Macd. Those that Macbeth hath slain.

Rosse.

What good could they pretend?1

Macd.

Alas, the day!

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.

Rosse.

'Gainst nature still.

Thriftless ambition, that will ravin up

Thine own life's means!-Then 'tis most like,
The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.2

Macd. He is already named; and gone to Scone,

To be invested.

Rosse.

Where is Duncan's body?

Macd. Carried to Colme-kill ;3

The sacred storehouse of his predecessors,

And guardian of their bones.

Rosse.

Will

you to Scone ?

Well, I will thither.

Macd. No, cousin, I'll to Fife.
Rosse.

Macd. Well, may you see things well done there;—

adieu!

Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!

Rosse. Father, farewell.

Old M. God's benison go with you; and with those That would make good of bad, and friends of foes!

[Exeunt.

1 Pretend, in the sense of the Latin prætendo, to design, or "lay for a thing before it come," as the old dictionaries explain it.

2 Macbeth, by his birth, stood next in succession to the crown, after the sons of Duncan. King Malcolm, Duncan's predecessor, had two daughters, the eldest of whom was the mother of Duncan, the younger the mother of Macbeth.-Holinshed.

3 Colme-kill is the famous Iona, one of the Western Isles, mentioned by Holinshed as the burial-place of many ancient kings of Scotland. Colmekill means the cell or chapel of St. Columbo.

ACT III.

SCENE I. Fores. A Room in the Palace.

Enter BANQUO.

Ban. Thou hast it now-King, Cawdor, Glamis, all
As the weird women promised; and, I fear,
Thou play'dst 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.

Senet sounded. Enter MACBETH, as king; LADY
MACBETH, as queen; LENOX, ROSSE, Lords,
Ladies, and Attendants.

Macb. Here's our chief guest.
Lady M.

If he had been forgotten,

It had been as a gap in our great feast,

And all things unbecoming.

Macb. To-night we hold a solemn supper,' sir,

And I'll request your presence.

Ban.

Let your highness

Command upon me; to the which, my duties

Are with a most indissoluble tie

1 "A solemn supper." This was the phrase of Shakspeare's time for a feast or banquet given on a particular occasion, to solemnize any event, as

a birth, marriage, coronation.

In this day's council; but we'll take to-morrow.
Is't far you ride?

Ban. 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.

Macb.

Ban. My lord, I will not.

Fail not our feast.

Macb. 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 to-morrow;
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?
Ban. Ay, my good lord; our time does call upon

us.

Macb. I wish your horses swift and sure of foot; And so I do commend you to their backs.

Farewell.

Let every man be master of his time

Till seven at night; to make society

[Exit BANQUO.

The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself

Till supper-time alone: while then, God be with you. [Exeunt LADY MACBETH, Lords, Ladies, &c. Sirrah, a word with you. Attend those men Our pleasure?

Atten. They are, my lord, without the palace-gate. Macb. Bring them before us.

[Exit Atten.]

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 valor
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 Cæsar. He chid the sisters,

When first they put the name of king upon me,
And bade them speak to him; then, prophetlike,
They hailed him father to a line of kings:
Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown,
And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,

Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand,
No son of mine succeeding. If it be so,
For Banquo's issue have I filed' my mind;
For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered;
Put rancors 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 seed of Banquo kings!
Rather than so, come, fate, into the list,

And champion me to the utterance! Who's

there ?

Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers.

Now go to the door, and stay there till we call.

[Exit Attendant.

Well then, now

you

Was it not yesterday we spoke together?
1 Mur. It was, so please your highness.
Macb.
Have you considered of my speeches? Know,
That it was he, in the times past, which held
So under fortune; which, you thought, had been
Our innocent self. This I made good to you
In our last conference, passed in probation 3 with you,
How you were borne in hand; how crossed; the in-
struments;

Who wrought with them; and all things else, that might,

To half a soul, and to a notion crazed,

Say, Thus did Banquo.

1 For defiled.

2 To the utterance." This phrase, which is found in writers who preceded Shakspeare, is borrowed from the French; se battre a l'outrance, to fight desperately or to extremity, even to death.

3 i. e. "passed in proving to you."

4 To bear in hand is to delude by encouraging hope and holding out fair prospects, without any intention of performance.

1 Mur. Macb. 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 gospelled1 To pray for that good man, and for his issue, Whose heavy hand has bowed you to the And beggared yours forever?

You made it known to us.

1 Mur.

grave,

4

3

We are men, my liege.
Macb. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men;
As hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,
Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are cleped
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 in the worst rank of manhood, say it;
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.

2 Mur.
I am one, my liege,
Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world
Have so incensed, that I am reckless what.
I do, to spite the world.

1 Mur.

And I another,

So weary with disasters, tugged with fortune,

1 i. e. "are you so obedient to the precept of the gospel, which teaches us to pray for those who despitefully use us?"

2 Shoughs are probably what we now call shocks; dogs bred between wolves and dogs.

3 Cleped, called.

4 The valued file is the descriptive list wherein their value and peculiar qualities are set down.

5 Particular addition, title, description.