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SCENE IV
The same. Hall in the palace.

A banquet prepared. Enter MACBETH, LADY MACBETH, ROSS, LENNOX, Lords, and Attendants

MACBETH
You know your own degrees; sit down: at first
And last the hearty welcome.

Lords
Thanks to your majesty.

MACBETH
Ourself will mingle with society,
And play the humble host.
Our hostess keeps her state, but in best time
We will require her welcome.

LADY MACBETH
Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends;
For my heart speaks they are welcome.

First Murderer appears at the door

MACBETH
See, they encounter thee with their hearts' thanks.
Both sides are even: here I'll sit i' the midst:
Be large in mirth; anon we'll drink a measure
The table round.

Approaching the door

There's blood on thy face.

First Murderer
'Tis Banquo's then.

MACBETH
'Tis better thee without than he within.¹
Is he dispatch'd?

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

MACBETH
Thou art the best o' the cut-throats: yet he's good
That did the like for Fleance: if thou didst it,
Thou art the nonpareil.²

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:³
But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confined, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo's safe?

First Murderer
Ay, my good lord: safe in a ditch he bides,
With twenty trenched gashes on his head;
The least a death to nature.

MACBETH
Thanks for that:
There the grown serpent lies; the worm that's fled
Hath nature that in time will venom breed,
No teeth for the present.⁴ Get thee gone: to-morrow
We'll hear, ourselves, again.

Exit Murderer

LADY MACBETH
My royal lord,
You do not give the cheer: the feast is sold
That is not often vouch'd, while 'tis a-making,
'Tis given with welcome: to feed were best at home;
From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony;
Meeting were bare without it.⁵

MACBETH
Sweet remembrancer!
Now, good digestion wait on appetite,
And health on both!

LENNOX
May't please your highness sit.

The GHOST OF BANQUO enters, and sits in MACBETH's place

MACBETH
Here had we now our country's honour roof'd,
Were the graced person of our Banquo present;
Who may I rather challenge for unkindness
Than pity for mischance!⁶

ROSS
His absence, sir,
Lays blame upon his promise. Please't your highness
To grace us with your royal company.

MACBETH
The table's full.

LENNOX
Here is a place reserved, sir.

MACBETH
Where?

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

MACBETH
Which of you have done this?

Lords
What, my good lord?

MACBETH
Thou canst not say I did it: never shake
Thy gory locks at me.⁷

ROSS
Gentlemen, rise: his highness is not well.

LADY MACBETH
Sit, worthy friends: my lord is often thus,
And hath been from his youth:⁸ pray you, keep seat;
The fit is momentary; upon a thought
He will again be well: if much you note him,
You shall offend him and extend his passion:
Feed, and regard him not. Are you a man?

MACBETH
Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
Which might appal the devil.

LADY MACBETH
O proper stuff!
This is the very painting of your fear:
This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said,
Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts,
Impostors to true fear, would well become
A woman's story at a winter's fire,
Authorized by her grandam.⁹ 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.¹⁰

GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes

LADY MACBETH
What, quite unmann'd in folly?

MACBETH
If I stand here, I saw him.

LADY MACBETH
Fie, for shame!

MACBETH
Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time,
Ere human statute purged the gentle weal;
Ay, and since too, murders have been perform'd
Too terrible for the ear: the times have been,
That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
And there an end; but now they rise again,
With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,
And push us from our stools: this is more strange
Than such a murder is.¹¹

LADY MACBETH
My worthy lord,
Your noble friends do lack you.

MACBETH
I do forget.
Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends,
I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing
To those that know me. Come, love and health to all;
Then I'll sit down. Give me some wine; fill full.
I drink to the general joy o' the whole table,
And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss;
Would he were here! to all, and him, we thirst,
And all to all.

Lords
Our duties, and the pledge.

Re-enter GHOST OF BANQUO

MACBETH
Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee!
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
Which thou dost glare with!

LADY MACBETH
Think of this, good peers,
But as a thing of custom: 'tis no other;
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.

MACBETH
What man dare, I dare:
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;
Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
Shall never tremble: or be alive again,
And dare me to the desert with thy sword;¹²
If trembling I inhabit then, protest me
The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!
Unreal mockery, hence!

GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes

Why, so: being gone,
I am a man again. Pray you, sit still.

LADY MACBETH
You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting,
With most admired disorder.¹³

MACBETH
Can such things be,
And overcome us like a summer's cloud,
Without our special wonder? You make me strange
Even to the disposition that I owe,
When now I think you can behold such sights,
And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,
When mine is blanched with fear.

ROSS
What sights, my lord?

LADY MACBETH
I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse;
Question enrages him. At once, good night:
Stand not upon the order of your going,
But go at once.

LENNOX
Good night; and better health
Attend his majesty!

LADY MACBETH
A kind good night to all!

Exeunt all but MACBETH and LADY MACBETH

MACBETH
It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood:
Stones have been known to move and trees to speak;
Augurs and understood relations have
By magot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth
The secret'st man of blood. What is the night?

LADY MACBETH
Almost at odds with morning, which is which.

MACBETH
How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person
At our great bidding?¹⁴

LADY MACBETH
Did you send to him, sir?

MACBETH
I hear it by the way; but I will send:
There's not a one of them but in his house
I keep a servant fee'd. I will to-morrow,
And betimes I will, to the weird sisters:
More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know,
By the worst means, the worst.¹⁵ For mine own good,
All causes shall give way: I am in blood
Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er:
Strange things I have in head, that will to hand;
Which must be acted ere they may be scann'd.¹⁶

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

FOOTNOTES

¹ Better to have his blood on you than still in him.
² You are the prince of all murderers, but the one who killed Fleance is just as good. If you killed them both, you are unparalleled above them all.
³ I'm seized with unease again, or else I would have been as steady as a rock and as free in spirit as the air.
⁴ The older one is dead, but the young one that has escaped. Although he can't do any harm yet, he might sting in the future.
⁵ Here Lady Macbeth reminds her husband to be friendly and warm to the guests.
⁶ Too bad Banquo's not here, or else the noblest company in Scotland would all be here. I want to blame him for his absence, than feel pity if an accident had occurred.
⁷ There's no proof that I'm to blame. Don't shake your bleeding head at me!
⁸ The King is often subject to these rageful attacks since he was young.
⁹ Your commotions are like an old grandmother telling a ghost tale
¹⁰ If the dead rest in the earth, we must let them be devoured by birds of prey and make sure they don't return.
¹¹ In the olden days men were murdered and the transaction was completed. Now it seems killing is not enough, and that they reappear to us.
¹² Come fight in the flesh - in the form of the wild beast, the shaggy bear, the rhinoceros or the tiger. Come in any form but as this ghostly image. Or come back to life and challenge me to fight..
¹³ You have spoiled our evening and now everyone is disturbed by the commotion.
¹⁴ What do you think of MacDuff, the thane of Fife who refuses to attend the court at our royal summons?
¹⁵ I will pay a visit to the three witches (the weird sisters) and compel them to tell me more about my fate.
¹⁶ I have other plans in mind which also need to be carried out, but they must be done before I can explain.

SUMMARY

At the feast, Macbeth and his wife bid their guests welcome. Macbeth speaks to the first murderer, who says Banquo is dead but Fleance has escaped. This makes Macbeth angry. Macbeth goes to sit at the head of the royal table but finds the Ghost of Banquo sitting in his chair. The ghost is invisible to everyone except horror-struck Macbeth, who speaks to the ghost. Lady Macbeth makes excuses for her husband, telling the guests to ignore his behavior. She tells Macbeth to snap out of his trance.

The ghost disappears, and Macbeth recovers. As he offers a toast, the ghost returns and Macbeth starts his outbursts again. Lady Macbeth sends the alarmed guests out of the room as the ghost vanishes again.

Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that he has heard from a servant-spy that Macduff is avoiding the court - a behaviour that seems like treason. Macbeth says he will visit the witches again tomorrow to find out his fate and who is plotting against him. He resolves to do whatever is necessary to keep his throne. Lady Macbeth says that he needs sleep, and they both go to bed.