ACT IISCENE I. Inverness. Court within the Castle.EnterBanquoandFleancewith a torch before him.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 natureGives way to in repose!EnterMacbethand a Servant with a torch.Give me my sword.—Who’s there?MACBETH.A friend.BANQUO.What, sir, not yet at rest? The King’s abed:He hath been in unusual pleasure andSent forth great largess to your offices.This diamond he greets your wife withal,By the name of most kind hostess, and shut upIn 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 honour for you.BANQUO.So I lose noneIn seeking to augment it, but still keepMy bosom franchis’d, and allegiance clear,I shall be counsell’d.MACBETH.Good repose the while!BANQUO.Thanks, sir: the like to you.[ExeuntBanquoandFleance.]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, sensibleTo feeling as to sight? or art thou butA dagger of the mind, a false creation,Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?I see thee yet, in form as palpableAs 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 informsThus to mine eyes.—Now o’er the one half-worldNature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuseThe curtain’d sleep. Witchcraft celebratesPale Hecate’s off’rings; 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 designMoves like a ghost.—Thou sure and firm-set earth,Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fearThy 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 knellThat summons thee to heaven or to hell.[Exit.]SCENE II. The same.EnterLady 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 groomsDo 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. Th’ attempt and not the deedConfounds us.—Hark!—I laid their daggers ready;He could not miss ’em.—Had he not resembledMy father as he slept, I had done’t.—My husband!EnterMacbeth.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’ th’ 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 themAgain 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.List’ning 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 thoughtAfter these ways; so, it will make us mad.MACBETH.Methought 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 CawdorShall 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 thinkSo 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 smearThe 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 deadAre but as pictures. ’Tis the eye of childhoodThat 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 bloodClean from my hand? No, this my hand will ratherThe multitudinous seas incarnadine,Making the green one red.EnterLady Macbeth.LADY MACBETH.My hands are of your color, but I shameTo wear a heart so white. [Knocking within.] I hear knockingAt the south entry:—retire we to our chamber.A little water clears us of this deed:How easy is it then! Your constancyHath left you unattended.—[Knocking within.] Hark, more knocking.Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call usAnd show us to be watchers. Be not lostSo 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.]SCENE III. The same.Enter aPorter.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’ th’ 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, i’ th’ 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 th’ everlasting bonfire. [Knocking.] Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the porter.[Opens the gate.]EnterMacduffandLennox.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 on 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?EnterMacbeth.Our knocking has awak’d him; here he comes.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.[ExitMacduff.]LENNOX.Goes the King hence today?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’ th’ 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 birdClamour’d the live-long night. Some say the earthWas feverous, and did shake.MACBETH.’Twas a rough night.LENNOX.My young remembrance cannot parallelA fellow to it.EnterMacduff.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 opeThe Lord’s anointed temple, and stole thenceThe life o’ th’ building.MACBETH.What is’t you say? the life?LENNOX.Mean you his majesty?MACDUFF.Approach the chamber, and destroy your sightWith a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak.See, and then speak yourselves.[ExeuntMacbethandLennox.]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 seeThe great doom’s image. Malcolm! Banquo!As from your graves rise up, and walk like spritesTo countenance this horror![Alarum-bell rings.]EnterLady Macbeth.LADY MACBETH.What’s the business,That such a hideous trumpet calls to parleyThe 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.EnterBanquo.O Banquo, Banquo!Our royal master’s murder’d!LADY MACBETH.Woe, alas!What, in our house?BANQUO.Too cruel anywhere.—Dear Duff, I pr’ythee, contradict thyself,And say it is not so.EnterMacbethandLennoxwithRoss.MACBETH.Had I but died an hour before this chance,I had liv’d a blessed time; for, from this instantThere’s nothing serious in mortality.All is but toys: renown and grace is dead;The wine of life is drawn, and the mere leesIs left this vault to brag of.EnterMalcolmandDonalbain.DONALBAIN.What is amiss?MACBETH.You are, and do not know’t:The spring, the head, the fountain of your bloodIs 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 foundUpon 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:Th’ expedition of my violent loveOutrun 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 natureFor ruin’s wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,Steep’d in the colours of their trade, their daggersUnmannerly breech’d with gore. Who could refrain,That had a heart to love, and in that heartCourage 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 sorrowUpon the foot of motion.BANQUO.Look to the lady:—[Lady Macbethis carried out.]And when we have our naked frailties hid,That suffer in exposure, let us meet,And question this most bloody piece of workTo know it further. Fears and scruples shake us:In the great hand of God I stand; and thenceAgainst the undivulg’d pretence I fightOf treasonous malice.MACDUFF.And so do I.ALL.So all.MACBETH.Let’s briefly put on manly readiness,And meet i’ th’ hall together.ALL.Well contented.[Exeunt all butMalcolmandDonalbain.]MALCOLM.What will you do? Let’s not consort with them:To show an unfelt sorrow is an officeWhich the false man does easy. I’ll to England.DONALBAIN.To Ireland, I. Our separated fortuneShall 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 shotHath not yet lighted; and our safest wayIs to avoid the aim. Therefore to horse;And let us not be dainty of leave-taking,But shift away. There’s warrant in that theftWhich steals itself, when there’s no mercy left.[Exeunt.]SCENE IV. The same. Without the Castle.EnterRossand anOld Man.OLD MAN.Threescore and ten I can remember well,Within the volume of which time I have seenHours dreadful and things strange, but this sore nightHath trifled former knowings.ROSS.Ha, good father,Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man’s act,Threatens 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 makeWar 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.EnterMacduff.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 themSuspicion of the deed.ROSS.’Gainst nature still:Thriftless ambition, that will ravin upThine own life’s means!—Then ’tis most likeThe sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.MACDUFF.He is already nam’d; and gone to SconeTo be invested.ROSS.Where is Duncan’s body?MACDUFF.Carried to Colmekill,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 thoseThat would make good of bad, and friends of foes![Exeunt.]
EnterBanquoandFleancewith a torch before him.
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 natureGives way to in repose!
EnterMacbethand a Servant with a torch.
Give me my sword.—Who’s there?
MACBETH.A friend.
BANQUO.What, sir, not yet at rest? The King’s abed:He hath been in unusual pleasure andSent forth great largess to your offices.This diamond he greets your wife withal,By the name of most kind hostess, and shut upIn 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 honour for you.
BANQUO.So I lose noneIn seeking to augment it, but still keepMy bosom franchis’d, and allegiance clear,I shall be counsell’d.
MACBETH.Good repose the while!
BANQUO.Thanks, sir: the like to you.
[ExeuntBanquoandFleance.]
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, sensibleTo feeling as to sight? or art thou butA dagger of the mind, a false creation,Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?I see thee yet, in form as palpableAs 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 informsThus to mine eyes.—Now o’er the one half-worldNature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuseThe curtain’d sleep. Witchcraft celebratesPale Hecate’s off’rings; 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 designMoves like a ghost.—Thou sure and firm-set earth,Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fearThy 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 knellThat summons thee to heaven or to hell.
[Exit.]
EnterLady 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 groomsDo 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. Th’ attempt and not the deedConfounds us.—Hark!—I laid their daggers ready;He could not miss ’em.—Had he not resembledMy father as he slept, I had done’t.—My husband!
EnterMacbeth.
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’ th’ 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 themAgain 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.List’ning 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 thoughtAfter these ways; so, it will make us mad.
MACBETH.Methought 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 CawdorShall 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 thinkSo 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 smearThe 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 deadAre but as pictures. ’Tis the eye of childhoodThat 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 bloodClean from my hand? No, this my hand will ratherThe multitudinous seas incarnadine,Making the green one red.
EnterLady Macbeth.
LADY MACBETH.My hands are of your color, but I shameTo wear a heart so white. [Knocking within.] I hear knockingAt the south entry:—retire we to our chamber.A little water clears us of this deed:How easy is it then! Your constancyHath left you unattended.—[Knocking within.] Hark, more knocking.Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call usAnd show us to be watchers. Be not lostSo 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 aPorter.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’ th’ 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, i’ th’ 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 th’ everlasting bonfire. [Knocking.] Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the porter.
[Opens the gate.]
EnterMacduffandLennox.
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 on 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?
EnterMacbeth.
Our knocking has awak’d him; here he comes.
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.
[ExitMacduff.]
LENNOX.Goes the King hence today?
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’ th’ 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 birdClamour’d the live-long night. Some say the earthWas feverous, and did shake.
MACBETH.’Twas a rough night.
LENNOX.My young remembrance cannot parallelA fellow to it.
EnterMacduff.
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 opeThe Lord’s anointed temple, and stole thenceThe life o’ th’ building.
MACBETH.What is’t you say? the life?
LENNOX.Mean you his majesty?
MACDUFF.Approach the chamber, and destroy your sightWith a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak.See, and then speak yourselves.
[ExeuntMacbethandLennox.]
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 seeThe great doom’s image. Malcolm! Banquo!As from your graves rise up, and walk like spritesTo countenance this horror!
[Alarum-bell rings.]
EnterLady Macbeth.
LADY MACBETH.What’s the business,That such a hideous trumpet calls to parleyThe 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.
EnterBanquo.
O Banquo, Banquo!Our royal master’s murder’d!
LADY MACBETH.Woe, alas!What, in our house?
BANQUO.Too cruel anywhere.—Dear Duff, I pr’ythee, contradict thyself,And say it is not so.
EnterMacbethandLennoxwithRoss.
MACBETH.Had I but died an hour before this chance,I had liv’d a blessed time; for, from this instantThere’s nothing serious in mortality.All is but toys: renown and grace is dead;The wine of life is drawn, and the mere leesIs left this vault to brag of.
EnterMalcolmandDonalbain.
DONALBAIN.What is amiss?
MACBETH.You are, and do not know’t:The spring, the head, the fountain of your bloodIs 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 foundUpon 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:Th’ expedition of my violent loveOutrun 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 natureFor ruin’s wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,Steep’d in the colours of their trade, their daggersUnmannerly breech’d with gore. Who could refrain,That had a heart to love, and in that heartCourage 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 sorrowUpon the foot of motion.
BANQUO.Look to the lady:—
[Lady Macbethis carried out.]
And when we have our naked frailties hid,That suffer in exposure, let us meet,And question this most bloody piece of workTo know it further. Fears and scruples shake us:In the great hand of God I stand; and thenceAgainst the undivulg’d pretence I fightOf treasonous malice.
MACDUFF.And so do I.
ALL.So all.
MACBETH.Let’s briefly put on manly readiness,And meet i’ th’ hall together.
ALL.Well contented.
[Exeunt all butMalcolmandDonalbain.]
MALCOLM.What will you do? Let’s not consort with them:To show an unfelt sorrow is an officeWhich the false man does easy. I’ll to England.
DONALBAIN.To Ireland, I. Our separated fortuneShall 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 shotHath not yet lighted; and our safest wayIs to avoid the aim. Therefore to horse;And let us not be dainty of leave-taking,But shift away. There’s warrant in that theftWhich steals itself, when there’s no mercy left.
[Exeunt.]
EnterRossand anOld Man.
OLD MAN.Threescore and ten I can remember well,Within the volume of which time I have seenHours dreadful and things strange, but this sore nightHath trifled former knowings.
ROSS.Ha, good father,Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man’s act,Threatens 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 makeWar 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.
EnterMacduff.
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 themSuspicion of the deed.
ROSS.’Gainst nature still:Thriftless ambition, that will ravin upThine own life’s means!—Then ’tis most likeThe sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.
MACDUFF.He is already nam’d; and gone to SconeTo be invested.
ROSS.Where is Duncan’s body?
MACDUFF.Carried to Colmekill,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 thoseThat would make good of bad, and friends of foes!
[Exeunt.]