Mach. I'll call upon you straight. Abide within.
[Exeunt Murtherers.

It is concluded.-Banquo, thy foul's flight,
If it find heav'n, mult find it out to night.

SCENE III.

Another Apartment in the Palace.

Enter Lady Macbeth, and a Servant.

Lady. TS Banquo gone from Court?

[Exit!

Serv. Ay, Madam, but returns again tonight.

Lady. Say to the King, I would attend his leifure

For a few words.

Serv. Madam, I will.

Lady. Nought's had, all's spent,

Where our defire is got without content.
'Tis fafer to be That which we destroy,
Than by deftruction dwell in doubtful joy.

Enter Macbeth.

[Exit.

How now, my lord, why do you keep alone?
Of forrieft fancies your companions making,
Ufing thofe thoughts, which fhould, indeed, have dy'&
With them they think on? Things without all remedy
Should be without regard. What's done, is done.
Mach. We have fcotch'd the fnake, not kill'd
it-

She'll clofe, and be herfelf; whilft our poor malice
Remains in danger of her former tooth.

But let both worlds disjoint, and all things fuffer,
Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and fleep
In the affliction of thefe terrible Dreams,
That shake us nightly. Better be with the Dead,

1-fcotch'd. Mr. Theoba'd.-Vulg. fcorch`d.

Whom

:

Whom we, to gain our Place, have sent to Peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie

In restless ecftafie.-Duncan is in his Grave;
After life's fitful fever, he fleeps well;

Treafon has done his worft; nor fteel, nor poifon,
Malice domeftic, foreign levy, nothing
Can touch him further!
Lady. Come on;

Gentle, my lord, fleek o'er your rugged looks;
Be bright and jovial, 'mong your guests to-night.
Macb. So fhall I, Love; and fo, I pray, be you;
Let your remembrance ftill apply to Banquo.
'Present him Eminence, both with eye and tongue,
Unfafe the while, that we must lave our honours
In these fo flatt'ring ftreams, and make our faces
Vizors t'our hearts, difguifing what they are!-
Lady. You must leave this.

Macb. O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!
Thou know'ft, that Banquo, and his Fleance lives.
Lady. But in them Nature's copy's not eternal.
Mach. There's comfort yet, they are affailable;
Then, be thou jocund. Ere the Bat hath flown
His cloyster'd flight; ere to black Hecat's fummons
The fhard-born beetle with his drowfie hums
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.

Lady. What's to be done?

Mach. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,

2 In refilefs ecftafie—] Ecftafie, for madness. WARB. 3 Prefent him Eminence,-] i. e. do him the highest honours. WARBURTON. ← 4 — Nature's copy's not eternal.] The copy, the leafe, by which they hold their lives from nature,

has its time of termination li

mited.

5 The fhard-born beetle-] i. e. The beetle hatched in clefts of wood. So in Anthony and Cleopatra: They are bis shards, and he their Beetle.

WARD.

Mach. O!-Yet I do repent me of my fury, That I did kill them.

Macd. Wherefore did you fo?

Mach. Who can be wife, amaz'd, temp'rate and

Loyal and neutral in a moment? No man.

The expedition of my violent love

Out ran the paufer, Reason.

Here, lay Duncan * His filver fkin laced with his golden blood, And his gafh'd ftabs look'd like a breach in nature For Ruin's wafteful entrance; there, the murtherers Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers 5 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. Help me hence, ho! [Seeming to faint. Macd. Look to the lady.

Mal. Why do we hold our tongues,

That most may claim this argument for ours?
Don. What fhould be spoken here,

Where our fate, hid within an augre-hole,
May rush, and feize us? Let's away, our tears
Are not yet brew'd.

Mal. Nor our ftrong forrow on

The foot of motion.

Ban. Look to the lady;

[Lady Macbeth is carried out.

And when we have our naked frailties hid,
That fuffer in expofure, let us meet,

And question this moft bloody piece of work,
To know it further. Fears and fcruples shake us.
In the great hand of God I stand, and thence,

Againft

of fteel ftain'd with blood. He
ufes the word very often, as
reechy hangings, reechy neck, &c.
So that the fenfe is, that they
were unmanly ftain'd with blood,
and that circumstance added,
because often such stains are most
honourable.
WARB.
Dr. Warburton has perhaps
rightly put reech'd for breech'd.

In the great hand of God I
ftand, and thence,
Against the undivulg'd pretence
I fight

Of treas'nous malice.] Pretence, for act. The fenfe of the whole i, My innocence places me under the protection of God, and under that fhadow, or, from thence, I declare myself an enemy to this, as yet hidden, deed of mifchief. This was a very

да

He hath to-night been in unusual pleasure,
And fent great largefs to your officers;
This diamond he greets your wife withal,
By the name of moft kind Hoftefs, and fhut up
In measureless content.

Mach. Being unprepar'd,

Our will became the fervant to defect;
Which elfe should free have wrought.

Ban. All's well.

I dreamt last night of the three wayward fifters;
To you they've fhew'd fome truth.

Macb. I think not of them,

Yet, when we can intreat an hour to ferve,
Would spend it in fome words upon that business,
If you would grant the time.

Ban. At your kind leisure.

Macb. 9 If you shall cleave to my confent, when 'tis, It shall make honour for you.

Ban. So I lofe none

In feeking to augment it, but ftill keep My bofom franchis'd and allegiance clear, 1 fhall be counsell'd.

Mach. Good repofe the while!

Ban. Thanks, Sir; the like to you.

[Exeunt Banquo and Fleance.

SCENE II.

Mach. Go, bid thy miftrefs, when my drink is ready,

She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. [Exit Serv. Is this a dagger which I fee before me,

9 If you fall cleave to my confent, when 'tis, ] Confent, for will. So that the fenfe of the line is, If you fhall go into

my measures when I have determined of them, or when the time comes that I want your affiftance.. WARBURTON.

Dd 2

The