SCENE II.-The same. Another Room in the Palace. Enter QUEEN and a Servant. QUEEN. Is Banquo gone from court? SERV. Ay, madam, but returns again to-night. QUEEN. Say to the king, I would attend his leisure For a few words. SERV. QUEEN. Madam, I will. [Exit. Nought 's had, all's spent, Where our desire is got without content: Enter KING MACBETH. How now, my lord! why do you keep alone, Using those thoughts which should indeed have died K. MACB. We have scotch'd* the snake, not kill'd it; But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer, In the affliction of these terrible dreams That shake us nightly. Better be with the dead, In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave; Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison, Can touch him further! Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks; Must lave our honours in these flattering streams; Disguising what they are. 30. QUEEN. You must leave this. (*) Old text, scorch'd. Whom we, to gain our place,-] So the second folio; the first reads,-" to gayne our peace." Unsafe the while, that we-] Steevens conjectured that some words, which originally rendered the sentiment less obscure, had dropped out here. K. MACB. O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! QUEEN. What's to be done? K. MACB. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, And, with thy bloody and invisible hand, Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond Which keeps me pale!-Light thickens; and the crow Good things of day begin to droop and drowse ; [Exeunt. SCENE III.-The same. A Park with Gate leading to the Palace. Enter three Murderers. 1 MUR. But who did bid thee join with us? 3 MUR. Macbeth. 2 MUR. He needs not our mistrust; since he delivers Our offices, and what we have to do, The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day: Now spurs the lated traveller apace, To gain the timely inn; and near approaches The subject of our watch. 3 MUR. BAN. [Without.] Give us a light there, ho! 2 MUR. Hark! I hear horses. Then 't is he; the rest, His horses go about. That are within the note of expectation, 1 MUR. - Nature's copy's not eterne.] Nature's lease or copy of their lives is only temporal. b The shard-borne beetle,-] The shard-borne beetle, as Steevens has conclusively shown, is the beetle borne along the air by its shards or scaly wings. Come, seeling night, Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day ;] The expression is derived from falconry. To seel up the eyes of a hawk was to sew the upper and under eyelids together; an operation always performed on a newly taken bird, that it might become accustomed to the hood. VOL. VL D 3 MUR. Almost a mile: but he does usually, So all men do, from hence to the palace gate Make it their walk. 2 MUR. 3 MUR. 1 MUR. Stand to 't. A light, a light! 'Tis he. Enter BANQUO and FLEANCE, the latter with a torch. BAN. It will be rain to-night. 1 MUR. Let it come down. [Assaults BANQUO. BAN. O, treachery!-Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly! Thou mayst revenge.-O, slave! (1) [Dies. FLEANCE escapes. 3 MUR. Who did strike out the light? 1 MUR. Was 't not the way? 3 MUR. There's but one down; the son is fled. 2 MUR. We have lost best half of our affair. 1 MUR. Well, let's away, and say how much is done. [Exeunt. 20 SCENE IV.-The same. A Room of State in the Palace. Enter KING MACBETH, QUEEN, ROSS, LENNOX, Lords, and Attendants. LORDS. Thanks to your majesty. K. MACB. Ourself will mingle with society, And play the humble host. Our hostess keeps her state; but, in best time, We will require her welcome. QUEEN. Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends; For my heart speaks they are welcome. K. MACB. See, they encounter thee with their hearts' thanks; Both sides are even: here I'll sit i' the midst : Enter First Murderer, to the door. Be large in mirth; anon, we'll drink a measure K. MACB. "T is better thee without than he within. Is he despatch'd? MUR. My lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him. K. MACB. 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. • FLEANCE escapes.] "Fleance, after the assassination of his father, fled into Wales, where, by the daughter of the Prince of that country, he had a son named Walter, who afterwards became Lord High Steward of Scotland, and from thence assumed the name of Walter Steward. From him, in a direct line, King James I. was descended; in compliment to whom our author has chosen to describe Banquo, who was equally concerned with Macbeth in the murder of Duncan, as innocent of that crime."-MALONE. - her state ;] A state was a seat of dignity; usually surmounted with a canopy. K. MACE. 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, confin'd, bound in There the grown serpent lies; the worm, that's fled, No teeth for the present.-Get thee gone; to-morrow QUEEN. My royal lord, You do not give the cheer; the feast is sold That is not often vouch'd, while 't is 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. K. MACB. Sweet remembrancer! Now, good digestion wait on appetite, And health on both! LEN. 30 [Exit Murderer. May 't please your highness sit? K. MACB. Here had we now our country's honour roof'd, Were the grac'd person of our Banquo present; Who may I rather challenge for unkindness Than pity for mischance! The Ghost of BANQUO rises, and sits in MACBETH's place. Ross. His absence, sir, Lays blame upon his promise. Please 't your highness grace us with your royal company? To K. MACB. The table's full! K. MACB. Where? LEN. Here, my good lord. Here is a place reserv'd, sir. What is 't that moves your highness? What, my good lord? K. MACB. Which of you have done this? Ross. Gentlemen, rise; his highness is not well. He will again be well: if much you note him, upon a thought-] "As speedily as thought can be exerted," Steevens says. So, in Henry IV. Pt. I. Act II. Sc. 4, "- and, with a thought, seven of the eleven I paid." You shall offend him, and extend his passion; K. MACB. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that QUEEN. Authoris'd by her grandam. Shame itself! -60 K. MACB. Pr'ythee, 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 QUEEN. [Ghost disappears. What! quite unmann'd in folly? K. MACB. If I stand here, I saw him. QUEEN. Fie, for shame! K. MACB. Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time, Ere human statute purg'd 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, QUEEN. My worthy lord, Your noble friends do lack you. K. MACB. I do forget: Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends; Our duties, and the pledge. Ghost again rises. 90 K. MACB. Avaunt! and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee! Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; (Impostors to true fear)-] Mr. Singer expresses astonishment "that none of the commentators should be aware that this was a form of elliptic expression, commonly used even at this day in the phrase, 'this is nothing to them,' i.e., in comparison to them." But both Steevens and Mason have pointed out this sense of the preposition to in their notes on the present passage. |