ACT III, Scene 2    

William Shakespeare, Macbeth

10

20

30

40

50

The palace.
Enter LADY MACBETH and a Servant.

Lady  Is Banquo gone from court?

Servant  Ay, madam, but returns again tonight.

Lady  Say to the king, I would attend his leisure
For a few words.

Servant              Madam, I will. Exit.

Lady                                          Nought's had, all's spent,
Where our desire is got without content:
'Tis safer to be that which we destroy
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy. Enter MACBETH.
How now, my lord! why do you keep alone,
Of sorriest fancies your companions making,

Using those thoughts which should indeed have died
With them they think on? Things without all remedy
Should be without regard: what's done is done.

Macbeth  We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it:
She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice
Remains in danger of her former tooth.
But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,
Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep
In the affliction of these terrible dreams
That shake us nightly: better be with the dead,

Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave;
After life's fitful fever he sleeps well;
Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
Can touch him further.

Lady                          Come on;
Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks;
Be bright and jovial among your guests to night.

Macbeth  So shall I, love; and so, I pray, be you:

Let your remembrance apply to Banquo;
Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue:
Unsafe the while, that we
Must lave our honours in these flattering streams,
And make our faces vizards to our hearts,
Disguising what they are.

Lady                                You must leave this.

Macbeth  O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!
Thou know'st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives.

Lady  But in them nature's copy's not eterne.

Macbeth  There's comfort yet; they are as- sailable;
Then be thou jocund: ere the bat hath flown
His cloister'd flight, ere to black Hecate's summons
The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.

Lady                              What's to be done?

Macbeth  Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day;
And with thy bloody and invisible hand
Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond

Vai al racconto  

II

Ebbene, mio signore? Perché mi sfuggi?

Vai al libretto  

II,1

Perchè‚ mi sfuggi, e fiso...

La luce langue, il faro spegnesi

Meglio essere coi morti che noi per aver pace abbiamo mandato nella pace, che star distesi nella ruota della mente in un supplizio incessante

Le mie parole ti sorprendono. Ma non temere: ciò che nel male nasce prende forza dal male