Though bladed corn be lodg'd and trees blown down; Though castles topple on their warders' heads Though palaces and pyramids do slope ; Thou hast harp'd my fear aright. But one word more, First Witch. He will not be commanded : here's another, More potent than the first. Thunder. Second Apparition, a bloody Child. The power of man, for none of woman born 80 Descends. Mach. Then live, Macduff: what need I fear of thee? But yet I'll make assurance doubly sure, 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. Third App. Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care 90 That will never be : Rebellion's head, rise never till the wood Their heads to their foundations; though the To time and mortal custom. Yet my heart 100 Throbs to know one thing: tell me, if your art Speak. Demand. We'll answer. First Witch. Say if thou'dst rather hear it from our mouths, First Witch. Show! Second Witch. Show! Third Witch. Show! All. Show his eyes, and grieve his heart; 110 Come like shadows, so depart. A show of Eight Kings, the last with a glass in his hand; BANQUO's Ghost following. Macb. Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo; down! Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls: and thy hair, Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first: What will the line stretch out to the crack of doom? Another yet! A seventh! I'll see no more: And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass Which shows me many more; and some I see 122 That two-fold balls and treble sceptres carry. I pray you, school yourself: but for your husband But cruel are the times, when we are traitors 130 And do not know ourselves, when we hold Music. The Witches dance, and then vanish with HECATE. Macb. Where are they? Gone? Let this pernicious hour Stand aye accursed in the calendar! Ross. You know not rumour From what we fear, yet know not what we fear, To what they were before. My pretty cousin, L. Macd. Father'd he is, and yet he's fatherless. Russ. I am so much a fool, should I stay longer, It would be my disgrace and your discomfort : Exit Sirrah, your father's dead: » And what will you do now? How will you live! Son. As birds do, mother. L. Macd. What! with worms and flies! Son. With what I get, I mean; and so do they. L. Macd. Poor bird! thou'dst never fear the net nor lime, The pitfall nor the gin. Son. Why should I, mother? Poor birds they are not set for. My father is not dead, for all your saying. L. Macd. Yes, he is dead: how wilt thou do for a father? Son. Nay, how will you do for a husband? L. Macd. Why, I can buy me twenty at any market. Son. Then you'll buy 'em to sell again. L. Macd. Thou speak'st with all thy wit; and yet, i' faith, With wit enough for thee. Son. Was my father a traitor, mother? Son. What is a traitor? L. Macd. Why, one that swears and lies. L. Macd. Every one that does so is a traitor, and must be hanged. Son. And must they all be hanged that swear and lie? L. Macd. Every one. Son. Who must hang them? L. Macd. Why, the honest men. Son. Then the liars and swearers are fools, for there are liars and swearers enough to beat the honest men and hang up them. L. Macd. Now God help thee, poor monkey! But how wilt thou do for a father? Son. If he were dead, you'd weep for him: if Whether it was his wisdom or his fear. you would not, it were a good sign that I should L. Macd. Wisdom! to leave his wife, to leave quickly have a new father. his babes, L. Macd. Poor prattler, how thou talk'st! Enter a Messenger. Mess. Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known, First Mur. Where is your husband? Young fry of treachery! He has kill'd me, mother: SCENE III.-England. Before the King's Palace. Mal. Be not offended: 41 51 What should he be? Mal. Let us seek out some desolate shade, and Esteem him as a lamb, being compar'd Weep our sad bosoms empty. New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows 10 He hath not touch'd you yet. I am young; but You may deserve of him through me, and wisdom Macd. I am not treacherous. With my confineless harms. Mal. 61 Your matrons, and your maids, could not fill up Boundless intemperance A good and virtuous nature may recoil 20 That which you are my thoughts cannot transpose; Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell; Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace, Yet grace must still look so. With this there grows 80 Doct. Ay, sir; there are a crew of wretched That stay his cure; their malady convinces Mal. I thank you, doctor. Exit Doctor. All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, 139 The healing benediction. With this strange virtue, He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy, And sundry blessings hang about his throne 110 The means that makes us strangers! Oft'ner upon her knees than on her feet, Macbeth By many of these trains hath sought to win me 131 No less in truth than life; my first false speaking Macd. Such welcome and unwelcome things at once 'Tis hard to reconcile. Enter a Doctor. Sir, amen. But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile; the air leave 'em. Macd. Be not a niggard of your speech: how goes 't? Ross. When I came hither to transport the tidings, Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumour Mal. Well; more anon. Comes the king forth, Of many worthy fellows that were out; I pray you? 140 Which was to my belief witness'd the rather For that I saw the tyrant's power a-foot. Mal. Ross. Would I could answer This comfort with the like! But I have words That would be howl'd out in the desert air, Where hearing should not latch them. Macd. What concern they? The general cause? or is it a fee-grief ACT V. SCENE I.-Dunsinane. A Room in the Castle. But in it shares some woe, though the main part Enter a Doctor of Physic and a Waiting-GentlePertains to you alone. Macd. Keep it not from me; quickly let me have it. Ross. Let not your ears despise my tongue for ever, Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound That ever yet they heard. Macd. Hum! I guess at it. Ross. Your castle is surpris'd; your wife and babes Macd. My children too? Ross. Wife, children, servants, all That could be found. Macd. My wife kill'd too? Ross. Mal. Enter Lady MACBETH, with a taper. And I must be from thence! guise; and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe I have said. Be comforted: I shall do so; But I must also feel it as a man: I cannot but remember such things were, That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on, And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff! They were all struck for thee. Naught that I am, Not for their own demerits, but for mine, Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now! Mal. Be this the whetstone of your sword: let grief Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it. Macd. O! I could play the woman with mine Gent. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands. I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour. Lady M. Yet here's a spot. Doct. Hark! she speaks. I will set down what comes from her, to satisfy my remem. brance the more strongly. Lady M. Out, damned spot! out, I say! One; two: why, then 'tis time to do 't. Hell is murky! Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? Doct. Do you mark that? 44 Lady M. The Thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now? What! will these hands ne'er be clean? No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that you mar all with this starting. |
