If charnel-houses and our graves must send Those that we bury back, our monuments Shall be the maws of kites.
GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes LADY MACBETH What, quite unmann'd in folly? MACBETH If I stand here, I saw him. LADY MACBETH Fie, for shame! MACBETH Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time, Ere human statute purged the gentle weal;
Ay, and since too, murders have been perform'd Too terrible for the ear: the times have been, That, when the brains were out, the man would die, And there an end; but now they rise again, With twenty mortal murders on their crowns, And push us from our stools: this is more strange Than such a murder is. LADY MACBETH My worthy lord, Your noble friends do lack you. MACBETH I do forget.
Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends, I have a strange infirmity, 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.
I drink to the general joy o' the whole table, And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss;
Would he were here! to all, and him, we thirst, And all to all. Lords Our duties, and the pledge.
Re-enter GHOST OF BANQUO MACBETH Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee!
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes Which thou dost glare with! LADY MACBETH Think of this, good peers, But as a thing of custom: 'tis no other;
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time. MACBETH What man dare, I dare:
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;
Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves Shall never tremble: or be alive again, And dare me to the desert with thy sword;
If trembling I inhabit then, protest me The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!
Unreal mockery, hence!
GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes Why, so: being gone, I am a man again. Pray you, sit still. LADY MACBETH You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting, With most admired disorder. MACBETH Can such things be, And overcome us like a summer's cloud, Without our special wonder? You make me strange Even to the disposition that I owe, When now I think you can behold such sights, And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, When mine is blanched with fear. ROSS What sights, my lord? LADY MACBETH I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse;
Question enrages him. At once, good night:
Stand not upon the order of your going, But go at once. LENNOX Good night; and better health Attend his majesty! LADY MACBETH A kind good night to all!
Exeunt all but MACBETH and LADY MACBETH MACBETH It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood:
Stones have been known to move and trees to speak;
Augurs and understood relations have By magot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth The secret'st man of blood. What is the night? LADY MACBETH Almost at odds with morning, which is which. MACBETH How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person At our great bidding? LADY MACBETH Did you send to him, sir? MACBETH I hear it by the way; but I will send:
There's not a one of them but in his house I keep a servant fee'd. I will to-morrow, And betimes I will, to the weird sisters:
More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know, By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good, All causes shall give way: I am in blood Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er:
Strange things I have in head, that will to hand;
Which must be acted ere they may be scann'd. LADY MACBETH You lack the season of all natures, sleep. MACBETH Come, we'll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse Is the initiate fear that wants hard use:
We are yet but young in deed.