Shakespeare Retold by E. Nesbit

Author:E. Nesbit
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-06-03T00:00:00+00:00

Meanwhile Macbeth and his queen received their guests very graciously, and he expressed a wish that has been uttered thousands of times since his day: “Now good digestion wait on appetite, and health on both.”

“We pray Your Majesty to sit with us,” said Lennox, a Scots noble. It was then that the ghost of Banquo entered the banqueting hall and sat in Macbeth’s place.

Not noticing the ghost, Macbeth observed that, if Banquo were present, he could say that he had collected under his roof the finest chivalry of Scotland.

The king was again pressed to take a seat. Lennox, who could not see Banquo’s ghost, offered Macbeth the chair in which it sat.

But Macbeth, with his eyes of genius, saw the ghost. He saw it like a form of mist and blood, and he demanded passionately, “Which of you have done this?”

Still none saw the ghost but he. To the ghost Macbeth said, “Thou canst not say I did it.”

The ghost glided out. Macbeth raised a glass of wine “to the general joy of the whole table, and to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss.”

The toast was drunk as the ghost of Banquo entered for the second time.

“Begone!” cried Macbeth. “You are senseless, mindless! Hide in the earth, thou horrible shadow.”

Again none saw the ghost but he.

“What is it Your Majesty sees?” asked one of the nobles.

The queen dared not permit an answer to this question. She hurriedly begged her guests to leave Macbeth, who was a sick man and likely to grow worse if he was obliged to talk.

Macbeth, however, was well enough the next day to converse with the witches whose prophecies had so maddened him.

He found them in a cavern on a thunderous day. They were dancing around a cauldron in which were boiling particles of many strange and horrible creatures, and they knew he was coming before he arrived.

“Answer me what I ask you,” said the king.

“Would you rather hear it from us or our masters?” asked the first witch.

“Call them,” replied Macbeth.

The witches poured blood into the cauldron and grease into the flame that licked it. A helmeted head appeared with the visor on, so that Macbeth could see only its eyes.

Macbeth began to speak to the head, but the first witch said gravely, “He knows thy thought.”

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