Dun.
See, see! our honour'd hostess!
The love that follows us, sometime is our trouble,
Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you,
How you shall bid God yield' us for your pains,
And thank us for your trouble.
Lady M.
In every point twice done, and then done double,At what it did so freely? From this time,
Were poor and single business, to contend
Against those honours deep and broad, wherewith
Your majesty loads our house: For those of old,
And the late dignities heap'd up to them,
We rest your hermits.2
Dun.
Where's the thane of Cawdor?
We cours'd him at the heels, and had a purpose
To be his purveyor: but he rides well;
And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him
To his home before us: Fair and noble hostess,
We are your guest to-night.
He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon.
Lady M.
Was the hope drunk,
Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in
compt,3
To make their audit at your highness' pleasure,
Still to return your own.
Dun.
Give me your hand:
Conduct me to mine host; we love him highly,
And shall continue our graces towards him.
By your leave, hostess.
[Exeunt.
SCENE VII-The same. A room in the castle.
Hautboys and torches. Enter, and pass over
the stage, a Sewer, and divers Servants with
dishes and service. Then enter Macbeth.
Macb. If it were done, when 'tis done, then
'twere well
It were done quickly: If the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch,
With his surcease, success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,-
We'd jump the life to come.-But, in these cases,
We still have judgment here; that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague the inventor: This even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
To our own lips. He's here in double trust:
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off:
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin, hors'd
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour,
As thou art in desire? Would'st thou have that
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem;
Letting I dare not wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat i'the adage?
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more, is none.
Lady M.
What beast was it then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And, to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man. Nor time, nor place,
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:
They have made themselves, and that their fitness
Does unmake you. I have given suck; and know
How tender 'tis, to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn, as you
Have done to this.
Macb.
Lady M.
We fail!
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep,
(Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey
Soundly invite him,) his two chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassel so convince,8
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbeck only: When in swinish sleep
Their drenched natures lie, as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon
His spongy officers; who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell?10
Macb.
Bring forth men-children only!
For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing but males. Will it not be received,II
When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two
Of his own chamber, and us'd their very daggers,
That they have done't?
I am settled, and bend up Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
That tears shall drown the wind.-I have no spur Away, and mock the time with fairest show
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'er-leaps itself,
And falls on the other.-How now, what news?
False face must hide what the false heart doth know. [Exeunt.
Fle. The moon is down; I have not heard the [[Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear clock.
Ban. And she goes down at twelve.
Fle.
I take't, 'tis later, sir.
Ban. 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;-
Enter Macbeth, and a servant with a torch. Who's there?
The very stones prate of my where-about,
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.
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.
SCENE II.-The same. Enter Lady Macbeth.
Lady M. That which hath made them drunk,
hath made me bold:
What hath quench'd them, hath given me fire :-
Hark-Peace!
Ban. What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's a-bed: It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman,
He hath been in unusual pleasure, and
Sent forth great largess2 to your offices:3
This diamond he greets your wife withal,
By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up4
In measureless content.
So I lose none, In seeking to augment it, but still keep My bosom franchis'd, and allegiance clear, I shall be counsel'd.
Good repose, the while!
Ban. Thanks, sir; The like to you! [Ex. Ban.
Macb. Go, bid thy mistress, when my drink is
ready,
She strike upon the bell. Get thee to-bed. [Ex. Ser.
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 marshal'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, (2) Bounty.
(1) Thrift.
(3) The rooms appropriated to servants.
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.
Macb. [Within.] Who's there?-what, ho! Lady M. 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 them.-Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done't.-My husband ? Enter Macbeth.
Macb. I have done the deed:-Didst thou not hear a noise?
Lady M. I heard the owl scream, and the crickets cry. Did not you speak?
Macb.
Lady M.
Macb.
Lady M. Ay.
Mach. Hark!
What do you mean? Macb. Still it cried, Sleep no more! to all the house:
ver 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
Glamis hath murder'd sleep; and therefore Caw-go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire. [Knocking.] Anon, anon; I pray you, remember the porter. [Opens the gate. Enter Macduff and Lenox.
Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more!
Lady M. 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 froin the place?
They must lie there: Go, carry them; and smear
The sleepy grooms with blood.
I'll go no more: I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on't again, I dare not. Lady M
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 Macb. 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 incarnardine,'
Making the green one red.
Re-enter Lady Macbeth.
Lady M. My hands are of your colour; but I
To wear a heart so white. [Knock.] I hear a 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.] Hark!
more knocking:
Get on your night-gown, lest occasion call us,
And show us to be watchers :-Be not lost
So poorly in your thoughts.
Macb. To know my deed,-'twere best not know myself. [Knock. Wake Duncan with thy knocking! Ay, 'would thou could'st! [Exeunt SCENE III-The same. Enter a Porter. [Knocking within.]
Porter. Here's a knocking, indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old2 turning the key. [Knocking.] Knock, knock, knock: Who's there, i'the narne of Belzebub? Here's a farmer, that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty: Come in time; have napkins3 enough about you; here you'll sweat for't. [Knocking. Knock, knock: Who's there, i'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: Ne
(1) To incarnardine is to stain of a flesh-colour. (2) Frequent. (3) Handkerchiefs. (4) Cock-crowing. (5) i. e. Affords a cordial to it.
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That you do lie so late? Port. 'Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock 4 and drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things.
Macd. What three things does drink especially provoke?
Port. 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 drinks 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.
Macd. I believe, drink gave thee the lie last night. Port. That it did, sir, i'the very throat o'me: But I requfied 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. Macd. Is thy master stirring?
Our knocking has awak'd him; here he comes
Enter Macbeth.
Len. Good-morrow, noble sir!
Macb.
Good-morrow, both!
Macd. Is the king stirring, worthy thane?
Macb.
Not yet.
Macd. He did command me to call timely on him;
I have almost slipp'd the hour.
Mach. I'll bring you to him. Macd. I know, this is a joyful trouble to you; But yet, 'tis one.
Macb. The labour we delight in, physics pain. This is the door,
[Exit Macd. Goes the king
I'll make so bold to call,
For 'tis my limited service.6
Len.
From hence to-day?
Macb.
He does he did appoint it so.
Len. 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 woful time. The obscure bird
Clamour'd the livelong night: some say, the earth Was feverous, and did shake.
'Twas a rough night. Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel A fellow to it. Re-enter Macduff.
Macd. O horror! horror! horror! Tongue, nor heart, Cannot conceive, nor name thee!7 Macb. Len. What's the matter? Macd. 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.
What is't you say? the life?
Len. Mean you his majesty ?
Macd. Approach the chamber, and destroy
your sight
With a new Gorgon:-Do not bid me speak;
See, and then speak yourselves.-Awake! awake!-
[Exeunt Macbeth and Lenox.
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!
[Bell rings.
Enter Lady Macbeth.
Lady M.
What's the business,
That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley
The sleepers of the house? speak, speak,-
Macd
'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak :
The repetition, in a woman's ear,
Would murder as it fell.O Banquo! Banquo!
Enter Banquo.
Our royal master's murder'd!
Too cruel, any where.-
Dear Duff, I pr'ythee, contradict thyself,
And say, it is not so.
Re-enter Macbeth and Lenox.
Macb. 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.
Don. What is amiss?
Macb.
You are, and do not know it:
The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood
Is stopp'd; the very source of it is stopp'd.
Macd. Your royal father's murder'd.
Mal.
Len. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had
O, by whom?
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.
Macb. O, yet I do repent me of my fury,
That I did kill them.
Wherefore did you so?
Macd.
Macb. Who can be wise, amaz'd, temperate,
Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man :
The expedition of my violent love
Out-ran 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 re-
frain,
That had a heart to love, and in that heart
Courage, to make his love known?
(1) Covered with blood to their hilt
Mal.
That most may claim this argument for ours?
Why do we hold our tongues,
Don. What should be spoken here,
Where our fate, hid within an augre-hole,
May rush, and seize us? Let's away; our tears
Are not yet brew'd.
Nor our strong sorrow on
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 pretence3 I fight
Of treasonous malice.
Macb.
All.
And meet i'the hall together.
Macb. Let's briefly put on manly readiness,
[Exeunt all but Mal. and Don. Mal. What will you do? Let's not consort with
To show an unfelt sorrow, is an office
Which the false man does easy: I'll to England.
Don. 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.
Mal.
This murderous shaft that's shot,
Is, to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse;
Hath not yet lighted; and our safest way
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 IV.-Without the castle. Enter Rosse
and an Old Man.
Old M. 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.
Rosse.
Ah, good father,
Thou see'st, the heavens, as troubled with man's
Threaten his bloody stage: by the clock, 'tis day,
act,
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 intomb,
When living light should kiss it?
Old M.
'Tis unnatural,
A falcon, tow'ring in her pride of place,
Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last,
Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at, and kill'd.
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As the weird women promis'd; and, I fear,
Thou play'dst most foully for't: yet it was said,
It should not stand in thy posterity;
But that myself should be the root, and father
Of many kings. If there come truth from them
(As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine,)
Why, by the verities on thee made good,
May they not be my oracles as well,
And set me up in hope? But, hush; no more.
Senet sounded. Enter Macbeth, as king; Lady
Macbeth, as queen; Lenox, Rosse, Lords, La-
dies, and attendants.
Macb. Here's our chief guest.
Lady M.
If he had been forgotten,
It had been as a gap in our great feast,
And all-things unbecoming.
Macb. To-night we hold a solemn supper, sir, And I'll request your presence.
Let your highness Command upon me; to the which, my duties Are with a most indissoluble tie
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Macb. We hear, our bloody cousins are bestow'd In England, and in Ireland; not confessing Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers With strange invention: But of that to-morrow; When, therewithal, we shall have cause of state, Craving us jointly. Hie you to horse: Adieu, Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you? Ban. Ay, my good lord: our time does call upon us.
Macb. I wish your horses swift, and sure of foot;
And so I do commend? you to their backs.
Farewell.-
[Exit Banquo.
Let every man be master of his time
Till seven at night; to make society
The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself
Till supper-time alone: while then, God be with you.
[Exeunt Lady Macbeth, Lords, Ladies, &c.
Sirrah, a word: Attend those men our pleasure?
Atten. They are, my lord, without the palace-
gate.
Macb. Bring them before us.-[Exit Atten.]
To be thus, is nothing;
But to be safely thus:-Our fears in Banquo
Stick deep; and in his royalty 3 of nature
Reigns that, which would be fear'd: 'Tis much
he dares;
And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour
To act in safety. There is none, but he,
Whose being I do fear: and, under him,
My genius is rebuk'd; as, is said,
Mark Antony's was by Caesar. He chid the sisters,
When first they put the name of king upon me,
And bade them speak to him; then, prophet-like,
They hail'd him father to a line of kings:
Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown,
And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,
Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand,
No son of mine succeeding. If it be so,
For Banquo's issue have I fil'd4 my mind;
For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd;
Put rancours in the vessel of my peace
Only for them; and mine eternal jewel
Given to the common enemy of man,
To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings!
Rather than so, come, fate, into the list,
And champion me to the utterance !5- -Who's
Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers. Now to the door, and stay there till we call. [Exit Attendant.
Was it not yesterday we spoke together?
1 Mur. It was, so please your highness,
Macb.
Well then, now
Have you consider'd of my speeches? Know,
That it was he, in the times past, which held you
So under fortune; which, you thought, had been
Our innocent self: this I made good to you
In our last conference; pass'd in probation with
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