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MURTHERER.

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. Get thee gone. Tomorrow

We'll hear ourselves again.

Exit Murtherer.

LADY MACBETH.

My royal lord,

You do not give the cheer. The feast is sold

That is not often vouch'd, while 'tis amaking,

'Tis given with welcome. To feed were best at home;

From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony;

Meeting were bare without it.

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 honor roof'd,

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.

Thou canst not say I did it; never shake

Thy gory locks at me.

ROSS.

Gentlemen, rise; his Highness is well.

LADY MACBETH.

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-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. Exit Ghost.

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 humane statute purged the gentle weal;

Ay, and since too, murthers have been perform'd

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 murthers on their crowns,

And push us from our stools. This is more strange

Than such a murther is.

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.

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.

If trembling I inhabit then, protest me