SCENE I. Inverness. Court within
the Castle.
[Enter Banquo, preceeded by
Fleance with a torch.]
BANQUO.
How goes the night, boy?
FLEANCE.
The moon is down; I have not
heard the clock.
BANQUO.
And she goes down at twelve.
FLEANCE.
I take't, 'tis later, sir.
BANQUO.
Hold, take my sword.--There's
husbandry in heaven;
Their candles are all out:--take
thee that too.--
A heavy summons lies like lead
upon me,
And yet I would not sleep:--merciful
powers,
Restrain in me the cursed thoughts
that nature
Gives way to in repose!--Give
me my sword.
Who's there?
[Enter Macbeth, and a Servant
with a torch.]
MACBETH.
A friend.
BANQUO.
What, sir, not yet at rest? The
king's a-bed:
He hath been in unusual pleasure
and
Sent forth great largess to your
officers:
This diamond he greets your wife
withal,
By the name of most kind hostess;
and shut up
In measureless content.
MACBETH.
Being unprepar'd,
Our will became the servant to
defect;
Which else should free have wrought.
BANQUO.
All's well.
I dreamt last night of the three
weird sisters:
To you they have show'd some
truth.
MACBETH.
I think not of them:
Yet, when we can entreat an hour
to serve,
We would spend it in some words
upon that business,
If you would grant the time.
BANQUO.
At your kind'st leisure.
MACBETH.
If you shall cleave to my consent,--when
'tis,
It shall make honor for you.
BANQUO.
So I lose none
In seeking to augment it, but
still keep
My bosom franchis'd, and allegiance
clear,
I shall be counsell'd.
MACBETH.
Good repose the while!
BANQUO.
Thanks, sir: the like to you!
[Exeunt Banquo and Fleance.]
MACBETH.
Go bid thy mistress, when my
drink is ready,
She strike upon the bell. Get
thee to bed.
[Exit Servant.]
Is this a dagger which I see
before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come,
let me clutch thee:--
I have thee not, and yet I see
thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art
thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false
creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed
brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshall'st me the way that
I was going;
And such an instrument I was
to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools
o' the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest: I
see thee still;
And on thy blade and dudgeon
gouts of blood,
Which was not so before.--There's
no such thing:
It is the bloody business which
informs
Thus to mine eyes.--Now o'er
the one half-world
Nature seems dead, and wicked
dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleep; now witchcraft
celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings; and
wither'd murder,
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the
wolf,
Whose howl's his watch, thus
with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin's ravishing strides,
towards his design
Moves like a ghost.--Thou sure
and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way
they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
And take the present horror from
the time,
Which now suits with it.--Whiles
I threat, he lives;
Words to the heat of deeds too
cold breath gives.
[A bell rings.]
I go, and it is done; the bell
invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan, for it is
a knell
That summons thee to heaven or
to hell.
[Exit.]
[Enter Lady Macbeth.]
LADY MACBETH.
That which hath made them drunk
hath made me bold:
What hath quench'd them hath
given me fire.--Hark!--Peace!
It was the owl that shriek'd,
the fatal bellman,
Which gives the stern'st good
night. He is about it:
The doors are open; and the surfeited
grooms
Do mock their charge with snores:
I have drugg'd their possets
That death and nature do contend
about them,
Whether they live or die.
MACBETH.
[Within.] Who's there?--what,
ho!
LADY MACBETH.
Alack! I am afraid they have
awak'd,
And 'tis not done: the 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!
[Re-enter Macbeth.]
MACBETH.
I have done the deed.--Didst
thou not hear a noise?
LADY MACBETH.
I heard the owl scream and the
crickets cry.
Did not you speak?
MACBETH.
When?
LADY MACBETH.
Now.
MACBETH.
As I descended?
LADY MACBETH.
Ay.
MACBETH.
Hark!--
Who lies i' the second chamber?
LADY MACBETH.
Donalbain.
MACBETH.
This is a sorry sight.
[Looking on his hands.]
LADY MACBETH.
A foolish thought, to say a sorry
sight.
MACBETH.
There's one did laugh in's sleep,
and one cried, "Murder!"
That they did wake each other:
I stood and heard them:
But they did say their prayers,
and address'd them
Again to sleep.
LADY MACBETH.
There are two lodg'd together.
MACBETH.
One cried, "God bless us!" and, "Amen," the
other;
As they had seen me with these
hangman's hands.
Listening their fear, I could
not say "Amen,"
When they did say, "God
bless us."
LADY MACBETH.
Consider it not so deeply.
MACBETH.
But wherefore could not I pronounce "Amen"?
I had most need of blessing,
and "Amen"
Stuck in my throat.
LADY MACBETH.
These deeds must not be thought
After these ways; so, it will
make us mad.
MACBETH.
I heard a voice cry, "Sleep
no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep,"--the
innocent sleep;
Sleep that knits up the ravell'd
sleave 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 murder'd 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 brainsickly 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.
[Exit. Knocking 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.
[Re-enter Lady Macbeth.]
LADY MACBETH.
My hands are of your color, but
I shame
To wear a heart so white. [Knocking
within.] I hear knocking
At the south entry:--retire we
to our chamber.
A little water clears us of this
deed:
How easy is it then! Your constancy
Hath left you unattended.--[Knocking
within.] Hark, more
knocking:
Get on your nightgown, lest occasion
call us
And show us to be watchers:--be
not lost
So poorly in your thoughts.
MACBETH.
To know my deed, 'twere best
not know myself. [Knocking
within.]
Wake Duncan with thy knocking!
I would thou couldst!
[Exeunt.]
[Enter a Porter. Knocking within.]
PORTER.
Here's a knocking indeed! If
a man were porter of hell-gate,
he
should have old turning the key.
[Knocking.] Knock, knock, knock.
Who's there, i' the name of Belzebub?
Here's a farmer that hanged
himself on the expectation of
plenty: come in time; have napkins
enow about you; here you'll sweat
for't.--[Knocking.] Knock,
knock! Who's there, in the other
devil's name? Faith, here's an
equivocator, that could swear
in both the scales against either
scale, who committed treason
enough for God's sake, yet could
not
equivocate to heaven: O, come
in, equivocator. [Knocking.]
Knock,
knock, knock! Who's there? Faith,
here's an English tailor come
hither, for stealing out of a
French hose: come in, tailor;
here
you may roast your goose.-- [Knocking.]
Knock, knock: never at
quiet! What are you?--But this
place is too cold for hell.
I'll devil-porter it no further:
I had thought to have let in
some of all professions, that
go the primrose way to the
everlasting bonfire. [Knocking.]
Anon, anon! I pray you, remember
the porter.
[Opens the gate.]
[Enter Macduff and Lennox.]
MACDUFF.
Was it so late, friend, ere you
went to bed,
That you do lie so late?
PORTER.
Faith, sir, we were carousing
till the second cock: and
drink, sir, is a great provoker
of three things.
MACDUFF.
What three things does drink
especially provoke?
PORTER.
Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep,
and urine. Lechery, sir,
it provokes and unprovokes; it
provokes the desire, but it
takes away the performance: therefore
much drink may be said to
be an equivocator with lechery:
it makes him, and it mars him;
it
sets him on, and it takes him
off; it persuades him, and
disheartens him; makes him stand
to, and not stand to: in
conclusion, equivocates him in
a sleep, and giving him the lie,
leaves him.
MACDUFF.
I believe drink gave thee the
lie last night.
PORTER.
That it did, sir, i' the very
throat o' me; but I requited
him for his lie; and, I think,
being too strong for him,
though he took up my legs sometime,
yet I made a shift to cast
him.
MACDUFF.
Is thy master stirring?--
Our knocking has awak'd him;
here he comes.
[Enter Macbeth.]
LENNOX.
Good morrow, noble sir!
MACBETH.
Good morrow, both!
MACDUFF.
Is the king stirring, worthy
thane?
MACBETH.
Not yet.
MACDUFF.
He did command me to call timely
on him:
I have almost slipp'd the hour.
MACBETH.
I'll bring you to him.
MACDUFF.
I know this is a joyful trouble
to you;
But yet 'tis one.
MACBETH.
The labour we delight in physics
pain.
This is the door.
MACDUFF.
I'll make so bold to call.
For 'tis my limited service.
[Exit Macduff.]
LENNOX.
Goes the king hence to-day?
MACBETH.
He does: he did appoint so.
LENNOX.
The night has been unruly: where
we lay,
Our chimneys were blown down:
and, as they say,
Lamentings heard i' the air,
strange screams of death;
And prophesying, with accents
terrible,
Of dire combustion and confus'd
events,
New hatch'd to the woeful time:
the obscure bird
Clamour'd the live-long night;
some say the earth
Was feverous, and did shake.
MACBETH.
'Twas a rough night.
LENNOX.
My young remembrance cannot parallel
A fellow to it.
[Re-enter Macduff.]
MACDUFF.
O horror, horror, horror! Tongue
nor heart
Cannot conceive nor name thee!
MACBETH, LENNOX.
What's the matter?
MACDUFF.
Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!
Most sacrilegious murder hath
broke ope
The Lord's anointed temple, and
stole thence
The life o' the building.
MACBETH.
What is't you say? the life?
LENNOX.
Mean you his majesty?
MACDUFF.
Approach the chamber, and destroy
your sight
With a new Gorgon:--do not bid
me speak;
See, and then speak yourselves.
[Exeunt Macbeth and Lennox.]
Awake, awake!--
Ring the alarum bell:--murder
and treason!
Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm!
awake!
Shake off this downy sleep, death's
counterfeit,
And look on death itself! up,
up, and see
The great doom's image! Malcolm!
Banquo!
As from your graves rise up,
and walk like sprites
To countenance this horror!
[Alarum-bell rings.]
[Re-enter Lady Macbeth.]
LADY MACBETH.
What's the business,
That such a hideous trumpet calls
to parley
The sleepers of the house? speak,
speak!
MACDUFF.
O gentle lady,
'Tis not for you to hear what
I can speak:
The repetition, in a woman's
ear,
Would murder as it fell.
[Re-enter Banquo.]
O Banquo, Banquo!
Our royal master's murder'd!
LADY MACBETH.
Woe, alas!
What, in our house?
BANQUO.
Too cruel any where.--
Dear Duff, I pr'ythee, contradict
thyself,
And say it is not so.
[Re-enter Macbeth and Lennox,
with Ross.]
MACBETH.
Had I but died an hour before
this chance,
I had liv'd a blessed time; for,
from this instant
There's nothing serious in mortality:
All is but toys: renown and grace
is dead;
The wine of life is drawn, and
the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of.
[Enter Malcolm and Donalbain.]
DONALBAIN.
What is amiss?
MACBETH.
You are, and do not know't:
The spring, the head, the fountain
of your blood
Is stopp'd; the very source of
it is stopp'd.
MACDUFF.
Your royal father's murder'd.
MALCOLM.
O, by whom?
LENNOX.
Those of his chamber, as it seem'd,
had done't:
Their hands and faces were all
badg'd with blood;
So were their daggers, which,
unwip'd, we found
Upon their pillows:
They star'd, and were distracted;
no man's life
Was to be trusted with them.
MACBETH.
O, yet I do repent me of my fury,
That I did kill them.
MACDUFF.
Wherefore did you so?
MACBETH.
Who can be wise, amaz'd, temperate,
and furious,
Loyal and neutral, in a moment?
No man:
The expedition of my violent
love
Outrun the pauser reason. Here
lay Duncan,
His silver skin lac'd with his
golden blood;
And his gash'd stabs look'd like
a breach in nature
For ruin's wasteful entrance:
there, the murderers,
Steep'd in the colours of their
trade, their daggers
Unmannerly breech'd with gore:
who could refrain,
That had a heart to love, and
in that heart
Courage to make's love known?
LADY MACBETH.
Help me hence, ho!
MACDUFF.
Look to the lady.
MALCOLM.
Why do we hold our tongues,
That most may claim this argument
for ours?
DONALBAIN.
What should be spoken here, where
our fate,
Hid in an auger hole, may rush,
and seize us?
Let's away;
Our tears are not yet brew'd.
MALCOLM.
Nor our strong sorrow
Upon the foot of motion.
BANQUO.
Look to the lady:--
[Lady Macbeth is carried out.]
And when we have our naked frailties
hid,
That suffer in exposure, let
us meet,
And question this most bloody
piece of work
To know it further. Fears and
scruples shake us:
In the great hand of God I stand;
and thence,
Against the undivulg'd pretense
I fight
Of treasonous malice.
MACDUFF.
And so do I.
ALL.
So all.
MACBETH.
Let's briefly put on manly readiness,
And meet i' the hall together.
ALL.
Well contented.
[Exeunt all but Malcolm and
Donalbain.]
MALCOLM.
What will you do? Let's not consort
with them:
To show an unfelt sorrow is an
office
Which the false man does easy.
I'll to England.
DONALBAIN.
To Ireland, I; our separated
fortune
Shall keep us both the safer:
where we are,
There's daggers in men's smiles:
the near in blood,
The nearer bloody.
MALCOLM.
This murderous shaft that's shot
Hath not yet lighted; and our
safest way
Is to avoid the aim. Therefore
to horse;
And let us not be dainty of leave-taking,
But shift away: there's warrant
in that theft
Which steals itself, when there's
no mercy left.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE II. The same. Without
the Castle.
[Enter Ross and an old Man.]
OLD MAN.
Threescore and ten I can remember
well:
Within the volume of which time
I have seen
Hours dreadful and things strange;
but this sore night
Hath trifled former knowings.
ROSS.
Ah, good father,
Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled
with man's act,
Threaten his bloody stage: by
the clock 'tis day,
And yet dark night strangles
the travelling lamp;
Is't night's predominance, or
the day's shame,
That darkness does the face of
earth entomb,
When living light should kiss
it?
OLD MAN.
'Tis unnatural,
Even like the deed that's done.
On Tuesday last,
A falcon, towering in her pride
of place,
Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at
and kill'd.
ROSS.
And Duncan's horses,--a thing
most strange and certain,--
Beauteous and swift, the minions
of their race,
Turn'd wild in nature, broke
their stalls, flung out,
Contending 'gainst obedience,
as they would make
War with mankind.
OLD MAN.
'Tis said they eat each other.
ROSS.
They did so; to the amazement
of mine eyes,
That look'd upon't.
Here comes the good Macduff.
[Enter Macduff.]
How goes the world, sir, now?
MACDUFF.
Why, see you not?
ROSS.
Is't known who did this more
than bloody deed?
MACDUFF.
Those that Macbeth hath slain.
ROSS.
Alas, the day!
What good could they pretend?
MACDUFF.
They were suborn'd:
Malcolm and Donalbain, the king's
two sons,
Are stol'n away and fled; which
puts upon them
Suspicion of the deed.
ROSS.
'Gainst nature still:
Thriftless ambition, that wilt
ravin up
Thine own life's means!--Then
'tis most like,
The sovereignty will fall upon
Macbeth.
MACDUFF.
He is already nam'd; and gone
to Scone
To be invested.
ROSS.
Where is Duncan's body?
MACDUFF.
Carried to Colme-kill,
The sacred storehouse of his
predecessors,
And guardian of their bones.
ROSS.
Will you to Scone?
MACDUFF.
No, cousin, I'll to Fife.
ROSS.
Well, I will thither.
MACDUFF.
Well, may you see things well
done there,--adieu!--
Lest our old robes sit easier
than our new!
ROSS.
Farewell, father.
OLD MAN.
God's benison go with you; and
with those
That would make good of bad,
and friends of foes!
[Exeunt.]
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