SCENE IV. The same. Hall in the palace. The Tragedy of Macbeth  Shakespeare homepage  |  Macbeth  | Act 3, Scene 4 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE IV. 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 

 And last the hearty welcome. 

 Lords  Thanks to your majesty. 

 MACBETH  Ourself will mingle with society, 

 And play the humble host. 

 Our hostess keeps her state, but in best time 

 We will require her welcome. 

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

 For my heart speaks they are welcome. 



 First Murderer appears at the door  MACBETH  See, they encounter thee with their hearts' thanks. 

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

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

 The table round. 



 Approaching the door  There's blood on thy face. 

 First Murderer  'Tis Banquo's then. 

 MACBETH  'Tis better thee without than he within. 

 Is he dispatch'd? 

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

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

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

 Thou art the nonpareil. 

 First Murderer  Most royal sir, 

 Fleance is 'scaped. 

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

 Whole as the marble, founded as the rock, 

 As broad and general as the casing air: 

 But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confined, bound in 

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

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

 With twenty trenched gashes on his head; 

 The least a death to nature. 

 MACBETH  Thanks for that: 

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

 Hath nature that in time will venom breed, 

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

 We'll hear, ourselves, again. 



 Exit Murderer  LADY MACBETH  My royal lord, 

 You do not give the cheer: the feast is sold 

 That is not often vouch'd, while 'tis a-making, 

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

 From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony; 

 Meeting were bare without it. 

 MACBETH  Sweet remembrancer! 

 Now, good digestion wait on appetite, 

 And health on both! 

 LENNOX  May't please your highness sit. 



 The GHOST OF BANQUO enters, and sits in MACBETH's place  MACBETH  Here had we now our country's honour roof'd, 

 Were the graced person of our Banquo present; 

 Who may I rather challenge for unkindness 

 Than pity for mischance! 

 ROSS  His absence, sir, 

 Lays blame upon his promise. Please't your highness 

 To grace us with your royal company. 

 MACBETH  The table's full. 

 LENNOX  Here is a place reserved, sir. 

 MACBETH  Where? 

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

 MACBETH  Which of you have done this? 

 Lords  What, my good lord? 

 MACBETH  Thou canst not say I did it: never shake 

 Thy gory locks at me. 

 ROSS  Gentlemen, rise: his highness is not well. 

 LADY MACBETH  Sit, worthy friends: my lord is often thus, 

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

 The fit is momentary; upon a thought 

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

 You shall offend him and extend his passion: 

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

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

 Which might appal the devil. 

 LADY MACBETH  O proper stuff! 

 This is the very painting of your fear: 

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

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

 Impostors to true fear, would well become 

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

 Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself! 

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

 You look but on a stool. 

 MACBETH  Prithee, see there! behold! look! lo! 

 how say you? 

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

 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. 



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