Ring the alarum bell:-Murther! and treason! The great doom's image -Malcolm! Banquo! As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites, Enter LADY MACBETH. LADY M. What's the business, That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley MACD. [Bell rings. O, gentle lady, "T is not for you to hear what I can speak: The repetition in a woman's ear, Would murther as it fell. Enter BANQUO. O Banquo! Banquo! our royal master's murther'd! BAN. Dear Duff, I prithee contradict thyself, And say, it is not so. Too cruel, anywhere. Re-enter MACBETH and LENOX. MACB. Had I but died an hour before this chance, All is but toys: renown, and grace, is dead; Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN. DON. What is amiss? МАСВ. You are, and do not know 't, The spring, the head: the fountain of your blood Is stopp'd; the very source of it is stopp'd. MACD. Your royal father's murther'd. O, by whom? LEN. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done 't: Their hands and faces were all badg'd with blood, So were their daggers, which, unwip'd, we found 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 furious, Loyal, and neutral, in a moment? No man: The expedition of my violent love 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? DON. What should be spoken here, Where our fate, hid in an auger-hole, And when we have our naked frailties hid, And question this most bloody piece of work, Of treasonous malice. MACD. And so do I. So all. MACB. Let's briefly put on manly readiness, And meet i' the hall together. ALL. Well contented. [Exeunt all but MALCOLM and DONALBAIN. 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. DON. To Ireland, I; our separated fortune Shall keep us both the safer: where we are, There's daggers in men's smiles: the near in blood, MAL. SCENE IV.-Without the Castle. Enter ROSSE and an old Man. [Exeunt. OLD M. Threescore and ten I can remember well: ROSSE. Ah, good father, Thou see'st, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, OLD M. Even like the deed that 's done. "T is unnatural, On Tuesday last, A falcon, tow'ring in her pride of place, 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, Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would OLD M. ROSSE. They did so; 'T is said, they eat each other. 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, ROSSE. 'Gainst nature still: Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up Thine own life's means!-Then 't is most like The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth. MACD. He is already nam'd; and gone to Scone, To be invested. 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. ACT III. SCENE I.-Forres. A Room in the Palace. Enter BANQUO. BAN. Thou hast it now, King, Cawdor, Glamis, all, But that myself should be the root, and father Aud 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 Are with a most indissoluble tie For ever knit. MACB. Ride you this afternoon? Ay, my good lord. MACB. We should have else desir'd your good advice (Which still hath been both grave and prosperous) In this day's council; but we 'll take to-morrow. Is 't far you ride? BAN. As far, my lord, as will fill up the time Twixt this and supper: go not my horse the better, I must become a borrower of the night, For a dark hour, or twain. MACB. Fail not our feast. |