William Shakespeare - Macbeth

ACT ONE

FIRST WITCH. All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis.
SECOND WITCH. All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor.
THIRD WITCH. All hail Macbeth, that shall be king hereafter.

*************************************************
LADY MACBETH. […] Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor,
Greater than both by the all-hail hereafter,
Thy letters have transported me beyond
This indignant present, and I feel now
The future in the instant.

MACBETH. My dearest love,
Duncan comes here tonight.

LADY MACBETH. And when goes hence?

MACBETH. Tomorrow, as he purposes.

LADY MACBETH. O 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 th’innocent flower,
But be the serpent 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 sovereign sway and masterdom.

*beguile – deceive, mislead
*provided for – prepared for
*dispatch – conduct, management
*************************************************
DUNCAN. Where’s the Thane of Cawdor?
We coursed 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 his home before us. Fair and noble hostess,
We are your guest tonight.

LADY MACBETH. Your servants ever
Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs in count
To make their audit at your highness’ pleasure,
Still to return your own.

DUNCAN. Give me your hand;
Conduct me to mine host: we love him highly
And shall continue our graces towards him.
By your love, hostess.

*purveyor – the person who arranges provisions (food, transport, lodging, etc.) for a superior, an official title in the royal household.
*holp – helped
*************************************************
MACBETH. We will proceed no further in this business.
He hath honoured me of late, and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon.

LADY MACBETH. Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dressed yourself? 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 afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour,
As thou art in desire? 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?*

MACBETH. Prithee, peace.*
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.
[…] If we should fail?

LADY MACBETH. 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 tow chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassail* 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 lies as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
Th’unguarded Duncan? What not put upon
His spongy* officers, who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell?*

[…]
MACBETH. I am settled 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.

*green and pale – popularly imagined consequences of drunkenness
*Such – i.e. you are like the fearful, hangover drunkard, bold only when inebriated
*account – consider
*adage – “The cat would eat fish but she will not wet her feet” – Macbeth wants the kingship, but will risk nothing; (“Lubi kot ryby, ale nie chce zamoczyć łapek”)
*Prithee, peace – I pray thee, be quiet.
*screw . . . sticking-place – tighten your courage to the limit
*the rather – the more readily, all the sooner
*wassail – liquor
*convince – overcome, conquer
*fume – vapour
*limbeck – alembic, an apparatus used in distilling
*swinish – drunken
*spongy – absorbent
*quell – slaughter, murder
*bend up – tighten, prepare to act
*agent – muscle
*************************************************
Enter Macbeth with two bloody daggers.
MACBETH. Who’s there? What ho?

LADY MACBETH. Alack, I am afraid they have awaked,
And ’this not done; th’attempt and not the deed
Confounds us.* Hark!* I laid their daggers ready,
He could not miss ’em. Had he not resembled
My father as he slept, I had done’t. My husband?

MACBETH. I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?

*th’attempt . . . Confounds us – i.e. murder attempted but not accomplished defeats us.
*Hark! – Listen, pay attention.
*************************************************
LADY MACBETH. These deeds must not be thought*
After these ways; so, it will make us mad.

MACBETH. Methought* I heard a voice cry, ‘Sleep no more:
Macbeth does murder sleep,’ the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravelled* sleeve of care,
The death of each day’s life,* sore labour’s bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast.

LADY MACBETH. What do you mean?

MACBETH. Still it cried, ‘Sleep no more’ to all the house;
‘Glamis hath murdered sleep,’ and therefore Cawdor
Shall sleep no more: Macbeth shall sleep no more.

LADY MACBETH. Who was it, that thus cried? Why, worthy thane,
You do unbend your noble strength to think
So brain-sickly of things. Go get some water
And wash this filthy witness* from your hand.
Why did you bring these daggers from the place?
They must lie there. Go carry them and smear
The sleepy* grooms with blood.

MACBETH. I’ll go no more.
I am afraid to think what I have done;
Look on’t again, I dare not.

LADY MACBETH. Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead
Are but as pictures;* ’tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal,
For it must seem their guilt.

Knock within.
MACBETH. Whence is that knocking?
How is’t with me, when every noise appals* me?
What hands are here? Ha: they pluck out mine eyes.
Will all great Neptune’s* ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No: this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,*
Making the green one red.

Enter Lady Macbeth.
LADY MACBETH. My hands are of your colour, but I shame
To wear a heart so white.*

*thought – meditated, pondered
*Methought – It seemed to me
*ravelledfrayed
*death of each day’s life – i.e. sleep ends each day just as death ends life
*filthy witness – morally polluted token
*sleepy – the grooms are intended to be scapegoats for Duncan’s murder
*as pictures – i.e. because, dead, they do not move
*appals – dismays, terrifies
*Neptune – Classical god of the seas
*incarnadine – stain red
*white – pale with fear


VOCABULARY:
adage – porzekadło
to appal – przerażać, napawać lękiem
auditto carry out an audit – przeprowadzić kontrolę ksiąg
to beguile – omamić, zwieść
to confoundconfuse, perplex, wprawić w zakłopotanie
to course – ścigać, gonić
cowardinf. wimp, tchórz
dagger – sztylet
dispatch – depesza, komunikat; wysyłka
drenched – przemoczony, zlany
esteem – szacunek, poważanie
feat – wyczyn
filthy – brudny
frayed – postrzępione
fumes – opary
to gild – pozłocić
gloss – połysk; blask, blichtr
guilt – wina
Hail! – Witaj!, Cześć ci!
Hark! – Słuchajcie!
hereafter – od tej chwili
indignant – oburzony, be indignant with sb at sth - być oburzonym na kogoś o coś
tu marny
infirm – niedołężny; infirm of purposearchaic chwiejny w
postanowieniach
instant – chwila, in an instant - w jednej chwili
to mock – wyśmiewać, drwić
to pluck out one’s eyes – wyłupić komuś oczy
to smear – usmarować; pomazać
solely – całkowicie, e.g. he is solely responsible for the accident
wyłącznie, jedynie, exclusively
soundly – sleep soundly – spać mocno
spongy – gąbczasty, nasiąka płynem, aluzja do pijaństwa poddanych króla
spur – ostroga
sway – władza, to hold sway - dzierżyć władzę
thane – tan, a man who fought for the King but was below the rank of a knight in early English history
to unbend – wyprostować; odprężać
valour – męstwo; waleczność
warder – strażnik


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