The great doom's image! Malcolm! Banquo!

60

[Bell rings.

As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites,
To countenance this horror. Ring the bell.

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.

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Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself,

And say it is not so.

Re-enter MACBETH and LENNOX.

Macbeth. Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had lived 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:

80

The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood
Is stopped; 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 badged with blood;

So were their daggers, which unwiped we found

Upon their pillows:

They stared, 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, amazed, 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 laced 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.

Macduff. Look to the lady.

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Help me hence, ho! 100

Malcolm. [Aside to Don.] Why do we hold our tongues, That most may claim this argument for ours?

Don. [Aside to Mal.] What should be spoken here, where our fate

Hid in an auger-hole, may rush, and seize us?

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 undivulged pretence I fight

Of treasonous malice.

ΠΙΟ

Macduff.
All.

And so do I.

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.

120

[Exeunt.

Old Man.

SCENE IV. Outside Macbeth's castle.

Enter Ross and an 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.

ΙΟ

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.

Enter MACDuff.

Here comes the good Macduff. 20

Why, see you not?

How goes the world, sir, now?

Macduff.

Ross. Is't known who did this more than bloody deed?

Macduff. Those that Macbeth hath slain.

Ross.

What good could they pretend?

Macduff.

Alas, the day!

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 named, and gone to Scone

To be invested.

30

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 ?

Well, I will thither.

Macduff. No, cousin, I'll to Fife.

Ross.

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!

39

[Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I. Forres. The palace.

Enter BANQUO.

Banquo. Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all,

As the weird women promised, 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.

IO

Sennet sounded. Enter MACBETH, as king; LADY MACBETH, as queen; LENNOX, Ross, Lords, Ladies, and Attendants.

Macbeth. Here's our chief guest.

Lady Macbeth.

If he had been forgotten,

It had been as a gap in our great feast,
And all-thing unbecoming.