ADAPTATION OF A PLAY - MACBETH (ACT 3 SCENE 4)

The stage is prepared for banquet. Macbeth enters with Lady Macbeth, Ross, Lennox,
LORDS and their tendons.

MACBETH: Welcome everyone. You know your own degrees; sit down.

LORDS: (Sits down) Thank you for the invitation and treat, your majesty.

ROSS: (Sits down) Thank you so much for having us.

MACBETH: Well, I will walk around and entertain all of you. Meanwhile, my wife
will remain in her royal chair and at the right time she will welcome
all of you.

LADY MACBETH: Convey my warm welcome to all of our friends for me, sir, for my heart
speaks they are welcome.

MACBETH: See, they respond to you with their hearts as well. Both sides are
even. I will sit here in the middle. Stay free and joyful. We will toast
around the table soon.

While everyone is enjoying the dinner, a man with bloody shirt appears at the door.

MACBETH: (Approaches the door and speaks to the murderer) There is blood on
your face!

FIRST MURDERER: (Touches his face) Oh, it must be Banquo’s then.

MACBETH: Well, it is better to see his blood on your face than the blood flowing
through his veins. Is he dispatched?

FIRST MURDERER: My lord, his throat is cut. I did that to him. I saw him dying right in front
of my eye’s.

MACBETH: (Claps hand) Well done. You are the best of the cutthroats. How about
Fleance? You are the absolute best if you killed both of them.

FIRST MURDERER: I am sorry my lord. I’ve tried my best to kill him but he has escaped,
please don’t be mad.

MACBETH: (Strangles the murderer’s neck) What? What kind of murderer are
you? You are letting your target to escape?

FIRST MURDERER: I am so sorry my lord. Please forgive me. I will kill him now if you want
to.
MACBETH: (Releases the murderer) Now, my blood ran cold that it scares me so
much. If not, I would have been perfect, as solid as a piece marble, as
firm as a rock, as free as the air itself. But, at this moment, fears and
doubts are conquering me. However, Banquo’s been taken care of?

FIRST MURDERER: Yes, my good lord. His body is dead in a ditch, with twenty deep
gashes in his head, the least which would have been enough to kill
him.

MACBETH: Well, the adult snake lies in the ditch. The young snake that escaped
will in time become poisonous and threatening, but for now he has no
fangs. Now, get lost. I will talk to you again tomorrow.

(The first murderer exits)

LADY MACBETH: (Walks toward Macbeth) My royal lord, you do not give the cheer, do
not make your guests to feel like they are paying for this meal. If you
just want to eat, it is better to do that at home. When you are eating
out with people, you need to have a little more ceremony. Meeting
were bare without it.

MACBETH: (Holds Lady Macbeth’s hand) Sweet remembrance, my dearest wife.

(raising a glass to toast the guest) Now, good digestion waits on
appetite, And health on both! Cheers!

Suddenly, the ghost of Banquo enters and sits in Macbeth’s place. The guilt of
murdering a close friend overwhelms Macbeth that he begins to hallucinate.

LENNOX: Why don’t you have your seat, your highness?

MACBETH: How great it would be if Banquo were here, as the nobility of Scotland
would have gathered under one roof. I hope it turns out that he’s late
out of rudeness, and not because something bad has happened to
him.

ROSS: His absence shows that he has broken his promise, sir. If it pleases
you, your highness, why don’t you sit with us and grace us with your
royal company?

LORDS: Yes, come and sit with us.

MACBETH: The table’s full.

LENNOX: Here is a place reserved for you, sir.

MACBETH: Where?

LENNOX: (points to where the ghost sits) Here, my good Lord. Is anything
wrong, your highness?

MACBETH: (Looks and points at the ghost) Which one of you did this?

LORD: (Stands up) Did what, my good Lord?

ROSS: (Stands up) Gentlemen, rise. His highness is not well.

The guests are shocked to witness Macbeth’s strange reaction to an empty chair
while Lady Macbeth tries her best to calm everyone down.

LADY MACBETH: (Stands up) Sit, worthy friends. My lord is often like this since he was
a child. Please remain seated. This is just a brief it, he will be fine
again in a moment. Too much attention will make him angry and that
will make his convulsions go on longer. Enjoy your dinner and pay no
attention to him. (Approaches Macbeth and whisper to him) Are you a
man?

MACBETH: Yes, and a courageous one, who dares to look at something that
would frighten the devil.

LADY MACBETH: That’s nonsense! It is just a part of your hallucination when you are
afraid. This is like that floating dagger you said was leading you
toward Duncan. These outbursts of yours don’t even look like real
fear. Stop acting like you were a woman telling a scary story by the
fireside in front of her grandmother. Shame on you! Why are you
making these faces? When the vision passes, you’ll see that you’re
just looking at a stool.

MACBETH: Prithee, see there! Look! Look! See! (points at the ghost) What do you
have to say? What do I care? If you can nod, then speak too. If the
dead are going to return from their graves, then there’s nothing to stop
the birds from eating the bodies. So there’s no point in our burying
people.

(The ghost vanishes.)

LADY MACBETH: What are you talking? Has your foolishness paralyzed you
completely?

MACBETH: If I stand him, I saw him

LADY MACBETH: Fie, for shame!

MACBETH: In ancient times, before there were laws to make the land safe and
peaceful, a lot of blood was spilled. Yes, and since then murders have
been committed that are too awful to talk about. It used to be that
when you knocked a man’s brains out he would just die, and that
would be it. But now they rise from the dead with twenty fatal head
wounds and push us off our stools. This haunting business is even
stranger than murder.

LADY MACBETH: My worthy lord, your noble friends do lack you.

MACBETH: (Walks to the guests) Oh, I forgot. Do not muse at me, my most
worthy friends. I have a weird disorder which no longer shocks those
who know me well. (raising his glass to toast) Come, let’s drink a
toast: love and health to you all. Now I’ll sit down. Give me some wine.
Fill full.

LENNOX: (Raises his glass) Cheers!

ROSS: (Raises his glass) Cheers to the good days ahead!

The fear and guilt of Macbeth continue to drive him into insanity as he hallucinates
the ghost of Banquo again. Everyone feels strange as Macbeth starts yelling at the
air.

(The ghost of Banquo reappears in Macbeth’s seat)

MACBETH: I drink to the happiness of everyone at the table, and to our dear friend
Banquo, whom we miss. All I wish is that he were here! Let’s drink to
everyone here, and to Banquo.

LORDS: We drink to our loyalty to you, and to your toast.

MACBETH: (to the GHOST) Go and get away from my sight right now! Stay in
your grave. There’s no marrow in your bones, and your blood is cold.
You’re staring at me with eyes that are powerless to see.

LADY MACBETH: Good peers, think of this as nothing more than a weird habit. It is
nothing! Too bad it’s spoiling our pleasure tonight.

(The ghost of Banquo chases Macbeth)

MACBETH: (Runs away from the ghost) What man dare, I dare. I am as brave as
a lion. Come at me in the form of a rugged Russian bear, an
armorplated rhinoceros, or a tiger from Iran. Take any shape other
than the one you have now and I will never tremble in fear. Or come
back to life again and challenge me to a duel in some deserted place.
If I tremble then, you can call me a little girl. Get out of here, you
horrible ghost, you hallucination. Get out!

(The GHOST vanishes.)

Lady Macbeth worries the condition of Macbeth will go worse again so she decides to
ask all the guests to leave right away and pretend everything is going well.

MACBETH: (Approaches the guests) Why so, being gone, I am a man again. Pray
you sit still.

LADY MACBETH: You have spoiled our good mood and disrupted the gathering by
making a spectacle of yourself.

MACBETH: (to the guests) Can such things happen so suddenly without making
us all astonished? You make me feel like I don’t know myself, when I
see you looking at these terrible things and keeping a straight face,
while my face has gone white with fear.

ROSS: What things, my lord?

LADY MACBETH: Please, don’t speak to him. He grows worse and worse. Talk makes
him crazy. Everybody, please leave on the dot. Don’t bother exiting in
the order of your rank, but just leave right away.

LENNOX: (Walks towards the door) Goodnight. I hope the King recovers very
soon!

LADY MACBETH: (Walks towards the door and waves at the guests) Well, a kind good
night to all of you!

(Everyone leaves except MACBETH and LADY MACBETH.)

MACBETH: (Sits down) There’s an old saying that the dead will have their
revenge. Gravestones have been known to move, and trees to speak,
to bring guilty men to justice. The craftiest murderers have been
exposed by the mystical signs made by crows and magpies. How late
at night is it?
LADY MACBETH: (Walks towards Macbeth) It’s almost morning. You can’t tell whether
it’s day or it’s night.

MACBETH: (Stands up) What’s your opinion about the fact that Macduff refuses to
come to me when I command him?

LADY MACBETH: Did you send to him, sir?

MACBETH: I’ve heard about this indirectly, but I will send for him. In every one of
the lords' households I have a servant paid to spy for me. Tomorrow, I
will go see the witches. They will tell me more, because I’m
determined to know the worst about what’s going to happen. For now,
my own safety is the only important thing. I have walked so far into
this river of blood that even if I stopped now, it would be as hard to go
back to being good as it is to keep killing people. I have some
schemes in my head that I’m planning to put into action. I have to do
these things before I have a chance to think about them.

LADY MACBETH: Well, you haven’t slept.

MACBETH: Yes, let’s go to sleep. We are still just beginners when it comes to
crime.