Macbeth — Act 1, Scene 6in modern English, side by side
The same. Before the Castle · Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Angus, Lady Macbeth
King Duncan and his court arrive at the Macbeths' castle at Inverness to spend the night. The audience has just heard Lady Macbeth call on darkness to help murder him — but Duncan, admiring the sweet evening air, suspects nothing.
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Hautboys. Servants of Macbeth attending
Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Angus
and Attendants
Duncan
This castle hath a pleasant seat.
This castle sits in a pleasant spot.
The air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses.
The air is light and sweet — it soothes and appeals to my senses.
Banquo
This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve,5
By his loved mansionry, that the heaven’s breath
Smells wooingly here:
This summer visitor, the martlet that nests in churches, proves by building its beloved home here that heaven's breath smells inviting in this place.
no jutty, frieze,
Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird
hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle.
There isn't a ledge, a carved border, a buttress, or a convenient corner where this bird hasn't hung its nest and made a cradle for its young.
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observ’d10
The air is delicate.
And I've noticed that wherever these birds most breed and gather, the air is delicate.
Enter Lady Macbeth
Duncan
See, see, our honour’d hostess!—
Look, look — our honored hostess!
The love that follows us sometime is our trouble,
Which still we thank as love.
The love people show us can sometimes be a nuisance to us, but we still thank it, because it's love.
Herein I teach you
How you shall bid God ’ild us for your pains,15
And thank us for your trouble.
By which I'm teaching you a lesson: ask God to reward me for the trouble I put you to, and thank me for the bother — because it all comes from love.
Lady Macbeth
All our service,
In every point twice done, and then done double,
Were poor and single business to contend
Against those honours deep and broad wherewith20
Your Majesty loads our house:
Even if every act of our service were done twice over, and then doubled again, it would still be poor, thin work set against the deep and broad honors your Majesty is heaping on our house.
for those of old,
And the late dignities heap’d up to them,
We rest your hermits.
For the old honors, and the new dignities piled on top of them, we remain your devoted servants, praying for you always like hermits.
Duncan
Where’s the Thane of Cawdor?
Where's the Thane of Cawdor?
We cours’d him at the heels, and had a purpose25
To be his purveyor:
We chased hard at his heels, hoping to arrive ahead of him and be the one to arrange his welcome.
but he rides well;
And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him
To his home before us.
But he rides well, and his great love, sharp as his spur, carried him home before us.
Fair and noble hostess,
We are your guest tonight.
Fair and noble hostess, we are your guest tonight.
Lady Macbeth
Your servants ever30
Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt,
To make their audit at your Highness’ pleasure,
Still to return your own.
Your servants hold their own servants, themselves, and everything they own in trust for you, ready to present the accounts whenever your Highness pleases — everything we have is already yours; we only give it back.
Duncan
Give me your hand;
Give me your hand.
Conduct me to mine host:35
Lead me to my host.
we love him highly,35
And shall continue our graces towards him.
We love him highly, and we will keep showing him our favor.
By your leave, hostess.
After you, hostess.
_Exeunt._
Famous lines in this scene
“This castle hath a pleasant seat.” line 1
Duncan admires the sweet air of the very castle where he will be murdered tonight — a textbook example of dramatic irony, since the audience knows what he doesn't. Banquo's martlet, a bird that nests in churches, deepens the false impression that this place is gentle, holy, and safe.
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