Macbeth

ACT III

Scene I. Forres. The palace.

Enter Banquo

Banquo :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.

Sennet sounded. Enter Macbeth, as king, Lady Macbeth, as queen, Lennox, Ross, Lords, Ladies, and Attendants

Macbeth :Here’s our chief guest.

Lady Macbeth :If he had been forgotten,

It had been as a gap in our great feast,

And all-thing unbecoming.

Macbeth :To-night we hold a solemn supper sir,

And I’ll request your presence.

Banquo :Let your highness

Command upon me; to the which my duties

Are with a most indissoluble tie

For ever knit.

Macbeth :  Ride you this afternoon?

Banquo :Ay, my good lord.

Macbeth :We should have else desired 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?

Banquo :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.

Macbeth :Fail not our feast.

Banquo :My lord, I will not.

Macbeth :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?

Banquo :Ay, my good lord: our time does call upon ’s.

Macbeth :I wish your horses swift and sure of foot;

And so I do commend you to their backs. Farewell.

Exit Banquo

Let every man be master of his time

Till seven at night: to make...