It had been as a gap in our great feast,
And all-thing unbecoming.

Macb. To-night we hold a solemn supper1, 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

For ever knit.

Macb. Ride you this afternoon? Ban. Ay, my good lord. Macb. We should have else desir'd your good advice (Which still hath been both grave and prosperous), 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 better3, 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.

Mach. We hear, our bloody cousins are bestow'd 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?

All-thing, i. e. every way.

A solemn supper. This was the phrase of Shakespeare's time for a feast or banquet given on a particular occasion, to solemnize any event, as a birth, marriage, coronation, &c. Howel, in a letter to Sir T. Hawke, 1636, says, "I was invited yesternight to a solemne supper by B. J. [Ben Jonson], where you were deeply remembered."

2 Thus the old copy. Rowe has Lay, which was suggested by Davenant's alteration of the play. Monk Mason proposed to read Set.

Shakespeare often uses the

3 ie. if my horse does not go well. comparative for the positive and superlative.

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 royalty5 of nature

Reigns that, which would be fear'd: 'Tis much he

dares;

And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour
To act in safety. There is none, but he
Whose being I do fear: and, under him,
My genius is rebuk'd; 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, prophet-like,
They hail'd him father to a line of kings:
Upon my head they plac'd a fruitless crown,
And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,
Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand,
No son of mine succeeding. If't be so,

For Banquo's issue have I fil'd' my mind;

4 The folio has upon's, probably to avoid the trisyllabic ending and redundant syllable.

5 Royalty, i. e. nobleness.

And to that, i. e. in addition to. 7 Fil'd is often used for defiled.

For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd;
Put rancours in the vessel of my peace
Only for them; and mine eternal jewel
Given to the common enemy of man3,

To make them kings; the seed9 of Banquo kings!
Rather than so, come fate into the list,

And champion me to the utterance 10!-Who's there?

Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers. Now go to the door, and stay there till we call. [Exit Attendant.

Was it not yesterday we spoke together?
1 Mur. It was, so please your highness.
Macb. Well then,

Now have you consider'd of my speeches ?
Know that 'twas he, in the times past,
Which held you so under fortune;

Which you thought had been our innocent self.
This I made good to you in our last conference,
Pass'd in probation with you:

How you were borne in hand11; how cross'd;
The instruments; who wrought with them :
And all things else, that might to half a soul
And to a notion craz'd, say, Thus did Banquo.
1 Mur. You made it known to us.

8 The common enemy of man. Shakespeare repeats the phrase in Twelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 4:-"Defy the devil: consider, he's an enemy to mankind." The phrase was common among his cotemporaries; the word fiend, Johnson remarks, signifies enemy. 9 The old copies have seeds.

10 To the utterance. This phrase, which is found in writers who preceded Shakespeare, is borrowed from the French; se battre à T'outrance, to fight desperately or to extremity, even to death. The sense therefore is :-" Let fate, that has foredoomed the exaltation of Banquo's sons, enter the lists against me in defence of its own decrees, I will fight against it to the extremity, whatever be the consequence."

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

Mach. 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 gospell'd Το pray for this good man, and for his issue, Whose heavy hand hath bow'd you to the grave, And beggar'd yours for ever?

1 Mur.

We are men, my liege. Macb. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men; As hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs. Shoughs 12, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are cleped All by the name of dogs: the valued file13 Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle, The house-keeper, the hunter, every one According to the gift which bounteous nature Hath in him clos'd; 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 incens'd, that I am reckless what

I do, to spite the world.

1 Mur.

And I another,

So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune,

12 Shoughs are probably what we now call shocks. Nashe, in his Lenten Stuffe, mentions them; "a trundle-tail tike or shough or two." Cleped is called.

13 The valued file is the descriptive list wherein their value and peculiar qualities are set down; such a list of dogs may be found in Junius's Nomenclator, by Fleming.

That I would set my life on any chance,
To mend it, or be rid on't.

Macb.

Both of you

True, my lord.

Know, Banquo was your enemy.

2 Mur.

Macb. So is he mine: and in such bloody distance, That every minute of his being thrusts

Against my near'st of life: And though I could
With bare-fac'd power sweep him from my sight,
And bid my will avouch it; yet I must not,
For certain friends that are both his and mine,
Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall
Whom I myself struck down: and thence it is,
That I to your assistance do make love;
Masking the business from the common eye,
For sundry weighty reasons.

2 Mur.

We shall, my lord,

Perform what you command us.

1 Mur.

Though our lives

Mach. Your spirits shine through you. Within

this hour at most,

I will advise you where to plant yourselves :
Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' th' time 14,
The moment on't: for't must be done to-night,
And something from the palace; always thought,
That I require a clearness 15: And with him
(To leave no rubs, nor botches, in the work,)
Fleance his son, that keeps him company,
Whose absence is no less material to me

Than is his father's, must embrace the fate
Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart;

I'll come to you anon.

2 Mur.

We are resolv'd, my lord.

14 i. e. the exact time when you may look out or lie in wait for him. 15 Always thought,

i. e. "Always remembering that I must stand clear of suspicion."