Enter BANQUO. O Banquo! Banquo! our royal master 's murther'd! Lady M. Woe, alas! what, in our house? Ban. Too cruel, anywhere. Dear Duff, I prithee contradict thyself, And say, it is not so. Re-enter MACBETH and LENOX. Macb. Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had liv'd a blessed time; for, from this instant, There's nothing serious in mortality: All is but toys renown, and grace, is dead; Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN. Don. What is amiss? Macb. You are, and do not know 't, The spring, the head: the fountain of your blood Macd. Your royal father 's murther'd. O, by whom? Macb. O, yet I do repent me of my fury, That I did kill them. Macd. Wherefore did you so? Macb. Who can be wise, amaz'd, temperate, and fu rious, Loyal, and neutral, in a moment? No man : Outran the pauser reason.-Here lay Duncan, And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature Lady M. Macd. Look to the lady. Mal. Help me hence, hoa! Why do we hold our tongues, That most may claim this argument for ours? Where our fate, hid in an auger-hole, May rush, and seize us? Let 's away; our tears And when we have our naked frailties hid, That suffer in exposure, let us meet, And question this most bloody piece of work, Of treasonous malice. Macd. All. And so do I.a So all. Macb. Let's briefly put on manly readiness, And meet i' the hall together. All. Well contented. [Exeunt all but MAL. and DoN. Mal. What will you do? Let's not consort with them : To show an unfelt sorrow is an office Which the false man does easy: I'll to England. a This speech in the original belongs to Macduff; but, without any explanation, it is given by all the modern editors to Macbeth. VOL. IX. D Don. To Ireland, I; our separated fortune Mal. This murtherous shaft that 's shot Hath not yet lighted; and our safest way SCENE IV.-Without the Castle. Enter RossE and an Old Man. Old M. Threescore and ten I can remember well: Within the volume of which time, I have seen Hours dreadful, and things strange; but this sore night Hath trifled former knowings. Ah, good father, Rosse. Old M. Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd. Rosse. And Duncan's horses, (a thing most strange and certain,) Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, Old M. "T is said, they eat each other. Rosse. They did so; to the amazement of mine eyes, That look'd upon 't. Here comes the good Macduff: Enter MACDuff. How goes the world, sir, now? Macd. Why, see you not? Rosse. Is 't known who did this more than bloody deed? Macd. Those that Macbeth hath slain. Rosse. What good could they pretend?" Macd. Alas, the day! They were suborn'd: Malcolm, and Donalbain, the king's two sons, Are stol'n away and fled; which puts upon them Suspicion of the deed. Rosse. 'Gainst nature still : Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up Thine own life's means!-Then 't is most like Macd. He is already nam'd; and gone to Scone, Rosse. Where is Duncan's body? Macd. Carried to Colmes-kill; The sacred storehouse of his predecessors, And guardian of their bones. Rosse. Will you to Scone? Well, I will thither. Macd. No, cousin, I'll to Fife. Rosse. Macd. Well, may you see things well done there : adieu! Lest our old robes sit easier than our new! Rosse. Farewell, father. Old M. God's benison go with you, and with those That would make good of bad, and friends of foes! [Exeunt. a Pretend propose. ACT III. SCENE I.-Forres. A Room in the Palace. Enter BANQUO. Ban. Thou hast it now, king, Cawdor, Glamis, all, As the weird women promis'd; and I fear Thou play'dst most foully for 't: yet it was said, But that myself should be the root, and father And set me up in hope? But, hush; no more. Senet sounded. Enter MACBETH, as King; LADY MACBETH, as Queen; LENOX, ROSSE, Lords, Ladies, and Attendants. Macb. Here's our chief guest. Lady M. If he had been forgotten It had been as a gap in our great feast, And all-thing unbecoming. Macb. To-night we hold a solemn supper, sir, And I'll request your presence. Ban. Let your highness Command upon me; to the which, my duties For ever knit. Macb. Ride you this afternoon? Ban. Ay, my good lord. Macb. We should have else desir'd your good advice (Which still hath been both grave and prosperous) |