unfix his earth-bound root? Sweet bodements! good!
Rebellious dead, rise never, till the wood
Of Birnam rise; and our high-plac’d Macbeth
Shall live the lease of Nature, pay his breath
To time, and mortal custom. – Yet my heart
