Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

And take my milk for gall, you murth'ring minifters,
Where-ever in your fightless fubftances

You wait on nature's mischief. Come, thick night!
And pall thee in the dunnest smoak of hell,

That my keen knife fee not the wound it makes;
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry, Hold, hold!

Enter Macbeth.

Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor!

[Embracing him.

Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter !

Thy letters have tranfported me beyond
This ignorant prefent, and I feel now
The future in the inftant.

Mac. My dearest love,

Duncan comes here to-night.

Lady. And when goes hence?
Mac. To-morrow, as he purposes.
Lady. O never

Shall fun that morrow fee.

Your face, my Thane, is as a book where men

May read ftrange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue; look like the innocent flower,
But be the ferpent under 't. He, that's coming,
Must be provided for; and you fhall put

This night's great bufinefs into my difpatch,

P This direction first given by R.
4 After present P. and all after add

time.

Ny.

P. and all after, except G. omit

• The period is placed at the end of this line, in the fo's, R. and P.

Which fhall to all our nights and days to come

Give folely fovereign fway and mafterdom.

Mac. We will fpeak further.

Lady. Only look up clear:

To alter favour ever is to fear:

Leave all the reft to me.

[Exeunt.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

Hautboys and Torches. Enter King, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lenox, Macduff, Roffe, Angus, and Auten

dants.

King. This caftle hath a pleasant seat; the air
Nimbly and fweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle " senses.

Ban. This gueft of fummer,

The temple-haunting martlet, does approve
By his lov'd * manfionry that the heaven's breath
Smells wooingly here. No jutty frieze,

[ocr errors]

Buttrice, nor coigne of 'vantage, but this bird
Hath made his pendant bed, and procreant cradle;

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]
[ocr errors]

Where they must breed and haunt, I have obferv'd,

The air is delicate.

Euter Lady Macbeth.

King. Seç, fee! our honour'd hostess!

b

The love that follows us, fometimes is our trouble,
Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you
How • fhall bid God-eyld us for your pains,

you

And thank us for your trouble.

Lady. All our fervice,

In every point twice done, and then done double,
Were poor and fingle bufinefs to contend

Against those honours deep and broad, wherewith
Your Majefty loads our houfe. For thofe of old,
And the late dignities heap'd up to them,

[ocr errors]

We reft your hermits.

King. Where's the Thane of Cawdor?

We cours'd him at the heels, and had a purpose
To be his purveyor; but he rides well,

And his great love, fharp as his fpur, hath holp him
To his home before us, Fair and noble hoftefs,

We are your guest to-night.

Lady. Your fervants ever

Have theirs, themfelves, and what is theirs in compt,
To make their audit at your Highness' pleasure,

Still to return your own.

King, Give me your hand,

So the fo's; the reft, most for muft. b. The fo's, R. and C. sometime is our, 16. P. Sometime's our, &c,

So the fo's, R.'s octavo, H. and C; the rest, should for shall,

d The sft f. Ermites.

Conduct

3

Conduct me to mine hoft, we love him highly;
And fhall continue our graces towards him.
By your leave, hostess,

[Exeunt.

SCENE

IX.

* An Apartment in Macbeth's Cafile.

Hautboys, Torches. Enter a

Sewer, and divers Servants

with dishes and service over the stage. Then enter Macbeth.

Mac. If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly; if th' affaffination

Could trammel up the conféquence, and catch,
With his furceafe, fuccefs; that but this blow

e In the fo's, R, and C. Scene VII.

f No defcription of the scene in the fo'".

would fecure me the confequence I aim

at, viz. the quiet poffeffion of his crown, and procure me with his furceafe, or

z None but the fo's and C. mention death, fuccefs to my ambitious defigns;

• Sewer.

h So all before P; he and all after, except C. read its for bis; whereby the passage is obfcured, and J. has been led to propose an emendation, viz. With its fuccefs, furcease, &c. i. e, with fuccefs in the affaffination, a furcease of farther fear and anxiety. This I fuppofe is 7.'s meaning. But had the modern editors retained the old reading bis, they would have met with no difficulty herein: for bis refers to Duncan; and the meaning is this, If the affaffination of Duncan

that but this one blow might be all I had to do, and that nothing was to be feared here, in this life, afterwards; we'd jump the life to come; I would skip over those thoughts that regard a ftate beyond the grave, I would venture the future judgment. But in these cafes of murther, we still have judgment bere. And this is agreeable to the common opinion, that murder will out, fome time or other, and receive its punishment in this world.

Might be the Be-all and the End-all here,
But here, upon this bank and

m

fchool of time,
We'd jump the life to come.-But in these cases,
We ftill have judgment here, that we but teach
Bloody inftructions, which, being taught, return
'To plague th' inventor; " this even-handed justice
" Commends th' ingredients of our poison'd chalice
To our own lips. He's here in double truft:
First, as I am his kinfman and his fubject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne P his faculties fo meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead, like angels, trumpet-tongu'd, against
The deep damnation of his taking off;

And Pity, like a naked, new-born babe,
Striding the blaft, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd

[ocr errors]

Upon the fightless couriers of the air,

Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,

That tears fhall drown the wind. I have no fpur
To prick the fides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on th' other-

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
« VorigeDoorgaan »