Mach. To morrow, as he purposes.
Lady. Oh, 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 ferpent 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 fovereign sway and masterdom.
Mach. We will speak further.
Lady. Only look up clear:
To alter favour, ever, is to fear.
Leave all the reft to me.
SCENE, before Macbeth's Castle Gate.
Hautboys and Torches. Enter King, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lenox, Macduff, Roffe, Angus, and Attendants.
HIS Castle hath a pleasant feat; the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends it felf
Unto our gentle senses.
Ban. This guest of fummer,
(12) Your Face, my Thane, is as a Book, where Men
May read trange Matters to beguile the Time.
Look like the Time, I have venturd, against the Authority of all the Copies, to alter the Pointing of this Passage: and, I hope, with some Certainty. The Lady certainly means, that Macbeth looks fo full of Thought and folemn Reflection upon the purpos'd Act, that, she fears, People may comment upon the Reason of his Gloom: and therefore defires him, in order to take off and prevent such Comments, to wear a Face of Pleasure and Entertainment; and look like the Time, the better to deceive the Time. So Macbeth fays, in a fubsequent Scene;
Away and mock the Time with fairest Shew.
So Macduff says to Malcolm.
the Time you may so hoodwink.
i. e. blind the Eye of Observation, and so deceive people's Thoughts.
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve
By his lov'd Manfionry that heaven's breath
Smells wooingly here. No jutting frieze,
Buttrice, nor coigne of vantage, but this bird
Hath made his pendant bed, and procreant cradle :
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observ'd,
The air is delicate.
King. See, fee! our honour'd Hostess !
The love that follows us, sometimes is our trouble,
Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you,
How you should bid god-eyld us for your pains,
And thank us for your trouble.
(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 heap'd up to them,
We rest your hermits.
King. Where's the Thane of Cawdor?
We courst 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's home before us: fair and noble Hostess,
We are your guest to night.
Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs in compt,
To make their audit at your Highness' pleasure,
Still to return your own.
King. Give me your hand;
Conduct me to mine Host, we love him highly;
And shall continue our graces towards him.
By your leave, Hostess.
SCENE changes to an Apartment in Macbeth's Castle.
Hautboys, Torches. Enter divers fervants with dishes and service over the Stage. Then Macbeth.
F it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly : if th' affaffination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With its furcease, success; that but this blow
Might be the Be-all and the End-all-Here, (13)
But here, upon this Bank and Shoal of time,
We'd jump the life to come. But, in thefe cafes,
We still have judgment here, that we but teach
Bloody instructions; which, being taught, return
To plague th' inventor. Even-handed Justice
Returns th' Ingredients of our poison'd chalice
To our own lips. He's here in double truft :
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed: Then, as his Host,
Who should against his murth'rer shut the door,
Not bear the knife my self. Befides, this Duncan
Hath born his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead, like angels, trumpet-tongu'd againft
The deep damnation of his taking off:
And Pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blaft, or heav'ns cherubin hors'd (14)
(13) But here, upon this Bank and School of Time.] Bank and School What a monstrous Couplement, as Don Armado says, is here of heterogeneous Ideas! I have ventur'd to amend, which restores a Consonance of Images,
on this Bank and Shoal of Time.
i. e. this Shallow, this narrow Ford of humane Life, opposed to the great Abyss of Eternity. This Word has occurr'd again, before, to us in the Life of King Henry VIIIth.
And founded all the Depths and Shoals of Honour.
(14) or Heav'n's Cherubin hors'd upon the fightless Couriers of the Air. But the Cherubin is the Courier; fo that he can't be faid to be hors'd upon another Courier. We must read, therefore, Courfers.
Upon the sightless coursers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in ev'ry eye;
That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
To prick the fides of my intent, but only
Vaulting Ambition, which o'er leaps it self,
And falls on th' other
Lady. He's almost supp'd; why have you left the
Mach. Hath he ask'd for me?
Lady. Know you not, he has ?
Mach. We will proceed no further in this business.
He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought
Golden opinions from all fort of people,
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon.
Lady. Was the hope drunk,
Wherein you drest your self? 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 afraid
To be the fame in thine own act and valour,
As thou art in defire? 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.
Mach. Pr'ythee, peace:
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more, is none.
Lady. What beast was't then,
That made you break this enterprize 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 co-here, and yet you would make both :
They've made themselves; and that their fitness now
Do's unmake you. I have given fuck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluckt my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dasht the brains out, had I but so sworn
As you have done to this.
Mach. If we should fail?
Lady. 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 wassel 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 lie as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
Th' unguarded Duncan? what not put upon
His spungy officers, who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell?
Mach. Bring forth men-children only !
For thy undaunted metal should compose
Nothing but males. Will it not be receiv'd,
When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two
Of his own chamber, and us'd their very daggers,
Lady. Who dares receive it other,
As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar,
Mach. I'm fetled, 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.
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