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Most breed and haunt, I have observ'd, the air To prick the sides of my intent, but only Is delicate.

Enter Lady MACBETH.

Dun. See, see! our honour'd hostess: The love that follows us, sometime is our trouble,

[you,
Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach
How you shall bid God yield us for your
And thank us for your trouble. [pains,
Lady M. All our service
[ble,
In every point twice done, and then done dou-
Were poor and single business, to contend
Against those honours deep and broad, where-
with

Your majesty loads our house: For those of old,
And the late dignities heap'd up to them,
We rest your hermits.t

327

Vaulting ambition, which o'er-leaps itself, And falls on the other.-How now, what news?

Enter Lady MACBETH.

Lady M. He has almost supp'd; Why have you left the chamber?

Mach. Hath he ask'd for nie?
Lady M. Know yon not, he has?

Macb. We will proceed no further in this

business:

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
Not cast aside so soon.
[gloss,
[since?

Lady M. Was the hope drunk,
Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time,
pur-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

Dun. Where's the thane of Cawdor? We cours'd him at the heels, and had a To be his purveyor: but he rides well; [pose 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.

Lady M. Your servants ever [compt, Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in 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 upon 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
[teach
We still have judgement here; that we but
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, re-
tice

cases,

turn

To plague the inventor: This even-handed jusCommends the ingredients of our poison'd

chalice

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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?

Macb. Pr'ythee, peace:

I dare do all that may become a man ;
Who dares do more, is none.

Lady M. Whet beast was it then, That made you break this enterprize 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. [place, Did then adhere,* and yet you would make Nor time, nor both:

ness now

They have made themselves, and that their fit-
[know
Does unmake you. I have given suck; and
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
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn, as
gums,
[you
Have done to this.

Macb. If we should fail,-
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 jour-

ney

Soundly invite him,) his two chamberlains
Will I with wine and wasselt so convince,t
That memory, the warders 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?||

Macb. Bring forth men-children only!
For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing but males. Will it not be receiv'd,¶
When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy
[gers,

two

Of his own chamber, and us'd their very dag-
That they have don't?

Lady M. Who dares receive it other,
As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar
Upon his death?

Macb. I am settled, and bend up

In the same sense as cohere.

‡ Overpower.

Murder.

Intemperance Sentinel. Apprehended.

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If you would grant the time.

Ban. At your kind'st leisure.

Which was not so before.-There's no such thing;

It is the bloody business, which informs Thus to mine eyes.-Nów 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, [pace, Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design

Moves like a ghost.-Thou sure and firm-set earth, [fear Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for Thy 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.

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.

SCENE II.-The same. Enter Lady MACBETH.

[Exit.

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The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms Do mock their charge with suores: 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, [deed, Confounds us :-Hark!-I laid their daggers ready,

Macb. If you shall cleave to my consent, And 'tis not done:-the attempt, and not the

when 'tis,

It shall make honour for you.

Ban. So I lose none,

In seeking to augment it, but still keep

My bosom franchis'd, and allegiance clear, I shall be counsel'd.

Macb. Good repose, the while!

Ban. Thanks, Sir; The like to you!

[Exit BANQUO.

Macb. 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 marshal'st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use. [ses,
Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other sen-
Or else worth all the rest: I see thee still;
And on thy blade, and dudgeon,|| gouts of
blood,

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[bled He could not miss them.-Had he not resemMy father as he slept, I had done't.-My husband?

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As they had seen me, with these hangman's | knock: Who's there, i'the name of Belzebub? hands.

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I had most need of blessing, and Amen
Stuck in my throat.

Lady M. These deeds must not be thought
After these ways; so, it will make us mad.
Macb. 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 M. What do you mean?

Mach. 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 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 from the
place?

They must lie there: Go, carry them; and smear
The sleepy grooms with blood.
Macb. 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!

[dead,
Give me the daggers: The sleeping, and the
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
The multitudinous seas incarnardine,‡ [rather
Making the green-one red.

Re-enter Lady MACBETH.

Lady M. My hands are of your colour; but
I shame
[knocking
To wear a heart so white. [Knock. I hear a
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 nightgown, 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.

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Here's a farmer, that hanged himself on the
expectation of plenty: Come in time; have
napkins* enough about you; here you'll sweat
fort. [Knocking.] Knock, knock: Who's
there, 'the 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 equivo-
cate to heaven: 0, 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 LENOX.
Mucd. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to
That you do lie so late?
[bed,
Port. 'Faith, Sir, we were carousing till the
second cock:t and drink, Sir, is a great pro-
voker of three things.

Macd. What three things does drink espe cially 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 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.

Macd. I believe, drink gave thee the lie last night.

Port. 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.

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.

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Macb. He does-He did appoint it so.
Len. The night has been unruly: Where we
Jay,

[say,
Our chimneys were blown down: and, as they
Lamentings heard i'the air; strange screams
And prophesying, with accents terrible,
Of dire combustion, and confus'd events,

of death;

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Clamour'd the livelong night: some say, the Was feverous, and did shake.

Macb. "Twas a rough night.

Macb. O, yet I do repent me of my fury, That I did kill them.

Macd. Wherefore did you so? Macb. Who can be wise, amaz'd, temperate and furious,

Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man: A fellow to it.

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The expedition of my violent love [can, Out-ran the pauser reason.-Here lay DunHis silver skin lac'd with his golden blood; Tongue, And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in

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.

Mucb. 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! [sprights, As from your graves rise up, and walk like 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,Mucd. O, gentle lady,

"Tis not for you to hear what I can speak : The repetition, in a woman's ear, [quo! Would murder as it fell.-O Banquo! Ban

Enter BANQUO

Our royal master's murder'd!
Lady M. Woe, alas!

What, in our house?

Bun. 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 meer 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. O, by whom?

Len. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done't: [blood, Their hands and faces were all badg'd with So were their daggers, which, unwip'd, we Upon their pillows: [found They star'd, and were distracted; no man's life Was to be trusted with them.

*The use of two negatives, not to make an affirmative, but to deny more strongly, is common in our author.

nature, [derers, For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murSteep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers

[refrain, Unmannerly breech'd with gore:* Who could That had a heart to love, and in that heart Courage, to make his love known? Lady M. Help me hence, ho! Macd. Look to the lady.

Mal. Why do we hold our tongues, That most may claim this argument for ours? 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.

Mal. Nor our strong sorrow on The foot of motion.

Ban. 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 [thence In the great hand of God I stand; and, Against the undivulg'd pretence; I fight Of treasonous malice.

us:

Macb. And so do I.

All. So all.

Macb. Let's briefly put on manly readiness, And meet i'the hall together.

All. Well contented.

[Exeunt all but MAL. and DON. Mal. What will you do? Let's not consort with them:

To show an unfelt sorrow, is an office [land.
Which the false man does easy: I'll to Eng-
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
The nearer bloody.
[blood,

Mal. 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 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,

.man's act,

Thou see'st, the heavens, as troubled with Threaten his bloody stage: by the clock, 'tis day, [lamp: And yet dark night strangles the travelling Is it night's predominance, or the day's shame,

* Covered with blood to their hilt. + Power.

+ Intention

That darkness does the face of earth entomb, When living light should kiss it? Old M. 'Tis unnatural, [last, Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday A falcon, tow'ring in her pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at, and kill'd. Rosse. 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, [make Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would War with mankind.

Old M. "Tis said, they eat each other. Rosse. They did so; to the amazement of mine eyes,, [Macduff:

That look'd upon't. Here comes the good Enter MACDuff.

How goes the world, Sir, now?

Macd. Why, see you not?

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

Macd. Those that Macbeth hath slain.
Rosse. Alas, the day!

What good could they pretend?*

Macd. 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.

Rosse. 'Gainst nature still : Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up Thine own life's means!-Then 'tis most like, The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.

Macd. He is already nam'd; and gone to Scone,

To be invested.

Rosse. Where is Duncan's body?

Macd. Carried to Colmes-kill;

The sacred storehouse of his predecessors,
And guardian of their bones.
Rosse. Will you to Scone?
Macd. No, cousin, I'll to Fife.
Rosse. Well, I will thither.

Macd. Well, may you see things well done there; adieu!

Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!
Rosse. Father, farewell.

Old M. God's benison go with you: and with those

That would make good of bad, and friends of foes! [Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I.-Fores.-A Room in the Palace. Enter BANQUO.

Bun. Thou hast it now, King, Cawdor, Gla

mis, all,

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,
Ladies, and Attendants.

Macb. Here's our chief guest.
Lady M. If he had been forgotten,

* Intend to themselves

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

Mach. To night we hold a solemn supper, Sir, And I'll request your presence.

Ban. Let your highness

Command upon me; to the which, my duties
Are with a most indissoluble tie
For ever knit.

Macb. Ride you this afternoon?
Ban. Ay, my good lord.

Macb. We should have else desir'd your good advice [rous,) (Which still hath been both grave and prospeIn this day's council; but we'll take to-morrow. Is't far you ride?

Ban. As far, my lord, as will fill up the time "Twixt this and supper: go not my horse the better,

I must become a borrower of the night,
For a dark hour, or twain.

Macb. Fail not our feast.

Ban. My lord, I will not.

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

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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 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, it is said,
Mark Antony's was by Cæsar. He chid the
sisters,

When first they put the name of King upon me, And bade them speak to him; then, prophetlike,

They hail'd him father to a line of kings:
Upon my head they plac'd 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'd; my mind;
For them the gracious Duncan have I mur-
der'd;

Put rancours in the vessel of my peace
Only for them; and mine eternal jewel
Given to the common enemy of man,

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