MACBETH

MACBETH BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ADAPTED BY THOMAS MIDDLETON) SHORTLY after James VI of Scotland succeeded to the English throne, in 1603, he gave his patronage to Shakespeare’s company; the Lord Chamberlain’s Men became the King’s Men, entering into a special relationship with their sovereign. Macbeth is the play of Shakespeare’s that most clearly reflects this relationship. James regarded the virtuous and noble Banquo, Macbeth’s comrade at the start of the action, as his direct ancestor; eight Stuart kings were said to have preceded James, just as, in the play, Banquo points to ‘a show of eight kings’ as his descendants (4.1.127.1-140); and in the play the English king (historically Edward the Confessor) is praised for the capacity, on which James also prided himself, to cure ’the king’s evil’ (scrofula). Macbeth is obviously a Jacobean play, composed probably in 1606. But the first printed text, in the 1623 Folio, shows signs of having been adapted at a later date. It is exceptionally short by comparison with Shakespeare’s other tragedies; and it includes episodes which there is good reason to believe are not by Shakespeare. Most conspicuous are Act 3, Scene 5 and parts of Act 4, Scene I: 38.I-60 and 141-8.1. These episodes feature Hecate, who does not appear elsewhere in the play; they are composed largely in octosyllabic couplets in a style conspicuously different from the rest of the play; and they call for the performance of two songs that are found in The Witch, a play of uncertain date by Thomas Middleton. Probably Middleton himself adapted Shakespeare’s play some years after its first performance, adding these and more localized details, and cutting the play elsewhere. We do not attempt to excise passages most clearly written by Middleton, because the adapter’s hand almost certainly affected the text at other, less determinable points. The Folio text of Macbeth cites only the opening words of the songs; drawing on The Witch, we attempt a reconstruction of their staging in Macbeth. Shakespeare took materials for his story from the account in Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicle of the reigns of Duncan and Macbeth (AD 1034-57). Occasionally (especially in the English episodes of Act 4, Scene 2) he closely followed Holinshed’s wording, but essentially the play’s structure is his own. He invented the framework of the three witches who tempted both Macbeth and Banquo with prophecies of greatness. His Macbeth is both more introspective and more intensely evil than the competent warrior-king portrayed by Holinshed; conversely, Shakespeare made Duncan, the king whom Macbeth murders, far more venerable and saintly. Some of the play’s features, notably the character of Lady Macbeth, originate in Holinshed’s account of the murder of an earlier Scottish king, Duff; he was killed in his castle at Forres by Donwald, who had been ‘set on’ by his wife. Macbeth is an exciting story of witchcraft, murder, and retribution that can also be seen as a study in the philosophy and psychology of evil. The witches are not easily made credible in modern performances, and Shakespeare seems deliberately to have drained colour away from some parts of his composition in order to concentrate attention on Macbeth and his Lady. It is Macbeth’s neurotic self-absorption, his fear, his anger, and his despair, along with his wife’s steely determination, her invoking of the powers of evil, and her eventual revelation in sleep of her repressed humanity, that have given the play its long-proven power to fascinate readers and to challenge performers. THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY KING DUNCAN of Scotland A CAPTAIN in Duncan’s army MACBETH, Thane of Glamis, later Thane of Cawdor, then King of Scotland A PORTER at Macbeth’s castle Three MURDERERS attending on Macbeth SEYTON, servant of Macbeth LADY MACBETH, Macbeth’s wife BANQUO, a Scottish thane FLEANCE, his son MACDUFF, Thane of Fife LADY MACDUFF, his wife MACDUFF’S SON SIWARD, Earl of Northumberland YOUNG SIWARD, his son An English DOCTOR

HECATE, Queen of the Witches Six WITCHES Three APPARITIONS, one an armed head, one a bloody child, one a child crowned A SPIRIT LIKE A CAT Other SPIRITS

An OLD MAN A MESSENGER MURDERERS SERVANTS

A show of eight kings; Lords and Thanes, attendants, soldiers, drummers

The Tragedy of Macbeth

Atto 1, Scena 1

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches
FIRST WITCH	When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
SECOND WITCH	When the hurly-burly’s done, When the battle’s lost and won.
THIRD WITCH	That will be ere the set of sun.
FIRST WITCH	Where the place?
SECOND WITCH	Upon the heath.
THIRD WITCH	There to meet with Macbeth.
FIRST WITCH	I come, Grimalkin.
SECOND WITCH	Paddock calls.
THIRD WITCH	Anon.
ALL	Fair is foul, and foul is fair, Hover through the fog and filthy air. Exeunt

Atto 1, Scena 2

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Alarum within. Enter king Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with attendants, meeting a bleeding Captain
KING DUNCAN	What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt The newest state.
MALCOLM	This is the sergeant Who like a good and hardy soldier fought ’Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend. Say to the King the knowledge of the broil As thou didst leave it.
CAPTAIN	Doubtful it stood, As two spent swimmers that do cling together And choke their art. The merciless Macdonald— Worthy to be a rebel, for to that The multiplying villainies of nature Do swarm upon him—from the Western Isles Of kerns and galloglasses is supplied, And fortune on his damned quarry smiling Showed like a rebel’s whore. But all’s too weak, For brave Macbeth—well he deserves that name!— Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel Which smoked with bloody execution, Like valour’s minion Carved out his passage till he faced the slave, Which ne’er shook hands nor bade farewell to him Till he unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops, And fixed his head upon our battlements.
KING DUNCAN	O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman!
CAPTAIN	As whence the sun ’gins his reflection Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break, So from that spring whence comfort seemed to come Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark. No sooner justice had, with valour armed, Compelled these skipping kerns to trust their heels But the Norwegian lord, surveying vantage, With furbished arms and new supplies of men Began a fresh assault.
KING DUNCAN	Dismayed not this our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?
CAPTAIN	Yes, as sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion! If I say sooth I must report they were As cannons overcharged with double cracks, So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe. Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds Or memorize another Golgotha, I cannot tell— But I am faint. My gashes cry for help.
KING DUNCAN	So well thy words become thee as thy wounds: They smack of honour both.—Go get him surgeons.
(didascalia)	Exit Captain with attendants
(didascalia)	Enter Ross and Angus
KING DUNCAN	Who comes here?
MALCOLM	The worthy Thane of Ross.
LENNOX	What haste looks through his eyes! So should he look That seems to speak things strange. Ross God save the King.
KING DUNCAN	Whence cam’st thou, worthy thane? Ross From Fife, great King, Where the Norwegian banners flout the sky And fan our people cold. Norway himself, with terrible numbers, Assisted by that most disloyal traitor The Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict, Till that Bellona’s bridegroom, lapped in proof, Confronted him with self-comparisons, Point against point, rebellious arm ’gainst arm, Curbing his lavish spirit; and to conclude, The victory fell on us—
KING DUNCAN	Great happiness. Ross That now Sweno, the Norways’ king, craves composition; Nor would we deign him burial of his men Till he disbursed at Saint Colum’s inch Ten thousand dollars to our general use.
KING DUNCAN	No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death, And with his former title greet Macbeth. Ross I’ll see it done.
KING DUNCAN	What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.
(didascalia)	Exeunt severally

Atto 1, Scena 3

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Thunder. Enter the three Witches
FIRST WITCH	Where hast thou been, sister?
SECOND WITCH	Killing swine.
THIRD WITCH	Sister, where thou?
FIRST WITCH	A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap, And munched, and munched, and munched. ‘Give me,’ quoth I. ‘Aroint thee, witch,’ the rump-fed runnion cries. Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master o’th’ Tiger. But in a sieve I’ll thither sail, And like a rat without a tail I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.
SECOND WITCH	I’ll give thee a wind.
FIRST WITCH	Thou’rt kind.
THIRD WITCH	And I another.
FIRST WITCH	I myself have all the other, And the very ports they blow, All the quarters that they know I’th’ shipman’s card. I’ll drain him dry as hay. Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang upon his penthouse lid. He shall live a man forbid. Weary sennights nine times nine Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine. Though his barque cannot be lost, Yet it shall be tempest-tossed. Look what I have.
SECOND WITCH	Show me, show me.
FIRST WITCH	Here I have a pilot’s thumb, Wrecked as homeward he did come.
(didascalia)	Drum within
THIRD WITCH	A drum, a drum— Macbeth doth come.
ALL	(dancing in a ring) The weird sisters hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land, Thus do go about, about, Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, And thrice again to make up nine. Peace! The charm’s wound up.
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth and Banquo
MACBETH	So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
BANQUO	How far is’t called to Forres?—What are these, So withered, and so wild in their attire, That look not like th‘inhabitants o’th’ earth And yet are on’t?—Live you, or are you aught That man may question? You seem to understand me By each at once her choppy finger laying Upon her skinny lips. You should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so.
MACBETH	(to the Witches) Speak, if you can. What are you?
FIRST WITCH	All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis.
SECOND WITCH	All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor.
THIRD WITCH	All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!
BANQUO	Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair? (To the Witches) I’th’ name of truth, Are ye fantastical or that indeed Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner You greet with present grace and great prediction Of noble having and of royal hope, That he seems rapt withal. To me you speak not. If you can look into the seeds of time And say which grain will grow and which will not, Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear Your favours nor your hate.
FIRST WITCH	Hail!
SECOND WITCH	Hail!
THIRD WITCH	Hail!
FIRST WITCH	Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
SECOND WITCH	Not so happy, yet much happier.
THIRD WITCH	Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none. So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!
FIRST WITCH	Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!
MACBETH	Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more. By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis, But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives, A prosperous gentleman, and to be king Stands not within the prospect of belief, No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence You owe this strange intelligence, or why Upon this blasted heath you stop our way With such prophetic greeting. Speak, I charge you. The Witches vanish
BANQUO	The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, And these are of them. Whither are they vanished?
MACBETH	Into the air, and what seemed corporal Melted as breath into the wind. Would they had stayed.
BANQUO	Were such things here as we do speak about, Or have we eaten on the insane root That takes the reason prisoner?
MACBETH	Your children shall be kings.
BANQUO	You shall be king.
MACBETH	And Thane of Cawdor too. Went it not so?
BANQUO	To th’ self-same tune and words. Who’s here?
(didascalia)	Enter Ross and Angus
ROSS	The King hath happily received, Macbeth, The news of thy success, and when he reads Thy personal venture in the rebels’ sight His wonders and his praises do contend Which should be thine or his; silenced with that, In viewing o‘er the rest o’th’ self-same day He finds thee in the stout Norwegian ranks, Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make, Strange images of death. As thick as hail Came post with post, and every one did bear Thy praises in his kingdom’s great defence, And poured them down before him.
ANGUS	(to Macbeth) We are sent To give thee from our royal master thanks; Only to herald thee into his sight, Not pay thee.
ROSS	And, for an earnest of a greater honour, He bade me from him call thee Thane of Cawdor, In which addition, hail, most worthy thane, For it is thine.
BANQUO	What, can the devil speak true?
MACBETH	The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me In borrowed robes?
ANGUS	Who was the thane lives yet, But under heavy judgement bears that life Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined With those of Norway, or did line the rebel With hidden help and vantage, or that with both He laboured in his country’s wrack, I know not; But treasons capital, confessed, and proved Have overthrown him.
MACBETH	(aside) Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor. The greatest is behind. (To Ross and Angus) Thanks for your pains. (To Banquo) Do you not hope your children shall be kings When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me Promised no less to them?
BANQUO	That, trusted home, Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, Besides the thane of Cawdor. But ’tis strange, And oftentimes to win us to our harm The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles to betray’s In deepest consequence. (To Ross and Angus) Cousins, a word, I pray you.
MACBETH	(aside) Two truths are told As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme. (To Ross and Angus) I thank you, gentlemen. (Aside) This supernatural soliciting Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor. If good, why do I yield to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair And make my seated heart knock at my ribs Against the use of nature? Present fears Are less than horrible imaginings. My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man that function Is smothered in surmise, and nothing is But what is not.
BANQUO	(to Ross and Angus) Look how our partner’s rapt. MACBETH(aside) If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me Without my stir.
BANQUO	(to Ross and Angus) New honours come upon him, Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould But with the aid of use.
MACBETH	(aside) Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
BANQUO	Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.
MACBETH	Give me your favour. My dull brain was wrought With things forgotten. (To Ross and Angus) Kind gentlemen, your pains Are registered where every day I turn The leaf to read them. Let us toward the King. (Aside to Banquo) Think upon what hath chanced, and at more time, The interim having weighed it, let us speak Our free hearts each to other.
BANQUO	Very gladly.
MACBETH	Till then, enough. (To Ross and Angus) Come, friends.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Atto 1, Scena 4

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Flourish. Enter King Duncan, Lennox, Malcolm, Donalbain, and attendants
KING DUNCAN	Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not Those in commission yet returned?
MALCOLM	My liege, They are not yet come back. But I have spoke With one that saw him die, who did report That very frankly he confessed his treasons, Implored your highness’ pardon, and set forth A deep repentance. Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it. He died As one that had been studied in his death To throw away the dearest thing he owed As ’twere a careless trifle.
KING DUNCAN	There’s no art To find the mind’s construction in the face. He was a gentleman on whom I built An absolute trust.
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, and Angus
KING DUNCAN	(To Macbeth) O worthiest cousin, The sin of my ingratitude even now Was heavy on me! Thou art so far before That swiftest wing of recompense is slow To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved, That the proportion both of thanks and payment Might have been mine. Only I have left to say, ‘More is thy due than more than all can pay’.
MACBETH	The service and the loyalty I owe, In doing it, pays itself. Your highness’ part Is to receive our duties, and our duties Are to your throne and state children and servants Which do but what they should by doing everything Safe toward your love and honour.
KING DUNCAN	Welcome hither. I have begun to plant thee, and will labour To make thee full of growing.—NoHe Banquo, That hast no less deserved, nor must be known No less to have done so, let me enfold thee And hold thee to my heart.
BANQUO	There if I grow The harvest is your own.
KING DUNCAN	My plenteous joys, Wanton in fullness, seek to hide themselves In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes, And you whose places are the nearest, know We will establish our estate upon Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter The Prince of Cumberland; which honour must Not unaccompanied invest him only, But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine On all deservers. (To Macbeth) From hence to Inverness, And bind us further to you.
MACBETH	The rest is labour which is not used for you. I’ll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful The hearing of my wife with your approach; So humbly take my leave.
KING DUNCAN	My worthy Cawdor.
MACBETH	(aside) The Prince of Cumberland—that is a step On which I must fall down or else o’erleap, For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires, Let not light see my black and deep desires; The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. Exit
KING DUNCAN	True, worthy Banquo, he is full so valiant, And in his commendations I am fed. It is a banquet to me. Let’s after him, Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome. It is a peerless kinsman. Flourish. Exeunt

Atto 1, Scena 5

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Lady Macbeth, with a letter
LADY MACBETH	(reading) ‘They met me in the day of success, and I have learned by the perfect’st report they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it came missives from the King, who all-hailed me “Thane of Cawdor”, by which title before these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on of time with “Hail, King that shalt be!” This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell.’ Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature. It is too full o‘th’ milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou’dst have, great Glamis, That which cries ‘Thus thou must do’ if thou have it, And that which rather thou dost fear to do Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear And chastise with the valour of my tongue All that impedes thee from the golden round Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem To have thee crowned withal.
(didascalia)	Enter a Servant
LADY MACBETH	What is your tidings?
SERVANT	The King comes here tonight.
LADY MACBETH	Thou’t mad to say it. Is not thy master with him, who, were’t so, Would have informed for preparation?
SERVANT	So please you, it is true. Our thane is coming, One of my fellows had the speed of him, Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more Than would make up his message.
LADY MACBETH	Give him tending; He brings great news. Exit Servant The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood, Stop up th‘access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between Th’effect and it. Come to my woman’s breasts, And take my milk for gall, you murd‘ring ministers, Wherever in your sightless substances You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark To cry ’Hold, hold!’
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth
LADY MACBETH	Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor, Greater than both by the all-hail hereafter, Thy letters have transported me beyond This ignorant present, and I feel now The future in the instant.
MACBETH	My dearest love, Duncan comes here tonight.
LADY MACBETH	And when goes hence?
MACBETH	Tomorrow, as he purposes.
LADY MACBETH	O never Shall sun that morrow see. Your face, my thane, is as a book where men May read strange 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 serpent under’t. He that’s coming Must be provided for; and you shall put This night’s great business into my dispatch, Which shall to all our nights and days to come Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
MACBETH	We will speak further.
LADY MACBETH	Only look up clear. To alter favour ever is to fear. Leave all the rest to me. Exeunt
(didascalia)	1.6 Hautboys and torches. Enter King Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Angus, and attendants
KING DUNCAN	This castle hath a pleasant seat. The air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself Unto our gentle senses.
BANQUO	This guest of summer, The temple-haunting martlet, does approve By his loved mansionry that the heavens’ breath Smells wooingly here. No jutty, frieze, Buttress, nor coign of vantage but this bird Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle; Where they most breed and haunt I have observed The air is delicate.
(didascalia)	Enter Lady Macbeth
KING DUNCAN	See, see, our honoured hostess! The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you How you shall bid God ’ield us for your pains, And thank us for your trouble.
LADY MACBETH	All our service In every point twice done, and then done double, Were poor and single business to contend Against those honours deep and broad wherewith Your majesty loads our house. For those of old, And the late dignities heaped up to them, We rest your hermits.
KING DUNCAN	Where’s the Thane of Cawdor? We coursed him at the heels, and had a purpose To be his purveyor; but he rides well, And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess, We are your guest tonight.
LADY MACBETH	Your servants ever Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs in count To make their audit at your highness’ pleasure, Still to return your own.
KING DUNCAN	Give me your hand. Conduct me to mine host. We love him highly, And shall continue our graces towards him. By your leave, hostess. Exeunt

Atto 1, Scena 7

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Hautboys. Torches. Enter a sewer and divers servants with dishes and service over the stage. Then enter Macbeth
MACBETH	If it were done when ‘tis done, then ’twere well It were done quickly. If th‘assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch With his surcease success: that but this blow Might be the be-all and the end-all, here, But here upon this bank and shoal of time, We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases We still have judgement here, that we but teach Bloody instructions which, being taught, return To plague th’inventor. This even-handed justice Commends th‘ingredience of our poisoned chalice To our own lips. He’s here in double trust: First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, 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 his faculties so meek, hath been So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued against The deep damnation of his taking-off, And pity, like a naked new-born babe, Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin, horsed Upon the sightless couriers of the air, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself And falls on th’other.
(didascalia)	Enter Lady Macbeth
MACBETH	How now? What news?
LADY MACBETH	He has almost supped. Why have you left the chamber?
MACBETH	Hath he asked for me?
LADY MACBETH	Know you not he has?
MACBETH	We will proceed no further in this business. He hath honoured me of late, and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people, Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, Not cast aside so soon.
LADY MACBETH	Was the hope drunk Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since? And wakes it now to look so green and pale At what it did so freely? From this time Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valour As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that Which thou esteem‘st the ornament of life, And live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting ’I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would’, Like the poor cat i’th’ adage?
MACBETH	Prithee, peace. I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more is none.
LADY MACBETH	What beast was’t then That made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place Did then adhere, and yet you would make both. They have made themselves, and that their fitness now Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me. I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn As you have done to this.
MACBETH	If we should fail?
LADY MACBETH	We fail! But screw your courage to the sticking-place And we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep— Whereto the rather shall his day’s hard journey Soundly invite him—his two chamberlains Will I with wine and wassail so convince That memory, the warder of the brain, Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason A limbeck only. When in swinish sleep Their drenched natures lies as in a death, What cannot you and I perform upon Th’unguarded Duncan? What not put upon His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt Of our great quell?
MACBETH	Bring forth men-children only, For thy undaunted mettle should compose Nothing but males. Will it not be received, When we have marked with blood those sleepy two Of his own chamber and used their very daggers, That they have done’t?
LADY MACBETH	Who dares receive it other, As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar Upon his death?
MACBETH	I am settled, and bend up Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. Away, and mock the time with fairest show. False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Atto 2, Scena 1

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Banquo and Fleance, with a torch before him
BANQUO	How goes the night, boy?
FLEANCE	The moon is down. I have not heard the clock.
BANQUO	And she goes down at twelve.
FLEANCE	I take’t ’tis later, sir.
BANQUO	(giving Fleance his sword) Hold, take my sword. There’s husbandry in heaven, Their candles are all out. Take thee that, too. A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers, Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature Gives way to in repose.
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth, and a servant with a torch
BANQUO	Give me my sword. Who’s there?
MACBETH	A friend.
BANQUO	What, sir, not yet at rest? The King’s a-bed. He hath been in unusual pleasure, and Sent forth great largesse to your offices. This diamond he greets your wife withal By the name of most kind hostess, and shut up In measureless content.
MACBETH	Being unprepared Our will became the servant to defect, Which else should free have wrought.
BANQUO	All’s well. I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters. To you they have showed some truth.
MACBETH	I think not of them; Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve, We would spend it in some words upon that business If you would grant the time.
BANQUO	At your kind’st leisure.
MACBETH	If you shall cleave to my consent when ’tis, It shall make honour for you.
BANQUO	So I lose none In seeking to augment it, but still keep My bosom franchised and allegiance clear, I shall be counselled.
MACBETH	Good repose the while.
BANQUO	Thanks, sir. The like to you.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Banquo and Fleance
MACBETH	(to the Servant) Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. Exit Servant Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? I see thee yet, in form as palpable As this which now I draw. Thou marshall‘st me the way that I was going, And such an instrument I was to use. Mine eyes are made the fools o’th’ other senses, Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still, And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, Which was not so before. There’s no such thing. It is the bloody business which informs Thus to mine eyes. Now o’er the one half-world Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse The curtained sleep. Witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecate’s offerings, and withered murder, Alarumed by his sentinel the wolf, Whose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, With Tarquin’s ravishing strides, towards his design Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth, Hear not my steps which way they walk, for fear Thy very stones prate of my whereabout, And take the present horror from the time, Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives. Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. A bell rings I go, and it is done. The bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell. Exit

Atto 2, Scena 2

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Lady Macbeth
LADY MACBETH	That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold. What hath quenched them hath given me fire. Hark, peace!— It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman Which gives the stern’st good-night. He is about it. The doors are open, and the surfeited grooms Do mock their charge with snores. I have drugged their possets That death and nature do contend about them Whether they live or die.
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth [above]
MACBETH	Who’s there? What ho? Exit
LADY MACBETH	Alack, I am afraid they have awaked, And ‘tis not done. Th’attempt and not the deed Confounds us. Hark!—I laid their daggers ready; He could not miss ’em. Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done’t. [Enter Macbeth below] My husband!
MACBETH	I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?
LADY MACBETH	I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Did not you speak?
MACBETH	When?
LADY MACBETH	Now.
MACBETH	As I descended?
LADY MACBETH	Ay.
MACBETH	Hark!—Who lies i’th’ second chamber?
LADY MACBETH	Donalbain.
MACBETH	(looking at his hands) This is a sorry sight.
LADY MACBETH	A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.
MACBETH	There’s one did laugh in’s sleep, and one cried ‘Murder!’ That they did wake each other. I stood and heard them. But they did say their prayers and addressed them Again to sleep.
LADY MACBETH	There are two lodged together.
MACBETH	One cried ‘God bless us’ and ‘Amen’ the other, As they had seen me with these hangman’s hands. List‘ning their fear I could not say ‘Amen’ When they did say ‘God bless us.’
LADY MACBETH	Consider it not so deeply.
MACBETH	But wherefore could not I pronounce ‘Amen’? I had most need of blessing, and ‘Amen’ Stuck in my throat.
LADY MACBETH	These deeds must not be thought After these ways. So, it will make us mad.
MACBETH	Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more, Macbeth does murder sleep’—the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care, The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, Chief nourisher in life’s feast—
LADY MACBETH	What do you mean?
MACBETH	Still it cried ‘Sleep no more’ to all the house, ‘Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more.’
LADY MACBETH	Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane, You do unbend your noble strength to think So brain-sickly of things. Go get some water And wash this filthy witness from your hand. Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must lie there. Go, carry them, and smear The sleepy grooms with blood.
MACBETH	I’ll go no more. I am afraid to think what I have done, Look on’t again I dare not.
LADY MACBETH	Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead Are but as pictures. ’Tis the eye of childhood That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal, For it must seem their guilt. Exit Knock within
MACBETH	Whence is that knocking?— How is’t with me when every noise appals me? What hands are here! Ha, they pluck out mine eyes. Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red.
(didascalia)	Enter Lady Macbeth
LADY MACBETH	My hands are of your colour, but I shame To wear a heart so white. Knock within I hear a knocking At the south entry. Retire we to our chamber. A little water clears us of this deed. How easy is it then! Your constancy Hath left you unattended. Knock within Hark, more knocking. Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us And show us to be watchers. Be not lost So poorly in your thoughts.
MACBETH	To know my deed ’twere best not know myself. Knock within Wake Duncan with thy knocking. I would thou couldst. Exeunt

Atto 2, Scena 3

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter a Porter. Knocking within
PORTER	Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate he should have old turning the key. Knock within Knock, knock, knock. Who’s there, i‘th’ name of Beelzebub? Here’s a farmer that hanged himself on th’expectation of plenty. Come in time! Have napkins enough about you; here you’ll sweat for’t. Knock within Knock, knock. Who’s there, in th‘other devil’s name? Faith, here’s an equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God’s sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven. O, come in, equivocator. Knock within Knock, knock, knock. Who’s there? ’Faith, here’s an English tailor come hither for stealing out of a French hose. Come in, tailor. Here you may roast your goose. Knock within Knock, knock. Never at quiet. What are you?—But this place is too cold for hell. I’ll devil-porter it no further. I had thought to have let in some of all professions that go the primrose way to th’everlasting bonfire. Knock within Anon, anon! He opens the gate I pray you remember the porter.
(didascalia)	Enter Macduff and Lennox
MACDUFF	Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed That you do lie so late?
PORTER	Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock, and drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things.
MACDUFF	What three things does drink especially provoke?
PORTER	Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes and unprovokes: it provokes the desire but it takes away the performance. Therefore much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him and it mars him; it sets him on and it takes him off; it persuades him and disheartens him, makes him stand to and not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him.
MACDUFF	I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.
PORTER	That it did, sir, i’the very throat on me; but I requited him for his lie, and, I think, being too strong for him, though he took up my legs sometime, yet I made a shift to cast him.
MACDUFF	Is thy master stirring?
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth
MACDUFF	Our knocking has awaked him: here he comes. [Exit Porter]
LENNOX	(to Macbeth) Good morrow, noble sir.
MACBETH	Good morrow, both.
MACDUFF	Is the King stirring, worthy thane?
MACBETH	Not yet.
MACDUFF	He did command me to call timely on him. I have almost slipped the hour.
MACBETH	I’ll bring you to him.
MACDUFF	I know this is a joyful trouble to you, But yet ’tis one.
MACBETH	The labour we delight in physics pain. This is the door.
MACDUFF	I’ll make so bold to call, For ’tis my limited service. Exit Macduff
LENNOX	Goes the King hence today?
MACBETH	He does; he did appoint so.
LENNOX	The night has been unruly. Where we lay Our chimneys were blown down, and, as they say, Lamentings heard i’th’ air, strange screams of death, And prophesying with accents terrible Of dire combustion and confused events New-hatched to th’ woeful time. The obscure bird Clamoured the livelong night. Some say the earth Was feverous and did shake.
MACBETH	’Twas a rough night.
LENNOX	My young remembrance cannot parallel A fellow to it.
(didascalia)	Enter Macduff
MACDUFF	O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee.
MACBETH	and LENNOX What’s the matter?
MACDUFF	Confusion now hath made his masterpiece. Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord’s anointed temple and stole thence The life o’th’ building.
MACBETH	What is’t you say—the life?
LENNOX	Mean you his majesty?
MACDUFF	Approach the chamber and destroy your sight With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak. See, and then speak yourselves.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Macbeth and Lennox
MACDUFF	Awake, awake! Ring the alarum bell. Murder and treason! Banquo and Donalbain, Malcolm, awake! Shake off this downy sleep, death’s counterfeit, And look on death itself. Up, up, and see The great doom’s image. Malcolm, Banquo, As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites To countenance this horror. Bell rings. Enter Lady Macbeth
LADY MACBETH	What’s the business, That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley The sleepers of the house? Speak, speak.
MACDUFF	O gentle lady, ’Tis not for you to hear what I can speak. The repetition in a woman’s ear Would murder as it fell.
(didascalia)	Enter Banquo
MACDUFF	O Banquo, Banquo, Our royal master’s murdered!
LADY MACBETH	Woe, alas— What, in our house?
BANQUO	Too cruel anywhere. Dear Duff, I prithee contradict thyself, And say it is not so.
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth, Lennox, [and Ross]
MACBETH	Had I but died an hour before this chance I had lived a blessed time, for from this instant There’s nothing serious in mortality. All is but toys. Renown and grace is dead. The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees Is left this vault to brag of.
(didascalia)	Enter Malcolm and Donalbain
DONALBAIN	What is amiss?
MACBETH	You are, and do not know’t. The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood Is stopped, the very source of it is stopped.
MACDUFF	Your royal father’s murdered.
MALCOLM	O, by whom?
LENNOX	Those of his chamber, as it seemed, had done’t. Their hands and faces were all badged with blood, So were their daggers, which, unwiped, we found Upon their pillows. They stared and were distracted. No man’s life was to be trusted with them.
MACBETH	O, yet I do repent me of my fury That I did kill them.
MACDUFF	Wherefore did you so?
MACBETH	Who can be wise, amazed, temp‘rate and furious, Loyal and neutral in a moment? No man. Th’expedition of my violent love Outran the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan, His silver skin laced with his golden blood, And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature For ruin’s wasteful entrance; there the murderers, Steeped in the colours of their trade, their daggers Unmannerly breeched with gore. Who could refrain, That had a heart to love, and in that heart Courage to make ’s love known?
LADY MACBETH	Help me hence, ho!
MACDUFF	Look to the lady.
MALCOLM	(aside to Donalbain) Why do we hold our tongues, That most may claim this argument for ours?
DONALBAIN	(aside to Malcolm) What should be spoken here, where our fate, Hid in an auger-hole, may rush and seize us? Let’s away. Our tears are not yet brewed.
MALCOLM	(aside to Donalbain) Nor our strong sorrow Upon the foot of motion.
BANQUO	Look to the lady; Exit Lady Macbeth, attended And when we have our naked frailties hid, That suffer in exposure, let us meet And question this most bloody piece of work, To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us. In the great hand of God I stand, and thence Against the undivulged pretence I fight Of treasonous malice.
MACDUFF	And SO do I.
SO	all.
MACBETH	Let’s briefly put on manly readiness, And meet i’th’ hall together.
ALL	Well contented.
(didascalia)	Exeunt all but Malcolm and Donalbain
MALCOLM	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.
DONALBAIN	To Ireland, I. Our separated fortune Shall keep us both the safer. Where we are There’s daggers in men’s smiles. The nea’er in blood, The nearer bloody.
MALCOLM	This murderous shaft that’s shot Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way Is to avoid the aim. Therefore to horse, And let us not be dainty of leave-taking, But shift away. There’s warrant in that theft Which steals itself when there’s no mercy left. Exeunt

Atto 2, Scena 4

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Ross with an Old Man
OLD MAN	Threescore and ten I can remember well,
(didascalia)	Within the volume of which time I have seen
OLD MAN	Hours dreadful and things strange, but this sore night Hath trifled former knowings. Ross Ha, good father, Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man’s act, Threatens his bloody stage. By th’ clock ’tis day, And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp. Is’t night’s predominance or the day’s shame That darkness does the face of earth entomb When living light should kiss it?
OLD MAN	’Tis unnatural, Even like the deed that’s done. On Tuesday last A falcon, tow’ring in her pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed.
ROSS	And Duncan’s horses—a thing most strange and certain— Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, Contending ’gainst obedience, as they would Make war with mankind.
OLD MAN	’Tis said they ate each other.
ROSS	They did so, to th’amazement of mine eyes That looked upon’t.
(didascalia)	Enter Macduff
ROSS	Here comes the good Macduff. How goes the world, sir, now?
MACDUFF	Why, see you not?
ROSS	Is’t known who did this more than bloody deed?
MACDUFF	Those that Macbeth hath slain. Ross Alas the day, What good could they pretend?
MACDUFF	They were suborned. Malcolm and Donalbain, the King’s two sons, Are stol’n away and fled, which puts upon them Suspicion of the deed. Ross ’Gainst nature still. Thriftless ambition, that will raven up Thine own life’s means! Then ’tis most like The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.
MACDUFF	He is already named and gone to Scone To be invested. Ross Where is Duncan’s body?
MACDUFF	Carried to Colmekill, The sacred storehouse of his predecessors, And guardian of their bones. Ross Will you to Scone?
MACDUFF	No, cousin, I’ll to Fife.
ROSS	Well, I will thither.
MACDUFF	Well, may you see things well done there. Adieu, Lest our old robes sit easier than our new. Ross Farewell, father.
OLD MAN	God’s benison go with you, and with those That would make good of bad, and friends of foes.
(didascalia)	Exeunt severally

Atto 3, Scena 1

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Banquo
BANQUO	Thou hast it now: King, Cawdor, Glamis, all As the weird women promised; and I fear Thou played’st most foully for’t. Yet it was said It should not stand in thy posterity, But that myself should be the root and father Of many kings. If there come truth from them— As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine- Why by the verities on thee made good May they not be my oracles as well, And set me up in hope? But hush, no more.
(didascalia)	Sennet sounded. Enter Macbeth as King, Lady Macbeth
BANQUO	as Queen, Lennox, Ross, lords, and attendants
MACBETH	Here’s our chief guest.
LADY MACBETH	If he had been forgotten It had been as a gap in our great feast, And all-thing unbecoming.
MACBETH	(to Banquo) Tonight we hold a solemn supper, sir, And I’ll request your presence.
BANQUO	Let your highness Command upon me, to the which my duties Are with a most indissoluble tie For ever knit.
MACBETH	Ride you this afternoon?
BANQUO	Ay, my good lord.
MACBETH	We should have else desired your good advice, Which still hath been both grave and prosperous, In this day’s council; but we’ll talk tomorrow. Is’t far you ride?
BANQUO	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.
MACBETH	Fail not our feast.
BANQUO	My lord, I will not.
MACBETH	We hear our bloody cousins are bestowed In England and in Ireland, not confessing Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers With strange invention. But of that tomorrow, When therewithal we shall have cause of state Craving us jointly. Hie you to horse. Adieu, Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you?
BANQUO	Ay, my good lord. Our time does call upon ’s.
MACBETH	I wish your horses swift and sure of foot, And so I do commend you to their backs. Farewell. Exit Banquo Let every man be master of his time Till seven at night. To make society The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself Till supper-time alone. While then, God be with you.
(didascalia)	Exeunt all but Macbeth and a Servant
MACBETH	Sirrah, a word with you. Attend those men Our pleasure?
SERVANT	They are, my lord, without the palace gate.
MACBETH	Bring them before us. Exit Servant To be thus is nothing But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature Reigns that which would be feared. ‘Tis much he dares, And to that dauntless temper of his mind He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour To act in safety. There is none but he Whose being I do fear, and under him My genius is rebuked as, it is said, Mark Antony’s was by Caesar. He chid the sisters When first they put the name of king upon me, And bade them speak to him. Then, prophet-like, They hailed him father to a line of kings. Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, And put a barren sceptre in my grip, Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand, No son of mine succeeding. If’t be so, For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind, For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered, Put rancours in the vessel of my peace Only for them, and mine eternal jewel Given to the common enemy of man To make them kings, the seeds of Banquo kings. Rather than so, come fate into the list And champion me to th’utterance. Who’s there?
(didascalia)	Enter Servant and two Murderers
MACBETH	(To the Servant) Now go to the door, and stay there till we call.
(didascalia)	Exit Servant
MACBETH	Was it not yesterday we spoke together?
MURDERERS	It was, so please your highness.
MACBETH	Well then, now Have you considered of my speeches? Know That it was he in the times past which held you So under fortune, which you thought had been Our innocent self. This I made good to you In our last conference, passed in probation with you How you were borne in hand, how crossed, the instruments, Who wrought with them, and all things else that might To half a soul, and to a notion crazed, Say ‘Thus did Banquo’.
FIRST MURDERER	You made it known to us.
MACBETH	I did so, and went further, which is now Our point of second meeting. Do you find Your patience so predominant in your nature That you can let this go? Are you so gospelled To pray for this good man and for his issue, Whose heavy hand hath bowed you to the grave And beggared yours for ever?
FIRST MURDERER	We are men, my liege.
MACBETH	Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men, As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves are clept All by the name of dogs. The valued file Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle, The housekeeper, the hunter, every one According to the gift which bounteous nature Hath in him closed; whereby he does receive Particular addition from the bill That writes them all alike. And so of men. Now, if you have a station in the file, Not i‘th’ worst rank of manhood, say’t, And I will put that business in your bosoms Whose execution takes your enemy off, Grapples you to the heart and love of us, Who wear our health but sickly in his life, Which in his death were perfect.
SECOND MURDERER	I am one, my liege, Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world Hath so incensed that I am reckless what I do to spite the world.
FIRST MURDERER	And I another, So weary with disasters, tugged with fortune, That I would set my life on any chance To mend it or be rid on’t.
MACBETH	Both of you Know Banquo was your enemy.
MURDERERS	True, my lord.
MACBETH	So is he mine, and in such bloody distance That every minute of his being thrusts Against my near’st of life; and though I could With barefaced power sweep him from my sight And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not, For certain friends that are both his and mine, Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall Who I myself struck down. And thence it is That I to your assistance do make love, Masking the business from the common eye For sundry weighty reasons.
SECOND MURDERER	We shall, my lord, Perform what you command us.
FIRST MURDERER	Though our lives—
MACBETH	Your spirits shine through you. Within this hour at most I will advise you where to plant yourselves, Acquaint you with the perfect spy o‘th’ time, The moment on’t; for’t must be done tonight, And something from the palace; always thought That I require a clearness; and with him, To leave no rubs nor botches in the work, Fleance, his son, that keeps him company— Whose absence is no less material to me Than is his father’s—must embrace the fate Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart. I’ll come to you anon.
MURDERERS	We are resolved, my lord.
MACBETH	I’ll call upon you straight. Abide within.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Murderers
MACBETH	It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul’s flight, If it find heaven, must find it out tonight. Exit 3.2 Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant
LADY MACBETH	Is Banquo gone from court?
SERVANT	Ay, madam, but returns again tonight.
LADY MACBETH	Say to the King I would attend his leisure For a few words.
SERVANT	Madam, I will.
(didascalia)	Exit
LADY MACBETH	Naught’s had, all’s spent, Where our desire is got without content. ’Tis safer to be that which we destroy Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth
LADY MACBETH	How now, my lord, why do you keep alone, Of sorriest fancies your companions making, Using those thoughts which should indeed have died With them they think on? Things without all remedy Should be without regard. What’s done is done.
MACBETH	We have scorched the snake, not killed it. She’ll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice Remains in danger of her former tooth. But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer, Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep In the affliction of these terrible dreams That shake us nightly. Better be with the dead, Whom we to gain our peace have sent to peace, Than on the torture of the mind to lie In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave. After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well. Treason has done his worst. Nor steel nor poison, Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing Can touch him further.
LADY MACBETH	Come on, gentle my lord, Sleek o’er your rugged looks, be bright and jovial Among your guests tonight.
MACBETH	So shall I, love, And so I pray be you. Let your remembrance Apply to Banquo. Present him eminence Both with eye and tongue; unsafe the while that we Must lave our honours in these flattering streams And make our faces visors to our hearts, Disguising what they are.
LADY MACBETH	You must leave this.
MACBETH	O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! Thou know’st that Banquo and his Fleance lives.
LADY MACBETH	But in them nature’s copy’s not eterne.
MACBETH	There’s comfort yet, they are assailable. Then be thou jocund. Ere the bat hath flown His cloistered flight, ere to black Hecate’s summons The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums Hath rung night’s yawning peal, there shall be done A deed of dreadful note.
LADY MACBETH	What’s to be done?
MACBETH	Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, Till thou applaud the deed.—Come, seeling night, Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day, And with thy bloody and invisible hand Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond Which keeps me pale. Light thickens, and the crow Makes wing to th’ rooky wood. Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, Whiles night’s black agents to their preys do rouse. Thou marvell’st at my words; but hold thee still. Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill. So prithee go with me. Exeunt

Atto 3, Scena 3

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter three Murderers
FIRST MURDERER	(to Third Murderer) But who did bid thee join with us?
THIRD MURDERER	Macbeth.
SECOND MURDERER	(to First Murderer) He needs not our mistrust, since he delivers Our offices and what we have to do To the direction just.
FIRST MURDERER	(to Third Murderer) Then stand with us. 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.
THIRD MURDERER	Hark, I hear horses.
BANQUO	(within) Give us a light there, ho!
SECOND MURDERER	Then ’tis he. The rest That are within the note of expectation Already are i’th’ court.
FIRST MURDERER	His horses go about.
THIRD MURDERER	Almost a mile; but he does usually, So all men do, from hence to th’ palace gate Make it their walk.
(didascalia)	Enter Banquo and Fleance with a torch
SECOND MURDERER	(aside) A light, a light.
THIRD MURDERER	(aside) ’Tis he.
FIRST MURDERER	(aside) Stand to’t.
BANQUO	It will be rain tonight.
FIRST MURDERER	Let it come down. First Murderer strikes out the torch. The others attack Banquo
BANQUO	O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly! Thou mayst revenge.—O slave! He dies. Exit Fleance
THIRD MURDERER	Who did strike out the light?
FIRST MURDERER	Was’t not the way?
THIRD MURDERER	There’s but one down. The son is fled.
SECOND MURDERER	We have lost best half of our affair.
FIRST MURDERER	Well, let’s away and say how much is done.
(didascalia)	Exeunt with Banquo’s body

Atto 3, Scena 4

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Banquet prepared. Enter Macbeth as King, Lady Macbeth as Queen, Ross, Lennox, Lords, and attendants. Lady
(didascalia)	Macbeth sits
MACBETH	You know your own degrees; sit down. At first and last The hearty welcome.
LORDS	Thanks to your majesty. They sit
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.
(didascalia)	Enter First Murderer [to the door]
MACBETH	See, they encounter thee with their hearts’ thanks. Both sides are even. Here I’ll sit, i’th’ midst. Be large in mirth. Anon we’ll drink a measure The table round. (To First Murderer) There’s blood upon thy face.
FIRST MURDERER	(aside to Macbeth) ‘Tis Banquo’s, then.
MACBETH	’Tis better thee without than he within. Is he dispatched?
FIRST MURDERER	My lord, his throat is cut. That I did for him.
MACBETH	Thou art the best o’th’ 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 cabined, cribbed, 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 th’ present. Get thee gone. Tomorrow We’ll hear ourselves again. Exit First Murderer
LADY MACBETH	My royal lord, You do not give the cheer. The feast is sold That is not often vouched, 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.
(didascalia)	Enter the Ghost of Banquo, and sits in Macbeth’s
LADY MACBETH	place
MACBETH	Sweet remembrancer. Now good digestion wait on appetite, And health on both.
LENNOX	May’t please your highness sit?
MACBETH	Here had we now our country’s honour roofed 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	(to the Ghost) Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake Thy gory locks at me.
ROSS	(rising) Gentlemen, rise. His highness is not well.
LADY MACBETH	(rising) 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. She speaks apart with Macbeth 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.
(didascalia)	Exit Ghost
LADY MACBETH	What, quite unmanned in folly?
MACBETH	If I stand here, I saw him.
LADY MACBETH	Fie, for shame!
MACBETH	Blood hath been shed ere now, i’th’ olden time, Ere human statute purged the gentle weal; Ay, and since, too, murders have been performed Too terrible for the ear. The time has 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	(aloud) 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. (To an attendant) Give me some wine. Fill full.
(didascalia)	Enter Ghost
MACBETH	I drink to th’ general joy of th’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. They drink
MACBETH	(seeing the Ghost) 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 armed rhinoceros, or th‘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 mock’ry, hence!
(didascalia)	Exit Ghost
MACBETH	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. 116 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.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Lords
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 maggot-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 sayst 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 tomorrow, 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 Stepped 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 scanned.
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. Exeunt

Atto 3, Scena 5

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Thunder. Enter the three Witches meeting Hecate
FIRST WITCH	Why, how now, Hecate? You look angerly.
HECATE	Have I not reason, beldams as you are? Saucy and over-bold, how did you dare To trade and traffic with Macbeth In riddles and affairs of death, And I, the mistress of your charms, The close contriver of all harms, Was never called to bear my part Or show the glory of our art?— And, which is worse, all you have done 10 Hath been but for a wayward son, Spiteful and wrathful, who, as others do, Loves for his own ends, not for you. But make amends now. Get you gone, And at the pit of Acheron Meet me i‘th’ morning. Thither he Will come to know his destiny. Your vessels and your spells provide, Your charms and everything beside. I am for th’air. This night I’ll spend Unto a dismal and a fatal end. Great business must be wrought ere noon. Upon the corner of the moon There hangs a vap‘rous drop profound. I’ll catch it ere it come to ground, And that, distilled by magic sleights, Shall raise such artificial sprites As by the strength of their illusion Shall draw him on to his confusion. He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear His hopes ’bove wisdom, grace, and fear; And you all know security Is mortals’ chiefest enemy.
SPIRITS	(singing dispersedly within) Come away, come away. Hecate, Hecate, come away.
HECATE	Hark, I am called! My little spirit, see, Sits in a foggy cloud and stays for me. The Song
(didascalia)	SPIRITS within
HECATE	Come away, come away, Hecate, Hecate, come away.
HECATE	I come, I come, I come, I come, With all the speed I may, With all the speed I may. Where’s Stadlin?
(didascalia)	SPIRIT within
HECATE	Here.
HECATE	Where’s Puckle?
(didascalia)	ANOTHER SPIRIT within
HECATE	Here.
(didascalia)	OTHER SPIRITS within
HECATE	And Hoppo, too, and Hellwain, too, We lack but you, we lack but you. Come away, make up the count.
HECATE	I will but ’noint, and then I mount.
(didascalia)	Spirits appear above. A Spirit like a Cat descends
(didascalia)	SPIRITS above
HECATE	There’s one comes down to fetch his dues, A kiss, a coll, a sip of blood, And why thou stay’st so long I muse, I muse, Since the air’s so sweet and good.
HECATE	O, art thou come? What news, what news?
SPIRIT LIKE	A CAT All goes still to our delight. Either come, or else refuse, refuse.
HECATE	Now I am furnished for the flight. She ascends with the spirit and sings Now I go, now I fly, Malkin my sweet spirit and I.
(didascalia)	SPIRITS and HECATE
HECATE	O what a dainty pleasure ‘tis To ride in the air When the moon shines fair, And sing, and dance, and toy, and kiss. Over woods, high rocks and mountains, Over seas and misty fountains, Over steeples, towers and turrets, We fly by night ’mongst troops of spirits. No ring of bells to our ears sounds, No howls of wolves, no yelps of hounds. No, not the noise of waters-breach Or cannons’ throat our height can reach.
(didascalia)	SPIRITS abovel
HECATE	No ring of bells to our ears sounds, No howls of wolves, no yelps of hounds. No, not the noise of waters-breach Or cannons’ throat our height can reach.
(didascalia)	Exeunt into the heavens the
HECATE	Spirit like a Cat and Hecate
FIRST WITCH	Come, let’s make haste. She’ll soon be back again.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Atto 3, Scena 6

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Lennox and another Lord
LENNOX	My former speeches have but hit your thoughts, Which can interpret farther. Only I say Things have been strangely borne. The gracious Duncan Was pitied of Macbeth: marry, he was dead; And the right valiant Banquo walked too late, Whom you may say, if’t please you, Fleance killed, For Fleance fled: men must not walk too late. Who cannot want the thought how monstrous It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain To kill their gracious father? Damned fact, How it did grieve Macbeth! Did he not straight In pious rage the two delinquents tear, That were the slaves of drink, and thralls of sleep? Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely too, For ‘twould have angered any heart alive To hear the men deny’t. So that I say He has borne all things well, and I do think That had he Duncan’s sons under his key— As, an’t please heaven, he shall not—they should find What ’twere to kill a father. So should Fleance. But peace, for from broad words, and ’cause he failed His presence at the tyrant’s feast, I hear Macduff lives in disgrace. Sir, can you tell Where he bestows himself?
LORD	The son of Duncan From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth Lives in the English court, and is received Of the most pious Edward with such grace That the malevolence of fortune nothing Takes from his high respect. Thither Macduff Is gone to pray the holy King upon his aid To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward, That by the help of these—with Him above To ratify the work—we may again Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights, Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives, Do faithful homage, and receive free honours, All which we pine for now. And this report Hath so exasperate their king that he Prepares for some attempt of war.
LENNOX	Sent he to Macduff?
LORD	He did, and with an absolute ‘Sir, not I,’ The cloudy messenger turns me his back And hums, as who should say ‘You’ll rue the time That clogs me with this answer.’
LENNOX	And that well might Advise him to a caution t’hold what,distance His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel Fly to the court of England and unfold His message ere he come, that a swift blessing May soon return to this our suffering country Under a hand accursed.
LORD	I’ll send my prayers with him. Exeunt

Atto 4, Scena 1

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	A Cauldron. Thunder. Enter the three Witches
FIRST WITCH	Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed.
SECOND WITCH	Thrice, and once the hedge-pig whined.
THIRD WITCH	Harpier cries “Tis time, ‘tis time.’
FIRST WITCH	Round about the cauldron go, In the poisoned entrails throw. Toad that under cold stone Days and nights has thirty-one Sweltered venom sleeping got, Boil thou first i’th’ charmed pot.
ALL	Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
SECOND WITCH	Fillet of a fenny snake, In the cauldron boil and bake. Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog, Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting, Lizard’s leg and owlet’s wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
ALL	Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
THIRD WITCH	Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf, Witches’ mummy, maw and gulf Of the ravined salt-sea shark, Root of hemlock digged i‘th’ dark, Liver of blaspheming Jew, Gall of goat, and slips of yew Slivered in the moon’s eclipse, Nose of Turk, and Tartar’s lips, Finger of birth-strangled babe Ditch-delivered by a drab, Make the gruel thick and slab. Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron For th’ingredience of our cauldron.
ALL	Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
SECOND WITCH	Cool it with a baboon’s blood, Then the charm is firm and good.
(didascalia)	Enter Hecate and the other three Witches
HECATE	O, well done! I commend your pains, And everyone shall share i’th’ gains. And now about the cauldron sing Like elves and fairies in a ring, Enchanting all that you put in.
(didascalia)	Music and a song
HECATE	Black spirits and white, red spirits and grey, Mingle, mingle, mingle, you that mingle may.
FOURTH WITCH	Titty, Tiffin, keep it stiff in; Firedrake, Puckey, make it lucky; Liard, Robin, you must bob in.
ALL	Round, around, around, about, about, All ill come running in, all good keep out.
FOURTH WITCH	Here’s the blood of a bat.
HECATE	Put in that, O put in that!
FIFTH WITCH	Here’s leopard’s bane.
HECATE	Put in a grain.
FOURTH WITCH	The juice of toad, the oil of adder.
FIFTH WITCH	Those will make the younker madder.
HECATE	Put in, there’s all, and rid the stench. A WITCH Nay, here’s three ounces of a red-haired wench.
ALL	Round, around, around, about, about, All ill come running in, all good keep out.
SECOND WITCH	By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.
(didascalia)	Knock within
SECOND WITCH	Open, locks, whoever knocks.
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth
MACBETH	How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags, What is’t you do?
ALL THE WITCHES	A deed without a name.
MACBETH	I conjure you by that which you profess, Howe’er you come to know it, answer me. Though you untie the winds and let them fight Against the churches, though the yeasty waves Confound and swallow navigation up, Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down, Though castles topple on their warders’ heads, Though palaces and pyramids do slope Their heads to their foundations, though the treasure Of nature’s germens tumble all together Even till destruction sicken, answer me To what I ask you.
FIRST WITCH	Speak.
SECOND WITCH	Demand.
THIRD WITCH	We’ll answer.
FIRST WITCH	Say if thou’dst rather hear it from our mouths Or from our masters.
MACBETH	Call ‘em, let me see ’em.
FIRST WITCH	Pour in sow’s blood that hath eaten 80 Her nine farrow; grease that’s sweaten From the murderer’s gibbet throw Into the flame.
ALL THE WITCHES	Come high or low, Thyself and office deftly show.
(didascalia)	Thunder. First Apparition: an armed head
MACBETH	Tell me, thou unknown power—
FIRST WITCH	He knows thy thought. Hear his speech, but say thou naught.
FIRST APPARITION	Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth, beware Macduff, Beware the Thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough. Apparition descends
MACBETH	Whate’er thou art, for thy good caution thanks. Thou hast harped my fear aright. But one word more—
FIRST WITCH	He will not be commanded. Here’s another, More potent than the first.
(didascalia)	Thunder. Second Apparition: a bloody child
SECOND APPARITION	Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth.
MACBETH	Had I three ears I’d hear thee.
SECOND APPARITION	Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn The power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth. Apparition descends
MACBETH	Then live, Macduff—what need I fear of thee? But yet I’ll make assurance double sure, And take a bond of fate thou shalt not live, That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies, And sleep in spite of thunder.
(didascalia)	Thunder. Third Apparition: a child crowned, with a
MACBETH	tree in his hand What is this That rises like the issue of a king, And wears upon his baby-brow the round And top of sovereignty?
ALL THE WITCHES	Listen, but speak not to’t.
THIRD APPARITION	Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are. Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill Shall come against him. Apparition descends
MACBETH	That will never be. Who can impress the forest, bid the tree Unfix his earth-bound root? Sweet bodements, good! Rebellious dead, rise never till the wood Of Birnam rise, and on’s high place Macbeth Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath To time and mortal custom. Yet my heart Throbs to know one thing. Tell me, if your art Can tell so much, shall Banquo’s issue ever Reign in this kingdom?
ALL THE WITCHES	Seek to know no more.
MACBETH	I will be satisfied. Deny me this, And an eternal curse fall on you! Let me know. The cauldron sinks. Hautboys Why sinks that cauldron? And what noise is this?
FIRST WITCH	Show.
SECOND WITCH	Show.
THIRD WITCH	Show.
ALL THE WITCHES	Show his eyes and grieve his heart, Come like shadows, so depart. A show of eight kings, the last with a glass in his hand; and Banquo
MACBETH	Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo. Down! Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs. And thy hair, Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first. A third is like the former. Filthy hags, Why do you show me this?—A fourth? Start, eyes! What, will the line stretch out to th’ crack of doom? Another yet? A seventh? I’ll see no more— And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass Which shows me many more; and some I see That twofold balls and treble sceptres carry. Horrible sight! Now I see ’tis true, For the blood-baltered Banquo smiles upon me, And points at them for his.
(didascalia)	Exeunt kings and Banquo
MACBETH	What, is this so?
(didascalia)	HECATE
MACBETH	Ay, sir, all this is so. But why Stands Macbeth thus amazedly? Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites, And show the best of our delights. I’ll charm the air to give a sound While you perform your antic round, That this great king may kindly say Our duties did his welcome pay.
(didascalia)	Music. The Witches dance, and vanish
MACBETH	Where are they? Gone? Let this pernicious hour Stand aye accursed in the calendar. Come in, without there.
(didascalia)	Enter Lennox
LENNOX	What’s your grace’s will?
MACBETH	Saw you the weird sisters?
LENNOX	No, my lord.
MACBETH	Came they not by you?
LENNOX	No, indeed, my lord.
MACBETH	Infected be the air whereon they ride, And damned all those that trust them. I did hear The galloping of horse. Who was’t came by?
LENNOX	’Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word Macduff is fled to England.
MACBETH	Fled to England?
LENNOX	Ay, my good lord.
MACBETH	(aside) Time, thou anticipat‘st my dread exploits. The flighty purpose never is o’ertook Unless the deed go with it. From this moment The very firstlings of my heart shall be The firstlings of my hand. And even now, To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done: 165 The castle of Macduff I will surprise, Seize upon Fife, give to th‘edge o’th’ sword His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool; This deed I’ll do before this purpose cool. But no more sights! (To Lennox) Where are these gentlemen? Come bring me where they are.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Atto 4, Scena 2

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Macduff’s Wife, her Son, and Ross
LADY MACDUFF	What had he done to make him fly the land?
ROSS	You must have patience, madam.
LADY MACDUFF	He had none. His flight was madness. When our actions do not, Our fears do make us traitors. Ross You know not Whether it was his wisdom or his fear.
LADY MACDUFF	Wisdom—to leave his wife, to leave his babes, His mansion, and his titles in a place From whence himself does fly? He loves us not, He wants the natural touch, for the poor wren, The most diminutive of birds, will fight, Her young ones in her nest, against the owl. All is the fear and nothing is the love; As little is the wisdom, where the flight So runs against all reason. Ross My dearest coz, I pray you school yourself. But for your husband, He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows The fits o’th’ season. I dare not speak much further, But cruel are the times when we are traitors And do not know ourselves; when we hold rumour From what we fear, yet know not what we fear, But float upon a wild and violent sea Each way and none. I take my leave of you; Shall not be long but I’ll be here again. Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward To what they were before. My pretty cousin, Blessing upon you!
LADY MACDUFF	Fathered he is, and yet he’s fatherless.
ROSS	I am so much a fool, should I stay longer It would be my disgrace and your discomfort. I take my leave at once.
(didascalia)	Exit
LADY MACDUFF	Sirrah, your father’s dead, And what will you do now? How will you live?
MACDUFF’S SON	As birds do, mother.
LADY MACDUFF	What, with worms and flies?
MACDUFF’S SON	With what I get, I mean, and so do they.
LADY MACDUFF	Poor bird, thou’dst never fear the net nor lime, The pitfall nor the gin.
MACDUFF’S SON	Why should I, mother? Poor birds they are not set for. My father is not dead, for all your saying.
LADY MACDUFF	Yes, he is dead. How wilt thou do for a father?
MACDUFF’S SON	Nay, how will you do for a husband?
LADY MACDUFF	Why, I can buy me twenty at any market.
MACDUFF’S SON	Then you’ll buy ’em to sell again.
LADY MACDUFF	Thou speak‘st with all thy wit, and yet, i’faith, with wit enough for thee.
MACDUFF’S SON	Was my father a traitor, mother?
LADY MACDUFF	Ay, that he was.
MACDUFF’S SON	What is a traitor?
LADY MACDUFF	Why, one that swears and lies.
MACDUFF’S SON	And be all traitors that do so?
LADY MACDUFF	Everyone that does so is a traitor, and must be hanged.
MACDUFF’S SON	And must they all be hanged that swear and lie?
LADY MACDUFF	Every one.
MACDUFF’S SON	Who must hang them?
LADY MACDUFF	Why, the honest men.
MACDUFF’S SON	Then the liars and swearers are fools, for there are liars and swearers enough to beat the honest men and hang up them.
LADY MACDUFF	Now God help thee, poor monkey! But how wilt thou do for a father?
MACDUFF’S SON	If he were dead you’d weep for him. If you would not, it were a good sign that I should quickly have a new father.
LADY MACDUFF	Poor prattler, how thou talk’st!
(didascalia)	Enter a Messenger
MESSENGER	Bless you, fair dame. I am not to you known, Though in your state of honour I am perfect. I doubt some danger does approach you nearly. If you will take a homely man’s advice, Be not found here. Hence with your little ones! To fright you thus methinks I am too savage, To do worse to you were fell cruelty, Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you. I dare abide no longer.
(didascalia)	Exit Messenger
LADY MACDUFF	Whither should I fly? I have done no harm. But I remember now I am in this earthly world, where to do harm Is often laudable, to do good sometime Accounted dangerous folly. Why then, alas, Do I put up that womanly defence To say I have done no harm?
(didascalia)	Enter Murderers
LADY MACDUFF	What are these faces? A MURDERER Where is your husband?
LADY MACDUFF	I hope in no place so unsanctified Where such as thou mayst find him. A MURDERER He’s a traitor.
MACDUFF’S SON	Thou liest, thou shag-haired villain. A MURDERER (stabbing him) What, you egg! Young fry of treachery!
MACDUFF’S SON	He has killed me, mother. Run away, I pray you.
(didascalia)	He dies. Exit Macduff’s Wife crying ‘Murder!’
(didascalia)	followed by Murderers with the Son’s body

Atto 4, Scena 3

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Malcolm and Macduff
MALCOLM	Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there Weep our sad bosoms empty.
MACDUFF	Let us rather Hold fast the mortal sword, and like good men Bestride our downfall birthdom. Each new morn New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows Strike heaven on the face that it resounds As if it felt with Scotland and yelled out Like syllable of dolour.
MALCOLM	What I believe I’ll wail, What know believe; and what I can redress, As I shall find the time to friend, I will. What you have spoke it may be so, perchance. This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues, Was once thought honest. You have loved him well. He hath not touched you yet. I am young, but something You may discern of him through me: and wisdom To offer up a weak poor innocent lamb T’appease an angry god.
MACDUFF	I am not treacherous.
MALCOLM	But Macbeth is. A good and virtuous nature may recoil In an imperial charge. But I shall crave your pardon. That which you are my thoughts cannot transpose. Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell. Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace, Yet grace must still look so.
MACDUFF	I have lost my hopes.
MALCOLM	Perchance even there where I did find my doubts. Why in that rawness left you wife and child, Those precious motives, those strong knots of love, Without leave-taking? I pray you, Let not my jealousies be your dishonours, But mine own safeties. You may be rightly just, Whatever I shall think.
MACDUFF	Bleed, bleed, poor country! Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure, For goodness dare not check thee. Wear thou thy wrongs; The title is affeered. Fare thee well, lord. I would not be the villain that thou think’st For the whole space that’s in the tyrant’s grasp, And the rich east to boot.
MALCOLM	Be not offended. I speak not as in absolute fear of you. I think our country sinks beneath the yoke. It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash Is added to her wounds. I think withal There would be hands uplifted in my right, And here from gracious England have I offer Of goodly thousands. But for all this, When I shall tread upon the tyrant’s head, Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country Shall have more vices than it had before, More suffer, and more sundry ways, than ever, By him that shall succeed.
MACDUFF	What should he be?
MALCOLM	It is myself I mean, in whom I know All the particulars of vice so grafted That when they shall be opened black Macbeth Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state Esteem him as a lamb, being compared With my confineless harms.
MACDUFF	Not in the legions Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned In evils to top Macbeth.
MALCOLM	I grant him bloody, Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin That has a name. But there’s no bottom, none, In my voluptuousness. Your wives, your daughters, Your matrons, and your maids could not fill up The cistern of my lust, and my desire All continent impediments would o’erbear That did oppose my will. Better Macbeth Than such an one to reign.
MACDUFF	Boundless intemperance In nature is a tyranny. It hath been Th’untimely emptying of the happy throne, And fall of many kings. But fear not yet To take upon you what is yours. You may Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty And yet seem cold. The time you may so hoodwink. We have willing dames enough. There cannot be That vulture in you to devour so many As will to greatness dedicate themselves, Finding it so inclined.
MALCOLM	With this there grows In my most ill-composed affection such A staunchless avarice that were I king I should cut off the nobles for their lands, Desire his jewels and this other’s house, And my more having would be as a sauce To make me hunger more, that I should forge Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal, Destroying them for wealth.
MACDUFF	This avarice Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root Than summer-seeming lust, and it hath been The sword of our slain kings. Yet do not fear. Scotland hath foisons to fill up your will Of your mere own. All these are portable, With other graces weighed.
MALCOLM	But I have none. The king-becoming graces, As justice, verity, temp’rance, stableness, Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude, I have no relish of them, but abound In the division of each several crime, Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power I should Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, Uproar the universal peace, confound All unity on earth.
MACDUFF	O Scotland, Scotland!
MALCOLM	If such a one be fit to govern, speak. I am as I have spoken.
MACDUFF	Fit to govern? No, not to live. O nation miserable, With an untitled tyrant bloody-sceptered, When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again, Since that the truest issue of thy throne By his own interdiction stands accursed And does blaspheme his breed? Thy royal father Was a most sainted king. The Queen that bore thee, Oft‘ner upon her knees than on her feet, Died every day she lived. Fare thee well. These evils thou repeat’st upon thyself Hath banished me from Scotland. O, my breast— Thy hope ends here!
MALCOLM	Macduff, this noble passion, Child of integrity, hath from my soul Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts To thy good truth and honour. Devilish Macbeth By many of these trains hath sought to win me Into his power, and modest wisdom plucks me From over-credulous haste; but God above Deal between thee and me, for even now I put myself to thy direction and Unspeak mine own detraction, here abjure The taints and blames I laid upon myself For strangers to my nature. I am yet Unknown to woman, never was forsworn, Scarcely have coveted what was mine own, At no time broke my faith, would not betray The devil to his fellow, and delight No less in truth than life. My first false-speaking Was this upon myself. What I am truly Is thine and my poor country’s to command, Whither indeed, before thy here-approach, Old Siward with ten thousand warlike men, Already at a point, was setting forth. Now we’ll together; and the chance of goodness Be like our warranted quarrel!—Why are you silent?
MACDUFF	Such welcome and unwelcome things at once ’is hard to reconcile.
(didascalia)	Enter a Doctor
MALCOLM	Well, more anon. (To the Doctor) Comes the King forth, I pray you?
DOCTOR	Ay, sir. There are a crew of wretched souls That stay his cure. Their malady convinces The great essay of art, but at his touch, Such sanctity hath Heaven given his hand, They presently amend.
MALCOLM	I thank you, doctor. Exit Doctor
MACDUFF	What’s the disease he means?
MALCOLM	’is called the evil— A most miraculous work in this good King, Which often since my here-remain in England I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven Himself best knows, but strangely visited people, All swoll’n and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, The mere despair of surgery, he cures, Hanging a golden stamp about their necks, Put on with holy prayers; and ’is spoken, To the succeeding royalty he leaves The healing benediction. With this strange virtue He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy, And sundry blessings hang about his throne That speak him full of grace.
(didascalia)	Enter Ross
MACDUFF	See who comes here.
MALCOLM	My countryman, but yet I know him not.
MACDUFF	My ever gentle cousin, welcome hither.
MALCOLM	I know him now. Good God betimes remove The means that makes us strangers! Ross Sir, amen.
MACDUFF	Stands Scotland where it did? Ross Alas, poor country, Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot Be called our mother, but our grave, where nothing But who knows nothing is once seen to smile; Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the air Are made, not marked; where violent sorrow seems A modern ecstasy. The dead man’s knell Is there scarce asked for who, and good men’s lives Expire before the flowers in their caps, Dying or ere they sicken.
MACDUFF	O relation Too nice and yet too true!
MALCOLM	What’s the newest grief?
ROSS	That of an hour’s age doth hiss the speaker; Each minute teems a new one.
MACDUFF	How does my wife?
ROSS	Why, well.
MACDUFF	And all my children? Ross Well, too.
MACDUFF	The tyrant has not battered at their peace?
ROSS	No, they were well at peace when I did leave ’em.
MACDUFF	Be not a niggard of your speech. How goes’t?
ROSS	When I came hither to transport the tidings Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumour Of many worthy fellows that were out, Which was to my belief witnessed the rather For that I saw the tyrant’s power afoot. Now is the time of help. (To Malcolm) Your eye in Scotland Would create soldiers, make our women fight To doff their dire distresses.
MALCOLM	Be’t their comfort We are coming thither. Gracious England hath Lent us good Siward and ten thousand men; An older and a better soldier none That Christendom gives out. Ross Would I could answer This comfort with the like. But I have words That would be howled out in the desert air Where hearing should not latch them.
MACDUFF	What concern they— The general cause, or is it a fee-grief Due to some single breast? Ross No mind that’s honest But in it shares some woe, though the main part Pertains to you alone.
MACDUFF	If it be mine, Keep it not from me; quickly let me have it.
ROSS	Let not your ears despise my tongue for ever, Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound That ever yet they heard.
MACDUFF	H’m, I guess at it.
ROSS	Your castle is surprised, your wife and babes Savagely slaughtered. To relate the manner Were on the quarry of these murdered deer To add the death of you.
MALCOLM	Merciful heaven! (To Macduff) What, man, ne’er pull your hat upon your brows. Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak Whispers the o’erfraught heart and bids it break.
MACDUFF	My children too? Ross Wife, children, servants, all That could be found.
MACDUFF	And I must be from thence! My wife killed too?
ROSS	I have said.
MALCOLM	Be comforted. Let’s make us medicines of our great revenge To cure this deadly grief.
MACDUFF	He has no children. All my pretty ones? Did you say all? O hell-kite! All? What, all my pretty chickens and their dam At one fell swoop?
MALCOLM	Dispute it like a man.
MACDUFF	I shall do so, But I must also feel it as a man. I cannot but remember such things were That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff, They were all struck for thee. Naught that I am, Not for their own demerits but for mine Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now.
MALCOLM	Be this the whetstone of your sword. Let grief Convert to anger: blunt not the heart, enrage it.
MACDUFF	O, I could play the woman with mine eyes And braggart with my tongue! But gentle heavens Cut short all intermission. Front to front Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself.
(didascalia)	Within my sword’s length set him. If he scape,
MACDUFF	Heaven forgive him too.
MALCOLM	This tune goes manly. Come, go we to the King. Our power is ready; Our lack is nothing but our leave. Macbeth Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may: The night is long that never finds the day. Exeunt

Atto 5, Scena 1

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter a Doctor of Physic and a Waiting-Gentlewoman
DOCTOR	I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walked?
GENTLEWOMAN	Since his majesty went into the field I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon’t, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed, yet all this while in a most fast sleep.
DOCTOR	A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once the benefit of sleep and do the effects of watching. In this slumbery agitation besides her walking and other actual performances, what at any time have you heard her say?
GENTLEWOMAN	That, sir, which I will not report after her.
DOCTOR	You may to me; and ’tis most meet you should.
GENTLEWOMAN	Neither to you nor anyone, having no witness to confirm my speech.
(didascalia)	Enter Lady Macbeth with a taper
GENTLEWOMAN	Lo you, here she comes. This is her very guise, and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her. Stand close.
DOCTOR	How came she by that light?
GENTLEWOMAN	Why, it stood by her. She has light by her continually. ’Tis her command.
DOCTOR	You see her eyes are open.
GENTLEWOMAN	Ay, but their sense are shut.
DOCTOR	What is it she does now? Look how she rubs her hands.
GENTLEWOMAN	It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands. I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour.
LADY MACBETH	Yet here’s a spot.
DOCTOR	Hark, she speaks. I will set down what comes from her to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.
LADY MACBETH	Out, damned spot; out, I say. One, two,—why, then ’tis time to do’t. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier and afeard? What need we fear who knows it when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?
DOCTOR	Do you mark that?
LADY MACBETH	The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now? What, will these hands ne’er be clean? No more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that. You mar all with this starting.
DOCTOR	Go to, go to. You have known what you should not.
GENTLEWOMAN	She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that. Heaven knows what she has known.
LADY MACBETH	Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. O, O, O!
DOCTOR	What a sigh is therel The heart is sorely charged.
GENTLEWOMAN	I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the dignity of the whole body.
DOCTOR	Well, well, well.
GENTLEWOMAN	Pray God it be, sir.
DOCTOR	This disease is beyond my practice. Yet I have known those which have walked in their sleep who have died holily in their beds.
LADY MACBETH	Wash your hands, put on your nightgown, look not so pale. I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried. He cannot come out on’s grave.
DOCTOR	Even so?
LADY MACBETH	To bed, to bed. There’s knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What’s done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed.
(didascalia)	Exit
DOCTOR	Will she go now to bed?
GENTLEWOMAN	Directly.
DOCTOR	Foul whisp’rings are abroad. Unnatural deeds Do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. More needs she the divine than the physician. God, God forgive us all! Look after her. Remove from her the means of all annoyance, And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night. My mind she has mated, and amazed my sight. I think, but dare not speak.
GENTLEWOMAN	Good night, good doctor.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Atto 5, Scena 2

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, soldiers, with a drummer and colours
MENTEITH	The English power is near, led on by Malcolm, His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff. Revenges burn in them, for their dear causes Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm Excite the mortified man.
ANGUS	Near Birnam Wood Shall we well meet them. That way are they coming.
CAITHNESS	Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?
LENNOX	For certain, sir, he is not. I have a file Of all the gentry. There is Siward’s son, And many unrough youths that even now 10 Protest their first of manhood.
MENTEITH	What does the tyrant?
CAITHNESS	Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies. Some say he’s mad, others that lesser hate him Do call it valiant fury; but for certain He cannot buckle his distempered cause
(didascalia)	Within the belt of rule.
ANGUS	Now does he feel His secret murders sticking on his hands. Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach. Those he commands move only in command, Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe Upon a dwarfish thief.
MENTEITH	Who then shall blame His pestered senses to recoil and start When all that is within him does condemn Itself for being there?
CAITHNESS	Well, march we on To give obedience where ’tis truly owed. Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal, And with him pour we in our country’s purge, Each drop of us.
LENNOX	Or so much as it needs To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds. Make we our march towards Birnam.
(didascalia)	Exeunt, marching

Atto 5, Scena 3

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth, the Doctor of Physic, and attendants
MACBETH	Bring me no more reports. Let them fly all. Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane I cannot taint with fear. What’s the boy Malcolm? Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus: ‘Fear not, Macbeth. No man that’s born of woman Shall e’er have power upon thee.’ Then fly, false thanes, And mingle with the English epicures. The mind I sway by and the heart I bear Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.
(didascalia)	Enter Servant
MACBETH	The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon! Where gott’st thou that goose look?
SERVANT	There is ten thousand-
MACBETH	Geese, villain?
SERVANT	Soldiers, sir. 15
MACBETH	Go prick thy face and over-red thy fear, Thou lily-livered boy. What soldiers, patch? Death of thy soul, those linen cheeks of thine Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?
SERVANT	The English force, so please you.
MACBETH	Take thy face hence.
(didascalia)	Exit Servant
MACBETH	Seyton!-I am sick at heart When I behold-Seyton, I say!—This push Will cheer me ever or disseat me now. I have lived long enough. My way of life Is fall’n into the sere, the yellow leaf, And that which should accompany old age, As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have, but in their stead Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath Which the poor heart would fain deny and dare not. Seyton!
(didascalia)	Enter Seyton
SEYTON	What’s your gracious pleasure?
MACBETH	What news more?
SEYTON	All is confirmed, my lord, which was reported.
MACBETH	I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hacked. Give me my armour.
SEYTON	’Tis not needed yet.
MACBETH	I’ll put it on. Send out more horses. Skirr the country round. Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armour. How does your patient, doctor?
DOCTOR	Not so sick, my lord, As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies That keep her from her rest.
MACBETH	Cure her of that. Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Raze out the written troubles of the brain, And with some sweet oblivious antidote Cleanse the fraught bosom of that perilous stuff Which weighs upon the heart?
DOCTOR	Therein the patient Must minister to himself.
MACBETH	Throw physic to the dogs; I’ll none of it. (To an attendant) Come, put mine armour on. Give me my staff. Seyton, send out. Doctor, the thanes fly from me. (To an attendant) Come, sir, dispatch.—If thou couldst, doctor, cast The water of my land, find her disease, And purge it to a sound and pristine health, I would applaud thee to the very echo, That should applaud again. (To an attendant) Pull’t off, I say. (To the Doctor) What rhubarb, cyme, or what purgative drug Would scour these English hence? Hear’st thou of them?
DOCTOR	Ay, my good lord. Your royal preparation Makes us hear something.
MACBETH	(To an attendant) Bring it after me. I will not be afraid of death and bane Till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane.
DOCTOR	(aside) Were I from Dunsinane away and clear, Profit again should hardly draw me here.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Atto 5, Scena 4

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, Siward’s Son, Menteith, Caithness, Angus, and soldiers, marching, with a drummer and colours
MALCOLM	Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand That chambers will be safe.
MENTEITH	We doubt it nothing.
SIWARD	What wood is this before us?
MENTEITH	The wood of Birnam.
MALCOLM	Let every soldier hew him down a bough And bear’t before him. Thereby shall we shadow The numbers of our host, and make discovery Err in report of us. A SOLDIER It shall be done.
SIWARD	We learn no other but the confident tyrant Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure Our setting down before’t.
MALCOLM	’Tis his main hope, For where there is advantage to be gone, Both more and less have given him the revolt, And none serve with him but constrained things, Whose hearts are absent too.
MACDUFF	Let our just censures Attend the true event, and put we on Industrious soldiership.
SIWARD	The time approaches That will with due decision make us know What we shall say we have, and what we owe. Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate, But certain issue strokes must arbitrate; Towards which, advance the war. Exeunt, marching

Atto 5, Scena 5

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth, Seyton, and soldiers, with a drummer and colours
MACBETH	Hang out our banners on the outward walls. The cry is still ‘They come.’ Our castle’s strength Will laugh a siege to scorn. Here let them lie Till famine and the ague eat them up. Were they not forced with those that should be ours We might have met them dareful, beard to beard, And beat them backward home. A cry within of women What is that noise?
SEYTON	It is the cry of women, my good lord. [Exit]
MACBETH	I have almost forgot the taste of fears. The time has been my senses would have cooled To hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir As life were in’t. I have supped full with horrors. Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, Cannot once start me.
(didascalia)	Enter Seyton
MACBETH	Wherefore was that cry?
SEYTON	The Queen, my lord, is dead.
MACBETH	She should have died hereafter. There would have been a time for such a word. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle. Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
(didascalia)	Enter a Messenger
MACBETH	Thou com’st to use Thy tongue: thy story quickly.
MESSENGER	Gracious my lord, I should report that which I say I saw, But know not how to do’t.
MACBETH	Well, say, sir.
MESSENGER	As I did stand my watch upon the hill I looked toward Birnam, and anon methought The wood began to move.
MACBETH	Liar and slave!
MESSENGER	Let me endure your wrath if’t be not so.
(didascalia)	Within this three mile may you see it coming.
MESSENGER	I say, a moving grove.
MACBETH	If thou speak’st false Upon the next tree shall thou hang alive Till famine cling thee. If thy speech be sooth, I care not if thou dost for me as much. I pall in resolution, and begin To doubt th‘equivocation of the fiend, That lies like truth. ’Fear not till Birnam Wood Do come to Dunsinane‘—and now a wood Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out. If this which he avouches does appear There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here. I ’gin to be aweary of the sun, And wish th‘estate o’th’ world were now undone. Ring the alarum bell. Alarums Blow wind, come wrack, At least we’ll die with harness on our back. Exeunt

Atto 5, Scena 6

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, and their army with boughs, with a drummer and colours
MALCOLM	Now near enough. Your leafy screens throw down, And show like those you are. They throw down the boughs You, worthy uncle, Shall with my cousin, your right noble son, Lead our first battle. Worthy Macduff and we Shall take upon’s what else remains to do According to our order.
SIWARD	Fare you well. Do we but find the tyrant’s power tonight, Let us be beaten if we cannot fight.
MACDUFF	Make all our trumpets speak, give them all breath, Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.
(didascalia)	Exeunt. Alarums continued

Atto 5, Scena 7

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth
MACBETH	They have tied me to a stake. I cannot fly, But bear-like I must fight the course. What’s he That was not born of woman? Such a one Am I to fear, or none.
(didascalia)	Enter Young Siward
YOUNG SIWARD	What is thy name?
MACBETH	Thou’lt be afraid to hear it.
YOUNG SIWARD	No, though thou call’st thyself a hotter name Than any is in hell.
MACBETH	My name’s Macbeth.
YOUNG SIWARD	The devil himself could not pronounce a title More hateful to mine ear.
MACBETH	No, nor more fearful.
YOUNG SIWARD	Thou liest, abhorred tyrant. With my sword I’ll prove the lie thou speak’st. They fight, and Young Siward is slain
MACBETH	Thou wast born of woman, But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, Brandished by man that’s of a woman born.
(didascalia)	Exit with the body

Atto 5, Scena 8

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Alarums. Enter Macduff
MACDUFF	That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy face! If thou beest slain and with no stroke of mine, My wife and children’s ghosts will haunt me still. I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms Are hired to bear their staves. Either thou, Macbeth, 5 Or else my sword with an unbattered edge I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be; By this great clatter one of greatest note Seems bruited. Let me find him, fortune, And more I beg not.
(didascalia)	Exit. Alarums

Atto 5, Scena 9

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Malcolm and Siward
SIWARD	This way, my lord. The castle’s gently rendered. The tyrant’s people on both sides do fight. The noble thanes do bravely in the war. The day almost itself professes yours, And little is to do.
MALCOLM	We have met with foes That strike beside us.
(didascalia)	Enter, sir, the castle.
(didascalia)	Exeunt. Alarum

Atto 5, Scena 10

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth
MACBETH	Why should I play the Roman fool, and die On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes Do better upon them.
(didascalia)	Enter Macduff
MACDUFF	Turn, hell-hound, turn.
MACBETH	Of all men else I have avoided thee. But get thee back. My soul is too much charged With blood of thine already.
MACDUFF	I have no words; My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain Than terms can give thee out. They fight; alarum
MACBETH	Thou losest labour. As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed. Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests; I bear a charmed life, which must not yield To one of woman born.
MACDUFF	Despair thy charm, And let the angel whom thou still hast served Tell thee Macduff was from his mother’s womb 15 Untimely ripped.
MACBETH	Accursèd be that tongue that tells me so, For it hath cowed my better part of man; And be these juggling fiends no more believed, That palter with us in a double sense, That keep the word of promise to our ear And break it to our hope. I’ll not fight with thee.
MACDUFF	Then yield thee, coward, And live to be the show and gaze o‘th’ time. We’ll have thee as our rarer monsters are, Painted upon a pole, and underwrit ‘Here may you see the tyrant.’
MACBETH	I will not yield To kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet, And to be baited with the rabble’s curse. Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane, And thou opposed being of no woman born, Yet I will try the last. Before my body I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff, And damned be him that first cries ‘Hold, enough!’
(didascalia)	Exeunt fighting. Alarums
MACBETH	They enter fighting, and Macbeth is slain. Exit Macduff with Macbeth’s body

Atto 5, Scena 11

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Retreat and flourish. Enter with a drummer and colours Malcolm, Siward, Ross, thanes, and soldiers
MALCOLM	I would the friends we miss were safe arrived.
SIWARD	Some must go off; and yet by these I see So great a day as this is cheaply bought.
MALCOLM	Macduff is missing, and your noble son.
ROSS	(to Siward) Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier’s debt. He only lived but till he was a man, The which no sooner had his prowess confirmed In the unshrinking station where he fought, But like a man he died.
SIWARD	Then he is dead?
ROSS	Ay, and brought off the field. Your cause of sorrow Must not be measured by his worth, for then It hath no end.
SIWARD	Had he his hurts before?
ROSS	Ay, on the front.
SIWARD	Why then, God’s soldier be he. Had I as many sons as I have hairs I would not wish them to a fairer death; And so his knell is knolled.
MALCOLM	He’s worth more sorrow, And that I’ll spend for him.
SIWARD	He’s worth no more. They say he parted well and paid his score, And so God be with him. Here comes newer comfort.
(didascalia)	Enter Macduff with Macbeth’s head
MACDUFF	(to Malcolm) Hail, King, for so thou art. Behold where stands Th’usurper’s cursed head. The time is free. I see thee compassed with thy kingdom’s pearl, That speak my salutation in their minds, Whose voices I desire aloud with mine: Hail, King of Scotland!
ALL BUT MALCOLM	Hail, King of Scotland!
(didascalia)	Flourish
MALCOLM	We shall not spend a large expense of time Before we reckon with your several loves And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen, Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland In such an honour named. What’s more to do Which would be planted newly with the time, As calling home our exiled friends abroad, That fled the snares of watchful tyranny, Producing forth the cruel ministers Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen- Who, as ‘tis thought, by self and violent hands Took off her life—this and what needful else That calls upon us, by the grace of grace We will perform in measure, time, and place. So thanks to all at once, and to each one, Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone.
(didascalia)	Flourish. Exeunt Omnes
FIRST	printed in the 1623 Folio, Antony and Cleopatra had been entered on the Stationers’ Register on 20 May 1608. Echoes of it in Barnabe Barnes’s tragedy The Devil’s Charter, acted by Shakespeare’s company in February 1607, suggest that Shakespeare wrote his play no later than 1606, and stylistic evidence supports that date. The Life of Marcus Antonius in Sir Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (1579) was one of the sources for Julius Caesar; it also provided Shakespeare with most of his material for Antony and Cleopatra, in which he draws upon its language to a remarkable extent even in some of the play’s most poetic passages. For example, Enobarbus’ famous description of Cleopatra in her barge (2.2.197-225) incorporates phrase after phrase of North’s prose. And the play’s action stays close to North’s account, though with significant adjustments, particularly compressions of the time-scheme. It opens in 40 BC, two years after the end of Julius Caesar, and portrays events that took place over a period of ten years. Mark Antony has become an older man, though Octavius is still ‘scarce-bearded’. Plutarch, who was a connoisseur of human behaviour, also afforded many hints for the characterization; but some characters, particularly Antony’s comrade Domitius Enobarbus and Cleopatra’s women, Charmian and Iras, are largely created by Shakespeare. In the earlier play, Mark Antony had formed a triumvirate with Octavius Caesar and Lepidus. In Antony and Cleopatra the triumvirate is in a state of disintegration, partly because Mark Antony—married at the play’s opening to Fulvia, who is rebelling against Octavius Caesar—is infatuated with Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt (and the former mistress of Julius Caesar). The play’s action swings between Rome and Alexandria as Antony is torn between the claims of Rome—strengthened for a while by his marriage, after Fulvia’s death, to Octavius Caesar’s sister Octavia—and the temptations of Egypt. Gradually opposition between Antony and Octavius increases, until they engage in a sea-fight near Actium (in Greece), in which Antony follows Cleopatra’s navy in ignominious retreat. The closing stages of the double tragedy portray Antony’s shame, humiliation, and suicide after Cleopatra falsely causes him to believe that she has killed herself; faced with the threat that Caesar will take her captive to Rome, Cleopatra too commits suicide. According to Plutarch, she was thirty-eight years old; as for Antony, ‘some say that he lived three-and-fifty years, and others say, six-and-fifty’. In Antony and Cleopatra the classical restraint of Julius Caesar gives way to a fine excess of language, of dramatic action, and of individual behaviour. The style is hyperbolical, overflowing the measure of the iambic pentameter. The action is amazingly fluid, shifting with an ease and rapidity that caused bewilderment to ages unfamiliar with the conventions of Shakespeare’s theatre. And the characterization is correspondingly extravagant, delighting in the quirks of individual behaviour, above all in the paradoxes and inconsistencies of the Egyptian queen who contains within herself the capacity for every extreme of human behaviour, from vanity, meanness, and frivolity to the sublime self-transcendence with which she faces and embraces death.
THE PERSONS OF THE	PLAY

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches
FIRST WITCH	When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
SECOND WITCH	When the hurly-burly’s done, When the battle’s lost and won.
THIRD WITCH	That will be ere the set of sun.
FIRST WITCH	Where the place?
SECOND WITCH	Upon the heath.
THIRD WITCH	There to meet with Macbeth.
FIRST WITCH	I come, Grimalkin.
SECOND WITCH	Paddock calls.
THIRD WITCH	Anon.
ALL	Fair is foul, and foul is fair, Hover through the fog and filthy air. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Tuoni e lampi. Entrano tre Streghe
PRIMA STREGA	Quando ci rivedremo noi tre? Tra tuoni, lampi, o tra la pioggia?
SECONDA STREGA	Quando il tumulto sarà finito, quando la battaglia sarà persa e vinta.
TERZA STREGA	Sarà prima del calar del sole.
PRIMA STREGA	Dove il luogo?
SECONDA STREGA	Sulla brughiera.
TERZA STREGA	Là per incontrare Macbeth.
PRIMA STREGA	Vengo, Grimalkin.
SECONDA STREGA	Paddock chiama.
TERZA STREGA	Subito.
TUTTE	Bello è brutto, e brutto è bello, libriamoci per la nebbia e l’aria immonda. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Alarum within. Enter king Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with attendants, meeting a bleeding Captain
KING DUNCAN	What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt The newest state.
MALCOLM	This is the sergeant Who like a good and hardy soldier fought ’Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend. Say to the King the knowledge of the broil As thou didst leave it.
CAPTAIN	Doubtful it stood, As two spent swimmers that do cling together And choke their art. The merciless Macdonald— Worthy to be a rebel, for to that The multiplying villainies of nature Do swarm upon him—from the Western Isles Of kerns and galloglasses is supplied, And fortune on his damned quarry smiling Showed like a rebel’s whore. But all’s too weak, For brave Macbeth—well he deserves that name!— Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel Which smoked with bloody execution, Like valour’s minion Carved out his passage till he faced the slave, Which ne’er shook hands nor bade farewell to him Till he unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops, And fixed his head upon our battlements.
KING DUNCAN	O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman!
CAPTAIN	As whence the sun ’gins his reflection Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break, So from that spring whence comfort seemed to come Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark. No sooner justice had, with valour armed, Compelled these skipping kerns to trust their heels But the Norwegian lord, surveying vantage, With furbished arms and new supplies of men Began a fresh assault.
KING DUNCAN	Dismayed not this our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?
CAPTAIN	Yes, as sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion! If I say sooth I must report they were As cannons overcharged with double cracks, So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe. Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds Or memorize another Golgotha, I cannot tell— But I am faint. My gashes cry for help.
KING DUNCAN	So well thy words become thee as thy wounds: They smack of honour both.—Go get him surgeons.
(didascalia)	Exit Captain with attendants
(didascalia)	Enter Ross and Angus
KING DUNCAN	Who comes here?
MALCOLM	The worthy Thane of Ross.
LENNOX	What haste looks through his eyes! So should he look That seems to speak things strange. Ross God save the King.
KING DUNCAN	Whence cam’st thou, worthy thane? Ross From Fife, great King, Where the Norwegian banners flout the sky And fan our people cold. Norway himself, with terrible numbers, Assisted by that most disloyal traitor The Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict, Till that Bellona’s bridegroom, lapped in proof, Confronted him with self-comparisons, Point against point, rebellious arm ’gainst arm, Curbing his lavish spirit; and to conclude, The victory fell on us—
KING DUNCAN	Great happiness. Ross That now Sweno, the Norways’ king, craves composition; Nor would we deign him burial of his men Till he disbursed at Saint Colum’s inch Ten thousand dollars to our general use.
KING DUNCAN	No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death, And with his former title greet Macbeth. Ross I’ll see it done.
KING DUNCAN	What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.
(didascalia)	Exeunt severally

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Allarme all’interno. Entrano il re Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, con il seguito, incontrando un Capitano sanguinante
RE DUNCAN	Chi è quell’uomo insanguinato? Egli può riferire, a giudicare dal suo stato, della rivolta le ultime nuove.
MALCOLM	È il sergente che come buono e prode soldato combatté contro la mia cattura. Salve, valoroso amico. Riferisci al Re quanto sai della mischia come tu l’hai lasciata.
CAPITANO	Incerta stava, come due nuotatori sfiniti che si aggrappano l’uno all’altro e soffocano la loro arte. Lo spietato Macdonald— degno d’essere un ribelle, ché a tal fine le moltiplicate scelleratezze della natura gli sciamano addosso—dalle Isole Occidentali di kerns e galloglasses è rifornito, e la fortuna, sorridendo alla sua dannata impresa, pareva la puttana d’un ribelle. Ma tutto è troppo debole, ché il prode Macbeth—ben merita quel nome!— sprezzando la fortuna, col suo acciaio brandito che fumava di sanguinosa esecuzione, come favorito del valore si scavò il varco finché affrontò lo schiavo, e non gli strinse la mano né gli disse addio finché non lo squarciò dall’ombelico alle mascelle e ne fissò il capo sui nostri spalti.
RE DUNCAN	O valoroso cugino, degno gentiluomo!
CAPITANO	Come là donde il sole comincia il suo riflesso prorompono tempeste che affondano navi e tuoni tremendi, così da quella sorgente donde pareva venire conforto gonfia lo sconforto. Odi, Re di Scozia, odi. Non appena la giustizia, armata di valore, ebbe costretto quei kerns saltellanti a fidarsi dei calcagni, ecco che il signore norvegese, scorgendo il vantaggio, con armi rilucenti e nuovi rinforzi d’uomini diede inizio a un nuovo assalto.
RE DUNCAN	Non sgomentò questo i nostri capitani, Macbeth e Banquo?
CAPITANO	Sì, come i passeri le aquile, o la lepre il leone! Se dico il vero devo riferire che furono come cannoni sovraccarichi di doppie cariche, così doppiamente raddoppiarono i colpi sul nemico. Se intendessero bagnarsi in ferite fumanti o rendere memorabile un altro Golgota, non so dire— ma vengo meno. Le mie ferite gridano aiuto.
RE DUNCAN	Così bene ti si addicono le parole come le ferite: sanno d’onore entrambe.—Andate, portategli chirurghi.
(didascalia)	Esce il Capitano col seguito
(didascalia)	Entrano Ross e Angus
RE DUNCAN	Chi viene qui?
MALCOLM	Il degno Thane di Ross.
LENNOX	Che fretta traspare dai suoi occhi! Così dovrebbe apparire chi sembra voler dire cose strane. Ross Dio salvi il Re.
RE DUNCAN	Donde vieni, degno thane? Ross Da Fife, grande Re, dove i vessilli norvegesi sfidano il cielo e agghiacciano la nostra gente. Il Norvegese in persona, con numeri tremendi, assistito da quel traditore slealissimo il Thane di Cawdor, iniziò un tetro conflitto, finché lo sposo di Bellona, chiuso in salda armatura, lo affrontò a paragone di sé stesso, punta contro punta, braccio ribelle contro braccio, frenando il suo spirito prodigo; e per concludere, la vittoria cadde a noi—
RE DUNCAN	Gran felicità. Ross Sì che ora Sweno, il re dei Norvegesi, implora un accordo; né volemmo concedergli la sepoltura dei suoi uomini finché non ebbe sborsato all’isola di San Colombano diecimila dollari per il nostro uso generale.
RE DUNCAN	Mai più quel Thane di Cawdor ingannerà il nostro intimo interesse. Va’, pronuncia la sua immediata morte, e col suo antico titolo saluta Macbeth. Ross Sarà fatto.
RE DUNCAN	Ciò ch’egli ha perduto, il nobile Macbeth ha vinto.
(didascalia)	Escono separatamente

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Thunder. Enter the three Witches
FIRST WITCH	Where hast thou been, sister?
SECOND WITCH	Killing swine.
THIRD WITCH	Sister, where thou?
FIRST WITCH	A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap, And munched, and munched, and munched. ‘Give me,’ quoth I. ‘Aroint thee, witch,’ the rump-fed runnion cries. Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master o’th’ Tiger. But in a sieve I’ll thither sail, And like a rat without a tail I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.
SECOND WITCH	I’ll give thee a wind.
FIRST WITCH	Thou’rt kind.
THIRD WITCH	And I another.
FIRST WITCH	I myself have all the other, And the very ports they blow, All the quarters that they know I’th’ shipman’s card. I’ll drain him dry as hay. Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang upon his penthouse lid. He shall live a man forbid. Weary sennights nine times nine Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine. Though his barque cannot be lost, Yet it shall be tempest-tossed. Look what I have.
SECOND WITCH	Show me, show me.
FIRST WITCH	Here I have a pilot’s thumb, Wrecked as homeward he did come.
(didascalia)	Drum within
THIRD WITCH	A drum, a drum— Macbeth doth come.
ALL	(dancing in a ring) The weird sisters hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land, Thus do go about, about, Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, And thrice again to make up nine. Peace! The charm’s wound up.
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth and Banquo
MACBETH	So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
BANQUO	How far is’t called to Forres?—What are these, So withered, and so wild in their attire, That look not like th‘inhabitants o’th’ earth And yet are on’t?—Live you, or are you aught That man may question? You seem to understand me By each at once her choppy finger laying Upon her skinny lips. You should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so.
MACBETH	(to the Witches) Speak, if you can. What are you?
FIRST WITCH	All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis.
SECOND WITCH	All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor.
THIRD WITCH	All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!
BANQUO	Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair? (To the Witches) I’th’ name of truth, Are ye fantastical or that indeed Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner You greet with present grace and great prediction Of noble having and of royal hope, That he seems rapt withal. To me you speak not. If you can look into the seeds of time And say which grain will grow and which will not, Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear Your favours nor your hate.
FIRST WITCH	Hail!
SECOND WITCH	Hail!
THIRD WITCH	Hail!
FIRST WITCH	Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
SECOND WITCH	Not so happy, yet much happier.
THIRD WITCH	Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none. So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!
FIRST WITCH	Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!
MACBETH	Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more. By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis, But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives, A prosperous gentleman, and to be king Stands not within the prospect of belief, No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence You owe this strange intelligence, or why Upon this blasted heath you stop our way With such prophetic greeting. Speak, I charge you. The Witches vanish
BANQUO	The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, And these are of them. Whither are they vanished?
MACBETH	Into the air, and what seemed corporal Melted as breath into the wind. Would they had stayed.
BANQUO	Were such things here as we do speak about, Or have we eaten on the insane root That takes the reason prisoner?
MACBETH	Your children shall be kings.
BANQUO	You shall be king.
MACBETH	And Thane of Cawdor too. Went it not so?
BANQUO	To th’ self-same tune and words. Who’s here?
(didascalia)	Enter Ross and Angus
ROSS	The King hath happily received, Macbeth, The news of thy success, and when he reads Thy personal venture in the rebels’ sight His wonders and his praises do contend Which should be thine or his; silenced with that, In viewing o‘er the rest o’th’ self-same day He finds thee in the stout Norwegian ranks, Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make, Strange images of death. As thick as hail Came post with post, and every one did bear Thy praises in his kingdom’s great defence, And poured them down before him.
ANGUS	(to Macbeth) We are sent To give thee from our royal master thanks; Only to herald thee into his sight, Not pay thee.
ROSS	And, for an earnest of a greater honour, He bade me from him call thee Thane of Cawdor, In which addition, hail, most worthy thane, For it is thine.
BANQUO	What, can the devil speak true?
MACBETH	The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me In borrowed robes?
ANGUS	Who was the thane lives yet, But under heavy judgement bears that life Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined With those of Norway, or did line the rebel With hidden help and vantage, or that with both He laboured in his country’s wrack, I know not; But treasons capital, confessed, and proved Have overthrown him.
MACBETH	(aside) Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor. The greatest is behind. (To Ross and Angus) Thanks for your pains. (To Banquo) Do you not hope your children shall be kings When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me Promised no less to them?
BANQUO	That, trusted home, Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, Besides the thane of Cawdor. But ’tis strange, And oftentimes to win us to our harm The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles to betray’s In deepest consequence. (To Ross and Angus) Cousins, a word, I pray you.
MACBETH	(aside) Two truths are told As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme. (To Ross and Angus) I thank you, gentlemen. (Aside) This supernatural soliciting Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor. If good, why do I yield to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair And make my seated heart knock at my ribs Against the use of nature? Present fears Are less than horrible imaginings. My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man that function Is smothered in surmise, and nothing is But what is not.
BANQUO	(to Ross and Angus) Look how our partner’s rapt. MACBETH(aside) If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me Without my stir.
BANQUO	(to Ross and Angus) New honours come upon him, Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould But with the aid of use.
MACBETH	(aside) Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
BANQUO	Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.
MACBETH	Give me your favour. My dull brain was wrought With things forgotten. (To Ross and Angus) Kind gentlemen, your pains Are registered where every day I turn The leaf to read them. Let us toward the King. (Aside to Banquo) Think upon what hath chanced, and at more time, The interim having weighed it, let us speak Our free hearts each to other.
BANQUO	Very gladly.
MACBETH	Till then, enough. (To Ross and Angus) Come, friends.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Tuoni. Entrano le tre Streghe
PRIMA STREGA	Dove sei stata, sorella?
SECONDA STREGA	A uccidere porci.
TERZA STREGA	Sorella, e tu dove?
PRIMA STREGA	La moglie d’un marinaio aveva castagne in grembo, e sgranocchiava, e sgranocchiava, e sgranocchiava. ‘Dammene’, dissi io. ‘Vattene, strega’, grida quella pasciuta di rifiuti. Suo marito è andato ad Aleppo, padrone della Tigre. Ma in un vaglio là navigherò, e come un ratto senza coda farò, farò e farò.
SECONDA STREGA	Ti darò un vento.
PRIMA STREGA	Sei gentile.
TERZA STREGA	E io un altro.
PRIMA STREGA	Io stessa ho tutti gli altri, e i porti medesimi dove soffiano, tutti i quarti ch’essi conoscono nella carta del marinaio. Lo prosciugherò secco come fieno. Il sonno né di notte né di giorno gli penderà sulla palpebra a tettoia. Vivrà da uomo maledetto. Stanche settimane nove volte nove languirà, deperirà e si consumerà. Benché la sua barca non possa perdersi, pure sarà sbattuta dalla tempesta. Guarda che ho.
SECONDA STREGA	Mostrami, mostrami.
PRIMA STREGA	Qui ho il pollice d’un pilota, naufragato mentre tornava a casa.
(didascalia)	Tamburo all’interno
TERZA STREGA	Un tamburo, un tamburo— Macbeth sta venendo.
TUTTE	(danzando in cerchio) Le sorelle fatali mano nella mano, corriere del mare e della terra, così vanno in giro, in giro, tre volte al tuo, e tre volte al mio, e tre volte ancora per far nove. Silenzio! L’incanto è compiuto.
(didascalia)	Entrano Macbeth e Banquo
MACBETH	Un giorno così brutto e bello non l’ho mai visto.
BANQUO	Quanto si dice ci sia fino a Forres?—Chi son queste, così avvizzite, e così selvagge nelle vesti, che non paiono abitatrici della terra eppure vi stanno sopra?—Siete vive, o siete cosa cui l’uomo possa rivolger domanda? Sembrate intendermi, ché ognuna a un tempo posa il dito screpolato sulle labbra scarne. Dovreste esser donne, eppure le vostre barbe mi vietano d’interpretare che tali siate.
MACBETH	(alle Streghe) Parlate, se potete. Che siete?
PRIMA STREGA	Salve, Macbeth! Salve a te, Thane di Glamis.
SECONDA STREGA	Salve, Macbeth! Salve a te, Thane di Cawdor.
TERZA STREGA	Salve, Macbeth, che sarai re in avvenire!
BANQUO	Buon signore, perché trasalite e parete temere cose che suonano così belle? (Alle Streghe) In nome della verità, siete voi fantasmi o davvero quello che mostrate al di fuori? Il mio nobile compagno salutate con grazia presente e gran predizione di nobile possesso e di regale speranza, sì ch’egli ne pare rapito. A me non parlate. Se sapete guardare nei semi del tempo e dire quale grano crescerà e quale no, parlate dunque a me, che né imploro né temo i vostri favori né il vostro odio.
PRIMA STREGA	Salve!
SECONDA STREGA	Salve!
TERZA STREGA	Salve!
PRIMA STREGA	Minore di Macbeth, e maggiore.
SECONDA STREGA	Non così felice, eppure assai più felice.
TERZA STREGA	Genererai re, benché tu non lo sia. Dunque salve, Macbeth e Banquo!
PRIMA STREGA	Banquo e Macbeth, salve!
MACBETH	Fermatevi, imperfette parlatrici, ditemi di più. Per la morte di Sinel so d’essere Thane di Glamis, ma come di Cawdor? Il Thane di Cawdor vive, gentiluomo prospero, e l’esser re non sta nell’orizzonte del credibile, non più che l’esser Cawdor. Dite donde vi viene questa strana notizia, o perché su questa brughiera arsa fermate il nostro cammino con tal saluto profetico. Parlate, ve l’ingiungo. Le Streghe svaniscono
BANQUO	La terra ha le sue bolle, come le ha l’acqua, e queste ne erano. Dove sono svanite?
MACBETH	Nell’aria, e ciò che pareva corporeo si è sciolto come fiato nel vento. Fossero rimaste.
BANQUO	C’erano davvero qui tali cose di cui parliamo, o abbiamo mangiato di quella radice folle che prende prigioniera la ragione?
MACBETH	I tuoi figli saranno re.
BANQUO	Tu sarai re.
MACBETH	E anche Thane di Cawdor. Non andò così?
BANQUO	Sullo stesso tono e con le stesse parole. Chi c’è?
(didascalia)	Entrano Ross e Angus
ROSS	Il Re ha felicemente ricevuto, Macbeth, la notizia del tuo successo, e quando legge la tua impresa personale al cospetto dei ribelli le sue meraviglie e le sue lodi contendono quale debba esser tua o sua; ammutolito da ciò, passando in rassegna il resto dello stesso giorno ti trova tra le salde schiere norvegesi, per nulla atterrito da ciò che tu stesso creavi, strane immagini di morte. Fitti come grandine giungevan corriere su corriere, e ognuno recava le tue lodi nella grande difesa del suo regno, e le riversava dinanzi a lui.
ANGUS	(a Macbeth) Siamo mandati a darti i ringraziamenti del nostro regale signore; solo per scortarti al suo cospetto, non per ricompensarti.
ROSS	E, a caparra d’un onore maggiore, mi ordinò da parte sua di chiamarti Thane di Cawdor, col qual titolo, salve, degnissimo thane, ché esso è tuo.
BANQUO	Come, può il diavolo dire il vero?
MACBETH	Il Thane di Cawdor vive. Perché mi vestite di vesti prese a prestito?
ANGUS	Chi era thane vive ancora, ma sotto grave giudizio porta quella vita che merita di perdere. Se fosse alleato con quei di Norvegia, o rinforzasse il ribelle con aiuto e vantaggio occulti, o se con entrambi operasse alla rovina del suo paese, non so; ma tradimenti capitali, confessati e provati l’hanno abbattuto.
MACBETH	(a parte) Glamis, e Thane di Cawdor. Il massimo resta a venire. (A Ross e Angus) Grazie della vostra fatica. (A Banquo) Non sperate che i vostri figli saranno re, quando quelle che diedero a me il thane di Cawdor non promisero loro di meno?
BANQUO	Ciò, creduto fino in fondo, potrebbe pure infiammarvi verso la corona, oltre il thane di Cawdor. Ma è strano, e spesso, per trarci al nostro danno, gli strumenti delle tenebre ci dicono verità, ci conquistano con oneste inezie per tradirci nelle conseguenze più profonde. (A Ross e Angus) Cugini, una parola, vi prego.
MACBETH	(a parte) Due verità son dette come felici prologhi all’atto crescente del tema imperiale. (A Ross e Angus) Vi ringrazio, gentiluomini. (A parte) Questa sovrannaturale sollecitazione non può esser cattiva, non può esser buona. Se cattiva, perché m’ha dato caparra di successo cominciando con una verità? Sono Thane di Cawdor. Se buona, perché cedo a quel suggerimento la cui orrida immagine mi rizza i capelli e fa che il mio cuore fermo batta alle costole contro l’uso della natura? I timori presenti son minori delle orribili immaginazioni. Il mio pensiero, il cui assassinio è ancora solo fantasia, scuote così il mio singolo stato d’uomo che la funzione è soffocata nella congettura, e nulla è se non ciò che non è.
BANQUO	(a Ross e Angus) Guardate come il nostro compagno è rapito. MACBETH(a parte) Se il caso mi vuole re, ebbene, il caso può incoronare me senza ch’io mi muova.
BANQUO	(a Ross e Angus) I nuovi onori che gli piovono addosso, come le nostre vesti insolite, non aderiscono alla forma se non con l’aiuto dell’uso.
MACBETH	(a parte) Venga ciò che venire deve, il tempo e l’ora corrono attraverso il giorno più aspro.
BANQUO	Degno Macbeth, attendiamo il vostro comodo.
MACBETH	Concedetemi il vostro favore. Il mio ottuso cervello era travagliato da cose dimenticate. (A Ross e Angus) Gentili signori, le vostre fatiche sono registrate là dove ogni giorno volto la pagina per leggerle. Andiamo verso il Re. (A parte, a Banquo) Pensate a quel ch’è accaduto, e con più tempo, avendolo l’intervallo soppesato, parliamoci a cuore aperto l’un l’altro.
BANQUO	Ben volentieri.
MACBETH	Fino allora, basta. (A Ross e Angus) Venite, amici.
(didascalia)	Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Flourish. Enter King Duncan, Lennox, Malcolm, Donalbain, and attendants
KING DUNCAN	Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not Those in commission yet returned?
MALCOLM	My liege, They are not yet come back. But I have spoke With one that saw him die, who did report That very frankly he confessed his treasons, Implored your highness’ pardon, and set forth A deep repentance. Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it. He died As one that had been studied in his death To throw away the dearest thing he owed As ’twere a careless trifle.
KING DUNCAN	There’s no art To find the mind’s construction in the face. He was a gentleman on whom I built An absolute trust.
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, and Angus
KING DUNCAN	(To Macbeth) O worthiest cousin, The sin of my ingratitude even now Was heavy on me! Thou art so far before That swiftest wing of recompense is slow To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved, That the proportion both of thanks and payment Might have been mine. Only I have left to say, ‘More is thy due than more than all can pay’.
MACBETH	The service and the loyalty I owe, In doing it, pays itself. Your highness’ part Is to receive our duties, and our duties Are to your throne and state children and servants Which do but what they should by doing everything Safe toward your love and honour.
KING DUNCAN	Welcome hither. I have begun to plant thee, and will labour To make thee full of growing.—NoHe Banquo, That hast no less deserved, nor must be known No less to have done so, let me enfold thee And hold thee to my heart.
BANQUO	There if I grow The harvest is your own.
KING DUNCAN	My plenteous joys, Wanton in fullness, seek to hide themselves In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes, And you whose places are the nearest, know We will establish our estate upon Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter The Prince of Cumberland; which honour must Not unaccompanied invest him only, But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine On all deservers. (To Macbeth) From hence to Inverness, And bind us further to you.
MACBETH	The rest is labour which is not used for you. I’ll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful The hearing of my wife with your approach; So humbly take my leave.
KING DUNCAN	My worthy Cawdor.
MACBETH	(aside) The Prince of Cumberland—that is a step On which I must fall down or else o’erleap, For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires, Let not light see my black and deep desires; The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. Exit
KING DUNCAN	True, worthy Banquo, he is full so valiant, And in his commendations I am fed. It is a banquet to me. Let’s after him, Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome. It is a peerless kinsman. Flourish. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Squilli di trombe. Entrano il Re Duncan, Lennox, Malcolm, Donalbain e il seguito
RE DUNCAN	È stata eseguita la sentenza su Cawdor? Non sono ancora tornati gli incaricati?
MALCOLM	Mio sire, non sono ancora tornati. Ma ho parlato con uno che lo vide morire, il quale riferì ch’egli confessò assai francamente i suoi tradimenti, implorò il perdono di vostra altezza, e manifestò un profondo pentimento. Nulla nella sua vita gli si addisse come il lasciarla. Morì come chi si fosse addestrato alla propria morte a gettar via la cosa più cara che possedeva come fosse una noncurante inezia.
RE DUNCAN	Non c’è arte per leggere sul volto la costruzione della mente. Era un gentiluomo sul quale avevo edificato una fiducia assoluta.
(didascalia)	Entrano Macbeth, Banquo, Ross e Angus
RE DUNCAN	(A Macbeth) O degnissimo cugino, il peccato della mia ingratitudine or ora mi pesava addosso! Tu sei tanto avanti che l’ala più rapida della ricompensa è lenta a raggiungerti. Avessi tu meritato meno, sì che la proporzione di grazie e di pagamento potesse esser mia. Solo mi resta da dire: ‘Più t’è dovuto di quanto tutto possa pagare’.
MACBETH	Il servizio e la lealtà ch’io devo, nel compiersi, si ripagano da sé. Parte di vostra altezza è ricevere i nostri doveri, e i nostri doveri sono al vostro trono e stato figli e servitori, che fanno solo quel che devono, facendo ogni cosa a salvaguardia del vostro amore e onore.
RE DUNCAN	Benvenuto qui. Ho cominciato a piantarti, e mi adopererò a farti pieno di crescita.—NoHe Banquo, tu che non meno hai meritato, né meno dev’esser noto che così hai fatto, lascia ch’io ti stringa e ti tenga al mio cuore.
BANQUO	Se là io cresco, il raccolto è vostro.
RE DUNCAN	Le mie gioie abbondanti, lascive nella pienezza, cercano di celarsi in gocce di dolore. Figli, congiunti, thani, e voi i cui posti sono i più vicini, sappiate che stabiliremo la nostra successione sopra il maggiore, Malcolm, che d’ora innanzi nominiamo Principe di Cumberland; il qual onore non deve investire lui solo, non accompagnato, ma segni di nobiltà, come stelle, brilleranno su tutti i meritevoli. (A Macbeth) Di qui a Inverness, e legateci ancor più a voi.
MACBETH	È fatica il riposo che non è speso per voi. Sarò io stesso il messaggero, e farò lieto l’udito di mia moglie col vostro avvicinarsi; così umilmente prendo congedo.
RE DUNCAN	Mio degno Cawdor.
MACBETH	(a parte) Il Principe di Cumberland—ecco un gradino sul quale devo cadere, oppure scavalcarlo, ché sta sul mio cammino. Stelle, celate i vostri fuochi, non veda la luce i miei neri e profondi desideri; l’occhio strizzi alla mano; pure si compia ciò che l’occhio teme di vedere, quando è compiuto. Esce
RE DUNCAN	Vero, degno Banquo, egli è del tutto così valoroso, e delle sue lodi io mi nutro. Sono un banchetto per me. Seguiamolo, la cui premura è andata avanti a darci il benvenuto. È un congiunto senza pari. Squilli di trombe. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Lady Macbeth, with a letter
LADY MACBETH	(reading) ‘They met me in the day of success, and I have learned by the perfect’st report they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it came missives from the King, who all-hailed me “Thane of Cawdor”, by which title before these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on of time with “Hail, King that shalt be!” This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell.’ Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature. It is too full o‘th’ milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou’dst have, great Glamis, That which cries ‘Thus thou must do’ if thou have it, And that which rather thou dost fear to do Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear And chastise with the valour of my tongue All that impedes thee from the golden round Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem To have thee crowned withal.
(didascalia)	Enter a Servant
LADY MACBETH	What is your tidings?
SERVANT	The King comes here tonight.
LADY MACBETH	Thou’t mad to say it. Is not thy master with him, who, were’t so, Would have informed for preparation?
SERVANT	So please you, it is true. Our thane is coming, One of my fellows had the speed of him, Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more Than would make up his message.
LADY MACBETH	Give him tending; He brings great news. Exit Servant The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood, Stop up th‘access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between Th’effect and it. Come to my woman’s breasts, And take my milk for gall, you murd‘ring ministers, Wherever in your sightless substances You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark To cry ’Hold, hold!’
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth
LADY MACBETH	Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor, Greater than both by the all-hail hereafter, Thy letters have transported me beyond This ignorant present, and I feel now The future in the instant.
MACBETH	My dearest love, Duncan comes here tonight.
LADY MACBETH	And when goes hence?
MACBETH	Tomorrow, as he purposes.
LADY MACBETH	O never Shall sun that morrow see. Your face, my thane, is as a book where men May read strange 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 serpent under’t. He that’s coming Must be provided for; and you shall put This night’s great business into my dispatch, Which shall to all our nights and days to come Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
MACBETH	We will speak further.
LADY MACBETH	Only look up clear. To alter favour ever is to fear. Leave all the rest to me. Exeunt
(didascalia)	1.6 Hautboys and torches. Enter King Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Angus, and attendants
KING DUNCAN	This castle hath a pleasant seat. The air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself Unto our gentle senses.
BANQUO	This guest of summer, The temple-haunting martlet, does approve By his loved mansionry that the heavens’ breath Smells wooingly here. No jutty, frieze, Buttress, nor coign of vantage but this bird Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle; Where they most breed and haunt I have observed The air is delicate.
(didascalia)	Enter Lady Macbeth
KING DUNCAN	See, see, our honoured hostess! The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you How you shall bid God ’ield us for your pains, And thank us for your trouble.
LADY MACBETH	All our service In every point twice done, and then done double, Were poor and single business to contend Against those honours deep and broad wherewith Your majesty loads our house. For those of old, And the late dignities heaped up to them, We rest your hermits.
KING DUNCAN	Where’s the Thane of Cawdor? We coursed him at the heels, and had a purpose To be his purveyor; but he rides well, And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess, We are your guest tonight.
LADY MACBETH	Your servants ever Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs in count To make their audit at your highness’ pleasure, Still to return your own.
KING DUNCAN	Give me your hand. Conduct me to mine host. We love him highly, And shall continue our graces towards him. By your leave, hostess. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra Lady Macbeth, con una lettera
LADY MACBETH	(leggendo) ‘Mi vennero incontro nel giorno del successo, e ho appreso dalla più sicura testimonianza che v’è in loro più che mortale conoscenza. Quando ardevo dal desiderio d’interrogarle oltre, si fecero aria, nella quale svanirono. Mentre stavo rapito nella meraviglia di ciò, giunsero messi dal Re, che mi salutarono “Thane di Cawdor”, titolo col quale poco prima quelle sorelle fatali mi avevano salutato, rimandandomi all’avvenire del tempo con “Salve, Re che sarai!” Questo ho creduto bene di trasmetterti, carissima compagna della mia grandezza, perché tu non perda la tua parte di gioia restando ignara di quale grandezza ti sia promessa. Serbalo nel cuore, e addio.’ Glamis tu sei, e Cawdor, e sarai ciò che t’è promesso. Pure io temo la tua natura: è troppo colma del latte dell’umana dolcezza per prendere la via più breve. Vorresti esser grande, non sei senza ambizione, ma senza la malvagità che dovrebbe accompagnarla. Ciò che vuoi altamente, lo vorresti santamente; non vorresti giocar falso, eppure vorresti vincere ingiustamente. Vorresti avere, grande Glamis, ciò che grida ‘Così devi fare’ se vuoi averlo, e ciò che piuttosto temi di fare che desiderare non sia fatto. Affrettati qui, ch’io possa versare i miei spiriti nel tuo orecchio e flagellare col valore della mia lingua tutto ciò che ti separa dal cerchio d’oro del quale il fato e l’aiuto metafisico sembrano volerti incoronato.
(didascalia)	Entra un Servo
LADY MACBETH	Quali son le tue notizie?
SERVO	Il Re viene qui stanotte.
LADY MACBETH	Sei pazzo a dirlo. Non è con lui il tuo padrone, il quale, se fosse così, avrebbe avvisato per i preparativi?
SERVO	Con vostra licenza, è vero. Il nostro thane sta venendo, uno dei miei compagni ebbe la velocità di precederlo, il quale, quasi morto per il fiato, aveva appena tanto da comporre il suo messaggio.
LADY MACBETH	Fa’ che sia servito; reca gran notizie. Esce il Servo Il corvo stesso è rauco che gracchia il fatale ingresso di Duncan sotto i miei spalti. Venite, spiriti che assistete i pensieri di morte, toglietemi qui il sesso, e riempitemi dalla sommità del capo alla punta del piede della più atroce crudeltà. Fate denso il mio sangue, sbarrate l’accesso e il passaggio al rimorso, sì che nessuna visita di compunzione della natura scuota il mio truce proposito, né si frapponga fra l’effetto ed esso. Venite alle mie mammelle di donna, e prendete il mio latte per fiele, ministri d’assassinio, ovunque, nelle vostre invisibili sostanze, attendiate al maleficio della natura. Vieni, fitta notte, e ammantati nel più fosco fumo dell’inferno, sì che il mio coltello affilato non veda la ferita che fa, né il cielo occhieggi attraverso la coltre del buio a gridare ‘Ferma, ferma!’
(didascalia)	Entra Macbeth
LADY MACBETH	Gran Glamis, degno Cawdor, più grande d’entrambi per il salve dell’avvenire, le tue lettere m’hanno trasportata oltre questo presente ignaro, e ora sento il futuro nell’istante.
MACBETH	Mio carissimo amore, Duncan viene qui stanotte.
LADY MACBETH	E quando riparte?
MACBETH	Domani, com’è sua intenzione.
LADY MACBETH	Oh, mai sole vedrà quel domani. Il vostro volto, mio thane, è come un libro dove gli uomini possono leggere strane cose. Per ingannare il tempo, somigliate al tempo; recate il benvenuto negli occhi, nella mano, nella lingua; sembrate il fiore innocente, ma siate il serpente che vi sta sotto. Chi sta venendo dev’essere provveduto; e voi porrete il grande affare di questa notte nelle mie mani, il quale a tutte le nostre notti e i giorni a venire darà sola sovrana potestà e signoria.
MACBETH	Ne riparleremo.
LADY MACBETH	Solo, mostrate un volto sereno. Mutar sembiante è sempre temere. Lasciate a me tutto il resto. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Hautboys and torches. Enter King Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Angus, and attendants
KING DUNCAN	This castle hath a pleasant seat. The air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself Unto our gentle senses.
BANQUO	This guest of summer, The temple-haunting martlet, does approve By his loved mansionry that the heavens’ breath Smells wooingly here. No jutty, frieze, Buttress, nor coign of vantage but this bird Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle; Where they most breed and haunt I have observed The air is delicate.
(didascalia)	Enter Lady Macbeth
KING DUNCAN	See, see, our honoured hostess! The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you How you shall bid God ’ield us for your pains, And thank us for your trouble.
LADY MACBETH	All our service In every point twice done, and then done double, Were poor and single business to contend Against those honours deep and broad wherewith Your majesty loads our house. For those of old, And the late dignities heaped up to them, We rest your hermits.
KING DUNCAN	Where’s the Thane of Cawdor? We coursed him at the heels, and had a purpose To be his purveyor; but he rides well, And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess, We are your guest tonight.
LADY MACBETH	Your servants ever Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs in count To make their audit at your highness’ pleasure, Still to return your own.
KING DUNCAN	Give me your hand. Conduct me to mine host. We love him highly, And shall continue our graces towards him. By your leave, hostess. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Oboi e torce. Entrano il Re Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Angus e il seguito
RE DUNCAN	Questo castello ha un sito piacevole. L’aria agile e dolce si raccomanda ai nostri gentili sensi.
BANQUO	Questo ospite dell’estate, il balestruccio che frequenta i templi, attesta col suo caro nidificare che il respiro dei cieli qui odora d’amoroso invito. Non v’è sporto, fregio, contrafforte, né angolo propizio dove quest’uccello non abbia fatto il suo letto pensile e culla feconda; dove più figliano e dimorano ho osservato che l’aria è delicata.
(didascalia)	Entra Lady Macbeth
RE DUNCAN	Vedete, vedete, la nostra onorata ospite! L’amore che ci segue talvolta è il nostro disturbo, che pure ringraziamo come amore. Con ciò v’insegno come dobbiate pregare Dio di ricompensarci per la vostra fatica, e ringraziarci per il vostro disturbo.
LADY MACBETH	Tutto il nostro servizio, in ogni punto fatto due volte, e poi fatto doppio, sarebbe povera e singola cosa a contendere con quegli onori profondi e larghi dei quali vostra maestà colma la nostra casa. Per quelli antichi, e per le nuove dignità accumulate su di essi, restiamo vostri eremiti oranti.
RE DUNCAN	Dov’è il Thane di Cawdor? Gli corremmo alle calcagna, e avevamo intenzione d’essergli foriero; ma egli cavalca bene, e il suo grande amore, aguzzo come il suo sprone, l’ha aiutato a giungere a casa prima di noi. Bella e nobile ospite, siamo vostro ospite stanotte.
LADY MACBETH	I vostri servi sempre tengono i loro, sé stessi, e ciò ch’è loro in conto per rendervene ragione a piacere di vostra altezza, sempre per restituire il vostro.
RE DUNCAN	Datemi la mano. Conducetemi al mio ospite. L’amiamo altamente, e continueremo le nostre grazie verso di lui. Con vostra licenza, ospite. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Hautboys. Torches. Enter a sewer and divers servants with dishes and service over the stage. Then enter Macbeth
MACBETH	If it were done when ‘tis done, then ’twere well It were done quickly. If th‘assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch With his surcease success: that but this blow Might be the be-all and the end-all, here, But here upon this bank and shoal of time, We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases We still have judgement here, that we but teach Bloody instructions which, being taught, return To plague th’inventor. This even-handed justice Commends th‘ingredience of our poisoned chalice To our own lips. He’s here in double trust: First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, 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 his faculties so meek, hath been So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued against The deep damnation of his taking-off, And pity, like a naked new-born babe, Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin, horsed Upon the sightless couriers of the air, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself And falls on th’other.
(didascalia)	Enter Lady Macbeth
MACBETH	How now? What news?
LADY MACBETH	He has almost supped. Why have you left the chamber?
MACBETH	Hath he asked for me?
LADY MACBETH	Know you not he has?
MACBETH	We will proceed no further in this business. He hath honoured me of late, and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people, Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, Not cast aside so soon.
LADY MACBETH	Was the hope drunk Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since? And wakes it now to look so green and pale At what it did so freely? From this time Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valour As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that Which thou esteem‘st the ornament of life, And live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting ’I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would’, Like the poor cat i’th’ adage?
MACBETH	Prithee, peace. I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more is none.
LADY MACBETH	What beast was’t then That made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place Did then adhere, and yet you would make both. They have made themselves, and that their fitness now Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me. I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn As you have done to this.
MACBETH	If we should fail?
LADY MACBETH	We fail! But screw your courage to the sticking-place And we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep— Whereto the rather shall his day’s hard journey Soundly invite him—his two chamberlains Will I with wine and wassail so convince That memory, the warder of the brain, Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason A limbeck only. When in swinish sleep Their drenched natures lies as in a death, What cannot you and I perform upon Th’unguarded Duncan? What not put upon His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt Of our great quell?
MACBETH	Bring forth men-children only, For thy undaunted mettle should compose Nothing but males. Will it not be received, When we have marked with blood those sleepy two Of his own chamber and used their very daggers, That they have done’t?
LADY MACBETH	Who dares receive it other, As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar Upon his death?
MACBETH	I am settled, and bend up Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. Away, and mock the time with fairest show. False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Oboi. Torce. Entrano uno scalco e diversi servi con vivande e stoviglie attraversando la scena. Poi entra Macbeth
MACBETH	Se fosse finita quando è fatta, allora sarebbe bene che fosse fatta presto. Se l’assassinio potesse irretire le conseguenze, e cogliere con la sua cessazione il successo: che questo solo colpo potesse essere il tutto e la fine di tutto, qui, ma qui, su questa riva e secca del tempo, salteremmo la vita a venire. Ma in questi casi abbiamo giudizio già quaggiù, ché non facciamo che insegnare sanguinose lezioni le quali, insegnate, ritornano a tormentare l’inventore. Questa imparziale giustizia porge gli ingredienti del nostro calice avvelenato alle nostre stesse labbra. Egli è qui in doppia fiducia: primo, perché sono suo congiunto e suo suddito, l’uno e l’altro forti contro il misfatto; poi, come suo ospite, che dovrebbe chiudere la porta al suo assassino, non portare io stesso il coltello. Inoltre, questo Duncan ha esercitato i suoi poteri con tanta mitezza, è stato così puro nel suo grande ufficio, che le sue virtù peroreranno come angeli, con voce di tromba, contro la profonda dannazione della sua soppressione, e la pietà, come un bimbo nudo appena nato, cavalcando la raffica, o cherubino del cielo, in sella ai corsieri invisibili dell’aria, soffierà l’orrendo atto in ogni occhio sì che le lacrime annegheranno il vento. Non ho sprone per pungere i fianchi del mio proposito, ma solo un’ambizione che spicca il salto e scavalca sé stessa e cade dall’altra parte.
(didascalia)	Entra Lady Macbeth
MACBETH	Ebbene? Che notizie?
LADY MACBETH	Ha quasi finito di cenare. Perché avete lasciato la sala?
MACBETH	Ha chiesto di me?
LADY MACBETH	Non sapete che l’ha fatto?
MACBETH	Non procederemo oltre in questo affare. Egli m’ha onorato di recente, e io ho comprato opinioni d’oro da ogni sorta di gente, che vorrebbero esser portate ora nel loro lustro più nuovo, non gettate via così presto.
LADY MACBETH	Era ubriaca la speranza di cui vi rivestiste? Ha dormito da allora? E si sveglia ora per guardare così verde e pallida ciò che fece con tanta libertà? Da questo momento tale reputo il tuo amore. Hai paura d’essere nel tuo atto e nel tuo valore lo stesso che sei nel desiderio? Vorresti avere ciò che stimi l’ornamento della vita, e vivere da codardo nella tua stessa stima, lasciando che ‘non oso’ segua ‘vorrei’, come il povero gatto del proverbio?
MACBETH	Ti prego, taci. Oso fare tutto ciò che s’addice a un uomo; chi osa di più non lo è.
LADY MACBETH	Qual bestia fu dunque che vi fece rivelare a me questa impresa? Quando osavate farlo, allora eravate un uomo; e per essere più di quel che eravate, sareste stato tanto più uomo. Né tempo né luogo allora s’accordavano, eppure volevate crearli entrambi. Si sono creati da sé, e ora la loro opportunità vi disfa. Ho allattato, e so quanto sia tenero amare il bimbo che mi succhia il latte. Avrei, mentre mi sorrideva in volto, strappato il capezzolo dalle sue gengive senz’ossa e gli avrei fracassato il cervello, se avessi giurato come voi avete giurato a questo.
MACBETH	E se fallissimo?
LADY MACBETH	Fallire noi! Ma tendete il vostro coraggio fino al punto d’arresto e non falliremo. Quando Duncan dormirà— e a ciò tanto più profondamente l’inviterà il duro viaggio del giorno—i suoi due camerieri li vincerò a tal segno con vino e brindisi che la memoria, custode del cervello, sarà un vapore, e il ricettacolo della ragione un puro alambicco. Quando in porcino sonno le loro nature inzuppate giaceranno come in una morte, che cosa non potremo compiere, voi e io, sull’incustodito Duncan? Che cosa non addossare ai suoi spugnosi ufficiali, che porteranno la colpa del nostro grande massacro?
MACBETH	Partorisci soltanto figli maschi, ché la tua tempra impavida non deve comporre altro che maschi. Non si crederà, quando avremo marcato di sangue quei due addormentati della sua stessa camera e adoperato i loro stessi pugnali, che siano stati loro?
LADY MACBETH	Chi oserà crederlo altrimenti, quando faremo ruggire i nostri lamenti e il nostro clamore sulla sua morte?
MACBETH	Sono deciso, e tendo ogni forza del corpo a questa terribile impresa. Andiamo, e inganniamo il tempo con la più bella apparenza. Volto falso deve celare ciò che il cuore falso conosce.
(didascalia)	Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Banquo and Fleance, with a torch before him
BANQUO	How goes the night, boy?
FLEANCE	The moon is down. I have not heard the clock.
BANQUO	And she goes down at twelve.
FLEANCE	I take’t ’tis later, sir.
BANQUO	(giving Fleance his sword) Hold, take my sword. There’s husbandry in heaven, Their candles are all out. Take thee that, too. A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers, Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature Gives way to in repose.
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth, and a servant with a torch
BANQUO	Give me my sword. Who’s there?
MACBETH	A friend.
BANQUO	What, sir, not yet at rest? The King’s a-bed. He hath been in unusual pleasure, and Sent forth great largesse to your offices. This diamond he greets your wife withal By the name of most kind hostess, and shut up In measureless content.
MACBETH	Being unprepared Our will became the servant to defect, Which else should free have wrought.
BANQUO	All’s well. I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters. To you they have showed some truth.
MACBETH	I think not of them; Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve, We would spend it in some words upon that business If you would grant the time.
BANQUO	At your kind’st leisure.
MACBETH	If you shall cleave to my consent when ’tis, It shall make honour for you.
BANQUO	So I lose none In seeking to augment it, but still keep My bosom franchised and allegiance clear, I shall be counselled.
MACBETH	Good repose the while.
BANQUO	Thanks, sir. The like to you.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Banquo and Fleance
MACBETH	(to the Servant) Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. Exit Servant Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? I see thee yet, in form as palpable As this which now I draw. Thou marshall‘st me the way that I was going, And such an instrument I was to use. Mine eyes are made the fools o’th’ other senses, Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still, And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, Which was not so before. There’s no such thing. It is the bloody business which informs Thus to mine eyes. Now o’er the one half-world Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse The curtained sleep. Witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecate’s offerings, and withered murder, Alarumed by his sentinel the wolf, Whose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, With Tarquin’s ravishing strides, towards his design Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth, Hear not my steps which way they walk, for fear Thy very stones prate of my whereabout, And take the present horror from the time, Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives. Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. A bell rings I go, and it is done. The bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell. Exit

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano Banquo e Fleance, con una torcia davanti a lui
BANQUO	Come va la notte, ragazzo?
FLEANCE	La luna è tramontata. Non ho udito l’orologio.
BANQUO	Ed essa tramonta a mezzanotte.
FLEANCE	Credo sia più tardi, signore.
BANQUO	(dando a Fleance la sua spada) Tieni, prendi la mia spada. C’è parsimonia in cielo, le loro candele sono tutte spente. Prendi anche questo. Un pesante richiamo mi grava addosso come piombo, eppure non vorrei dormire. Potenze misericordiose, trattenete in me i pensieri maledetti cui la natura dà via libera nel riposo.
(didascalia)	Entrano Macbeth e un servo con una torcia
BANQUO	Dammi la mia spada. Chi è là?
MACBETH	Un amico.
BANQUO	Come, signore, non ancora a riposo? Il Re è a letto. È stato d’insolito buon umore, e ha mandato grandi largizioni alla vostra servitù. Con questo diamante saluta vostra moglie col nome di gentilissima ospite, e s’è chiuso in una contentezza smisurata.
MACBETH	Non essendo preparati, la nostra volontà divenne serva del difetto, che altrimenti avrebbe operato liberamente.
BANQUO	Va tutto bene. Ho sognato la scorsa notte le tre sorelle fatali. A voi hanno mostrato qualche verità.
MACBETH	Non ci penso; pure, quando potremo ottenere un’ora propizia, la spenderemmo in qualche parola su quella faccenda, se voi concedeste il tempo.
BANQUO	Al vostro più gentile comodo.
MACBETH	Se vi unirete al mio consenso quando sarà, ne verrà onore per voi.
BANQUO	Purché non ne perda cercando d’accrescerlo, ma serbi sempre il petto libero e limpida la fedeltà, mi lascerò consigliare.
MACBETH	Buon riposo intanto.
BANQUO	Grazie, signore. Altrettanto a voi.
(didascalia)	Escono Banquo e Fleance
MACBETH	(al Servo) Va’, di’ alla tua padrona che, quando la mia bevanda è pronta, batta sulla campana. Vattene a letto. Esce il Servo È un pugnale questo che vedo davanti a me, l’impugnatura verso la mia mano? Vieni, ch’io ti afferri. Non ti ho, eppure ti vedo ancora. Non sei tu, fatale visione, sensibile al tatto come alla vista? O sei soltanto un pugnale della mente, una falsa creazione che procede da un cervello oppresso dalla febbre? Ti vedo ancora, in forma tanto palpabile quanto questo ch’ora sguaino. Tu mi additi la via per la quale andavo, e proprio un tale strumento dovevo usare. I miei occhi sono fatti scherno degli altri sensi, oppure valgono tutti gli altri. Ti vedo ancora, e sulla tua lama e sull’elsa gocce di sangue che prima non c’erano. Non esiste nulla di simile. È la sanguinosa impresa che così si dà forma ai miei occhi. Ora su metà del mondo la natura pare morta, e malvagi sogni insidiano il sonno dietro le cortine. La stregoneria celebra le offerte alla pallida Ecate, e l’assassinio avvizzito, destato dalla sua sentinella, il lupo, il cui ululato è il suo grido di guardia, così col suo passo furtivo, coi rapinosi passi di Tarquinio, verso il suo disegno si muove come un fantasma. Tu, terra salda e ben ferma, non udire i miei passi, per qual via camminino, per paura che le tue stesse pietre ciarlino di dove mi trovo e tolgano l’orrore presente al tempo, che ora vi s’accorda. Mentre minaccio, egli vive. Al calore dei fatti le parole danno troppo freddo fiato. Suona una campana Vado, ed è fatto. La campana m’invita. Non udirla, Duncan; ché è un rintocco funebre che ti chiama al cielo o all’inferno. Esce

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Lady Macbeth
LADY MACBETH	That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold. What hath quenched them hath given me fire. Hark, peace!— It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman Which gives the stern’st good-night. He is about it. The doors are open, and the surfeited grooms Do mock their charge with snores. I have drugged their possets That death and nature do contend about them Whether they live or die.
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth [above]
MACBETH	Who’s there? What ho? Exit
LADY MACBETH	Alack, I am afraid they have awaked, And ‘tis not done. Th’attempt and not the deed Confounds us. Hark!—I laid their daggers ready; He could not miss ’em. Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done’t. [Enter Macbeth below] My husband!
MACBETH	I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?
LADY MACBETH	I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Did not you speak?
MACBETH	When?
LADY MACBETH	Now.
MACBETH	As I descended?
LADY MACBETH	Ay.
MACBETH	Hark!—Who lies i’th’ second chamber?
LADY MACBETH	Donalbain.
MACBETH	(looking at his hands) This is a sorry sight.
LADY MACBETH	A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.
MACBETH	There’s one did laugh in’s sleep, and one cried ‘Murder!’ That they did wake each other. I stood and heard them. But they did say their prayers and addressed them Again to sleep.
LADY MACBETH	There are two lodged together.
MACBETH	One cried ‘God bless us’ and ‘Amen’ the other, As they had seen me with these hangman’s hands. List‘ning their fear I could not say ‘Amen’ When they did say ‘God bless us.’
LADY MACBETH	Consider it not so deeply.
MACBETH	But wherefore could not I pronounce ‘Amen’? I had most need of blessing, and ‘Amen’ Stuck in my throat.
LADY MACBETH	These deeds must not be thought After these ways. So, it will make us mad.
MACBETH	Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more, Macbeth does murder sleep’—the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care, The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, Chief nourisher in life’s feast—
LADY MACBETH	What do you mean?
MACBETH	Still it cried ‘Sleep no more’ to all the house, ‘Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more.’
LADY MACBETH	Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane, You do unbend your noble strength to think So brain-sickly of things. Go get some water And wash this filthy witness from your hand. Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must lie there. Go, carry them, and smear The sleepy grooms with blood.
MACBETH	I’ll go no more. I am afraid to think what I have done, Look on’t again I dare not.
LADY MACBETH	Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead Are but as pictures. ’Tis the eye of childhood That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal, For it must seem their guilt. Exit Knock within
MACBETH	Whence is that knocking?— How is’t with me when every noise appals me? What hands are here! Ha, they pluck out mine eyes. Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red.
(didascalia)	Enter Lady Macbeth
LADY MACBETH	My hands are of your colour, but I shame To wear a heart so white. Knock within I hear a knocking At the south entry. Retire we to our chamber. A little water clears us of this deed. How easy is it then! Your constancy Hath left you unattended. Knock within Hark, more knocking. Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us And show us to be watchers. Be not lost So poorly in your thoughts.
MACBETH	To know my deed ’twere best not know myself. Knock within Wake Duncan with thy knocking. I would thou couldst. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra Lady Macbeth
LADY MACBETH	Ciò che ha ubriacato loro ha reso me ardita. Ciò che li ha spenti ha dato a me fuoco. Ascolta, silenzio!— Era il gufo che stridette, il fatale banditore che dà la più severa buonanotte. Egli è all’opera. Le porte sono aperte, e i camerieri satolli si fan beffe del loro compito russando. Ho drogato le loro bevande sì che morte e natura contendono su di loro se vivano o muoiano.
(didascalia)	Entra Macbeth [in alto]
MACBETH	Chi è là? Ehi, chi va là? Esce
LADY MACBETH	Ahimè, temo che si siano svegliati, e non è compiuto. Il tentativo e non l’atto ci rovina. Ascolta!—Ho preparato i loro pugnali; non poteva non trovarli. Se non avesse somigliato a mio padre mentre dormiva, l’avrei fatto io. [Entra Macbeth in basso] Marito mio!
MACBETH	Ho compiuto l’atto. Non hai udito un rumore?
LADY MACBETH	Ho udito stridere il gufo e gridare i grilli. Non avete parlato?
MACBETH	Quando?
LADY MACBETH	Ora.
MACBETH	Mentre scendevo?
LADY MACBETH	Sì.
MACBETH	Ascolta!—Chi dorme nella seconda camera?
LADY MACBETH	Donalbain.
MACBETH	(guardandosi le mani) È una misera vista.
LADY MACBETH	Sciocco pensiero, dire una misera vista.
MACBETH	Uno ha riso nel sonno, e uno ha gridato ‘Assassinio!’ sì che si sono svegliati a vicenda. Io stavo e li ascoltavo. Ma dissero le loro preghiere e si disposero di nuovo a dormire.
LADY MACBETH	Sono due alloggiati insieme.
MACBETH	Uno gridò ‘Dio ci benedica’ e ‘Amen’ l’altro, come m’avessero visto con queste mani di boia. Ascoltando la loro paura non seppi dire ‘Amen’ quando essi dicevano ‘Dio ci benedica.’
LADY MACBETH	Non consideratelo così profondamente.
MACBETH	Ma perché non potei pronunciare ‘Amen’? Avevo il maggior bisogno di benedizione, e ‘Amen’ mi restò in gola.
LADY MACBETH	Non si devono pensare tali atti per queste vie. Così, ci farà impazzire.
MACBETH	Mi parve d’udire una voce gridare ‘Non dormire più, Macbeth assassina il sonno’—l’innocente sonno, il sonno che ricuce la matassa sfilacciata dell’affanno, la morte della vita d’ogni giorno, bagno dell’aspra fatica, balsamo delle menti ferite, seconda portata della gran natura, nutrimento principale nel banchetto della vita—
LADY MACBETH	Che volete dire?
MACBETH	Continuava a gridare ‘Non dormire più’ a tutta la casa, ‘Glamis ha assassinato il sonno, e perciò Cawdor non dormirà più, Macbeth non dormirà più.’
LADY MACBETH	Chi era che così gridava? Ebbene, degno thane, voi allentate la vostra nobile forza a pensare le cose in modo così malato. Andate a prendere dell’acqua e lavate dalla vostra mano questa sozza testimonianza. Perché avete portato via questi pugnali da quel luogo? Devono restare là. Andate, portateli, e imbrattate di sangue i camerieri addormentati.
MACBETH	Non ci andrò più. Ho paura di pensare a ciò che ho fatto, guardarlo di nuovo non oso.
LADY MACBETH	Debole di proposito! Datemi i pugnali. I dormienti e i morti non sono che come dipinti. È l’occhio dell’infanzia che teme un diavolo dipinto. Se egli sanguina, ne indorerò i volti dei camerieri, ché deve sembrare loro colpa. Esce Si bussa all’interno
MACBETH	Da dove viene quel bussare?— Come sono ridotto, se ogni rumore mi atterrisce? Che mani son queste! Ah, mi strappano gli occhi. Tutto l’oceano del gran Nettuno laverà via questo sangue dalla mia mano? No, questa mia mano piuttosto farà incarnatini i mari innumerevoli, mutando il verde in un solo rosso.
(didascalia)	Entra Lady Macbeth
LADY MACBETH	Le mie mani sono del vostro colore, ma mi vergognerei di portare un cuore così bianco. Si bussa all’interno Odo bussare all’ingresso meridionale. Ritiriamoci nella nostra camera. Un po’ d’acqua ci monda di quest’atto. Com’è facile allora! La vostra fermezza vi ha lasciato senza scorta. Si bussa all’interno Ascoltate, altri colpi. Indossate la veste da notte, ché l’occasione non ci chiami e ci mostri desti. Non vi perdete così miseramente nei vostri pensieri.
MACBETH	A conoscere il mio atto meglio sarebbe non conoscere me stesso. Si bussa all’interno Sveglia Duncan col tuo bussare. Vorrei che tu potessi. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter a Porter. Knocking within
PORTER	Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate he should have old turning the key. Knock within Knock, knock, knock. Who’s there, i‘th’ name of Beelzebub? Here’s a farmer that hanged himself on th’expectation of plenty. Come in time! Have napkins enough about you; here you’ll sweat for’t. Knock within Knock, knock. Who’s there, in th‘other devil’s name? Faith, here’s an equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God’s sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven. O, come in, equivocator. Knock within Knock, knock, knock. Who’s there? ’Faith, here’s an English tailor come hither for stealing out of a French hose. Come in, tailor. Here you may roast your goose. Knock within Knock, knock. Never at quiet. What are you?—But this place is too cold for hell. I’ll devil-porter it no further. I had thought to have let in some of all professions that go the primrose way to th’everlasting bonfire. Knock within Anon, anon! He opens the gate I pray you remember the porter.
(didascalia)	Enter Macduff and Lennox
MACDUFF	Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed That you do lie so late?
PORTER	Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock, and drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things.
MACDUFF	What three things does drink especially provoke?
PORTER	Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes and unprovokes: it provokes the desire but it takes away the performance. Therefore much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him and it mars him; it sets him on and it takes him off; it persuades him and disheartens him, makes him stand to and not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him.
MACDUFF	I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.
PORTER	That it did, sir, i’the very throat on me; but I requited him for his lie, and, I think, being too strong for him, though he took up my legs sometime, yet I made a shift to cast him.
MACDUFF	Is thy master stirring?
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth
MACDUFF	Our knocking has awaked him: here he comes. [Exit Porter]
LENNOX	(to Macbeth) Good morrow, noble sir.
MACBETH	Good morrow, both.
MACDUFF	Is the King stirring, worthy thane?
MACBETH	Not yet.
MACDUFF	He did command me to call timely on him. I have almost slipped the hour.
MACBETH	I’ll bring you to him.
MACDUFF	I know this is a joyful trouble to you, But yet ’tis one.
MACBETH	The labour we delight in physics pain. This is the door.
MACDUFF	I’ll make so bold to call, For ’tis my limited service. Exit Macduff
LENNOX	Goes the King hence today?
MACBETH	He does; he did appoint so.
LENNOX	The night has been unruly. Where we lay Our chimneys were blown down, and, as they say, Lamentings heard i’th’ air, strange screams of death, And prophesying with accents terrible Of dire combustion and confused events New-hatched to th’ woeful time. The obscure bird Clamoured the livelong night. Some say the earth Was feverous and did shake.
MACBETH	’Twas a rough night.
LENNOX	My young remembrance cannot parallel A fellow to it.
(didascalia)	Enter Macduff
MACDUFF	O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee.
MACBETH	and LENNOX What’s the matter?
MACDUFF	Confusion now hath made his masterpiece. Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord’s anointed temple and stole thence The life o’th’ building.
MACBETH	What is’t you say—the life?
LENNOX	Mean you his majesty?
MACDUFF	Approach the chamber and destroy your sight With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak. See, and then speak yourselves.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Macbeth and Lennox
MACDUFF	Awake, awake! Ring the alarum bell. Murder and treason! Banquo and Donalbain, Malcolm, awake! Shake off this downy sleep, death’s counterfeit, And look on death itself. Up, up, and see The great doom’s image. Malcolm, Banquo, As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites To countenance this horror. Bell rings. Enter Lady Macbeth
LADY MACBETH	What’s the business, That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley The sleepers of the house? Speak, speak.
MACDUFF	O gentle lady, ’Tis not for you to hear what I can speak. The repetition in a woman’s ear Would murder as it fell.
(didascalia)	Enter Banquo
MACDUFF	O Banquo, Banquo, Our royal master’s murdered!
LADY MACBETH	Woe, alas— What, in our house?
BANQUO	Too cruel anywhere. Dear Duff, I prithee contradict thyself, And say it is not so.
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth, Lennox, [and Ross]
MACBETH	Had I but died an hour before this chance I had lived a blessed time, for from this instant There’s nothing serious in mortality. All is but toys. Renown and grace is dead. The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees Is left this vault to brag of.
(didascalia)	Enter Malcolm and Donalbain
DONALBAIN	What is amiss?
MACBETH	You are, and do not know’t. The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood Is stopped, the very source of it is stopped.
MACDUFF	Your royal father’s murdered.
MALCOLM	O, by whom?
LENNOX	Those of his chamber, as it seemed, had done’t. Their hands and faces were all badged with blood, So were their daggers, which, unwiped, we found Upon their pillows. They stared and were distracted. No man’s life was to be trusted with them.
MACBETH	O, yet I do repent me of my fury That I did kill them.
MACDUFF	Wherefore did you so?
MACBETH	Who can be wise, amazed, temp‘rate and furious, Loyal and neutral in a moment? No man. Th’expedition of my violent love Outran the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan, His silver skin laced with his golden blood, And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature For ruin’s wasteful entrance; there the murderers, Steeped in the colours of their trade, their daggers Unmannerly breeched with gore. Who could refrain, That had a heart to love, and in that heart Courage to make ’s love known?
LADY MACBETH	Help me hence, ho!
MACDUFF	Look to the lady.
MALCOLM	(aside to Donalbain) Why do we hold our tongues, That most may claim this argument for ours?
DONALBAIN	(aside to Malcolm) What should be spoken here, where our fate, Hid in an auger-hole, may rush and seize us? Let’s away. Our tears are not yet brewed.
MALCOLM	(aside to Donalbain) Nor our strong sorrow Upon the foot of motion.
BANQUO	Look to the lady; Exit Lady Macbeth, attended And when we have our naked frailties hid, That suffer in exposure, let us meet And question this most bloody piece of work, To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us. In the great hand of God I stand, and thence Against the undivulged pretence I fight Of treasonous malice.
MACDUFF	And SO do I.
SO	all.
MACBETH	Let’s briefly put on manly readiness, And meet i’th’ hall together.
ALL	Well contented.
(didascalia)	Exeunt all but Malcolm and Donalbain
MALCOLM	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.
DONALBAIN	To Ireland, I. Our separated fortune Shall keep us both the safer. Where we are There’s daggers in men’s smiles. The nea’er in blood, The nearer bloody.
MALCOLM	This murderous shaft that’s shot Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way Is to avoid the aim. Therefore to horse, And let us not be dainty of leave-taking, But shift away. There’s warrant in that theft Which steals itself when there’s no mercy left. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra un Portinaio. Si bussa all’interno
PORTINAIO	Ecco un bussare davvero! Se un uomo fosse portinaio della porta dell’inferno, ne avrebbe da girar la chiave. Si bussa all’interno Toc, toc, toc. Chi è là, in nome di Belzebù? Ecco un fattore che s’è impiccato per l’attesa dell’abbondanza. Arrivi in tempo! Abbi tovaglioli a sufficienza con te; qui ne suderai. Si bussa all’interno Toc, toc. Chi è là, in nome dell’altro diavolo? In fede, ecco un equivocatore che sapeva giurare su entrambi i piatti della bilancia contro l’uno e l’altro piatto, che commise tradimenti a sufficienza per amor di Dio, e pure non seppe equivocare fino al cielo. Oh, entra, equivocatore. Si bussa all’interno Toc, toc, toc. Chi è là? In fede mia, ecco un sarto inglese venuto qui per aver rubato stoffa da un paio di brache alla francese. Entra, sarto. Qui puoi arroventare il tuo ferro. Si bussa all’interno Toc, toc. Mai un momento di pace. Chi siete?—Ma questo posto è troppo freddo per l’inferno. Non farò oltre il portinaio del diavolo. Avevo pensato di far entrare qualcuno d’ogni professione che va per la via fiorita all’eterno falò. Si bussa all’interno Subito, subito! Apre la porta Vi prego, ricordatevi del portinaio.
(didascalia)	Entrano Macduff e Lennox
MACDUFF	Fu così tardi, amico, prima che andaste a letto, che ora vi coricate fino a quest’ora?
PORTINAIO	In fede, signore, gozzovigliammo fino al secondo canto del gallo, e il bere, signore, è un gran provocatore di tre cose.
MACDUFF	Quali tre cose provoca specialmente il bere?
PORTINAIO	Perbacco, signore, il tingersi il naso, il sonno e l’orina. La lussuria, signore, la provoca e la disprovoca: provoca il desiderio ma toglie l’esecuzione. Perciò si può dire che il molto bere sia un equivocatore con la lussuria: la fa e la disfa; l’accende e la spegne; la persuade e la scoraggia; la fa stare in piedi e non stare in piedi; in conclusione, l’equivoca in un sonno e, dandole del bugiardo, l’abbandona.
MACDUFF	Credo che il bere t’abbia dato del bugiardo la scorsa notte.
PORTINAIO	Proprio così, signore, dritto in gola; ma io gliela resi la sua bugia, e, credo, essendo troppo forte per lui, benché mi facesse a volte cedere le gambe, pure trovai il modo di gettarlo a terra.
MACDUFF	È alzato il tuo padrone?
(didascalia)	Entra Macbeth
MACDUFF	Il nostro bussare l’ha svegliato: eccolo che viene. [Esce il Portinaio]
LENNOX	(a Macbeth) Buon giorno, nobile signore.
MACBETH	Buon giorno a entrambi.
MACDUFF	È alzato il Re, degno thane?
MACBETH	Non ancora.
MACDUFF	Mi comandò di chiamarlo per tempo. Ho quasi lasciato passare l’ora.
MACBETH	Vi condurrò da lui.
MACDUFF	So che per voi è un disturbo lieto, ma pur sempre un disturbo.
MACBETH	La fatica in cui ci dilettiamo guarisce la pena. Questa è la porta.
MACDUFF	Mi farò ardito di chiamare, ché è l’incarico assegnatomi. Esce Macduff
LENNOX	Parte oggi di qui il Re?
MACBETH	Sì; così ha stabilito.
LENNOX	La notte è stata turbolenta. Dove alloggiavamo i nostri comignoli furono abbattuti, e, come si dice, s’udirono lamenti nell’aria, strane grida di morte, e profezie con accenti terribili di tremendi incendi e di eventi confusi appena covati per questo tempo di sventura. L’uccello oscuro ha clamato per tutta la notte. Alcuni dicono che la terra era febbricitante e tremò.
MACBETH	Fu una notte aspra.
LENNOX	La mia giovane memoria non sa trovarle l’eguale.
(didascalia)	Entra Macduff
MACDUFF	O orrore, orrore, orrore! Né lingua né cuore ti può concepire o nominare.
MACBETH	e LENNOX Che accade?
MACDUFF	La confusione ha ora compiuto il suo capolavoro. Sacrilegissimo assassinio ha scardinato il tempio unto del Signore e ne ha rubato la vita dell’edificio.
MACBETH	Che dite—la vita?
LENNOX	Intendete sua maestà?
MACDUFF	Accostatevi alla camera e distruggete la vista con una nuova Gorgone. Non chiedetemi di parlare. Vedete, e poi parlate voi stessi.
(didascalia)	Escono Macbeth e Lennox
MACDUFF	Svegliatevi, svegliatevi! Suonate la campana d’allarme. Assassinio e tradimento! Banquo e Donalbain, Malcolm, svegliatevi! Scuotete di dosso questo sonno di piuma, contraffazione della morte, e guardate la morte stessa. Su, su, e vedete l’immagine del gran giudizio. Malcolm, Banquo, alzatevi come dalle vostre tombe, e camminate come spettri per far fronte a quest’orrore. Suona la campana. Entra Lady Macbeth
LADY MACBETH	Che cosa accade, ché una tromba così orrenda chiama a parlamento i dormienti della casa? Parlate, parlate.
MACDUFF	O gentile signora, non è per voi udire quel che posso dire. La ripetizione in orecchio di donna ucciderebbe nel cadere.
(didascalia)	Entra Banquo
MACDUFF	O Banquo, Banquo, il nostro regale signore è assassinato!
LADY MACBETH	Ahimè, ohimè— Come, nella nostra casa?
BANQUO	Troppo crudele in ogni luogo. Caro Duff, ti prego, contraddici te stesso, e di’ che non è così.
(didascalia)	Entrano Macbeth, Lennox, [e Ross]
MACBETH	Fossi morto solo un’ora prima di questo caso, avrei vissuto un tempo benedetto, ché da quest’istante non v’è nulla di serio nella mortalità. Tutto è soltanto balocchi. Fama e grazia sono morte. Il vino della vita è spillato, e la sola feccia resta a questa volta per vantarsene.
(didascalia)	Entrano Malcolm e Donalbain
DONALBAIN	Che c’è che non va?
MACBETH	Voi, e non lo sapete. La sorgente, il capo, la fonte del vostro sangue è arrestata, la sua stessa scaturigine è arrestata.
MACDUFF	Il vostro regale padre è assassinato.
MALCOLM	Oh, da chi?
LENNOX	Quelli della sua camera, a quanto pareva, l’avevano fatto. Le loro mani e i loro volti erano tutti marchiati di sangue, e così i loro pugnali, che, non ripuliti, trovammo sui loro guanciali. Fissavano il vuoto ed erano stravolti. Non si poteva affidar loro la vita di nessuno.
MACBETH	Oh, eppure mi pento della mia furia per averli uccisi.
MACDUFF	Perché lo faceste?
MACBETH	Chi può essere saggio e attonito, temperato e furioso, leale e neutrale in un momento? Nessun uomo. La fretta del mio violento amore superò chi indugia, la ragione. Qui giaceva Duncan, la sua pelle d’argento trapunta del suo sangue d’oro, e le sue ferite squarciate parevano una breccia nella natura per l’ingresso devastante della rovina; là gli assassini, intrisi dei colori del loro mestiere, i loro pugnali sconciamente inguainati di sangue rappreso. Chi poteva trattenersi, avendo un cuore per amare, e in quel cuore coraggio per far noto il suo amore?
LADY MACBETH	Portatemi via di qui, ohimè!
MACDUFF	Badate alla signora.
MALCOLM	(a parte, a Donalbain) Perché teniamo a freno la lingua, noi che più d’ogni altro possiamo reclamare come nostro questo tema?
DONALBAIN	(a parte, a Malcolm) Che cosa si può dire qui, dove il nostro destino, nascosto in un foro di succhiello, può balzare e ghermirci? Andiamo via. Le nostre lacrime non sono ancora mature.
MALCOLM	(a parte, a Donalbain) Né il nostro forte dolore è ancora in piedi per muoversi.
BANQUO	Badate alla signora; Esce Lady Macbeth, sorretta e quando avremo coperte le nostre nude fragilità, che patiscono all’aperto, incontriamoci e indaghiamo questa sanguinosissima opera, per conoscerla oltre. Timori e scrupoli ci scuotono. Nella gran mano di Dio io sto, e di là combatto contro il disegno non ancora svelato di malizia traditrice.
MACDUFF	E COSÌ faccio anch’io.
SO	tutti.
MACBETH	Rivestiamoci in breve d’assetto virile, e ritroviamoci insieme nella sala.
TUTTI	Ben contenti.
(didascalia)	Escono tutti tranne Malcolm e Donalbain
MALCOLM	Che farete? Non associamoci a loro. Mostrare un dolore non sentito è un ufficio che l’uomo falso compie facilmente. Io andrò in Inghilterra.
DONALBAIN	In Irlanda, io. La nostra fortuna separata ci terrà entrambi più sicuri. Dove siamo ci son pugnali nei sorrisi degli uomini. Più vicini di sangue, più vicini al sangue.
MALCOLM	Questo dardo omicida che è stato scoccato non è ancora caduto, e la nostra via più sicura è schivare il bersaglio. Dunque a cavallo, e non andiamo per il sottile nel congedarci, ma svigniamocela. C’è giustificazione in quel furto che ruba sé stesso quando non resta più pietà. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Ross with an Old Man
OLD MAN	Threescore and ten I can remember well,
(didascalia)	Within the volume of which time I have seen
OLD MAN	Hours dreadful and things strange, but this sore night Hath trifled former knowings. Ross Ha, good father, Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man’s act, Threatens his bloody stage. By th’ clock ’tis day, And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp. Is’t night’s predominance or the day’s shame That darkness does the face of earth entomb When living light should kiss it?
OLD MAN	’Tis unnatural, Even like the deed that’s done. On Tuesday last A falcon, tow’ring in her pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed.
ROSS	And Duncan’s horses—a thing most strange and certain— Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, Contending ’gainst obedience, as they would Make war with mankind.
OLD MAN	’Tis said they ate each other.
ROSS	They did so, to th’amazement of mine eyes That looked upon’t.
(didascalia)	Enter Macduff
ROSS	Here comes the good Macduff. How goes the world, sir, now?
MACDUFF	Why, see you not?
ROSS	Is’t known who did this more than bloody deed?
MACDUFF	Those that Macbeth hath slain. Ross Alas the day, What good could they pretend?
MACDUFF	They were suborned. Malcolm and Donalbain, the King’s two sons, Are stol’n away and fled, which puts upon them Suspicion of the deed. Ross ’Gainst nature still. Thriftless ambition, that will raven up Thine own life’s means! Then ’tis most like The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.
MACDUFF	He is already named and gone to Scone To be invested. Ross Where is Duncan’s body?
MACDUFF	Carried to Colmekill, The sacred storehouse of his predecessors, And guardian of their bones. Ross Will you to Scone?
MACDUFF	No, cousin, I’ll to Fife.
ROSS	Well, I will thither.
MACDUFF	Well, may you see things well done there. Adieu, Lest our old robes sit easier than our new. Ross Farewell, father.
OLD MAN	God’s benison go with you, and with those That would make good of bad, and friends of foes.
(didascalia)	Exeunt severally

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra Ross con un Vecchio
VECCHIO	Settant’anni posso ricordare bene,
(didascalia)	Nel volume del qual tempo ho veduto
VECCHIO	ore terribili e cose strane, ma questa dolorosa notte ha reso inezie le passate esperienze. Ross Ah, buon padre, tu vedi i cieli, come turbati dall’atto dell’uomo, minacciare il suo palcoscenico insanguinato. Secondo l’orologio è giorno, eppure la notte oscura strangola la lampada viaggiante. È il predominio della notte o la vergogna del giorno che le tenebre seppelliscano il volto della terra quando la luce viva dovrebbe baciarlo?
VECCHIO	È contro natura, proprio come l’atto che è stato compiuto. Martedì scorso un falcone, librato nel suo orgoglio d’altezza, fu assalito e ucciso da un gufo cacciatore di topi.
ROSS	E i cavalli di Duncan—cosa stranissima e certa— belli e veloci, i prediletti della loro razza, si fecero selvaggi di natura, ruppero le stalle, si scagliarono fuori, ribellandosi all’obbedienza, come volessero far guerra al genere umano.
VECCHIO	Si dice che si divorarono a vicenda.
ROSS	Così fecero, con stupore dei miei occhi che lo guardarono.
(didascalia)	Entra Macduff
ROSS	Ecco venire il buon Macduff. Come va il mondo ora, signore?
MACDUFF	Ebbene, non lo vedete?
ROSS	Si sa chi ha compiuto questo atto più che sanguinoso?
MACDUFF	Quelli che Macbeth ha ucciso. Ross Ahimè, giorno funesto, qual bene potevano attendersi?
MACDUFF	Furono subornati. Malcolm e Donalbain, i due figli del Re, si sono svignati e fuggiti, il che getta su di loro il sospetto dell’atto. Ross Sempre contro natura. Prodiga ambizione, che divori i mezzi stessi della tua vita! Allora è assai probabile che la sovranità cada su Macbeth.
MACDUFF	È già nominato e andato a Scone per esservi investito. Ross Dov’è il corpo di Duncan?
MACDUFF	Portato a Colmekill, il sacro deposito dei suoi predecessori e custode delle loro ossa. Ross Andrete a Scone?
MACDUFF	No, cugino, io andrò a Fife.
ROSS	Bene, io ci andrò.
MACDUFF	Bene, possiate vedere le cose là ben fatte. Addio, ché le nostre vecchie vesti non ci stiano più comode delle nuove. Ross Addio, padre.
VECCHIO	La benedizione di Dio vada con voi, e con quelli che vorrebbero far bene del male, e amici dei nemici.
(didascalia)	Escono separatamente

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Banquo
BANQUO	Thou hast it now: King, Cawdor, Glamis, all As the weird women promised; and I fear Thou played’st most foully for’t. Yet it was said It should not stand in thy posterity, But that myself should be the root and father Of many kings. If there come truth from them— As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine- Why by the verities on thee made good May they not be my oracles as well, And set me up in hope? But hush, no more.
(didascalia)	Sennet sounded. Enter Macbeth as King, Lady Macbeth
BANQUO	as Queen, Lennox, Ross, lords, and attendants
MACBETH	Here’s our chief guest.
LADY MACBETH	If he had been forgotten It had been as a gap in our great feast, And all-thing unbecoming.
MACBETH	(to Banquo) Tonight we hold a solemn supper, sir, And I’ll request your presence.
BANQUO	Let your highness Command upon me, to the which my duties Are with a most indissoluble tie For ever knit.
MACBETH	Ride you this afternoon?
BANQUO	Ay, my good lord.
MACBETH	We should have else desired your good advice, Which still hath been both grave and prosperous, In this day’s council; but we’ll talk tomorrow. Is’t far you ride?
BANQUO	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.
MACBETH	Fail not our feast.
BANQUO	My lord, I will not.
MACBETH	We hear our bloody cousins are bestowed In England and in Ireland, not confessing Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers With strange invention. But of that tomorrow, When therewithal we shall have cause of state Craving us jointly. Hie you to horse. Adieu, Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you?
BANQUO	Ay, my good lord. Our time does call upon ’s.
MACBETH	I wish your horses swift and sure of foot, And so I do commend you to their backs. Farewell. Exit Banquo Let every man be master of his time Till seven at night. To make society The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself Till supper-time alone. While then, God be with you.
(didascalia)	Exeunt all but Macbeth and a Servant
MACBETH	Sirrah, a word with you. Attend those men Our pleasure?
SERVANT	They are, my lord, without the palace gate.
MACBETH	Bring them before us. Exit Servant To be thus is nothing But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature Reigns that which would be feared. ‘Tis much he dares, And to that dauntless temper of his mind He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour To act in safety. There is none but he Whose being I do fear, and under him My genius is rebuked as, it is said, Mark Antony’s was by Caesar. He chid the sisters When first they put the name of king upon me, And bade them speak to him. Then, prophet-like, They hailed him father to a line of kings. Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, And put a barren sceptre in my grip, Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand, No son of mine succeeding. If’t be so, For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind, For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered, Put rancours in the vessel of my peace Only for them, and mine eternal jewel Given to the common enemy of man To make them kings, the seeds of Banquo kings. Rather than so, come fate into the list And champion me to th’utterance. Who’s there?
(didascalia)	Enter Servant and two Murderers
MACBETH	(To the Servant) Now go to the door, and stay there till we call.
(didascalia)	Exit Servant
MACBETH	Was it not yesterday we spoke together?
MURDERERS	It was, so please your highness.
MACBETH	Well then, now Have you considered of my speeches? Know That it was he in the times past which held you So under fortune, which you thought had been Our innocent self. This I made good to you In our last conference, passed in probation with you How you were borne in hand, how crossed, the instruments, Who wrought with them, and all things else that might To half a soul, and to a notion crazed, Say ‘Thus did Banquo’.
FIRST MURDERER	You made it known to us.
MACBETH	I did so, and went further, which is now Our point of second meeting. Do you find Your patience so predominant in your nature That you can let this go? Are you so gospelled To pray for this good man and for his issue, Whose heavy hand hath bowed you to the grave And beggared yours for ever?
FIRST MURDERER	We are men, my liege.
MACBETH	Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men, As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves are clept All by the name of dogs. The valued file Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle, The housekeeper, the hunter, every one According to the gift which bounteous nature Hath in him closed; whereby he does receive Particular addition from the bill That writes them all alike. And so of men. Now, if you have a station in the file, Not i‘th’ worst rank of manhood, say’t, And I will put that business in your bosoms Whose execution takes your enemy off, Grapples you to the heart and love of us, Who wear our health but sickly in his life, Which in his death were perfect.
SECOND MURDERER	I am one, my liege, Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world Hath so incensed that I am reckless what I do to spite the world.
FIRST MURDERER	And I another, So weary with disasters, tugged with fortune, That I would set my life on any chance To mend it or be rid on’t.
MACBETH	Both of you Know Banquo was your enemy.
MURDERERS	True, my lord.
MACBETH	So is he mine, and in such bloody distance That every minute of his being thrusts Against my near’st of life; and though I could With barefaced power sweep him from my sight And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not, For certain friends that are both his and mine, Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall Who I myself struck down. And thence it is That I to your assistance do make love, Masking the business from the common eye For sundry weighty reasons.
SECOND MURDERER	We shall, my lord, Perform what you command us.
FIRST MURDERER	Though our lives—
MACBETH	Your spirits shine through you. Within this hour at most I will advise you where to plant yourselves, Acquaint you with the perfect spy o‘th’ time, The moment on’t; for’t must be done tonight, And something from the palace; always thought That I require a clearness; and with him, To leave no rubs nor botches in the work, Fleance, his son, that keeps him company— Whose absence is no less material to me Than is his father’s—must embrace the fate Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart. I’ll come to you anon.
MURDERERS	We are resolved, my lord.
MACBETH	I’ll call upon you straight. Abide within.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Murderers
MACBETH	It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul’s flight, If it find heaven, must find it out tonight. Exit 3.2 Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant
LADY MACBETH	Is Banquo gone from court?
SERVANT	Ay, madam, but returns again tonight.
LADY MACBETH	Say to the King I would attend his leisure For a few words.
SERVANT	Madam, I will.
(didascalia)	Exit
LADY MACBETH	Naught’s had, all’s spent, Where our desire is got without content. ’Tis safer to be that which we destroy Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth
LADY MACBETH	How now, my lord, why do you keep alone, Of sorriest fancies your companions making, Using those thoughts which should indeed have died With them they think on? Things without all remedy Should be without regard. What’s done is done.
MACBETH	We have scorched the snake, not killed it. She’ll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice Remains in danger of her former tooth. But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer, Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep In the affliction of these terrible dreams That shake us nightly. Better be with the dead, Whom we to gain our peace have sent to peace, Than on the torture of the mind to lie In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave. After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well. Treason has done his worst. Nor steel nor poison, Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing Can touch him further.
LADY MACBETH	Come on, gentle my lord, Sleek o’er your rugged looks, be bright and jovial Among your guests tonight.
MACBETH	So shall I, love, And so I pray be you. Let your remembrance Apply to Banquo. Present him eminence Both with eye and tongue; unsafe the while that we Must lave our honours in these flattering streams And make our faces visors to our hearts, Disguising what they are.
LADY MACBETH	You must leave this.
MACBETH	O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! Thou know’st that Banquo and his Fleance lives.
LADY MACBETH	But in them nature’s copy’s not eterne.
MACBETH	There’s comfort yet, they are assailable. Then be thou jocund. Ere the bat hath flown His cloistered flight, ere to black Hecate’s summons The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums Hath rung night’s yawning peal, there shall be done A deed of dreadful note.
LADY MACBETH	What’s to be done?
MACBETH	Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, Till thou applaud the deed.—Come, seeling night, Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day, And with thy bloody and invisible hand Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond Which keeps me pale. Light thickens, and the crow Makes wing to th’ rooky wood. Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, Whiles night’s black agents to their preys do rouse. Thou marvell’st at my words; but hold thee still. Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill. So prithee go with me. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra Banquo
BANQUO	Ora l’hai: Re, Cawdor, Glamis, tutto come le donne fatali promisero; e temo che tu abbia giocato assai lordamente per averlo. Pure fu detto che non sarebbe rimasto alla tua posterità, ma che io stesso sarei stato la radice e il padre di molti re. Se da loro viene verità— come su di te, Macbeth, i loro detti rifulgono- perché, per le verità su te avverate, non potrebbero essere altrettanto oracoli per me, e levarmi in speranza? Ma zitto, non più.
(didascalia)	Squillo di trombe. Entrano Macbeth come Re, Lady Macbeth
BANQUO	come Regina, Lennox, Ross, signori e seguito
MACBETH	Ecco il nostro ospite principale.
LADY MACBETH	Se fosse stato dimenticato sarebbe stato come un vuoto nella nostra gran festa, e del tutto sconveniente.
MACBETH	(a Banquo) Stanotte teniamo una cena solenne, signore, e richiederò la vostra presenza.
BANQUO	Comandi vostra altezza su di me, alla quale i miei doveri sono con vincolo indissolubilissimo per sempre legati.
MACBETH	Cavalcate questo pomeriggio?
BANQUO	Sì, mio buon signore.
MACBETH	Altrimenti avremmo desiderato il vostro buon consiglio, che è sempre stato grave e fruttuoso, nel consiglio d’oggi; ma parleremo domani. Cavalcate lontano?
BANQUO	Tanto lontano, mio signore, quanto riempirà il tempo fra ora e la cena. Se il mio cavallo non andrà meglio, dovrò farmi debitore della notte per un’ora buia o due.
MACBETH	Non mancate al nostro banchetto.
BANQUO	Mio signore, non mancherò.
MACBETH	Udiamo che i nostri sanguinari cugini sono alloggiati in Inghilterra e in Irlanda, senza confessare il loro crudele parricidio, riempiendo chi li ascolta di strane invenzioni. Ma di ciò domani, quando insieme avremo affari di stato che ci reclamano entrambi. Affrettatevi a cavallo. Addio, fino al vostro ritorno di notte. Va Fleance con voi?
BANQUO	Sì, mio buon signore. Il nostro tempo ci incalza.
MACBETH	Auguro ai vostri cavalli d’esser rapidi e sicuri di piede, e così vi affido alle loro groppe. Addio. Esce Banquo Ogni uomo sia padrone del proprio tempo fino alle sette di sera. Per rendere la compagnia più dolce al ritrovarci, resteremo con noi stessi fino all’ora della cena, soli. Fino allora, Dio sia con voi.
(didascalia)	Escono tutti tranne Macbeth e un Servo
MACBETH	Tu, una parola con te. Attendono quegli uomini il nostro piacere?
SERVO	Sono, mio signore, fuori dalla porta del palazzo.
MACBETH	Conduceteli davanti a noi. Esce il Servo Essere così non è nulla, ma esserlo in sicurezza. I nostri timori in Banquo affondano profondi, e nella sua regalità di natura regna ciò che è da temere. È molto ciò ch’egli osa, e a quell’impavida tempra della sua mente s’aggiunge una saggezza che guida il suo valore ad agire in sicurezza. Non v’è altri che lui il cui essere io tema, e sotto di lui il mio genio è rimproverato come, si dice, lo fu quello di Marco Antonio da Cesare. Egli rimproverò le sorelle quando per la prima volta posero su me il nome di re, e ordinò loro di parlare a lui. Allora, da profete, lo salutarono padre d’una stirpe di re. Sul mio capo posero una corona infruttuosa, e misero uno scettro sterile nella mia stretta, per esserne strappato da mano non della mia linea, senza che alcun mio figlio succeda. Se è così, per la progenie di Banquo ho insozzato la mia mente, per loro ho assassinato il benigno Duncan, ho versato rancori nel vaso della mia pace solo per loro, e il mio eterno gioiello ho dato al comune nemico dell’uomo per farli re, per far re i semi di Banquo. Piuttosto che così, entri il fato nella lizza e mi sfidi a oltranza. Chi è là?
(didascalia)	Entrano il Servo e due Assassini
MACBETH	(Al Servo) Ora va’ alla porta, e resta là finché non chiamiamo.
(didascalia)	Esce il Servo
MACBETH	Non fu ieri che parlammo insieme?
ASSASSINI	Fu così, piaccia a vostra altezza.
MACBETH	Bene allora, ora avete meditato sui miei discorsi? Sappiate che fu lui, nei tempi passati, a tenervi così sotto la fortuna, cosa che voi credevate fosse il nostro innocente io. Questo vi dimostrai nel nostro ultimo colloquio, passai in rassegna con voi come foste illusi, come traversati, gli strumenti, chi operò con essi, e ogni altra cosa che potrebbe a mezza anima, e a un intelletto stolto, dire ‘Così fece Banquo’.
PRIMO ASSASSINO	Ce lo faceste conoscere.
MACBETH	Lo feci, e andai oltre, che è ora il punto del nostro secondo incontro. Trovate la vostra pazienza così predominante nella vostra natura da poter lasciar correre? Siete così evangelici da pregare per quest’uomo dabbene e per la sua progenie, la cui pesante mano vi ha piegati verso la tomba e ha ridotto i vostri alla mendicità per sempre?
PRIMO ASSASSINO	Siamo uomini, mio sire.
MACBETH	Sì, nel catalogo passate per uomini, come segugi e levrieri, bastardi, spaniel, cani da cortile, barboncini, cani d’acqua e mezzi lupi son chiamati tutti col nome di cani. La lista di valore distingue il veloce, il lento, il sottile, il guardiano, il cacciatore, ciascuno secondo il dono che la generosa natura ha racchiuso in lui; per cui riceve una particolare designazione oltre l’elenco che li scrive tutti uguali. E così degli uomini. Ora, se avete un posto nella lista, non nel rango peggiore della virilità, ditelo, e io porrò nei vostri petti quell’impresa la cui esecuzione toglie di mezzo il vostro nemico, e vi stringe al cuore e all’amore nostro, che portiamo la nostra salute solo infermiccia mentre egli vive, e che nella sua morte sarebbe perfetta.
SECONDO ASSASSINO	Io sono uno, mio sire, che i vili colpi e gli schiaffi del mondo hanno tanto esasperato che non m’importa che cosa io faccia per far dispetto al mondo.
PRIMO ASSASSINO	E io un altro, così stanco di disastri, strapazzato dalla fortuna, che punterei la mia vita su qualsiasi azzardo per migliorarla o per liberarmene.
MACBETH	Entrambi sapete che Banquo era vostro nemico.
ASSASSINI	Vero, mio signore.
MACBETH	Così è mio, e a tale sanguinosa distanza che ogni minuto del suo esistere colpisce ciò che ho di più vitale; e benché io possa con potere scoperto spazzarlo via dalla mia vista e far che la mia volontà lo giustifichi, pure non devo, per certi amici che sono suoi e miei, il cui affetto non posso perdere, ma dovrò piangere la caduta di colui che io stesso ho abbattuto. E di qui viene che io mi rivolgo con amore al vostro aiuto, mascherando la faccenda all’occhio comune per diverse gravi ragioni.
SECONDO ASSASSINO	Compiremo, mio signore, ciò che ci comandate.
PRIMO ASSASSINO	Anche se le nostre vite—
MACBETH	I vostri spiriti traspaiono da voi. Entro un’ora al più vi indicherò dove appostarvi, vi renderò noto l’esatto momento propizio del tempo, l’istante preciso; ché dev’esser fatto stanotte, e a qualche distanza dal palazzo; sempre inteso ch’io esigo di restarne netto; e con lui, per non lasciare intoppi né sbavature nell’opera, Fleance, suo figlio, che gli tiene compagnia— la cui assenza non m’è meno essenziale di quella del padre—deve abbracciare il destino di quell’ora buia. Risolvetevi in disparte. Verrò da voi tra poco.
ASSASSINI	Siamo risoluti, mio signore.
MACBETH	Vi chiamerò subito. Restate dentro.
(didascalia)	Escono gli Assassini
MACBETH	È deciso. Banquo, il volo della tua anima, se trova il cielo, lo deve trovare stanotte. Esce

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant
LADY MACBETH	Is Banquo gone from court?
SERVANT	Ay, madam, but returns again tonight.
LADY MACBETH	Say to the King I would attend his leisure For a few words.
SERVANT	Madam, I will.
(didascalia)	Exit
LADY MACBETH	Naught’s had, all’s spent, Where our desire is got without content. ’Tis safer to be that which we destroy Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth
LADY MACBETH	How now, my lord, why do you keep alone, Of sorriest fancies your companions making, Using those thoughts which should indeed have died With them they think on? Things without all remedy Should be without regard. What’s done is done.
MACBETH	We have scorched the snake, not killed it. She’ll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice Remains in danger of her former tooth. But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer, Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep In the affliction of these terrible dreams That shake us nightly. Better be with the dead, Whom we to gain our peace have sent to peace, Than on the torture of the mind to lie In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave. After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well. Treason has done his worst. Nor steel nor poison, Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing Can touch him further.
LADY MACBETH	Come on, gentle my lord, Sleek o’er your rugged looks, be bright and jovial Among your guests tonight.
MACBETH	So shall I, love, And so I pray be you. Let your remembrance Apply to Banquo. Present him eminence Both with eye and tongue; unsafe the while that we Must lave our honours in these flattering streams And make our faces visors to our hearts, Disguising what they are.
LADY MACBETH	You must leave this.
MACBETH	O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! Thou know’st that Banquo and his Fleance lives.
LADY MACBETH	But in them nature’s copy’s not eterne.
MACBETH	There’s comfort yet, they are assailable. Then be thou jocund. Ere the bat hath flown His cloistered flight, ere to black Hecate’s summons The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums Hath rung night’s yawning peal, there shall be done A deed of dreadful note.
LADY MACBETH	What’s to be done?
MACBETH	Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, Till thou applaud the deed.—Come, seeling night, Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day, And with thy bloody and invisible hand Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond Which keeps me pale. Light thickens, and the crow Makes wing to th’ rooky wood. Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, Whiles night’s black agents to their preys do rouse. Thou marvell’st at my words; but hold thee still. Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill. So prithee go with me. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano Lady Macbeth e un Servo
LADY MACBETH	È partito Banquo dalla corte?
SERVO	Sì, signora, ma torna stanotte.
LADY MACBETH	Dite al Re che vorrei attendere il suo comodo per poche parole.
SERVO	Signora, lo farò.
(didascalia)	Esce
LADY MACBETH	Nulla s’ha, tutto è speso, dove il nostro desiderio è ottenuto senza contento. È più sicuro essere ciò che distruggiamo che con la distruzione vivere in dubbiosa gioia.
(didascalia)	Entra Macbeth
LADY MACBETH	Ebbene, mio signore, perché state solo, facendo delle più tristi fantasie i vostri compagni, coltivando quei pensieri che davvero sarebbero dovuti morire con coloro cui pensano? Le cose senza rimedio alcuno dovrebbero restare senza riguardo. Ciò ch’è fatto è fatto.
MACBETH	Abbiamo ferito il serpente, non ucciso. Si richiuderà e tornerà sé stesso, mentre la nostra povera malizia resta in pericolo del suo dente d’un tempo. Ma si disgiunga pure la compagine delle cose, patiscano entrambi i mondi, prima che mangiamo il nostro cibo nella paura, e dormiamo nell’afflizione di questi terribili sogni che ci scuotono ogni notte. Meglio stare coi morti, che per guadagnare la nostra pace abbiamo mandato alla pace, che giacere sulla tortura della mente in un’estasi senza riposo. Duncan è nella sua tomba. Dopo la febbre convulsa della vita egli dorme bene. Il tradimento ha fatto il suo peggio. Né acciaio né veleno, malizia domestica, leva straniera, nulla può toccarlo oltre.
LADY MACBETH	Suvvia, mio gentile signore, spianate il vostro aspetto arcigno, siate lieto e gioviale tra i vostri ospiti stanotte.
MACBETH	Così farò, amore, e così vi prego di fare voi. Rivolgete il vostro ricordo a Banquo. Rendetegli eminenza con l’occhio e con la lingua; insicuri, intanto, noi che dobbiamo lavare i nostri onori in questi ruscelli d’adulazione e fare dei nostri volti visiere ai nostri cuori, travestendo ciò che sono.
LADY MACBETH	Dovete smetterla con questo.
MACBETH	Oh, piena di scorpioni è la mia mente, cara moglie! Tu sai che Banquo e il suo Fleance vivono.
LADY MACBETH	Ma in loro il contratto della natura non è eterno.
MACBETH	V’è conforto ancora, sono attaccabili. Sii dunque allegra. Prima che il pipistrello abbia compiuto il suo volo claustrale, prima che al richiamo della nera Ecate lo scarabeo dalle dure elitre col suo ronzio sonnolento abbia suonato il rintocco sbadigliante della notte, sarà compiuto un atto di terribile fama.
LADY MACBETH	Che si deve fare?
MACBETH	Resta innocente della cosa, carissima, finché non applaudirai l’atto.—Vieni, notte accecatrice, benda il tenero occhio del giorno pietoso, e con la tua mano sanguinosa e invisibile cancella e straccia in pezzi quel gran patto che mi tiene pallido. La luce s’addensa, e il corvo vola verso il bosco delle cornacchie. Le cose buone del giorno cominciano a chinarsi e assopirsi, mentre i neri agenti della notte si destano alle loro prede. Ti meravigli delle mie parole; ma sta’ quieta. Le cose male incominciate col male si rafforzano. Perciò ti prego, vieni con me. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter three Murderers
FIRST MURDERER	(to Third Murderer) But who did bid thee join with us?
THIRD MURDERER	Macbeth.
SECOND MURDERER	(to First Murderer) He needs not our mistrust, since he delivers Our offices and what we have to do To the direction just.
FIRST MURDERER	(to Third Murderer) Then stand with us. 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.
THIRD MURDERER	Hark, I hear horses.
BANQUO	(within) Give us a light there, ho!
SECOND MURDERER	Then ’tis he. The rest That are within the note of expectation Already are i’th’ court.
FIRST MURDERER	His horses go about.
THIRD MURDERER	Almost a mile; but he does usually, So all men do, from hence to th’ palace gate Make it their walk.
(didascalia)	Enter Banquo and Fleance with a torch
SECOND MURDERER	(aside) A light, a light.
THIRD MURDERER	(aside) ’Tis he.
FIRST MURDERER	(aside) Stand to’t.
BANQUO	It will be rain tonight.
FIRST MURDERER	Let it come down. First Murderer strikes out the torch. The others attack Banquo
BANQUO	O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly! Thou mayst revenge.—O slave! He dies. Exit Fleance
THIRD MURDERER	Who did strike out the light?
FIRST MURDERER	Was’t not the way?
THIRD MURDERER	There’s but one down. The son is fled.
SECOND MURDERER	We have lost best half of our affair.
FIRST MURDERER	Well, let’s away and say how much is done.
(didascalia)	Exeunt with Banquo’s body

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano tre Assassini
PRIMO ASSASSINO	(al Terzo Assassino) Ma chi t’ha ordinato d’unirti a noi?
TERZO ASSASSINO	Macbeth.
SECONDO ASSASSINO	(al Primo Assassino) Non c’è bisogno di diffidarne, poiché egli riferisce i nostri incarichi e quel che dobbiamo fare esattamente secondo le istruzioni.
PRIMO ASSASSINO	(al Terzo Assassino) Allora sta’ con noi. L’occidente luccica ancora di qualche striscia di giorno. Ora il viandante attardato sprona di gran passo per guadagnare in tempo la locanda, e s’avvicina l’oggetto della nostra veglia.
TERZO ASSASSINO	Ascoltate, odo cavalli.
BANQUO	(dall’interno) Un lume qui, olà!
SECONDO ASSASSINO	Allora è lui. Gli altri che sono nella lista degli attesi sono già a corte.
PRIMO ASSASSINO	I suoi cavalli fanno il giro.
TERZO ASSASSINO	Quasi un miglio; ma egli suole, come fanno tutti, da qui alla porta del palazzo farne il suo cammino a piedi.
(didascalia)	Entrano Banquo e Fleance con una torcia
SECONDO ASSASSINO	(a parte) Un lume, un lume.
TERZO ASSASSINO	(a parte) È lui.
PRIMO ASSASSINO	(a parte) Teniamoci pronti.
BANQUO	Stanotte pioverà.
PRIMO ASSASSINO	E che venga giù. Il Primo Assassino spegne la torcia. Gli altri assalgono Banquo
BANQUO	Oh, tradimento! Fuggi, buon Fleance, fuggi, fuggi, fuggi! Tu potrai vendicarmi.—Oh schiavo! Muore. Esce Fleance
TERZO ASSASSINO	Chi ha spento il lume?
PRIMO ASSASSINO	Non era il modo giusto?
TERZO ASSASSINO	Ne è caduto uno solo. Il figlio è fuggito.
SECONDO ASSASSINO	Abbiamo perduto la metà migliore della nostra impresa.
PRIMO ASSASSINO	Bene, andiamo e diciamo quanto è stato fatto.
(didascalia)	Escono col corpo di Banquo

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Banquet prepared. Enter Macbeth as King, Lady Macbeth as Queen, Ross, Lennox, Lords, and attendants. Lady
(didascalia)	Macbeth sits
MACBETH	You know your own degrees; sit down. At first and last The hearty welcome.
LORDS	Thanks to your majesty. They sit
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.
(didascalia)	Enter First Murderer [to the door]
MACBETH	See, they encounter thee with their hearts’ thanks. Both sides are even. Here I’ll sit, i’th’ midst. Be large in mirth. Anon we’ll drink a measure The table round. (To First Murderer) There’s blood upon thy face.
FIRST MURDERER	(aside to Macbeth) ‘Tis Banquo’s, then.
MACBETH	’Tis better thee without than he within. Is he dispatched?
FIRST MURDERER	My lord, his throat is cut. That I did for him.
MACBETH	Thou art the best o’th’ 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 cabined, cribbed, 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 th’ present. Get thee gone. Tomorrow We’ll hear ourselves again. Exit First Murderer
LADY MACBETH	My royal lord, You do not give the cheer. The feast is sold That is not often vouched, 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.
(didascalia)	Enter the Ghost of Banquo, and sits in Macbeth’s
LADY MACBETH	place
MACBETH	Sweet remembrancer. Now good digestion wait on appetite, And health on both.
LENNOX	May’t please your highness sit?
MACBETH	Here had we now our country’s honour roofed 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	(to the Ghost) Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake Thy gory locks at me.
ROSS	(rising) Gentlemen, rise. His highness is not well.
LADY MACBETH	(rising) 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. She speaks apart with Macbeth 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.
(didascalia)	Exit Ghost
LADY MACBETH	What, quite unmanned in folly?
MACBETH	If I stand here, I saw him.
LADY MACBETH	Fie, for shame!
MACBETH	Blood hath been shed ere now, i’th’ olden time, Ere human statute purged the gentle weal; Ay, and since, too, murders have been performed Too terrible for the ear. The time has 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	(aloud) 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. (To an attendant) Give me some wine. Fill full.
(didascalia)	Enter Ghost
MACBETH	I drink to th’ general joy of th’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. They drink
MACBETH	(seeing the Ghost) 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 armed rhinoceros, or th‘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 mock’ry, hence!
(didascalia)	Exit Ghost
MACBETH	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. 116 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.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Lords
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 maggot-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 sayst 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 tomorrow, 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 Stepped 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 scanned.
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. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Banchetto apparecchiato. Entrano Macbeth come Re, Lady Macbeth come Regina, Ross, Lennox, Signori e seguito. Lady
(didascalia)	Macbeth siede
MACBETH	Conoscete i vostri gradi; sedete. Dal primo all’ultimo il cordiale benvenuto.
SIGNORI	Grazie a vostra maestà. Siedono
MACBETH	Noi stessi ci mescoleremo alla compagnia e faremo l’umile ospite. La nostra ospite tiene il suo seggio, ma al tempo migliore chiederemo il suo benvenuto.
LADY MACBETH	Pronunciatelo per me, signore, a tutti i nostri amici, ché il mio cuore dice che sono benvenuti.
(didascalia)	Entra il Primo Assassino [alla porta]
MACBETH	Vedete, vi incontrano coi ringraziamenti dei loro cuori. I due lati sono pari. Qui siederò, nel mezzo. Siate larghi d’allegria. Tra poco berremo un giro attorno alla tavola. (Al Primo Assassino) C’è del sangue sul tuo volto.
PRIMO ASSASSINO	(a parte a Macbeth) È di Banquo, allora.
MACBETH	Meglio fuori su di te che dentro in lui. È spacciato?
PRIMO ASSASSINO	Mio signore, ha la gola tagliata. Questo gli feci io.
MACBETH	Sei il migliore degli sgozzatori. Pure è bravo anche colui che fece altrettanto a Fleance. Se lo facesti tu, non hai pari.
PRIMO ASSASSINO	Regalissimo signore, Fleance è scampato.
MACBETH	Allora mi torna l’accesso; altrimenti sarei stato perfetto, intero come il marmo, fondato come la roccia, ampio e universale come l’aria che tutto avvolge, ma ora sono ingabbiato, rinchiuso, confinato, legato a insolenti dubbi e paure. Ma Banquo è al sicuro?
PRIMO ASSASSINO	Sì, mio buon signore. Al sicuro in un fosso egli sta, con venti squarci scavati nel capo, il minore dei quali è morte per la natura.
MACBETH	Grazie di questo. Là giace il serpente adulto. Il verme che è fuggito ha natura tale che col tempo genererà veleno, ma per ora non ha denti. Vattene. Domani ci parleremo di nuovo. Esce il Primo Assassino
LADY MACBETH	Mio regale signore, voi non fate gli onori. È venduto il banchetto che non sia spesso garantito, mentre si prepara, ch’è dato di buon grado. Per nutrirsi sarebbe meglio stare a casa. Fuori di là, la salsa alle vivande è la cerimonia, nudo sarebbe il ritrovarsi senza di essa.
(didascalia)	Entra il Fantasma di Banquo, e siede al posto di
LADY MACBETH	Macbeth
MACBETH	Dolce ammonitrice. Ora la buona digestione accompagni l’appetito, e la salute entrambi.
LENNOX	Piaccia a vostra altezza sedere?
MACBETH	Qui avremmo ora sotto un tetto l’onore del nostro paese se fosse presente la graziosa persona del nostro Banquo, che vorrei piuttosto accusare di scortesia che compiangere per disgrazia.
ROSS	La sua assenza, signore, getta biasimo sulla sua promessa. Piaccia a vostra altezza onorarci della vostra regale compagnia?
MACBETH	La tavola è piena.
LENNOX	Qui c’è un posto riservato, signore.
MACBETH	Dove?
LENNOX	Qui, mio buon signore. Che cosa turba vostra altezza?
MACBETH	Chi di voi ha fatto questo?
SIGNORI	Che cosa, mio buon signore?
MACBETH	(al Fantasma) Tu non puoi dire che l’ho fatto io. Non scuotere mai verso di me le tue chiome insanguinate.
ROSS	(alzandosi) Signori, alzatevi. Sua altezza non sta bene.
LADY MACBETH	(alzandosi) Sedete, degni amici. Il mio signore è spesso così, e lo è stato fin dalla giovinezza. Vi prego, restate seduti. L’accesso è momentaneo. In un attimo starà di nuovo bene. Se troppo lo osservate lo offenderete, e prolungherete il suo travaglio. Mangiate, e non badate a lui. Parla in disparte con Macbeth Siete un uomo?
MACBETH	Sì, e ardito, che oso guardare ciò che potrebbe atterrire il diavolo.
LADY MACBETH	Oh, bella roba! Questa è proprio la pittura della vostra paura; questo è il pugnale disegnato nell’aria che diceste vi condusse a Duncan. Oh, questi sussulti e trasalimenti, impostori della vera paura, starebbero bene a un racconto di donna presso il fuoco d’inverno garantito dalla nonna. Vergogna in persona, perché fate simili smorfie? Quando tutto è detto voi guardate soltanto uno sgabello.
MACBETH	Ti prego, guarda là. Ecco, guarda, vedi-che dici? Ma che m’importa? Se puoi annuire, parla anche! Se gli ossari e le nostre tombe devono rimandare quelli che seppelliamo, i nostri monumenti saranno i ventri dei nibbi.
(didascalia)	Esce il Fantasma
LADY MACBETH	Come, tutto svirilito dalla follia?
MACBETH	Com’è vero che sto qui, l’ho visto.
LADY MACBETH	Vergogna, vergogna!
MACBETH	Sangue è stato versato anche prima d’ora, nell’antico tempo, prima che la legge umana purgasse il mite consorzio; sì, e anche dopo, si sono compiuti assassinii troppo terribili per l’orecchio. Ci fu un tempo in cui, quando le cervella erano fuori, l’uomo moriva, e lì finiva. Ma ora essi risorgono con venti mortali ferite sul capo, e ci spingono via dai nostri sgabelli. Questo è più strano di quanto lo sia un tale assassinio.
LADY MACBETH	(ad alta voce) Mio degno signore, i vostri nobili amici sentono la vostra mancanza.
MACBETH	Dimentico. Non stupitevi di me, miei degnissimi amici. Ho una strana infermità che è nulla per quelli che mi conoscono. Suvvia, amore e salute a tutti, poi mi siederò. (A un servo) Datemi del vino. Riempite fino all’orlo.
(didascalia)	Entra il Fantasma
MACBETH	Bevo alla gioia comune di tutta la tavola, e al nostro caro amico Banquo, che ci manca. Fosse qui. Di tutti e di lui abbiamo sete, e tutti a tutti.
SIGNORI	I nostri omaggi, e il brindisi. Bevono
MACBETH	(vedendo il Fantasma) Via, e sgombra dalla mia vista! Ti nasconda la terra. Le tue ossa sono senza midollo, il tuo sangue è freddo. Non v’è vista in quegli occhi coi quali sbarri lo sguardo.
LADY MACBETH	Considerate questo, buoni pari, solo come cosa consueta. Non è altro; soltanto guasta il piacere del momento.
MACBETH	Ciò che un uomo osa, io oso. Avvicinati come il ruvido orso russo, il rinoceronte corazzato, o la tigre ircana; prendi qualunque forma tranne quella, e i miei saldi nervi non tremeranno mai. Oppure torna vivo, e sfidami nel deserto con la tua spada. Se allora tremando mi rintano, proclamami il bimbo d’una bambina. Via, orribile ombra, irreale scherno, via!
(didascalia)	Esce il Fantasma
MACBETH	Ecco, essendo andato, sono di nuovo un uomo. Vi prego, restate seduti.
LADY MACBETH	Avete scacciato l’allegria, rotto il buon ritrovo con un disordine da far stupore.
MACBETH	Possono simili cose accadere e sopraffarci come una nuvola d’estate, senza il nostro speciale stupore? Mi rendete estraneo perfino all’indole che mi appartiene, quando ora penso che voi potete contemplare tali visioni e conservare il rubino naturale delle vostre guance mentre il mio è sbiancato dalla paura. Ross Quali visioni, mio signore?
LADY MACBETH	Vi prego, non parlate. Peggiora sempre più. 116 Le domande lo infuriano. Subito, buona notte. Non state a badare all’ordine dell’uscire, ma andate all’istante.
LENNOX	Buona notte, e miglior salute assista sua maestà.
LADY MACBETH	Una cortese buonanotte a tutti.
(didascalia)	Escono i Signori
MACBETH	Vorrà sangue, dicono. Il sangue vuole sangue. S’è saputo di pietre che si muovono, e d’alberi che parlano, àuguri e nessi intesi hanno per mezzo di gazze, gracchi e corvi svelato l’uomo di sangue più segreto. A che punto è la notte?
LADY MACBETH	Quasi in lite col mattino, su quale sia quale.
MACBETH	Che ne dici che Macduff nega la sua persona al nostro grande invito?
LADY MACBETH	Avete mandato a chiamarlo, signore?
MACBETH	Lo sento per via indiretta, ma manderò. Non ce n’è uno solo nella cui casa io non tenga un servo prezzolato. Domani andrò, e per tempo andrò, dalle sorelle fatali. Di più dovranno parlare, ché ora son deciso a sapere coi mezzi peggiori il peggio. Per il mio proprio bene ogni causa cederà il passo. Sono nel sangue immerso tanto avanti che, se non guadassi oltre, tornare indietro sarebbe faticoso quanto passare. Ho in capo strane cose che vogliono venire alle mani, e devono essere agite prima d’esser scrutate.
LADY MACBETH	Vi manca il condimento di tutte le nature, il sonno.
MACBETH	Vieni, andremo a dormire. Il mio strano inganno di me stesso è la paura del novizio cui manca il duro esercizio. Siamo ancora giovani nell’azione. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Thunder. Enter the three Witches meeting Hecate
FIRST WITCH	Why, how now, Hecate? You look angerly.
HECATE	Have I not reason, beldams as you are? Saucy and over-bold, how did you dare To trade and traffic with Macbeth In riddles and affairs of death, And I, the mistress of your charms, The close contriver of all harms, Was never called to bear my part Or show the glory of our art?— And, which is worse, all you have done 10 Hath been but for a wayward son, Spiteful and wrathful, who, as others do, Loves for his own ends, not for you. But make amends now. Get you gone, And at the pit of Acheron Meet me i‘th’ morning. Thither he Will come to know his destiny. Your vessels and your spells provide, Your charms and everything beside. I am for th’air. This night I’ll spend Unto a dismal and a fatal end. Great business must be wrought ere noon. Upon the corner of the moon There hangs a vap‘rous drop profound. I’ll catch it ere it come to ground, And that, distilled by magic sleights, Shall raise such artificial sprites As by the strength of their illusion Shall draw him on to his confusion. He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear His hopes ’bove wisdom, grace, and fear; And you all know security Is mortals’ chiefest enemy.
SPIRITS	(singing dispersedly within) Come away, come away. Hecate, Hecate, come away.
HECATE	Hark, I am called! My little spirit, see, Sits in a foggy cloud and stays for me. The Song
(didascalia)	SPIRITS within
HECATE	Come away, come away, Hecate, Hecate, come away.
HECATE	I come, I come, I come, I come, With all the speed I may, With all the speed I may. Where’s Stadlin?
(didascalia)	SPIRIT within
HECATE	Here.
HECATE	Where’s Puckle?
(didascalia)	ANOTHER SPIRIT within
HECATE	Here.
(didascalia)	OTHER SPIRITS within
HECATE	And Hoppo, too, and Hellwain, too, We lack but you, we lack but you. Come away, make up the count.
HECATE	I will but ’noint, and then I mount.
(didascalia)	Spirits appear above. A Spirit like a Cat descends
(didascalia)	SPIRITS above
HECATE	There’s one comes down to fetch his dues, A kiss, a coll, a sip of blood, And why thou stay’st so long I muse, I muse, Since the air’s so sweet and good.
HECATE	O, art thou come? What news, what news?
SPIRIT LIKE	A CAT All goes still to our delight. Either come, or else refuse, refuse.
HECATE	Now I am furnished for the flight. She ascends with the spirit and sings Now I go, now I fly, Malkin my sweet spirit and I.
(didascalia)	SPIRITS and HECATE
HECATE	O what a dainty pleasure ‘tis To ride in the air When the moon shines fair, And sing, and dance, and toy, and kiss. Over woods, high rocks and mountains, Over seas and misty fountains, Over steeples, towers and turrets, We fly by night ’mongst troops of spirits. No ring of bells to our ears sounds, No howls of wolves, no yelps of hounds. No, not the noise of waters-breach Or cannons’ throat our height can reach.
(didascalia)	SPIRITS abovel
HECATE	No ring of bells to our ears sounds, No howls of wolves, no yelps of hounds. No, not the noise of waters-breach Or cannons’ throat our height can reach.
(didascalia)	Exeunt into the heavens the
HECATE	Spirit like a Cat and Hecate
FIRST WITCH	Come, let’s make haste. She’ll soon be back again.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Tuono. Entrano le tre Streghe incontrando Ecate
PRIMA STREGA	Ebbene, che c’è, Ecate? Hai l’aria adirata.
ECATE	Non ne ho ragione, megere quali siete? Insolenti e troppo ardite, come avete osato trafficare e mercanteggiare con Macbeth in enigmi e faccende di morte, e io, padrona dei vostri incanti, segreta ordinatrice d’ogni male, non fui mai chiamata a fare la mia parte o a mostrare la gloria dell’arte nostra?— E, ciò ch’è peggio, tutto quel che avete fatto 10 è stato solo per un figlio capriccioso, dispettoso e iracondo, che, come fanno gli altri, ama per i propri fini, non per voi. Ma rimediate ora. Andatevene, e al pozzo dell’Acheronte trovatevi con me al mattino. Là egli verrà a conoscere il suo destino. Preparate i vostri vasi e i vostri sortilegi, i vostri incanti e ogni altra cosa. Io vado per l’aria. Questa notte la spenderò per un fine tetro e fatale. Grandi cose devono compiersi prima del mezzogiorno. Sul corno della luna pende una goccia vaporosa e profonda. La coglierò prima che tocchi terra, e quella, distillata con astuzie di magia, farà sorgere tali spiriti artificiali che con la forza della loro illusione lo trascineranno alla sua rovina. Egli sprezzerà il fato, schernirà la morte, e porterà le sue speranze sopra saggezza, grazia e paura; e tutti sapete che la sicurezza è il nemico principale dei mortali.
SPIRITI	(cantando sparsi all’interno) Vieni via, vieni via. Ecate, Ecate, vieni via.
ECATE	Ascoltate, sono chiamata! Il mio piccolo spirito, vedete, siede in una nuvola di nebbia e m’aspetta. Il Canto
(didascalia)	SPIRITI all’interno
ECATE	Vieni via, vieni via, Ecate, Ecate, vieni via.
ECATE	Vengo, vengo, vengo, vengo, con tutta la rapidità che posso, con tutta la rapidità che posso. Dov’è Stadlin?
(didascalia)	SPIRITO all’interno
ECATE	Qui.
ECATE	Dov’è Puckle?
(didascalia)	UN ALTRO SPIRITO all’interno
ECATE	Qui.
(didascalia)	ALTRI SPIRITI all’interno
ECATE	E anche Hoppo, e anche Hellwain, manchi solo tu, manchi solo tu. Vieni via, completa il conto.
ECATE	M’ungerò soltanto, e poi salgo.
(didascalia)	Gli spiriti appaiono in alto. Uno Spirito in forma di Gatto discende
(didascalia)	SPIRITI in alto
ECATE	Ecco uno che scende a prendersi il suo dovuto, un bacio, un abbraccio, un sorso di sangue, e perché tanto indugi mi domando, mi domando, ché l’aria è così dolce e buona.
ECATE	Oh, sei venuto? Che nuove, che nuove?
SPIRITO IN FORMA	DI GATTO Tutto va tranquillo a nostro diletto. O vieni, oppure rifiuta, rifiuta.
ECATE	Ora son fornita per il volo. Ascende con lo spirito e canta Ora vado, ora volo, Malkin mio dolce spirito ed io.
(didascalia)	SPIRITI ed ECATE
ECATE	Oh che delizioso piacere è cavalcare per l’aria quando la luna splende chiara, e cantare, e danzare, e scherzare, e baciare. Sopra boschi, alte rupi e montagne, sopra mari e fonti nebbiose, sopra campanili, torri e torrette, voliamo di notte tra schiere di spiriti. Nessun suono di campane giunge ai nostri orecchi, nessun ululato di lupi, nessun latrato di cani. No, né il fragore delle acque che rompono né la gola dei cannoni può raggiungere la nostra altezza.
(didascalia)	SPIRITI in alto
ECATE	Nessun suono di campane giunge ai nostri orecchi, nessun ululato di lupi, nessun latrato di cani. No, né il fragore delle acque che rompono né la gola dei cannoni può raggiungere la nostra altezza.
(didascalia)	Escono verso i cieli lo
ECATE	Spirito in forma di Gatto ed Ecate
PRIMA STREGA	Venite, affrettiamoci. Tornerà presto.
(didascalia)	Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Lennox and another Lord
LENNOX	My former speeches have but hit your thoughts, Which can interpret farther. Only I say Things have been strangely borne. The gracious Duncan Was pitied of Macbeth: marry, he was dead; And the right valiant Banquo walked too late, Whom you may say, if’t please you, Fleance killed, For Fleance fled: men must not walk too late. Who cannot want the thought how monstrous It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain To kill their gracious father? Damned fact, How it did grieve Macbeth! Did he not straight In pious rage the two delinquents tear, That were the slaves of drink, and thralls of sleep? Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely too, For ‘twould have angered any heart alive To hear the men deny’t. So that I say He has borne all things well, and I do think That had he Duncan’s sons under his key— As, an’t please heaven, he shall not—they should find What ’twere to kill a father. So should Fleance. But peace, for from broad words, and ’cause he failed His presence at the tyrant’s feast, I hear Macduff lives in disgrace. Sir, can you tell Where he bestows himself?
LORD	The son of Duncan From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth Lives in the English court, and is received Of the most pious Edward with such grace That the malevolence of fortune nothing Takes from his high respect. Thither Macduff Is gone to pray the holy King upon his aid To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward, That by the help of these—with Him above To ratify the work—we may again Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights, Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives, Do faithful homage, and receive free honours, All which we pine for now. And this report Hath so exasperate their king that he Prepares for some attempt of war.
LENNOX	Sent he to Macduff?
LORD	He did, and with an absolute ‘Sir, not I,’ The cloudy messenger turns me his back And hums, as who should say ‘You’ll rue the time That clogs me with this answer.’
LENNOX	And that well might Advise him to a caution t’hold what,distance His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel Fly to the court of England and unfold His message ere he come, that a swift blessing May soon return to this our suffering country Under a hand accursed.
LORD	I’ll send my prayers with him. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano Lennox e un altro Signore
LENNOX	I miei discorsi di prima non hanno che incontrato i vostri pensieri, che possono interpretare più oltre. Dico soltanto che le cose sono andate stranamente. Il benigno Duncan fu compianto da Macbeth: già, era morto; e il valorosissimo Banquo camminò troppo tardi, e potete dire, se vi piace, che Fleance lo uccise, ché Fleance fuggì: non si deve camminare troppo tardi. Chi può non pensare quanto mostruoso fosse per Malcolm e per Donalbain uccidere il loro benigno padre? Atto dannato, come addolorò Macbeth! Non fece egli subito a pezzi, in pia collera, i due colpevoli, che erano schiavi del bere e servi del sonno? Non fu nobilmente fatto? Sì, e anche saggiamente, ché avrebbe irritato ogni cuore vivente udire quegli uomini negarlo. Sicché io dico ch’egli ha condotto ogni cosa bene, e penso che se avesse i figli di Duncan sotto chiave— come, piaccia al cielo, non avrà—troverebbero che cosa sia uccidere un padre. Così pure Fleance. Ma taciamo, ché per parole troppo aperte, e perché mancò di presenza al banchetto del tiranno, odo che Macduff vive in disgrazia. Signore, sapete dirmi dove si è rifugiato?
SIGNORE	Il figlio di Duncan al quale questo tiranno tiene il dovuto della nascita vive alla corte inglese, ed è accolto dal piissimo Edoardo con tal grazia che la malevolenza della fortuna nulla toglie all’alta stima che ne ha. Là Macduff è andato a pregare il santo Re del suo aiuto per destare il Northumberland e il bellicoso Siward, affinché col soccorso di questi—con Colui lassù a ratificare l’opera—possiamo di nuovo dare alle nostre mense il cibo, il sonno alle nostre notti, liberare dalle nostre feste e banchetti i coltelli insanguinati, rendere fedele omaggio, e ricevere liberi onori, tutte cose per le quali ora ci struggiamo. E questo rapporto ha talmente esasperato il loro re ch’egli si prepara a qualche impresa di guerra.
LENNOX	Mandò a Macduff?
SIGNORE	Sì, e a un assoluto ‘Signore, io no,’ il fosco messaggero mi volta la schiena e borbotta, come a dire ‘Rimpiangerai il tempo che m’intralcia con questa risposta.’
LENNOX	E ciò ben potrebbe consigliarlo alla cautela di tenere quella,distanza che la sua saggezza sappia procurargli. Qualche santo angelo voli alla corte d’Inghilterra e riveli il suo messaggio prima ch’egli giunga, sì che una rapida benedizione possa presto tornare a questo nostro paese sofferente sotto una mano maledetta.
SIGNORE	Manderò con lui le mie preghiere. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	A Cauldron. Thunder. Enter the three Witches
FIRST WITCH	Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed.
SECOND WITCH	Thrice, and once the hedge-pig whined.
THIRD WITCH	Harpier cries “Tis time, ‘tis time.’
FIRST WITCH	Round about the cauldron go, In the poisoned entrails throw. Toad that under cold stone Days and nights has thirty-one Sweltered venom sleeping got, Boil thou first i’th’ charmed pot.
ALL	Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
SECOND WITCH	Fillet of a fenny snake, In the cauldron boil and bake. Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog, Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting, Lizard’s leg and owlet’s wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
ALL	Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
THIRD WITCH	Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf, Witches’ mummy, maw and gulf Of the ravined salt-sea shark, Root of hemlock digged i‘th’ dark, Liver of blaspheming Jew, Gall of goat, and slips of yew Slivered in the moon’s eclipse, Nose of Turk, and Tartar’s lips, Finger of birth-strangled babe Ditch-delivered by a drab, Make the gruel thick and slab. Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron For th’ingredience of our cauldron.
ALL	Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
SECOND WITCH	Cool it with a baboon’s blood, Then the charm is firm and good.
(didascalia)	Enter Hecate and the other three Witches
HECATE	O, well done! I commend your pains, And everyone shall share i’th’ gains. And now about the cauldron sing Like elves and fairies in a ring, Enchanting all that you put in.
(didascalia)	Music and a song
HECATE	Black spirits and white, red spirits and grey, Mingle, mingle, mingle, you that mingle may.
FOURTH WITCH	Titty, Tiffin, keep it stiff in; Firedrake, Puckey, make it lucky; Liard, Robin, you must bob in.
ALL	Round, around, around, about, about, All ill come running in, all good keep out.
FOURTH WITCH	Here’s the blood of a bat.
HECATE	Put in that, O put in that!
FIFTH WITCH	Here’s leopard’s bane.
HECATE	Put in a grain.
FOURTH WITCH	The juice of toad, the oil of adder.
FIFTH WITCH	Those will make the younker madder.
HECATE	Put in, there’s all, and rid the stench. A WITCH Nay, here’s three ounces of a red-haired wench.
ALL	Round, around, around, about, about, All ill come running in, all good keep out.
SECOND WITCH	By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.
(didascalia)	Knock within
SECOND WITCH	Open, locks, whoever knocks.
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth
MACBETH	How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags, What is’t you do?
ALL THE WITCHES	A deed without a name.
MACBETH	I conjure you by that which you profess, Howe’er you come to know it, answer me. Though you untie the winds and let them fight Against the churches, though the yeasty waves Confound and swallow navigation up, Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down, Though castles topple on their warders’ heads, Though palaces and pyramids do slope Their heads to their foundations, though the treasure Of nature’s germens tumble all together Even till destruction sicken, answer me To what I ask you.
FIRST WITCH	Speak.
SECOND WITCH	Demand.
THIRD WITCH	We’ll answer.
FIRST WITCH	Say if thou’dst rather hear it from our mouths Or from our masters.
MACBETH	Call ‘em, let me see ’em.
FIRST WITCH	Pour in sow’s blood that hath eaten 80 Her nine farrow; grease that’s sweaten From the murderer’s gibbet throw Into the flame.
ALL THE WITCHES	Come high or low, Thyself and office deftly show.
(didascalia)	Thunder. First Apparition: an armed head
MACBETH	Tell me, thou unknown power—
FIRST WITCH	He knows thy thought. Hear his speech, but say thou naught.
FIRST APPARITION	Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth, beware Macduff, Beware the Thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough. Apparition descends
MACBETH	Whate’er thou art, for thy good caution thanks. Thou hast harped my fear aright. But one word more—
FIRST WITCH	He will not be commanded. Here’s another, More potent than the first.
(didascalia)	Thunder. Second Apparition: a bloody child
SECOND APPARITION	Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth.
MACBETH	Had I three ears I’d hear thee.
SECOND APPARITION	Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn The power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth. Apparition descends
MACBETH	Then live, Macduff—what need I fear of thee? But yet I’ll make assurance double sure, And take a bond of fate thou shalt not live, That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies, And sleep in spite of thunder.
(didascalia)	Thunder. Third Apparition: a child crowned, with a
MACBETH	tree in his hand What is this That rises like the issue of a king, And wears upon his baby-brow the round And top of sovereignty?
ALL THE WITCHES	Listen, but speak not to’t.
THIRD APPARITION	Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are. Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill Shall come against him. Apparition descends
MACBETH	That will never be. Who can impress the forest, bid the tree Unfix his earth-bound root? Sweet bodements, good! Rebellious dead, rise never till the wood Of Birnam rise, and on’s high place Macbeth Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath To time and mortal custom. Yet my heart Throbs to know one thing. Tell me, if your art Can tell so much, shall Banquo’s issue ever Reign in this kingdom?
ALL THE WITCHES	Seek to know no more.
MACBETH	I will be satisfied. Deny me this, And an eternal curse fall on you! Let me know. The cauldron sinks. Hautboys Why sinks that cauldron? And what noise is this?
FIRST WITCH	Show.
SECOND WITCH	Show.
THIRD WITCH	Show.
ALL THE WITCHES	Show his eyes and grieve his heart, Come like shadows, so depart. A show of eight kings, the last with a glass in his hand; and Banquo
MACBETH	Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo. Down! Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs. And thy hair, Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first. A third is like the former. Filthy hags, Why do you show me this?—A fourth? Start, eyes! What, will the line stretch out to th’ crack of doom? Another yet? A seventh? I’ll see no more— And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass Which shows me many more; and some I see That twofold balls and treble sceptres carry. Horrible sight! Now I see ’tis true, For the blood-baltered Banquo smiles upon me, And points at them for his.
(didascalia)	Exeunt kings and Banquo
MACBETH	What, is this so?
(didascalia)	HECATE
MACBETH	Ay, sir, all this is so. But why Stands Macbeth thus amazedly? Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites, And show the best of our delights. I’ll charm the air to give a sound While you perform your antic round, That this great king may kindly say Our duties did his welcome pay.
(didascalia)	Music. The Witches dance, and vanish
MACBETH	Where are they? Gone? Let this pernicious hour Stand aye accursed in the calendar. Come in, without there.
(didascalia)	Enter Lennox
LENNOX	What’s your grace’s will?
MACBETH	Saw you the weird sisters?
LENNOX	No, my lord.
MACBETH	Came they not by you?
LENNOX	No, indeed, my lord.
MACBETH	Infected be the air whereon they ride, And damned all those that trust them. I did hear The galloping of horse. Who was’t came by?
LENNOX	’Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word Macduff is fled to England.
MACBETH	Fled to England?
LENNOX	Ay, my good lord.
MACBETH	(aside) Time, thou anticipat‘st my dread exploits. The flighty purpose never is o’ertook Unless the deed go with it. From this moment The very firstlings of my heart shall be The firstlings of my hand. And even now, To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done: 165 The castle of Macduff I will surprise, Seize upon Fife, give to th‘edge o’th’ sword His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool; This deed I’ll do before this purpose cool. But no more sights! (To Lennox) Where are these gentlemen? Come bring me where they are.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Un Calderone. Tuono. Entrano le tre Streghe
PRIMA STREGA	Tre volte ha miagolato il gatto striato.
SECONDA STREGA	Tre volte, e una il porcospino ha guaito.
TERZA STREGA	Harpier grida “È tempo, è tempo.’
PRIMA STREGA	Attorno al calderone girate, nelle viscere avvelenate gettate. Rospo che sotto fredda pietra giorni e notti trentuno dormendo ha sudato veleno, bolli tu primo nella pentola incantata.
TUTTE	Doppia, doppia, fatica e travaglio, Fuoco brucia, e calderone gorgoglia.
SECONDA STREGA	Filetto di serpe palustre, nel calderone bolli e cuoci. Occhio di tritone e dito di rana, lana di pipistrello e lingua di cane, forca di vipera e pungiglione d’orbettino, zampa di lucertola e ala di gufetto, per un incanto di potente travaglio, come brodo d’inferno bolli e gorgoglia.
TUTTE	Doppia, doppia, fatica e travaglio, Fuoco brucia, e calderone gorgoglia.
TERZA STREGA	Squama di drago, dente di lupo, mummia di streghe, gola e ventre del pescecane ingordo del mare salso, radice di cicuta scavata nel buio, fegato di giudeo bestemmiatore, fiele di capra, e rametti di tasso staccati nell’eclissi della luna, naso di turco, e labbra di tartaro, dito di bimbo strangolato alla nascita partorito in un fosso da una sgualdrina, rendano la broda densa e vischiosa. Aggiungi a ciò le interiora d’una tigre per l’ingrediente del nostro calderone.
TUTTE	Doppia, doppia, fatica e travaglio, Fuoco brucia, e calderone gorgoglia.
SECONDA STREGA	Raffreddalo col sangue d’un babbuino, e allora l’incanto è fermo e buono.
(didascalia)	Entrano Ecate e le altre tre Streghe
ECATE	Oh, ben fatto! Lodo le vostre pene, e ciascuna avrà la sua parte nei guadagni. E ora attorno al calderone cantate come elfi e fate in cerchio, incantando tutto ciò che vi mettete dentro.
(didascalia)	Musica e un canto
ECATE	Spiriti neri e bianchi, spiriti rossi e grigi, mescolate, mescolate, mescolate, voi che mescolar potete.
QUARTA STREGA	Titty, Tiffin, tenetelo saldo; Firedrake, Puckey, rendetelo propizio; Liard, Robin, dovete tuffarvi dentro.
TUTTE	In giro, attorno, attorno, intorno, intorno, ogni male venga correndo dentro, ogni bene resti fuori.
QUARTA STREGA	Ecco il sangue d’un pipistrello.
ECATE	Mettete quello, oh mettete quello!
QUINTA STREGA	Ecco l’aconito del leopardo.
ECATE	Mettetene un grano.
QUARTA STREGA	Il succo del rospo, l’olio della vipera.
QUINTA STREGA	Quelli faranno il giovinetto più folle.
ECATE	Mettete dentro, c’è tutto, e togliete il fetore. Una STREGA Anzi, ecco tre once d’una ragazza dai capelli rossi.
TUTTE	In giro, attorno, attorno, intorno, intorno, ogni male venga correndo dentro, ogni bene resti fuori.
SECONDA STREGA	Per il pizzicore dei miei pollici, qualcosa di malvagio viene per di qua.
(didascalia)	Si bussa all’interno
SECONDA STREGA	Apritevi, serrature, chiunque bussi.
(didascalia)	Entra Macbeth
MACBETH	Ebbene, voi segrete, nere e mezzanotturne megere, che cosa fate?
TUTTE LE STREGHE	Un atto senza nome.
MACBETH	Vi scongiuro per ciò che professate, comunque giungiate a saperlo, rispondetemi. Anche se scioglieste i venti e li lasciaste combattere contro le chiese, anche se le onde spumose confondessero e inghiottissero la navigazione, anche se il grano in spiga fosse abbattuto e gli alberi atterrati, anche se i castelli rovinassero sul capo dei loro guardiani, anche se palazzi e piramidi chinassero le loro cime alle loro fondamenta, anche se il tesoro dei germi della natura precipitasse tutto insieme fino a che la distruzione stessa ne avesse nausea, rispondetemi a ciò che vi domando.
PRIMA STREGA	Parla.
SECONDA STREGA	Domanda.
TERZA STREGA	Risponderemo.
PRIMA STREGA	Di’ se preferisci udirlo dalle nostre bocche o dai nostri padroni.
MACBETH	Chiamateli, fatemeli vedere.
PRIMA STREGA	Versa sangue di scrofa che ha divorato 80 i suoi nove porcellini; grasso sudato dalla forca dell’assassino getta nella fiamma.
TUTTE LE STREGHE	Vieni da alto o da basso, mostra con destrezza te stesso e il tuo ufficio.
(didascalia)	Tuono. Prima Apparizione: una testa armata
MACBETH	Dimmi, tu potenza sconosciuta—
PRIMA STREGA	Egli conosce il tuo pensiero. Odi il suo discorso, ma tu non dir nulla.
PRIMA APPARIZIONE	Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth, guardati da Macduff, guardati dal Thane di Fife. Congedami. Basta. L’Apparizione discende
MACBETH	Qualunque cosa tu sia, grazie del tuo buon avvertimento. Hai toccato giusto la corda della mia paura. Ma un’altra parola ancora—
PRIMA STREGA	Non vuole essere comandato. Eccone un altro, più potente del primo.
(didascalia)	Tuono. Seconda Apparizione: un bambino insanguinato
SECONDA APPARIZIONE	Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth.
MACBETH	Avessi tre orecchi ti udirei.
SECONDA APPARIZIONE	Sii sanguinario, ardito e risoluto. Ridi con scherno del potere dell’uomo, ché nessuno nato di donna potrà nuocere a Macbeth. L’Apparizione discende
MACBETH	Allora vivi, Macduff—che bisogno ho di temerti? Eppure voglio rendere doppiamente sicura la sicurezza, e prendere dal fato un pegno che tu non vivrai, sì ch’io possa dire alla paura dal pallido cuore che mente, e dormire a dispetto del tuono.
(didascalia)	Tuono. Terza Apparizione: un bambino incoronato, con un
MACBETH	albero in mano Che cos’è questo che sorge come il rampollo d’un re, e porta sulla sua fronte di bimbo il cerchio e la sommità della sovranità?
TUTTE LE STREGHE	Ascolta, ma non parlargli.
TERZA APPARIZIONE	Sii di tempra di leone, superbo, e non curarti di chi s’adira, chi si rode, o dove siano i congiurati. Macbeth non sarà mai vinto finché la gran selva di Birnam all’alto Colle di Dunsinane non venga contro di lui. L’Apparizione discende
MACBETH	Questo non sarà mai. Chi può arruolare la foresta, ordinare all’albero di sciogliere la sua radice legata alla terra? Dolci presagi, bene! Morti ribelli, non risorgete mai finché il bosco di Birnam non sorga, e sul suo alto seggio Macbeth vivrà il termine concesso dalla natura, pagherà il suo respiro al tempo e all’usanza mortale. Pure il mio cuore palpita di sapere una cosa. Ditemi, se la vostra arte può dire tanto, la progenie di Banquo regnerà mai in questo regno?
TUTTE LE STREGHE	Non cercare di saper altro.
MACBETH	Voglio essere soddisfatto. Negatemi questo, e un’eterna maledizione cada su voi! Fatemi sapere. Il calderone sprofonda. Oboi Perché sprofonda quel calderone? E che rumore è questo?
PRIMA STREGA	Mostra.
SECONDA STREGA	Mostra.
TERZA STREGA	Mostra.
TUTTE LE STREGHE	Mostrate ai suoi occhi e affliggete il suo cuore, venite come ombre, così partite. Una sfilata di otto re, l’ultimo con uno specchio in mano; e Banquo
MACBETH	Sei troppo simile allo spirito di Banquo. Giù! La tua corona mi brucia le pupille. E i tuoi capelli, tu altra fronte cinta d’oro, sono come i primi. Un terzo è come il precedente. Sozze megere, perché mi mostrate questo?—Un quarto? Sbalzate, occhi! Come, la linea si stenderà fino allo schianto del giudizio? Un altro ancora? Un settimo? Non voglio veder più— eppure appare l’ottavo, che porta uno specchio che me ne mostra molti altri; e alcuni ne vedo che portano duplici globi e triplici scettri. Vista orribile! Ora vedo ch’è vero, ché Banquo impastato di sangue mi sorride, e li addita per suoi.
(didascalia)	Escono i re e Banquo
MACBETH	Come, è dunque così?
(didascalia)	ECATE
MACBETH	Sì, signore, tutto questo è così. Ma perché sta Macbeth così sbalordito? Venite, sorelle, rallegriamogli gli spiriti, e mostriamo il meglio dei nostri diletti. Incanterò l’aria a dare un suono mentre voi compite la vostra bizzarra ridda, sì che questo gran re possa cortesemente dire che i nostri omaggi hanno pagato il suo benvenuto.
(didascalia)	Musica. Le Streghe danzano, e svaniscono
MACBETH	Dove sono? Sparite? Quest’ora perniciosa resti per sempre maledetta nel calendario. Entrate, olà, voi là fuori.
(didascalia)	Entra Lennox
LENNOX	Qual è il volere di vostra grazia?
MACBETH	Avete visto le sorelle fatali?
LENNOX	No, mio signore.
MACBETH	Non vi sono passate accanto?
LENNOX	No, davvero, mio signore.
MACBETH	Infetta sia l’aria su cui cavalcano, e dannati tutti quelli che si fidano di loro. Ho udito il galoppo d’un cavallo. Chi è passato?
LENNOX	Sono due o tre, mio signore, che vi portano notizia che Macduff è fuggito in Inghilterra.
MACBETH	Fuggito in Inghilterra?
LENNOX	Sì, mio buon signore.
MACBETH	(a parte) Tempo, tu previeni le mie tremende imprese. Il proposito volatile non è mai raggiunto se l’atto non l’accompagna. Da questo momento i primi nati del mio cuore saranno i primi nati della mia mano. E anche adesso, per coronare i miei pensieri con atti, sia pensato e fatto: 165 il castello di Macduff sorprenderò, m’impadronirò di Fife, darò al filo della spada sua moglie, i suoi bimbi, e tutte le anime sventurate che lo seguono nella sua linea. Nessun vanto da folle; quest’atto lo farò prima che questo proposito si raffreddi. Ma non più visioni! (A Lennox) Dove sono questi signori? Venite, conducetemi dove sono.
(didascalia)	Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Macduff’s Wife, her Son, and Ross
LADY MACDUFF	What had he done to make him fly the land?
ROSS	You must have patience, madam.
LADY MACDUFF	He had none. His flight was madness. When our actions do not, Our fears do make us traitors. Ross You know not Whether it was his wisdom or his fear.
LADY MACDUFF	Wisdom—to leave his wife, to leave his babes, His mansion, and his titles in a place From whence himself does fly? He loves us not, He wants the natural touch, for the poor wren, The most diminutive of birds, will fight, Her young ones in her nest, against the owl. All is the fear and nothing is the love; As little is the wisdom, where the flight So runs against all reason. Ross My dearest coz, I pray you school yourself. But for your husband, He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows The fits o’th’ season. I dare not speak much further, But cruel are the times when we are traitors And do not know ourselves; when we hold rumour From what we fear, yet know not what we fear, But float upon a wild and violent sea Each way and none. I take my leave of you; Shall not be long but I’ll be here again. Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward To what they were before. My pretty cousin, Blessing upon you!
LADY MACDUFF	Fathered he is, and yet he’s fatherless.
ROSS	I am so much a fool, should I stay longer It would be my disgrace and your discomfort. I take my leave at once.
(didascalia)	Exit
LADY MACDUFF	Sirrah, your father’s dead, And what will you do now? How will you live?
MACDUFF’S SON	As birds do, mother.
LADY MACDUFF	What, with worms and flies?
MACDUFF’S SON	With what I get, I mean, and so do they.
LADY MACDUFF	Poor bird, thou’dst never fear the net nor lime, The pitfall nor the gin.
MACDUFF’S SON	Why should I, mother? Poor birds they are not set for. My father is not dead, for all your saying.
LADY MACDUFF	Yes, he is dead. How wilt thou do for a father?
MACDUFF’S SON	Nay, how will you do for a husband?
LADY MACDUFF	Why, I can buy me twenty at any market.
MACDUFF’S SON	Then you’ll buy ’em to sell again.
LADY MACDUFF	Thou speak‘st with all thy wit, and yet, i’faith, with wit enough for thee.
MACDUFF’S SON	Was my father a traitor, mother?
LADY MACDUFF	Ay, that he was.
MACDUFF’S SON	What is a traitor?
LADY MACDUFF	Why, one that swears and lies.
MACDUFF’S SON	And be all traitors that do so?
LADY MACDUFF	Everyone that does so is a traitor, and must be hanged.
MACDUFF’S SON	And must they all be hanged that swear and lie?
LADY MACDUFF	Every one.
MACDUFF’S SON	Who must hang them?
LADY MACDUFF	Why, the honest men.
MACDUFF’S SON	Then the liars and swearers are fools, for there are liars and swearers enough to beat the honest men and hang up them.
LADY MACDUFF	Now God help thee, poor monkey! But how wilt thou do for a father?
MACDUFF’S SON	If he were dead you’d weep for him. If you would not, it were a good sign that I should quickly have a new father.
LADY MACDUFF	Poor prattler, how thou talk’st!
(didascalia)	Enter a Messenger
MESSENGER	Bless you, fair dame. I am not to you known, Though in your state of honour I am perfect. I doubt some danger does approach you nearly. If you will take a homely man’s advice, Be not found here. Hence with your little ones! To fright you thus methinks I am too savage, To do worse to you were fell cruelty, Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you. I dare abide no longer.
(didascalia)	Exit Messenger
LADY MACDUFF	Whither should I fly? I have done no harm. But I remember now I am in this earthly world, where to do harm Is often laudable, to do good sometime Accounted dangerous folly. Why then, alas, Do I put up that womanly defence To say I have done no harm?
(didascalia)	Enter Murderers
LADY MACDUFF	What are these faces? A MURDERER Where is your husband?
LADY MACDUFF	I hope in no place so unsanctified Where such as thou mayst find him. A MURDERER He’s a traitor.
MACDUFF’S SON	Thou liest, thou shag-haired villain. A MURDERER (stabbing him) What, you egg! Young fry of treachery!
MACDUFF’S SON	He has killed me, mother. Run away, I pray you.
(didascalia)	He dies. Exit Macduff’s Wife crying ‘Murder!’
(didascalia)	followed by Murderers with the Son’s body

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano la Moglie di Macduff, suo Figlio e Ross
LADY MACDUFF	Che aveva fatto per doversene fuggire dal paese?
ROSS	Dovete aver pazienza, signora.
LADY MACDUFF	Lui non ne ebbe. La sua fuga fu follia. Quando non lo fanno le nostre azioni, le nostre paure ci fanno traditori. Ross Voi non sapete se fu la sua saggezza o la sua paura.
LADY MACDUFF	Saggezza—lasciare la moglie, lasciare i figlioletti, la sua dimora e i suoi titoli in un luogo dal quale egli stesso fugge? Non ci ama, gli manca l’istinto naturale, ché il povero scricciolo, il più minuto degli uccelli, combatterà, coi piccoli nel nido, contro il gufo. Tutto è paura e nulla è amore; e altrettanto poca è la saggezza, quando la fuga corre così contro ogni ragione. Ross Carissima cugina, vi prego, fatevi forza. Quanto a vostro marito, egli è nobile, saggio, giudizioso, e meglio conosce gli accessi del tempo. Non oso dire molto di più, ma crudeli sono i tempi quando siamo traditori e non lo sappiamo noi stessi; quando prendiamo per verità la diceria di ciò che temiamo, e pure non sappiamo che cosa temiamo, ma galleggiamo su un mare selvaggio e violento in ogni direzione e in nessuna. Prendo congedo da voi; non passerà molto ch’io sarò di nuovo qui. Le cose al peggio cesseranno, oppure risaliranno a ciò che furono prima. Mio grazioso cuginetto, benedizione su di te!
LADY MACDUFF	Un padre ce l’ha, e pure è senza padre.
ROSS	Sono tanto sciocco che, se restassi più a lungo, sarebbe mia vergogna e vostro sconforto. Prendo congedo all’istante.
(didascalia)	Esce
LADY MACDUFF	Ragazzo, tuo padre è morto, e che farai ora? Come vivrai?
IL FIGLIO DI MACDUFF	Come fanno gli uccelli, madre.
LADY MACDUFF	Come, di vermi e di mosche?
IL FIGLIO DI MACDUFF	Di quel che trovo, voglio dire, e così fanno loro.
LADY MACDUFF	Povero uccellino, tu non temeresti mai la rete né il vischio, né la trappola né il laccio.
IL FIGLIO DI MACDUFF	Perché dovrei, madre? Non si tendono per gli uccelli poveri. Mio padre non è morto, per quanto voi lo diciate.
LADY MACDUFF	Sì, è morto. Come farai per avere un padre?
IL FIGLIO DI MACDUFF	Anzi, come farete voi per avere un marito?
LADY MACDUFF	Ma via, posso comprarmene venti in qualsiasi mercato.
IL FIGLIO DI MACDUFF	Allora li comprerete per rivenderli.
LADY MACDUFF	Parli con tutto il tuo ingegno, e pure, in fede mia, con ingegno abbastanza per te.
IL FIGLIO DI MACDUFF	Mio padre era un traditore, madre?
LADY MACDUFF	Sì, lo era.
IL FIGLIO DI MACDUFF	Che cos’è un traditore?
LADY MACDUFF	Ma uno che giura e mente.
IL FIGLIO DI MACDUFF	E sono tutti traditori quelli che fanno così?
LADY MACDUFF	Ognuno che fa così è un traditore, e dev’essere impiccato.
IL FIGLIO DI MACDUFF	E devono essere impiccati tutti quelli che giurano e mentono?
LADY MACDUFF	Ognuno.
IL FIGLIO DI MACDUFF	Chi deve impiccarli?
LADY MACDUFF	Ma gli uomini onesti.
IL FIGLIO DI MACDUFF	Allora i bugiardi e gli spergiuri sono sciocchi, ché ci sono abbastanza bugiardi e spergiuri da battere gli uomini onesti e impiccarli.
LADY MACDUFF	Ora Dio t’aiuti, povera scimmietta! Ma come farai per avere un padre?
IL FIGLIO DI MACDUFF	Se fosse morto voi lo piangereste. Se non lo faceste, sarebbe buon segno che presto avrei un nuovo padre.
LADY MACDUFF	Povero chiacchierino, come parli!
(didascalia)	Entra un Messaggero
MESSAGGERO	Dio vi benedica, bella dama. Non vi sono noto, benché io conosca perfettamente il vostro grado d’onore. Temo che qualche pericolo vi si avvicini da presso. Se volete accogliere il consiglio d’un uomo semplice, non fatevi trovare qui. Via, coi vostri piccoli! Spaventarvi così mi pare troppo selvaggio, farvi di peggio sarebbe crudeltà feroce, che è troppo vicina alla vostra persona. Il cielo vi protegga. Non oso restare più a lungo.
(didascalia)	Esce il Messaggero
LADY MACDUFF	Dove dovrei fuggire? Non ho fatto alcun male. Ma ora ricordo che sono in questo mondo terreno, dove far male è spesso lodevole, e far bene talvolta è ritenuto pericolosa follia. E allora, ahimè, perché opporre quella difesa donnesca di dire che non ho fatto alcun male?
(didascalia)	Entrano gli Assassini
LADY MACDUFF	Che facce son queste? UN ASSASSINO Dov’è vostro marito?
LADY MACDUFF	Spero in nessun luogo così poco sacro dove uno come te possa trovarlo. UN ASSASSINO È un traditore.
IL FIGLIO DI MACDUFF	Tu menti, furfante dal pelo ispido. UN ASSASSINO (pugnalandolo) Come, tu, uovo! Avannotto di tradimento!
IL FIGLIO DI MACDUFF	M’ha ucciso, madre. Scappate via, vi prego.
(didascalia)	Muore. Esce la Moglie di Macduff gridando ‘Assassinio!’
(didascalia)	seguita dagli Assassini col corpo del Figlio

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Malcolm and Macduff
MALCOLM	Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there Weep our sad bosoms empty.
MACDUFF	Let us rather Hold fast the mortal sword, and like good men Bestride our downfall birthdom. Each new morn New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows Strike heaven on the face that it resounds As if it felt with Scotland and yelled out Like syllable of dolour.
MALCOLM	What I believe I’ll wail, What know believe; and what I can redress, As I shall find the time to friend, I will. What you have spoke it may be so, perchance. This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues, Was once thought honest. You have loved him well. He hath not touched you yet. I am young, but something You may discern of him through me: and wisdom To offer up a weak poor innocent lamb T’appease an angry god.
MACDUFF	I am not treacherous.
MALCOLM	But Macbeth is. A good and virtuous nature may recoil In an imperial charge. But I shall crave your pardon. That which you are my thoughts cannot transpose. Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell. Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace, Yet grace must still look so.
MACDUFF	I have lost my hopes.
MALCOLM	Perchance even there where I did find my doubts. Why in that rawness left you wife and child, Those precious motives, those strong knots of love, Without leave-taking? I pray you, Let not my jealousies be your dishonours, But mine own safeties. You may be rightly just, Whatever I shall think.
MACDUFF	Bleed, bleed, poor country! Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure, For goodness dare not check thee. Wear thou thy wrongs; The title is affeered. Fare thee well, lord. I would not be the villain that thou think’st For the whole space that’s in the tyrant’s grasp, And the rich east to boot.
MALCOLM	Be not offended. I speak not as in absolute fear of you. I think our country sinks beneath the yoke. It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash Is added to her wounds. I think withal There would be hands uplifted in my right, And here from gracious England have I offer Of goodly thousands. But for all this, When I shall tread upon the tyrant’s head, Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country Shall have more vices than it had before, More suffer, and more sundry ways, than ever, By him that shall succeed.
MACDUFF	What should he be?
MALCOLM	It is myself I mean, in whom I know All the particulars of vice so grafted That when they shall be opened black Macbeth Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state Esteem him as a lamb, being compared With my confineless harms.
MACDUFF	Not in the legions Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned In evils to top Macbeth.
MALCOLM	I grant him bloody, Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin That has a name. But there’s no bottom, none, In my voluptuousness. Your wives, your daughters, Your matrons, and your maids could not fill up The cistern of my lust, and my desire All continent impediments would o’erbear That did oppose my will. Better Macbeth Than such an one to reign.
MACDUFF	Boundless intemperance In nature is a tyranny. It hath been Th’untimely emptying of the happy throne, And fall of many kings. But fear not yet To take upon you what is yours. You may Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty And yet seem cold. The time you may so hoodwink. We have willing dames enough. There cannot be That vulture in you to devour so many As will to greatness dedicate themselves, Finding it so inclined.
MALCOLM	With this there grows In my most ill-composed affection such A staunchless avarice that were I king I should cut off the nobles for their lands, Desire his jewels and this other’s house, And my more having would be as a sauce To make me hunger more, that I should forge Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal, Destroying them for wealth.
MACDUFF	This avarice Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root Than summer-seeming lust, and it hath been The sword of our slain kings. Yet do not fear. Scotland hath foisons to fill up your will Of your mere own. All these are portable, With other graces weighed.
MALCOLM	But I have none. The king-becoming graces, As justice, verity, temp’rance, stableness, Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude, I have no relish of them, but abound In the division of each several crime, Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power I should Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, Uproar the universal peace, confound All unity on earth.
MACDUFF	O Scotland, Scotland!
MALCOLM	If such a one be fit to govern, speak. I am as I have spoken.
MACDUFF	Fit to govern? No, not to live. O nation miserable, With an untitled tyrant bloody-sceptered, When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again, Since that the truest issue of thy throne By his own interdiction stands accursed And does blaspheme his breed? Thy royal father Was a most sainted king. The Queen that bore thee, Oft‘ner upon her knees than on her feet, Died every day she lived. Fare thee well. These evils thou repeat’st upon thyself Hath banished me from Scotland. O, my breast— Thy hope ends here!
MALCOLM	Macduff, this noble passion, Child of integrity, hath from my soul Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts To thy good truth and honour. Devilish Macbeth By many of these trains hath sought to win me Into his power, and modest wisdom plucks me From over-credulous haste; but God above Deal between thee and me, for even now I put myself to thy direction and Unspeak mine own detraction, here abjure The taints and blames I laid upon myself For strangers to my nature. I am yet Unknown to woman, never was forsworn, Scarcely have coveted what was mine own, At no time broke my faith, would not betray The devil to his fellow, and delight No less in truth than life. My first false-speaking Was this upon myself. What I am truly Is thine and my poor country’s to command, Whither indeed, before thy here-approach, Old Siward with ten thousand warlike men, Already at a point, was setting forth. Now we’ll together; and the chance of goodness Be like our warranted quarrel!—Why are you silent?
MACDUFF	Such welcome and unwelcome things at once ’is hard to reconcile.
(didascalia)	Enter a Doctor
MALCOLM	Well, more anon. (To the Doctor) Comes the King forth, I pray you?
DOCTOR	Ay, sir. There are a crew of wretched souls That stay his cure. Their malady convinces The great essay of art, but at his touch, Such sanctity hath Heaven given his hand, They presently amend.
MALCOLM	I thank you, doctor. Exit Doctor
MACDUFF	What’s the disease he means?
MALCOLM	’is called the evil— A most miraculous work in this good King, Which often since my here-remain in England I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven Himself best knows, but strangely visited people, All swoll’n and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, The mere despair of surgery, he cures, Hanging a golden stamp about their necks, Put on with holy prayers; and ’is spoken, To the succeeding royalty he leaves The healing benediction. With this strange virtue He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy, And sundry blessings hang about his throne That speak him full of grace.
(didascalia)	Enter Ross
MACDUFF	See who comes here.
MALCOLM	My countryman, but yet I know him not.
MACDUFF	My ever gentle cousin, welcome hither.
MALCOLM	I know him now. Good God betimes remove The means that makes us strangers! Ross Sir, amen.
MACDUFF	Stands Scotland where it did? Ross Alas, poor country, Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot Be called our mother, but our grave, where nothing But who knows nothing is once seen to smile; Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the air Are made, not marked; where violent sorrow seems A modern ecstasy. The dead man’s knell Is there scarce asked for who, and good men’s lives Expire before the flowers in their caps, Dying or ere they sicken.
MACDUFF	O relation Too nice and yet too true!
MALCOLM	What’s the newest grief?
ROSS	That of an hour’s age doth hiss the speaker; Each minute teems a new one.
MACDUFF	How does my wife?
ROSS	Why, well.
MACDUFF	And all my children? Ross Well, too.
MACDUFF	The tyrant has not battered at their peace?
ROSS	No, they were well at peace when I did leave ’em.
MACDUFF	Be not a niggard of your speech. How goes’t?
ROSS	When I came hither to transport the tidings Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumour Of many worthy fellows that were out, Which was to my belief witnessed the rather For that I saw the tyrant’s power afoot. Now is the time of help. (To Malcolm) Your eye in Scotland Would create soldiers, make our women fight To doff their dire distresses.
MALCOLM	Be’t their comfort We are coming thither. Gracious England hath Lent us good Siward and ten thousand men; An older and a better soldier none That Christendom gives out. Ross Would I could answer This comfort with the like. But I have words That would be howled out in the desert air Where hearing should not latch them.
MACDUFF	What concern they— The general cause, or is it a fee-grief Due to some single breast? Ross No mind that’s honest But in it shares some woe, though the main part Pertains to you alone.
MACDUFF	If it be mine, Keep it not from me; quickly let me have it.
ROSS	Let not your ears despise my tongue for ever, Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound That ever yet they heard.
MACDUFF	H’m, I guess at it.
ROSS	Your castle is surprised, your wife and babes Savagely slaughtered. To relate the manner Were on the quarry of these murdered deer To add the death of you.
MALCOLM	Merciful heaven! (To Macduff) What, man, ne’er pull your hat upon your brows. Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak Whispers the o’erfraught heart and bids it break.
MACDUFF	My children too? Ross Wife, children, servants, all That could be found.
MACDUFF	And I must be from thence! My wife killed too?
ROSS	I have said.
MALCOLM	Be comforted. Let’s make us medicines of our great revenge To cure this deadly grief.
MACDUFF	He has no children. All my pretty ones? Did you say all? O hell-kite! All? What, all my pretty chickens and their dam At one fell swoop?
MALCOLM	Dispute it like a man.
MACDUFF	I shall do so, But I must also feel it as a man. I cannot but remember such things were That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff, They were all struck for thee. Naught that I am, Not for their own demerits but for mine Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now.
MALCOLM	Be this the whetstone of your sword. Let grief Convert to anger: blunt not the heart, enrage it.
MACDUFF	O, I could play the woman with mine eyes And braggart with my tongue! But gentle heavens Cut short all intermission. Front to front Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself.
(didascalia)	Within my sword’s length set him. If he scape,
MACDUFF	Heaven forgive him too.
MALCOLM	This tune goes manly. Come, go we to the King. Our power is ready; Our lack is nothing but our leave. Macbeth Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may: The night is long that never finds the day. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano Malcolm e Macduff
MALCOLM	Cerchiamo qualche ombra desolata, e là piangiamo fino a vuotare i nostri tristi petti.
MACDUFF	Piuttosto teniamo stretta la spada mortale, e da uomini valenti stiamo a cavaliere della nostra terra natale caduta. Ogni nuovo mattino nuove vedove urlano, nuovi orfani piangono, nuovi dolori colpiscono il cielo in volto sì che risuona come se sentisse con la Scozia e gridasse una simile sillaba di duolo.
MALCOLM	Ciò che credo lo piangerò, ciò che so lo crederò; e ciò cui posso rimediare, appena troverò il tempo amico, lo farò. Ciò che avete detto può darsi sia così, forse. Questo tiranno, il cui solo nome ci ulcera la lingua, fu un tempo ritenuto onesto. Voi l’avete amato molto. Egli non v’ha ancora toccato. Io son giovane, ma qualcosa potreste guadagnare da lui per mezzo mio: ed è saggezza offrire un debole povero agnello innocente per placare un dio adirato.
MACDUFF	Io non sono un traditore.
MALCOLM	Ma Macbeth lo è. Una natura buona e virtuosa può cedere a un mandato imperiale. Ma dovrò chiedervi perdono. Ciò che voi siete i miei pensieri non lo possono mutare. Gli angeli sono luminosi ancora, benché il più luminoso cadde. Anche se tutte le cose immonde volessero portare la fronte della grazia, pure la grazia deve avere sempre quel volto.
MACDUFF	Ho perduto le mie speranze.
MALCOLM	Forse proprio là dove io trovai i miei dubbi. Perché in quel modo così crudo lasciaste moglie e figlio, quei preziosi motivi, quei forti nodi d’amore, senza prender congedo? Vi prego, non siano i miei sospetti vostro disonore, ma la mia sola difesa. Voi potete essere giustamente giusto, qualunque cosa io pensi.
MACDUFF	Sanguina, sanguina, povero paese! Gran tirannide, poni pure sicura la tua base, ché la bontà non osa fermarti. Porta pure i tuoi torti; il titolo è confermato. Sta’ bene, signore. Non vorrei essere il furfante che tu pensi per tutto lo spazio ch’è nella stretta del tiranno, e in più il ricco oriente.
MALCOLM	Non offendetevi. Non parlo per assoluta paura di voi. Penso che il nostro paese affondi sotto il giogo. Piange, sanguina, e ogni nuovo giorno uno squarcio s’aggiunge alle sue ferite. Penso inoltre che vi sarebbero mani levate per il mio diritto, e qui dalla benigna Inghilterra ho l’offerta di parecchie migliaia. Ma con tutto questo, quando calpesterò il capo del tiranno, o lo porterò sulla mia spada, pure il mio povero paese avrà più vizi di quanti ne avesse prima, soffrirà di più, e in più svariati modi, che mai, per opera di colui che succederà.
MACDUFF	Chi dovrebbe essere?
MALCOLM	È me stesso ch’io intendo, in cui so tutte le particolarità del vizio così innestate che quando saranno svelate il nero Macbeth sembrerà puro come la neve, e il povero stato lo stimerà un agnello, paragonato ai miei mali sconfinati.
MACDUFF	Non dalle legioni dell’orrido inferno può venire un diavolo più dannato nei mali, da superare Macbeth.
MALCOLM	Lo concedo sanguinario, lussurioso, avaro, falso, ingannevole, violento, malizioso, saporoso d’ogni peccato che abbia un nome. Ma non v’è fondo, nessuno, nella mia voluttà. Le vostre mogli, le vostre figlie, le vostre matrone e le vostre fanciulle non potrebbero riempire la cisterna della mia libidine, e il mio desiderio travolgerebbe ogni argine di contegno che s’opponesse alla mia volontà. Meglio Macbeth che un tale a regnare.
MACDUFF	L’intemperanza senza limiti nella natura è una tirannide. È stata l’intempestivo vuotarsi del trono felice, e la caduta di molti re. Ma non temete ancora di prendervi ciò ch’è vostro. Potete procurarvi i vostri piaceri in spaziosa abbondanza e pur sembrare freddo. Il tempo potete così bendarlo. Abbiamo abbastanza dame consenzienti. Non può esservi in voi quell’avvoltoio da divorarne tante quante si dedicheranno alla grandezza, trovandola così incline.
MALCOLM	Con questo cresce nel mio animo malissimo composto una tale inarrestabile avarizia che se fossi re farei fuori i nobili per le loro terre, desidererei i gioielli dell’uno e la casa dell’altro, e il mio aver di più sarebbe come una salsa a farmi aver più fame, sì ch’io fabbricherei ingiuste liti contro i buoni e i leali, distruggendoli per ricchezza.
MACDUFF	Questa avarizia affonda più a fondo, cresce con radice più perniciosa della libidine effimera d’estate, ed è stata la spada dei nostri re uccisi. Pure non temete. La Scozia ha dovizie da colmare la vostra voglia col solo vostro. Tutto questo è sopportabile, pesato con altre grazie.
MALCOLM	Ma io non ne ho alcuna. Le grazie che s’addicono a un re, come giustizia, verità, temperanza, stabilità, generosità, perseveranza, misericordia, umiltà, devozione, pazienza, coraggio, fortezza, di queste non ho sapore alcuno, ma abbondo in ogni suddivisione d’ogni singolo delitto, compiendolo in molti modi. Anzi, se avessi il potere verserei il dolce latte della concordia nell’inferno, sconvolgerei la pace universale, confonderei ogni unità sulla terra.
MACDUFF	Oh Scozia, Scozia!
MALCOLM	Se un tale è adatto a governare, parlate. Io sono come ho detto.
MACDUFF	Adatto a governare? No, e nemmeno a vivere. Oh nazione miserabile, con un tiranno senza titolo dallo scettro insanguinato, quando rivedrai i tuoi giorni sani, se il più vero erede del tuo trono per sua stessa interdizione sta maledetto e bestemmia la sua stirpe? Il tuo regale padre fu un re santissimo. La Regina che ti generò, più spesso in ginocchio che in piedi, morì ogni giorno che visse. Sta’ bene. Questi mali che ripeti su te stesso m’hanno bandito dalla Scozia. Oh, mio petto— la tua speranza finisce qui!
MALCOLM	Macduff, questa nobile passione, figlia d’integrità, ha dalla mia anima cancellato i neri scrupoli, riconciliato i miei pensieri con la tua buona verità e il tuo onore. Il diabolico Macbeth con molte di queste insidie ha cercato di trarmi in suo potere, e una modesta saggezza mi trattiene da una fretta troppo credula; ma Dio lassù giudichi fra te e me, ché fin d’ora mi metto sotto la tua guida e ritratto la mia stessa denigrazione, qui abiuro le macchie e le colpe che m’attribuii come estranee alla mia natura. Non ho ancora conosciuto donna, non fui mai spergiuro, appena ho bramato ciò ch’era mio, in nessun tempo ruppi la mia fede, non tradirei il diavolo al suo compagno, e non mi diletto meno della verità che della vita. Il mio primo parlar falso fu questo contro me stesso. Ciò che veramente sono è tuo e del mio povero paese da comandare, verso il quale, in verità, prima del tuo arrivo qui, il vecchio Siward con diecimila uomini di guerra, già in ordine, stava per muovere. Ora andremo insieme; e la sorte del bene sia pari alla giustezza della nostra causa!—Perché tacete?
MACDUFF	Cose tanto liete e tanto spiacevoli tutte insieme è difficile riconciliare.
(didascalia)	Entra un Dottore
MALCOLM	Bene, più tardi. (Al Dottore) Viene fuori il Re, di grazia?
DOTTORE	Sì, signore. C’è una schiera d’anime infelici che attende la sua cura. Il loro male vince il gran tentativo dell’arte, ma al suo tocco, tanta santità il Cielo ha dato alla sua mano, subito guariscono.
MALCOLM	Vi ringrazio, dottore. Esce il Dottore
MACDUFF	Qual è il male ch’egli intende?
MALCOLM	È chiamato il male del re— opera miracolosissima in questo buon Re, che spesso, da quando mi trattengo qui in Inghilterra, gli ho visto compiere. Come solleciti il cielo lo sa lui meglio d’ogni altro, ma gente stranamente colpita, tutta gonfia e ulcerosa, pietosa a vedersi, vera disperazione della chirurgia, egli guarisce, appendendo un conio d’oro al loro collo, posto con sante preghiere; e si dice che alla regalità successiva egli lascia la benedizione che risana. Con questa strana virtù egli ha un celeste dono di profezia, e svariate benedizioni pendono intorno al suo trono che lo dicono pieno di grazia.
(didascalia)	Entra Ross
MACDUFF	Vedete chi viene qui.
MALCOLM	Un mio compatriota, ma ancora non lo riconosco.
MACDUFF	Mio sempre gentile cugino, benvenuto qui.
MALCOLM	Ora lo riconosco. Buon Dio, rimuovi presto i mezzi che ci fanno stranieri! Ross Signore, amen.
MACDUFF	Sta la Scozia dove stava? Ross Ahimè, povero paese, quasi ha paura di conoscere sé stesso. Non può chiamarsi nostra madre, ma nostra tomba, dove nulla se non chi nulla sa si vede mai sorridere; dove sospiri e gemiti e strida che lacerano l’aria si fanno, e non si notano; dove il violento dolore sembra un’estasi comune. Alla campana a morto là appena si chiede per chi, e le vite dei buoni spirano prima dei fiori sui loro berretti, morendo ancor prima d’ammalarsi.
MACDUFF	Oh racconto troppo minuzioso e pure troppo vero!
MALCOLM	Qual è il dolore più nuovo?
ROSS	Quello vecchio d’un’ora fa fischiare chi lo narra; ogni minuto ne partorisce uno nuovo.
MACDUFF	Come sta mia moglie?
ROSS	Ma bene.
MACDUFF	E tutti i miei figli? Ross Bene, anche loro.
MACDUFF	Il tiranno non ha assalito la loro pace?
ROSS	No, erano ben in pace quando li lasciai.
MACDUFF	Non siate avaro del vostro parlare. Come va?
ROSS	Quando venni qui a portare le notizie che ho recato con tanto peso, correva voce di molti degni compagni ch’erano in campo, il che a mio credere fu tanto più confermato in quanto vidi in armi le forze del tiranno. Ora è il tempo del soccorso. (A Malcolm) Il vostro occhio in Scozia creerebbe soldati, farebbe combattere le nostre donne per scrollarsi le loro tremende angosce.
MALCOLM	Sia loro conforto che veniamo laggiù. La benigna Inghilterra ci ha prestato il buon Siward e diecimila uomini; un soldato più anziano e migliore non ce n’è che la cristianità sappia offrire. Ross Vorrei poter rispondere a questo conforto con altrettanto. Ma ho parole che dovrebbero essere ululate nell’aria del deserto dove nessun udito le cogliesse.
MACDUFF	Che cosa riguardano— la causa generale, o è un dolore privato dovuto a un solo petto? Ross Non v’è mente onesta che non ne condivida qualche pena, benché la parte principale spetti a voi solo.
MACDUFF	Se è mio, non tenetemelo nascosto; datemelo presto.
ROSS	Non disprezzino i vostri orecchi la mia lingua per sempre, che li riempirà del suono più grave ch’essi abbiano mai udito.
MACDUFF	Uhm, l’indovino.
ROSS	Il vostro castello è stato sorpreso, vostra moglie e i vostri bimbi selvaggiamente scannati. Raccontarne il modo sarebbe, sul mucchio di questi cervi trucidati, aggiungere la morte vostra.
MALCOLM	Cielo misericordioso! (A Macduff) Come, uomo, non tirate mai il cappello sulle vostre ciglia. Date parole al dolore. La pena che non parla sussurra al cuore troppo carico e gli ordina di spezzarsi.
MACDUFF	Anche i miei figli? Ross Moglie, figli, servi, tutti quelli che si poterono trovare.
MACDUFF	E io dovevo essere lontano di là! Anche mia moglie uccisa?
ROSS	L’ho detto.
MALCOLM	Confortatevi. Facciamoci medicine della nostra grande vendetta per curare questa pena mortale.
MACDUFF	Egli non ha figli. Tutti i miei piccini? Avete detto tutti? Oh nibbio infernale! Tutti? Come, tutti i miei bei pulcini e la loro chioccia in un solo feroce assalto?
MALCOLM	Combattetelo da uomo.
MACDUFF	Così farò, ma devo anche sentirlo da uomo. Non posso non ricordare che tali cose esistevano ed erano preziosissime per me. Il cielo stava a guardare e non volle prender le loro parti? Peccatore Macduff, furono tutti colpiti per te. Nulla ch’io sia, non per i loro demeriti ma per i miei cadde la strage sulle loro anime. Il cielo ora dia loro riposo.
MALCOLM	Sia questa la cote della vostra spada. Il dolore si converta in collera: non smussate il cuore, infuriatelo.
MACDUFF	Oh, potrei fare la donna coi miei occhi e lo smargiasso con la mia lingua! Ma cieli benigni, troncate ogni indugio. Fronte a fronte ponete questo demonio di Scozia e me stesso.
(didascalia)	Ponetelo a portata della mia spada. Se scampa,
MACDUFF	il cielo perdoni anche lui.
MALCOLM	Questo tono suona virile. Venite, andiamo dal Re. La nostra forza è pronta; non ci manca che il congedo. Macbeth è maturo per essere scosso, e le potenze lassù preparano i loro strumenti. Accogliete quel conforto che potete: lunga è la notte che non trova mai il giorno. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter a Doctor of Physic and a Waiting-Gentlewoman
DOCTOR	I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walked?
GENTLEWOMAN	Since his majesty went into the field I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon’t, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed, yet all this while in a most fast sleep.
DOCTOR	A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once the benefit of sleep and do the effects of watching. In this slumbery agitation besides her walking and other actual performances, what at any time have you heard her say?
GENTLEWOMAN	That, sir, which I will not report after her.
DOCTOR	You may to me; and ’tis most meet you should.
GENTLEWOMAN	Neither to you nor anyone, having no witness to confirm my speech.
(didascalia)	Enter Lady Macbeth with a taper
GENTLEWOMAN	Lo you, here she comes. This is her very guise, and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her. Stand close.
DOCTOR	How came she by that light?
GENTLEWOMAN	Why, it stood by her. She has light by her continually. ’Tis her command.
DOCTOR	You see her eyes are open.
GENTLEWOMAN	Ay, but their sense are shut.
DOCTOR	What is it she does now? Look how she rubs her hands.
GENTLEWOMAN	It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands. I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour.
LADY MACBETH	Yet here’s a spot.
DOCTOR	Hark, she speaks. I will set down what comes from her to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.
LADY MACBETH	Out, damned spot; out, I say. One, two,—why, then ’tis time to do’t. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier and afeard? What need we fear who knows it when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?
DOCTOR	Do you mark that?
LADY MACBETH	The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now? What, will these hands ne’er be clean? No more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that. You mar all with this starting.
DOCTOR	Go to, go to. You have known what you should not.
GENTLEWOMAN	She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that. Heaven knows what she has known.
LADY MACBETH	Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. O, O, O!
DOCTOR	What a sigh is therel The heart is sorely charged.
GENTLEWOMAN	I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the dignity of the whole body.
DOCTOR	Well, well, well.
GENTLEWOMAN	Pray God it be, sir.
DOCTOR	This disease is beyond my practice. Yet I have known those which have walked in their sleep who have died holily in their beds.
LADY MACBETH	Wash your hands, put on your nightgown, look not so pale. I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried. He cannot come out on’s grave.
DOCTOR	Even so?
LADY MACBETH	To bed, to bed. There’s knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What’s done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed.
(didascalia)	Exit
DOCTOR	Will she go now to bed?
GENTLEWOMAN	Directly.
DOCTOR	Foul whisp’rings are abroad. Unnatural deeds Do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. More needs she the divine than the physician. God, God forgive us all! Look after her. Remove from her the means of all annoyance, And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night. My mind she has mated, and amazed my sight. I think, but dare not speak.
GENTLEWOMAN	Good night, good doctor.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano un Dottore in Medicina e una Dama di compagnia
DOTTORE	Ho vegliato due notti con voi, ma non riesco a scorgere alcuna verità nel vostro racconto. Quando fu l’ultima volta che camminò?
DAMA	Da quando sua maestà è andato in campo, l’ho vista alzarsi dal letto, gettarsi addosso la veste da notte, aprire il suo scrittoio, prendere della carta, piegarla, scrivervi sopra, leggerla, poi sigillarla, e di nuovo tornare a letto, e tutto questo in un profondissimo sonno.
DOTTORE	Una grande perturbazione della natura, ricevere insieme il beneficio del sonno e compiere gli atti della veglia. In questa agitazione sonnambula, oltre al camminare e alle altre azioni effettive, che cosa le avete mai udito dire in qualche momento?
DAMA	Quello, signore, che non riferirò dopo di lei.
DOTTORE	A me potete; ed è convenientissimo che lo facciate.
DAMA	Né a voi né a nessuno, non avendo testimone che confermi le mie parole.
(didascalia)	Entra Lady Macbeth con un candeliere
DAMA	Ecco, guardate, eccola che viene. Questo è proprio il suo modo, e, sulla mia vita, profondamente addormentata. Osservatela. State nascosto.
DOTTORE	Come s’è procurata quel lume?
DAMA	Ma le stava accanto. Ha un lume accanto di continuo. È suo ordine.
DOTTORE	Vedete, i suoi occhi sono aperti.
DAMA	Sì, ma il loro senso è chiuso.
DOTTORE	Che cosa fa ora? Guardate come si sfrega le mani.
DAMA	È un gesto abituale in lei, sembrare così di lavarsi le mani. L’ho vista continuare così per un quarto d’ora.
LADY MACBETH	Eppure qui c’è una macchia.
DOTTORE	Ascoltate, parla. Metterò per iscritto ciò che esce da lei per fissarlo più saldamente nella mia memoria.
LADY MACBETH	Via, macchia dannata; via, dico. Uno, due,—ebbene, allora è tempo di farlo. L’inferno è tenebroso. Vergogna, mio signore, vergogna, un soldato e aver paura? Che bisogno abbiamo di temere chi lo sappia, quando nessuno può chiamare a conto il nostro potere? Eppure chi avrebbe pensato che il vecchio avesse tanto sangue in corpo?
DOTTORE	Lo notate?
LADY MACBETH	Il Thane di Fife aveva una moglie. Dov’è ora? Come, queste mani non saranno mai pulite? Basta con questo, mio signore, basta con questo. Rovinate tutto con questi sussulti.
DOTTORE	Via, via. Avete saputo ciò che non dovevate.
DAMA	Ha detto ciò che non doveva, di questo sono certa. Il cielo sa che cosa abbia saputo.
LADY MACBETH	Qui c’è ancora l’odore del sangue. Tutti i profumi d’Arabia non addolciranno questa piccola mano. Oh, oh, oh!
DOTTORE	Che sospiro è quello! Il cuore è gravemente carico.
DAMA	Non vorrei avere un tal cuore in petto per la dignità di tutto il corpo.
DOTTORE	Bene, bene, bene.
DAMA	Voglia Dio che sia così, signore.
DOTTORE	Questo male va oltre la mia pratica. Pure ho conosciuto di quelli che hanno camminato nel sonno e sono morti santamente nel loro letto.
LADY MACBETH	Lavatevi le mani, mettetevi la veste da notte, non siate così pallido. Ve lo dico ancora una volta, Banquo è sepolto. Non può uscire dalla sua tomba.
DOTTORE	Proprio così?
LADY MACBETH	A letto, a letto. Bussano alla porta. Venite, venite, venite, venite, datemi la vostra mano. Ciò ch’è fatto non può essere disfatto. A letto, a letto, a letto.
(didascalia)	Esce
DOTTORE	Andrà ora a letto?
DAMA	Subito.
DOTTORE	Immondi bisbigli vanno attorno. Atti contro natura generano turbamenti contro natura; le menti infette ai loro sordi guanciali scaricano i loro segreti. Ha più bisogno del sacerdote che del medico. Dio, Dio ci perdoni tutti! Vegliate su di lei. Toglietele i mezzi d’ogni danno, e tenete sempre gli occhi su di lei. Così, buona notte. Ha sconvolto la mia mente, e sbalordito la mia vista. Penso, ma non oso parlare.
DAMA	Buona notte, buon dottore.
(didascalia)	Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, soldiers, with a drummer and colours
MENTEITH	The English power is near, led on by Malcolm, His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff. Revenges burn in them, for their dear causes Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm Excite the mortified man.
ANGUS	Near Birnam Wood Shall we well meet them. That way are they coming.
CAITHNESS	Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?
LENNOX	For certain, sir, he is not. I have a file Of all the gentry. There is Siward’s son, And many unrough youths that even now 10 Protest their first of manhood.
MENTEITH	What does the tyrant?
CAITHNESS	Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies. Some say he’s mad, others that lesser hate him Do call it valiant fury; but for certain He cannot buckle his distempered cause
(didascalia)	Within the belt of rule.
ANGUS	Now does he feel His secret murders sticking on his hands. Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach. Those he commands move only in command, Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe Upon a dwarfish thief.
MENTEITH	Who then shall blame His pestered senses to recoil and start When all that is within him does condemn Itself for being there?
CAITHNESS	Well, march we on To give obedience where ’tis truly owed. Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal, And with him pour we in our country’s purge, Each drop of us.
LENNOX	Or so much as it needs To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds. Make we our march towards Birnam.
(didascalia)	Exeunt, marching

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, soldati, con un tamburino e insegne
MENTEITH	La forza inglese è vicina, guidata da Malcolm, da suo zio Siward e dal buon Macduff. Le vendette ardono in loro, ché le loro care ragioni chiamerebbero al sanguinoso e truce allarme anche l’uomo mortificato.
ANGUS	Presso il bosco di Birnam ben li incontreremo. Vengono per quella via.
CAITHNESS	Chi sa se Donalbain sia col fratello?
LENNOX	Di certo, signore, non c’è. Ho l’elenco di tutta la nobiltà. C’è il figlio di Siward, e molti giovinetti imberbi che proprio ora 10 affermano la loro prima virilità.
MENTEITH	Che fa il tiranno?
CAITHNESS	La grande Dunsinane fortifica saldamente. Alcuni dicono ch’è pazzo, altri che meno l’odiano lo chiamano furore valoroso; ma di certo egli non può stringere la sua causa malata
(didascalia)	dentro la cintura del governo.
ANGUS	Ora sente i suoi assassinii segreti appiccicati alle sue mani. Ora rivolte d’ogni minuto rinfacciano la sua fede infranta. Quelli che comanda si muovono solo per comando, in nulla per amore. Ora sente il suo titolo pendergli attorno sciolto, come la veste d’un gigante addosso a un ladro nano.
MENTEITH	Chi allora biasimerà i suoi sensi tormentati se retrocedono e trasaliscono quando tutto ciò ch’è dentro di lui condanna sé stesso per esservi?
CAITHNESS	Bene, marciamo avanti a dare obbedienza dov’è veramente dovuta. Incontriamo il medico del malato stato, e con lui versiamo, per la purga del nostro paese, ogni goccia di noi.
LENNOX	O quanto ne occorra per irrorare il fiore sovrano e affogare le erbacce. Facciamo la nostra marcia verso Birnam.
(didascalia)	Escono, marciando

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth, the Doctor of Physic, and attendants
MACBETH	Bring me no more reports. Let them fly all. Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane I cannot taint with fear. What’s the boy Malcolm? Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus: ‘Fear not, Macbeth. No man that’s born of woman Shall e’er have power upon thee.’ Then fly, false thanes, And mingle with the English epicures. The mind I sway by and the heart I bear Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.
(didascalia)	Enter Servant
MACBETH	The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon! Where gott’st thou that goose look?
SERVANT	There is ten thousand-
MACBETH	Geese, villain?
SERVANT	Soldiers, sir. 15
MACBETH	Go prick thy face and over-red thy fear, Thou lily-livered boy. What soldiers, patch? Death of thy soul, those linen cheeks of thine Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?
SERVANT	The English force, so please you.
MACBETH	Take thy face hence.
(didascalia)	Exit Servant
MACBETH	Seyton!-I am sick at heart When I behold-Seyton, I say!—This push Will cheer me ever or disseat me now. I have lived long enough. My way of life Is fall’n into the sere, the yellow leaf, And that which should accompany old age, As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have, but in their stead Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath Which the poor heart would fain deny and dare not. Seyton!
(didascalia)	Enter Seyton
SEYTON	What’s your gracious pleasure?
MACBETH	What news more?
SEYTON	All is confirmed, my lord, which was reported.
MACBETH	I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hacked. Give me my armour.
SEYTON	’Tis not needed yet.
MACBETH	I’ll put it on. Send out more horses. Skirr the country round. Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armour. How does your patient, doctor?
DOCTOR	Not so sick, my lord, As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies That keep her from her rest.
MACBETH	Cure her of that. Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Raze out the written troubles of the brain, And with some sweet oblivious antidote Cleanse the fraught bosom of that perilous stuff Which weighs upon the heart?
DOCTOR	Therein the patient Must minister to himself.
MACBETH	Throw physic to the dogs; I’ll none of it. (To an attendant) Come, put mine armour on. Give me my staff. Seyton, send out. Doctor, the thanes fly from me. (To an attendant) Come, sir, dispatch.—If thou couldst, doctor, cast The water of my land, find her disease, And purge it to a sound and pristine health, I would applaud thee to the very echo, That should applaud again. (To an attendant) Pull’t off, I say. (To the Doctor) What rhubarb, cyme, or what purgative drug Would scour these English hence? Hear’st thou of them?
DOCTOR	Ay, my good lord. Your royal preparation Makes us hear something.
MACBETH	(To an attendant) Bring it after me. I will not be afraid of death and bane Till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane.
DOCTOR	(aside) Were I from Dunsinane away and clear, Profit again should hardly draw me here.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano Macbeth, il Dottore in Medicina e il seguito
MACBETH	Non portatemi più rapporti. Fuggano pure tutti. Finché il bosco di Birnam non si muova verso Dunsinane non posso contaminarmi di paura. Che cos’è il ragazzo Malcolm? Non è nato di donna? Gli spiriti che conoscono tutte le sorti mortali m’hanno pronunciato così: ‘Non temere, Macbeth. Nessun uomo nato di donna avrà mai potere su di te.’ Fuggite dunque, falsi thani, e mescolatevi con gli epicurei inglesi. La mente che mi governa e il cuore che porto non cederanno mai al dubbio né tremeranno di paura.
(didascalia)	Entra il Servo
MACBETH	Il diavolo t’annerisca di dannazione, sciocco dalla faccia di panna! Dove hai preso quell’aria d’oca?
SERVO	Ci sono diecimila-
MACBETH	Oche, furfante?
SERVO	Soldati, signore. 15
MACBETH	Va’ a pungerti la faccia e a farla rossa sopra la tua paura, ragazzo dal fegato di giglio. Che soldati, straccione? Morte della tua anima, quelle tue guance di lino son consigliere di paura. Che soldati, faccia di siero?
SERVO	La forza inglese, con vostra licenza.
MACBETH	Porta via di qui la tua faccia.
(didascalia)	Esce il Servo
MACBETH	Seyton!-Ho il cuore malato quando vedo-Seyton, dico!—Questa spinta o mi rallegrerà per sempre o mi scavallerà ora. Ho vissuto abbastanza a lungo. Il mio cammino di vita è caduto nell’arido, nella foglia gialla, e ciò che dovrebbe accompagnare la vecchiaia, come onore, amore, obbedienza, schiere d’amici, non devo sperare d’averlo, ma in loro vece maledizioni, non forti ma profonde, onore di bocca, fiato che il povero cuore vorrebbe negare e non osa. Seyton!
(didascalia)	Entra Seyton
SEYTON	Qual è il vostro grazioso piacere?
MACBETH	Che altre notizie?
SEYTON	Tutto è confermato, mio signore, quel che fu riferito.
MACBETH	Combatterò finché dalle mie ossa la carne sia recisa. Datemi la mia armatura.
SEYTON	Non occorre ancora.
MACBETH	Voglio indossarla. Mandate fuori altri cavalli. Battete il paese all’intorno. Impiccate quelli che parlano di paura. Datemi la mia armatura. Come sta la vostra paziente, dottore?
DOTTORE	Non tanto malata, mio signore, quanto turbata da fantasie che le s’affollano e le tolgono il riposo.
MACBETH	Curatela di questo. Non sai tu curare una mente ammalata, strappare dalla memoria un dolore radicato, cancellare i turbamenti scritti nel cervello, e con qualche dolce antidoto d’oblio mondare il petto carico di quella materia pericolosa che pesa sul cuore?
DOTTORE	In questo il paziente deve curarsi da sé.
MACBETH	Getta la medicina ai cani; io non ne voglio. (A un servo) Vieni, mettimi l’armatura. Dammi il mio bastone. Seyton, manda fuori. Dottore, i thani fuggono da me. (A un servo) Suvvia, signore, sbrigati.—Se tu potessi, dottore, esaminare l’acqua del mio paese, trovare il suo male, e purgarlo fino a una salute sana e pristina, io t’applaudirei fino all’eco stessa, che dovrebbe applaudire di nuovo. (A un servo) Toglila, dico. (Al Dottore) Quale rabarbaro, sena, o qual droga purgativa spazzerebbe via di qui questi inglesi? Ne hai sentito parlare?
DOTTORE	Sì, mio buon signore. I vostri regali preparativi ce ne fanno sentire qualcosa.
MACBETH	(A un servo) Portamela dietro. Non avrò paura della morte e della rovina finché la foresta di Birnam non venga a Dunsinane.
DOTTORE	(a parte) Fossi io lontano e libero da Dunsinane, a stento un guadagno mi ritrarrebbe qui.
(didascalia)	Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, Siward’s Son, Menteith, Caithness, Angus, and soldiers, marching, with a drummer and colours
MALCOLM	Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand That chambers will be safe.
MENTEITH	We doubt it nothing.
SIWARD	What wood is this before us?
MENTEITH	The wood of Birnam.
MALCOLM	Let every soldier hew him down a bough And bear’t before him. Thereby shall we shadow The numbers of our host, and make discovery Err in report of us. A SOLDIER It shall be done.
SIWARD	We learn no other but the confident tyrant Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure Our setting down before’t.
MALCOLM	’Tis his main hope, For where there is advantage to be gone, Both more and less have given him the revolt, And none serve with him but constrained things, Whose hearts are absent too.
MACDUFF	Let our just censures Attend the true event, and put we on Industrious soldiership.
SIWARD	The time approaches That will with due decision make us know What we shall say we have, and what we owe. Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate, But certain issue strokes must arbitrate; Towards which, advance the war. Exeunt, marching

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, il Figlio di Siward, Menteith, Caithness, Angus e soldati, marciando, con un tamburino e insegne
MALCOLM	Cugini, spero che siano vicini i giorni in cui le camere saranno sicure.
MENTEITH	Non ne dubitiamo affatto.
SIWARD	Che bosco è questo davanti a noi?
MENTEITH	Il bosco di Birnam.
MALCOLM	Ogni soldato si tagli un ramo e lo porti davanti a sé. Così faremo ombra al numero della nostra schiera, e faremo errare la ricognizione nel riferire di noi. UN SOLDATO Sarà fatto.
SIWARD	Non apprendiamo altro se non che il fiducioso tiranno si tiene ancora in Dunsinane, e sopporterà che ci accampiamo sotto le sue mura.
MALCOLM	È la sua speranza principale, ché dove c’è il vantaggio d’andarsene, tanto i maggiori quanto i minori gli si sono rivoltati, e nessuno serve con lui se non gente costretta, i cui cuori sono anch’essi altrove.
MACDUFF	I nostri giusti giudizi attendano il vero esito, e mettiamoci a un’operosa milizia.
SIWARD	Il tempo s’avvicina che con debita decisione ci farà sapere che cosa diremo d’avere, e che cosa dobbiamo. I pensieri speculativi raccontano le loro incerte speranze, ma l’esito certo lo devono arbitrare i colpi; e verso quello, avanzi la guerra. Escono, marciando

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth, Seyton, and soldiers, with a drummer and colours
MACBETH	Hang out our banners on the outward walls. The cry is still ‘They come.’ Our castle’s strength Will laugh a siege to scorn. Here let them lie Till famine and the ague eat them up. Were they not forced with those that should be ours We might have met them dareful, beard to beard, And beat them backward home. A cry within of women What is that noise?
SEYTON	It is the cry of women, my good lord. [Exit]
MACBETH	I have almost forgot the taste of fears. The time has been my senses would have cooled To hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir As life were in’t. I have supped full with horrors. Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, Cannot once start me.
(didascalia)	Enter Seyton
MACBETH	Wherefore was that cry?
SEYTON	The Queen, my lord, is dead.
MACBETH	She should have died hereafter. There would have been a time for such a word. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle. Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
(didascalia)	Enter a Messenger
MACBETH	Thou com’st to use Thy tongue: thy story quickly.
MESSENGER	Gracious my lord, I should report that which I say I saw, But know not how to do’t.
MACBETH	Well, say, sir.
MESSENGER	As I did stand my watch upon the hill I looked toward Birnam, and anon methought The wood began to move.
MACBETH	Liar and slave!
MESSENGER	Let me endure your wrath if’t be not so.
(didascalia)	Within this three mile may you see it coming.
MESSENGER	I say, a moving grove.
MACBETH	If thou speak’st false Upon the next tree shall thou hang alive Till famine cling thee. If thy speech be sooth, I care not if thou dost for me as much. I pall in resolution, and begin To doubt th‘equivocation of the fiend, That lies like truth. ’Fear not till Birnam Wood Do come to Dunsinane‘—and now a wood Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out. If this which he avouches does appear There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here. I ’gin to be aweary of the sun, And wish th‘estate o’th’ world were now undone. Ring the alarum bell. Alarums Blow wind, come wrack, At least we’ll die with harness on our back. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano Macbeth, Seyton e soldati, con un tamburino e insegne
MACBETH	Issate i nostri stendardi sulle mura esterne. Il grido è sempre ‘Vengono.’ La forza del nostro castello riderà con scherno d’un assedio. Qui restino accampati finché la fame e la febbre li divorino. Se non fossero rinforzati da quelli che dovrebbero essere nostri, li avremmo potuti affrontare arditamente, barba contro barba, e ricacciarli a casa. Un grido di donne all’interno Che rumore è questo?
SEYTON	È il grido di donne, mio buon signore. [Esce]
MACBETH	Ho quasi dimenticato il sapore delle paure. Ci fu un tempo in cui i miei sensi si sarebbero agghiacciati a udire uno strido di notte, e il mio pelo di capelli a un racconto lugubre si sarebbe destato e mosso come se avesse vita. Mi sono saziato d’orrori. L’atrocità, familiare ai miei pensieri di strage, non riesce più a farmi trasalire.
(didascalia)	Entra Seyton
MACBETH	Perché fu quel grido?
SEYTON	La Regina, mio signore, è morta.
MACBETH	Sarebbe dovuta morire più tardi. Ci sarebbe stato un tempo per una tale parola. Domani, e domani, e domani striscia con questo passo meschino di giorno in giorno fino all’ultima sillaba del tempo registrato, e tutti i nostri ieri hanno illuminato ai folli la via verso la polverosa morte. Spegniti, spegniti, breve candela. La vita non è che un’ombra che cammina, un povero attore che si pavoneggia e s’agita per la sua ora sulla scena, e poi non se ne sente più nulla. È un racconto narrato da un idiota, pieno di suono e furore, che non significa nulla.
(didascalia)	Entra un Messaggero
MACBETH	Vieni per usare la tua lingua: presto, la tua storia.
MESSAGGERO	Mio grazioso signore, dovrei riferire ciò che dico d’aver visto, ma non so come farlo.
MACBETH	Bene, di’, signore.
MESSAGGERO	Mentre stavo di guardia sul colle guardai verso Birnam, e a un tratto mi parve che il bosco cominciasse a muoversi.
MACBETH	Bugiardo e schiavo!
MESSAGGERO	Ch’io sopporti la vostra ira se non è così.
(didascalia)	Entro queste tre miglia potete vederlo venire.
MESSAGGERO	Dico, un boschetto che si muove.
MACBETH	Se dici il falso al primo albero sarai appeso vivo finché la fame ti raggrinzi. Se il tuo dire è vero, non m’importa se tu fai altrettanto di me. Vien meno la mia risoluzione, e comincio a dubitare dell’equivoco del demonio, che mente come la verità. ‘Non temere finché il bosco di Birnam non venga a Dunsinane’—e ora un bosco viene verso Dunsinane. All’armi, all’armi, e fuori. Se ciò ch’egli afferma si mostra vero, non c’è né fuggire di qui né restare qui. Comincio a stancarmi del sole, e vorrei che l’ordine del mondo fosse ora disfatto. Suonate la campana a stormo. Allarmi Soffia vento, vieni rovina, almeno moriremo con l’armatura in dosso. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, and their army with boughs, with a drummer and colours
MALCOLM	Now near enough. Your leafy screens throw down, And show like those you are. They throw down the boughs You, worthy uncle, Shall with my cousin, your right noble son, Lead our first battle. Worthy Macduff and we Shall take upon’s what else remains to do According to our order.
SIWARD	Fare you well. Do we but find the tyrant’s power tonight, Let us be beaten if we cannot fight.
MACDUFF	Make all our trumpets speak, give them all breath, Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.
(didascalia)	Exeunt. Alarums continued

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano Malcolm, Siward, Macduff e il loro esercito con rami, con un tamburino e insegne
MALCOLM	Ora siamo abbastanza vicini. Gettate giù i vostri schermi di fronde, e mostratevi quali siete. Gettano giù i rami Voi, degno zio, guiderete col mio cugino, il vostro nobilissimo figlio, la nostra prima schiera. Il degno Macduff e noi ci assumeremo quanto altro resta da fare secondo il nostro ordine.
SIWARD	State bene. Purché stanotte troviamo le forze del tiranno, siamo pure battuti se non sappiamo combattere.
MACDUFF	Fate parlare tutte le nostre trombe, date loro tutto il fiato, quei clamorosi araldi di sangue e di morte.
(didascalia)	Escono. Gli allarmi continuano

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth
MACBETH	They have tied me to a stake. I cannot fly, But bear-like I must fight the course. What’s he That was not born of woman? Such a one Am I to fear, or none.
(didascalia)	Enter Young Siward
YOUNG SIWARD	What is thy name?
MACBETH	Thou’lt be afraid to hear it.
YOUNG SIWARD	No, though thou call’st thyself a hotter name Than any is in hell.
MACBETH	My name’s Macbeth.
YOUNG SIWARD	The devil himself could not pronounce a title More hateful to mine ear.
MACBETH	No, nor more fearful.
YOUNG SIWARD	Thou liest, abhorred tyrant. With my sword I’ll prove the lie thou speak’st. They fight, and Young Siward is slain
MACBETH	Thou wast born of woman, But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, Brandished by man that’s of a woman born.
(didascalia)	Exit with the body

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra Macbeth
MACBETH	Mi hanno legato a un palo. Non posso fuggire, ma come l’orso devo sostenere la lotta. Chi è colui che non nacque di donna? Un tale devo temere, o nessuno.
(didascalia)	Entra il giovane Siward
GIOVANE SIWARD	Qual è il tuo nome?
MACBETH	Avrai paura a udirlo.
GIOVANE SIWARD	No, anche se ti chiamassi con un nome più rovente di qualunque ce ne sia all’inferno.
MACBETH	Il mio nome è Macbeth.
GIOVANE SIWARD	Il diavolo stesso non potrebbe pronunciare un titolo più odioso al mio orecchio.
MACBETH	No, né più pauroso.
GIOVANE SIWARD	Tu menti, aborrito tiranno. Con la mia spada proverò la menzogna che dici. Combattono, e il giovane Siward è ucciso
MACBETH	Tu nascesti di donna, ma delle spade io sorrido, delle armi rido con scherno, brandite da uomo che sia nato di donna.
(didascalia)	Esce col corpo

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Alarums. Enter Macduff
MACDUFF	That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy face! If thou beest slain and with no stroke of mine, My wife and children’s ghosts will haunt me still. I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms Are hired to bear their staves. Either thou, Macbeth, 5 Or else my sword with an unbattered edge I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be; By this great clatter one of greatest note Seems bruited. Let me find him, fortune, And more I beg not.
(didascalia)	Exit. Alarums

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Allarmi. Entra Macduff
MACDUFF	Di là viene il fragore. Tiranno, mostra la tua faccia! Se tu sei ucciso e non da un colpo mio, gli spettri di mia moglie e dei miei figli mi perseguiteranno sempre. Non posso colpire miseri fanti, le cui braccia sono prezzolate per portare le loro aste. O tu, Macbeth, 5 oppure la mia spada col filo intatto rinfodero senza averla usata. Là tu dovresti essere; da questo gran clangore par si annunci uno del massimo rilievo. Fammelo trovare, fortuna, e altro non chiedo.
(didascalia)	Esce. Allarmi

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Malcolm and Siward
SIWARD	This way, my lord. The castle’s gently rendered. The tyrant’s people on both sides do fight. The noble thanes do bravely in the war. The day almost itself professes yours, And little is to do.
MALCOLM	We have met with foes That strike beside us.
(didascalia)	Enter, sir, the castle.
(didascalia)	Exeunt. Alarum

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano Malcolm e Siward
SIWARD	Di qua, mio signore. Il castello s’è arreso senza resistenza. La gente del tiranno combatte su entrambi i fronti. I nobili thani si comportano da valorosi nella guerra. La giornata quasi da sé si dichiara vostra, e poco resta da fare.
MALCOLM	Abbiamo incontrato nemici che colpiscono al nostro fianco.
(didascalia)	Entrate, signore, nel castello.
(didascalia)	Escono. Allarme

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Macbeth
MACBETH	Why should I play the Roman fool, and die On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes Do better upon them.
(didascalia)	Enter Macduff
MACDUFF	Turn, hell-hound, turn.
MACBETH	Of all men else I have avoided thee. But get thee back. My soul is too much charged With blood of thine already.
MACDUFF	I have no words; My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain Than terms can give thee out. They fight; alarum
MACBETH	Thou losest labour. As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed. Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests; I bear a charmed life, which must not yield To one of woman born.
MACDUFF	Despair thy charm, And let the angel whom thou still hast served Tell thee Macduff was from his mother’s womb 15 Untimely ripped.
MACBETH	Accursèd be that tongue that tells me so, For it hath cowed my better part of man; And be these juggling fiends no more believed, That palter with us in a double sense, That keep the word of promise to our ear And break it to our hope. I’ll not fight with thee.
MACDUFF	Then yield thee, coward, And live to be the show and gaze o‘th’ time. We’ll have thee as our rarer monsters are, Painted upon a pole, and underwrit ‘Here may you see the tyrant.’
MACBETH	I will not yield To kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet, And to be baited with the rabble’s curse. Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane, And thou opposed being of no woman born, Yet I will try the last. Before my body I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff, And damned be him that first cries ‘Hold, enough!’
(didascalia)	Exeunt fighting. Alarums
MACBETH	They enter fighting, and Macbeth is slain. Exit Macduff with Macbeth’s body

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra Macbeth
MACBETH	Perché dovrei fare il folle romano, e morire sulla mia stessa spada? Finché vedo dei viventi, gli squarci stanno meglio su di loro.
(didascalia)	Entra Macduff
MACDUFF	Voltati, mastino d’inferno, voltati.
MACBETH	Fra tutti gli uomini ho evitato te. Ma torna indietro. La mia anima è già troppo carica del sangue dei tuoi.
MACDUFF	Io non ho parole; la mia voce è nella mia spada, tu scellerato più sanguinario di quanto i termini possano dirti. Combattono; allarme
MACBETH	Perdi la fatica. Con la stessa facilità potresti incidere l’aria impenetrabile con la tua tagliente spada quanto farmi sanguinare. Cali la tua lama su cimieri vulnerabili; io porto una vita incantata, che non deve cedere a uno nato di donna.
MACDUFF	Dispera del tuo incanto, e l’angelo che hai sempre servito ti dica che Macduff dal ventre di sua madre 15 fu strappato anzitempo.
MACBETH	Maledetta sia quella lingua che me lo dice, ché ha avvilito la parte migliore d’uomo in me; e non si credano più questi demoni ciurmatori, che giocano con noi in un doppio senso, che mantengono la parola della promessa al nostro orecchio e la rompono alla nostra speranza. Non combatterò con te.
MACDUFF	Allora arrenditi, vigliacco, e vivi per essere lo spettacolo e lo stupore del tempo. Ti avremo come si fa dei nostri mostri più rari, dipinto su un’insegna, e sotto scritto ‘Qui potete vedere il tiranno.’
MACBETH	Non mi arrenderò a baciare la terra davanti ai piedi del giovane Malcolm, e a essere aizzato dalle maledizioni della plebaglia. Benché il bosco di Birnam sia venuto a Dunsinane, e tu che mi affronti non sia nato di donna, pure tenterò l’ultima prova. Davanti al mio corpo getto il mio bellicoso scudo. Dàlli, Macduff, e sia dannato chi per primo grida ‘Ferma, basta!’
(didascalia)	Escono combattendo. Allarmi
MACBETH	Entrano combattendo, e Macbeth è ucciso. Esce Macduff col corpo di Macbeth

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Retreat and flourish. Enter with a drummer and colours Malcolm, Siward, Ross, thanes, and soldiers
MALCOLM	I would the friends we miss were safe arrived.
SIWARD	Some must go off; and yet by these I see So great a day as this is cheaply bought.
MALCOLM	Macduff is missing, and your noble son.
ROSS	(to Siward) Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier’s debt. He only lived but till he was a man, The which no sooner had his prowess confirmed In the unshrinking station where he fought, But like a man he died.
SIWARD	Then he is dead?
ROSS	Ay, and brought off the field. Your cause of sorrow Must not be measured by his worth, for then It hath no end.
SIWARD	Had he his hurts before?
ROSS	Ay, on the front.
SIWARD	Why then, God’s soldier be he. Had I as many sons as I have hairs I would not wish them to a fairer death; And so his knell is knolled.
MALCOLM	He’s worth more sorrow, And that I’ll spend for him.
SIWARD	He’s worth no more. They say he parted well and paid his score, And so God be with him. Here comes newer comfort.
(didascalia)	Enter Macduff with Macbeth’s head
MACDUFF	(to Malcolm) Hail, King, for so thou art. Behold where stands Th’usurper’s cursed head. The time is free. I see thee compassed with thy kingdom’s pearl, That speak my salutation in their minds, Whose voices I desire aloud with mine: Hail, King of Scotland!
ALL BUT MALCOLM	Hail, King of Scotland!
(didascalia)	Flourish
MALCOLM	We shall not spend a large expense of time Before we reckon with your several loves And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen, Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland In such an honour named. What’s more to do Which would be planted newly with the time, As calling home our exiled friends abroad, That fled the snares of watchful tyranny, Producing forth the cruel ministers Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen- Who, as ‘tis thought, by self and violent hands Took off her life—this and what needful else That calls upon us, by the grace of grace We will perform in measure, time, and place. So thanks to all at once, and to each one, Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone.
(didascalia)	Flourish. Exeunt Omnes
FIRST	printed in the 1623 Folio, Antony and Cleopatra had been entered on the Stationers’ Register on 20 May 1608. Echoes of it in Barnabe Barnes’s tragedy The Devil’s Charter, acted by Shakespeare’s company in February 1607, suggest that Shakespeare wrote his play no later than 1606, and stylistic evidence supports that date. The Life of Marcus Antonius in Sir Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (1579) was one of the sources for Julius Caesar; it also provided Shakespeare with most of his material for Antony and Cleopatra, in which he draws upon its language to a remarkable extent even in some of the play’s most poetic passages. For example, Enobarbus’ famous description of Cleopatra in her barge (2.2.197-225) incorporates phrase after phrase of North’s prose. And the play’s action stays close to North’s account, though with significant adjustments, particularly compressions of the time-scheme. It opens in 40 BC, two years after the end of Julius Caesar, and portrays events that took place over a period of ten years. Mark Antony has become an older man, though Octavius is still ‘scarce-bearded’. Plutarch, who was a connoisseur of human behaviour, also afforded many hints for the characterization; but some characters, particularly Antony’s comrade Domitius Enobarbus and Cleopatra’s women, Charmian and Iras, are largely created by Shakespeare. In the earlier play, Mark Antony had formed a triumvirate with Octavius Caesar and Lepidus. In Antony and Cleopatra the triumvirate is in a state of disintegration, partly because Mark Antony—married at the play’s opening to Fulvia, who is rebelling against Octavius Caesar—is infatuated with Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt (and the former mistress of Julius Caesar). The play’s action swings between Rome and Alexandria as Antony is torn between the claims of Rome—strengthened for a while by his marriage, after Fulvia’s death, to Octavius Caesar’s sister Octavia—and the temptations of Egypt. Gradually opposition between Antony and Octavius increases, until they engage in a sea-fight near Actium (in Greece), in which Antony follows Cleopatra’s navy in ignominious retreat. The closing stages of the double tragedy portray Antony’s shame, humiliation, and suicide after Cleopatra falsely causes him to believe that she has killed herself; faced with the threat that Caesar will take her captive to Rome, Cleopatra too commits suicide. According to Plutarch, she was thirty-eight years old; as for Antony, ‘some say that he lived three-and-fifty years, and others say, six-and-fifty’. In Antony and Cleopatra the classical restraint of Julius Caesar gives way to a fine excess of language, of dramatic action, and of individual behaviour. The style is hyperbolical, overflowing the measure of the iambic pentameter. The action is amazingly fluid, shifting with an ease and rapidity that caused bewilderment to ages unfamiliar with the conventions of Shakespeare’s theatre. And the characterization is correspondingly extravagant, delighting in the quirks of individual behaviour, above all in the paradoxes and inconsistencies of the Egyptian queen who contains within herself the capacity for every extreme of human behaviour, from vanity, meanness, and frivolity to the sublime self-transcendence with which she faces and embraces death.
THE PERSONS OF THE	PLAY

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Ritirata e squillo di trombe. Entrano con un tamburino e insegne Malcolm, Siward, Ross, thani e soldati
MALCOLM	Vorrei che gli amici che ci mancano fossero giunti salvi.
SIWARD	Alcuni devono cadere; eppure, da quelli che vedo, una giornata grande come questa è comprata a buon mercato.
MALCOLM	Manca Macduff, e il vostro nobile figlio.
ROSS	(a Siward) Vostro figlio, mio signore, ha pagato il debito d’un soldato. Visse soltanto finché fu un uomo, e non appena il suo valore ebbe confermato ciò nella posizione irremovibile dove combatté, da uomo morì.
SIWARD	Dunque è morto?
ROSS	Sì, ed è stato portato via dal campo. La vostra ragione di dolore non dev’essere misurata sul suo valore, ché allora non avrebbe fine.
SIWARD	Aveva le ferite davanti?
ROSS	Sì, sulla fronte.
SIWARD	Ebbene, sia soldato di Dio. Avessi tanti figli quanti ho capelli non li vorrei per una morte più bella; e così è suonata la sua campana.
MALCOLM	Merita più dolore, e quello io spenderò per lui.
SIWARD	Non ne merita di più. Dicono che se n’è andato bene e ha pagato il suo conto, e così Dio sia con lui. Ecco venire un conforto più nuovo.
(didascalia)	Entra Macduff con la testa di Macbeth
MACDUFF	(a Malcolm) Salve, Re, ché tale tu sei. Ecco dove sta la maledetta testa dell’usurpatore. Il tempo è libero. Ti vedo circondato dalle perle del tuo regno, che pronunciano il mio saluto nelle loro menti, le cui voci desidero alte insieme alla mia: Salve, Re di Scozia!
TUTTI TRANNE MALCOLM	Salve, Re di Scozia!
(didascalia)	Squillo di trombe
MALCOLM	Non spenderemo una larga spesa di tempo prima di fare i conti coi vostri singoli affetti e metterci in pari con voi. Miei thani e congiunti, d’ora innanzi siate conti, i primi che mai la Scozia abbia nominato a tale onore. Quel che resta da fare, che vorrebbe esser piantato di nuovo col tempo, come richiamare a casa i nostri amici esiliati all’estero, che fuggirono i lacci d’una vigile tirannide, e trarre alla luce i crudeli ministri di questo macellaio morto e della sua regina simile a un demonio— la quale, come si pensa, con mani proprie e violente si tolse la vita—questo e quant’altro occorra e ci reclami, per la grazia della grazia compiremo nella giusta misura, nel tempo e nel luogo dovuti. Così grazie a tutti insieme, e a ciascuno, che invitiamo a vederci incoronare a Scone.
(didascalia)	Squillo di trombe. Escono tutti