Macb. Then comes my fit again: I had else been perfect; Whole as the marble, founded as the rock: As broad and general as the casing air: But now, I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd, bound in To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo's safe? Mur. Ay, my good lord: safe in a ditch he bides, With twenty trenched gashes on his head; The least a death to nature. Macb. Thanks for that: There the grown serpent lies; the worm, that's fled, No teeth for the present.-Get thee gone; to-morrow Lady M. My royal lord, You do not give the cheer; the feast is sold That is not often vouch'd, while 'tis a making, [Exit Murderer. 'Tis given with welcome: To feed, were best at home; From thence, the sauce to meat is ceremony, Meeting were bare without it. Macb. Sweet remembrancer ! Now good digestion wait on appetite, And health on both! Len, May it please your highness sit? Enter the Ghost of BANQUO and sits in MACBETH's place. Macb. Here had we now our country's honour roof'd, Were the grac'd person of our Banquo present;` Who may I rather challenge for unkindness Than pity for mischance! Lays blame upon his promise. Please it your highness To grace us with your royal company? Macb. The table's full. Len. Here is a place reserv'd, sir. Macb. Where ? Len. [your highness? Here, my good lord. What is't that moves What, my good lord? Macb. Which of you have done this? Lords. BANQUET SCENE IN MACBETH. Macb. Thou canst not say I did it: never shake Thy gory locks at me. Rosse. Gentlemen, rise; his highness is not well. He will again be well: If much you note him, Macb. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that Lady M. Authoris'd by her grandam. Shame itself! Why do you make such faces? When all's done, You look but on a stool. Macb. 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 Lady M. [Ghost disappears. What! quite unmann'd in folly ? Fie, for shame! Macb. If I stand here, I saw him. Macb. Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time, Ay, and since too, murthers have been perform'd Too terrible for the ear: the times have been, That when the brains were out the man would die, And there an end: but now, they rise again, Lady M. My worthy lord, Your noble friends do lack you. Macb. I do forget Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends; I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing [Enter Ghost. To those that know me. Come, love and health to all; Macb. 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 M. Think of this, good peers, But as a thing of custom: 'tis no other; Macb. What man dare, I dare: Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, If trembling I inhabit then, protest me The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow! [Ghost disappears. Unreal mockery, hence!-Why, so ;-being gone, I am a man again.-Pray you, sit still. Lady M. You have displac'd the mirth, broke the good meeting, With most admir'd disorder. Macb. 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 Rosse. cheeks, What sights, my lord ? he grows worse and worse; Lady M. I pray you, speak not; Stand not upon the order of your going, But go at once. Len. Good night, and better health Attend his majesty! Lady M. BANQUET SCENE IN MACBETH. A kind good night to all! 97 [Exeunt Lords and Attendants. By magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks, brought forth Shakspeare (Macbeth.') CLARENCE'S DREAM. Brakenbury. Why looks your grace so heavily to-day? So full of ugly sights, of ghastly dreams, I would not spend another such a night, Though 't were to buy a world of happy days; So full of dismal terror was the time. Brak. What was your dream, my lord? I pray you, tell me. Clar. Methought that I had broken from the Tower, And was embark'd to cross to Burgundy; And in my company my brother Gloster; Upon the hatches; thence we look'd toward England, That had befall'n us. As we pac'd along Methought that Gloster stumbled; and, in falling, O Lord! methought what pain it was to drown! * i. e. invaluable. H Some lay in dead men's skulls; and in those holes Clar. Methought I had; and often did I strive Brak. Awak'd you not in this sore agony? * Brak. No marvel, lord, though it affrighted you; I am afraid, methinks, to hear you tell it. Clar. O, Brakenbury, I have done these things,That now give evidence against my soul,— * Prince Edward, son of Henry VI. |