SCENE 4: THE SAME. HALL IN THE PALACE.

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

MACBETH

You know your own degrees; sit down: at first

You know your rank; sit down where fit. From first

And last the hearty welcome.

To last, a hearty welcome.

LORDS

Thanks to your majesty.

Thanks, your majesty.

MACBETH

Ourself will mingle with society,

I’ll mingle with each one of you this evening

And play the humble host.

Our hostess keeps her state, but in best time

My wife, our host, stays in her room, but soon

We will require her welcome.

Will come here when I ask her.

LADY MACBETH

Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends;

Announce to all our friends, my lord, I’m here;

For my heart speaks they are welcome.

And from my heart I tell them that they’re welcome.

[First Murderer appears at the door]

MACBETH

See, they encounter thee with their hearts' thanks.

Look, they respond with heartfelt gratitude.

Both sides are even: here I'll sit i' the midst:

Fine men bestride this table: I’ll sit here.

Be large in mirth; anon we'll drink a measure

Let’s have some laughs, and soon we’ll drink a toast

The table round.

Around the table.

[Approaching the door]

There's blood on thy face.

There’s blood on your face.

FIRST MURDERER

'Tis Banquo's then.

It’s Banquo’s then.

MACBETH

'Tis better thee without than he within.

It’s better that it’s on you than in him.

Is he dispatched?

Has he been killed?

FIRST MURDERER

My lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him.

My lord, his throat is cut; I did that to him.

MACBETH

Thou art the best o' the cut-throats: yet he's good

You’re good at cutting throats. He’s also good

That did the like for Fleance: if thou didst it,

That cut the throat of Fleance. If you did that,

Thou art the nonpareil.

Then you are peerless.

FIRST MURDERER

Most royal sir,

My royal lord,

Fleance is 'scaped.

Fleance escaped.

MACBETH

Then comes my fit again: I had else been perfect,

I’m scared again, then. It would have been perfect.

Whole as the marble, founded as the rock,

Complete, like solid marble stood on bedrock,

As broad and general as the casing air:

All free and unconfined, like air around us.

But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in

But now I am confined within a cabin

To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo's safe?

Made up of doubts and fears. But Banquo’s dead?

FIRST MURDERER

Ay, my good lord: safe in a ditch he bides,

He is, my lord. He’s lying in a ditch

With twenty trenched gashes on his head;

With twenty gashes cut into his head;

The least a death to nature.

Each one of them would kill him.

MACBETH

Thanks for that:

There the grown serpent lies; the worm that's fled

The grown snake’s dead; the younger one that’s run

Hath nature that in time will venom breed,

Will, over time, grow up riddled with hatred;

No teeth for the present. Get thee gone: to-morrow

Now he’s too young to hurt. Be gone; tomorrow

We'll hear, ourselves, again.

We’ll talk some more on this.

[Exit Murderer]

LADY MACBETH

My royal lord,

You do not give the cheer: the feast is sold

You’re not upbeat. A feast is just a bought meal

That is not often vouched, while 'tis a-making,

Unless the host confirms throughout the evening

'Tis given with welcome: to feed were best at home;

That all are welcome. Else, home-dining’s better,

From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony;

Where pouring source becomes the evening’s highlight;

Meeting were bare without it.

Banquets are dull without a welcome.

MACBETH

Sweet remembrancer!

You’re right!

Now, good digestion wait on appetite,

Since eating well requires an appetite,

And health on both!

I’ll toast them both!

LENNOX

May't please your highness sit.

Please sit, sir, if you wish.

[The GHOST OF BANQUO enters, and sits in MACBETH's place]

MACBETH

Here had we now our country's honour roofed,

We’d have, under one roof, all Scotland’s nobles

Were the graced person of our Banquo present;

If Banquo graced us with his presence here;

Who may I rather challenge for unkindness

I hope that I can tick him off for rudeness

Than pity for mischance!

Instead of pitying his plight!

ROSS

His absence, sir,

His absence

Lays blame upon his promise. Please't your highness

Shows that he broke his promise. If you please, sir,

To grace us with your royal company.

Sit down and grace us with your royal presence.

MACBETH

The table's full.

The table’s full.

LENNOX

Here is a place reserved, sir.

We have this seat reserved, sir.

MACBETH

Where?

LENNOX

Here, my good lord. What is't that moves your highness?

It’s here, my lord. Why do you look perturbed, sir?

MACBETH

Which of you have done this?

Which one of you has done this?

LORDS

What, my good lord?

What, my lord?

MACBETH

Thou canst not say I did it: never shake

You cannot say I did this. Do not shake

Thy gory locks at me.

Your bloodied head at me.

ROSS

Gentlemen, rise: his highness is not well.

Gentlemen, stand: his highness is unwell.

LADY MACBETH

Sit, worthy friends: my lord is often thus,

Sit down, good friends: my lord is often like this,

And hath been from his youth: pray you, keep seat;

And has been since his youth. Please, all, stay seated.

The fit is momentary; upon a thought

His fits are short; he’ll think of something else

He will again be well: if much you note him,

And he’ll be well again. If you stare at him,

You shall offend him and extend his passion:

He’ll be offended, lengthening his seizure.

Feed, and regard him not. Are you a man?

Eat, and don’t look at him. Are you a man?

MACBETH

Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that

Yes, and I’m bold because I dare to look at

Which might appal the devil.

A sight that would appal the devil.

LADY MACBETH

O proper stuff!

Nonsense!

This is the very painting of your fear:

It’s just a sight created out of fear,

This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said,

Like the imaginary dagger you said

Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts,

Led you to Duncan. Oh, these fits and starts

Impostors to true fear, would well become

Don’t even look like fear; they’d be more fitting

A woman's story at a winter's fire,

If told around a campfire by a woman

Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!

To entertain her grandma. Shame on you!

Why do you make such faces? When all's done,

Why do you pull strange faces? After all,

You look but on a stool.

You’re only looking at a chair.

MACBETH

Prithee, see there!

Please, look, there!

Behold! Look! Lo! How say you?

You see it, look! What do you say to that?

Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.

Why should I care? If you can nod, then speak, too.

If charnel-houses and our graves must send

If corpse-filled vaults and graves are sending back

Those that we bury back, our monuments

The ones we’ve buried, then the flesh-filled tomb is

Shall be the maws of kites.

The stomach of the kite bird.

[GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes]

LADY MACBETH

What, quite unmanned in folly?

Have you gone mad?

MACBETH

If I stand here, I saw him.

If I am standing here, I saw him.

LADY MACBETH

Fie, for shame!

Shameless!

MACBETH

Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time,

Blood has been spilled before now, in the old days,

Ere human statute purged the gentle weal;

Before laws brought our state civility.

Ay, and since too, murders have been performed

And, yes, since then, some murders were committed

Too terrible for the ear: the times have been,

Too terrible to hear. But in those times,

That, when the brains were out, the man would die,

When someone had his brains blown out, he’d die,

And there an end; but now they rise again,

And that would be the end; but now, they rise up

With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,

With twenty gashes in their heads, like crowns,

And push us from our stools: this is more strange

And take our seat from us. Now, this is stranger

Than such a murder is.

Than any murder is.

LADY MACBETH

My worthy lord,

Your noble friends do lack you.

Your noble friends are missing you.

MACBETH

I do forget.

I’m sorry.

Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends,

Don’t worry yourselves about me, worthy friends,

I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing

I have a strange affliction, 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.

Now I’ll sit down. Give me some wine; a full glass.

I drink to the general joy o' the whole table,

I toast the joy of all around the table,

And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss;

Would he were here! To all, and him, we thirst,

I wish he was here! To you and him, let’s drink:

And all to all.

To each and every one of you!

LORDS

Our duties, and the pledge.

Hear hear!

[Re-enter GHOST OF BANQUO]

MACBETH

Avaunt! And quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee!

Leave! Get out of my sight! Earth, bury him!

Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;

Your bone marrow has gone, your blood is cold;

Thou hast no speculation in those eyes

You have no way of reasoning with those eyes

Which thou dost glare with!

Which you are glaring at me with!

LADY MACBETH

Think of this, good peers,

Think of this

But as a thing of custom: 'tis no other;

As merely customary; nothing more.

Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.

It just it’s rather spoiling the evening.

MACBETH

What man dare, I dare:

I dare do anything another man does:

Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,

If you came at me like a Russian bear,

The armed rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;

A horned rhinoceros or Caspian tiger,

Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves

In any form than you are now, my nerves

Shall never tremble: or be alive again,

Will never tremble. Or come back to life,

And dare me to the desert with thy sword;

And challenge me to a swordfight in the desert.

If trembling I inhabit then, protest me

If I seem nervous then, then you can call me

The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!

A little baby girl. Leave, awful ghost!

Unreal mockery, hence!

Illusion, leave!

[GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes]

Why, so: being gone,

It’s gone. And as it’s gone,

I am a man again. Pray you, sit still.

I am a man again. Please, sit back down.

LADY MACBETH

You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting,

You’ve killed the happy mood, destroyed the vibe,

With most admired disorder.

As all observed your madness.

MACBETH

Can such things be,

How can it be

And overcome us like a summer's cloud,

That, like a passing cloud in summer’s sky,

Without our special wonder? You make me strange

This doesn’t leave you awed? You make me question

Even to the disposition that I owe,

The way I am and my own sanity

When now I think you can behold such sights,

When you can see such awful sights as this,

And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,

And yet, somehow, your cheeks stay rosy-red

When mine is blanched with fear.

When mine are white with fear.

ROSS

What sights, my lord?

LADY MACBETH

I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse;

Please, do not speak to him; he’s getting worse.

Question enrages him. At once, good night:

These questions make him mad. So now, goodnight:

Stand not upon the order of your going,

Don’t leave here in the order of your rank,

But go at once.

But leave at once.

LENNOX

Good night; and better health

Goodnight, and get well soon

Attend his majesty!

Your majesty!

LADY MACBETH

A kind good night to all!

A warm goodnight to you all!

[Exeunt all but MACBETH and LADY MACBETH]

MACBETH

It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood:

The ghost will want my blood; those killed want blood!

Stones have been known to move and trees to speak

I’ve heard of gravestones opening, trees speaking;

Augurs and understood relations have

Of prophecies and well-known implications,

By magot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth

As magpies, rooks and jackdaws all reveal

The secret'st man of blood. What is the night?

The secrets of the murdered. What’s the time?

LADY MACBETH

Almost at odds with morning, which is which.

It’s almost dawn; I can’t tell night from day.

MACBETH

How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person

What do you think about Macduff declining

At our great bidding?

To come to me when asked?

LADY MACBETH

Did you send to him, sir?

Did you invite him?

MACBETH

I hear it by the way; but I will send:

I heard it second-hand; I’ll send for him.

There's not a one of them but in his house

There’s not a thane in Scotland in whose house

I keep a servant fee'd. I will to-morrow,

A servant doesn’t spy for me. Tomorrow

And betimes I will, to the weird sisters:

I’ll set off early for the weird sisters:

More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know,

They’ll speak, and I’m determined now to know

By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good,

The worst of what will happen. For my safety,

All causes shall give way: I am in blood

Nothing must stop me now. I’ve so much blood

Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,

Upon my hands that, should I choose to backtrack,

Returning were as tedious as go o'er:

It would be like repeating all I’ve done.

Strange things I have in head, that will to hand;

These acts are awful, when I think about them,

Which must be acted ere they may be scanned.

So I must act before I start to doubt them.

LADY MACBETH

You lack the season of all natures, sleep.

You’re lacking the renewing power of sleep.

MACBETH

Come, we'll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse

Let’s sleep. Beating myself up lacks composure,

Is the initiate fear that wants hard use:

Creating fear from lack of the exposure.

We are yet but young in deed.

We lack experience in murder.

[Exeunt]