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Enter Macbeth, Lenox, and Roffe.

Mach. Had I but dy'd an hour before this chance, I had liv'd a bleffed time; for, from this inftant, There's nothing ferious 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 amifs?

Mach. You are, and do not know't:

The fping, the head, the fountain of your blood
Is ftopt; the very fource of it is stopt.

Macd. Your royal father's murder'd.
Mal. Oh, by whom?

Len. Those of his chamber, as it feem'd, had don't;
Their hands and faces where all badg'd with blood.
So were their daggers, which, unwip'd, we found
Upon their pillows; they ftar'd and were diftracted;
No man's life was to be trufted with them.

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

Macd. Wherefore did you fo?

Macb. Who can be wife, amaz'd, temp'rate and furious, Loyal and neutral in a moment? no man.

The expedition of my violent love

Out-run the paufer, Reafon. Here, lay Duncan;
His filver skin lac'd with his golden blood,

And his gafh'd ftabs look'd like a breach in Nature,
For Ruin's wafteful 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. Help me hence, ho!

Macd. Look to the lady.

Mal. Why do we hold our tongues,

[Seeming to faint.

That most may claim this argument for ours?

N 2

Don.

Don. What fhould be spoken here,

Where our Fate, hid within an augre-hole,

May rufh, 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 queftion this moft bloody piece of work,
To know it further. Fears and fcruples fhake us.
In the great hand of God I ftand, and thence,
Against the undivulg'd pretence I fight

Of treasonous malice.

Mach. So do I.

All. So, all.

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

All. Well contented.

[Exeunt.

Mal. What will you do? let's not confort with them:

To fhew an unfelt forrow is an office

Which the falfe man does easy. I'll to England.

Don. To Ireland, I; our feparated fortune Shall keep us both the fafer; where we are,

There's daggers in men's fmiles; the near in blood, The nearer bloody.

Mal. This murderous fhaft, that's fhot, Hath not yet lighted; and our safest way Is to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horfe; And let us not be dainty of leave-taking, But shift there's warrant in that theft, Which fteals itself when there's no mercy left. [Exeunt.

away;

SCENE, the outfide of Macbeth's Cafile.

Ol. Ma.

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Enter Roffe, with an old Man.

Within the volume of which time, I've seen

Hreefcore and ten I can remember well,

Hours dreadful, and things ftrange; but this fore night

Hath

Hath trifled former knowings.

Roffe. Ah, good father,

Thou feeft, the heav'ns, as troubled with man's act,
Threaten this bloody ftage: by th' clock, 'tis day;
And yet dark night ftrangles the travelling lamp:
Is't night's predominance, or the day's fhame,
That darknefs does the face of earth intomb,
When living light fhould kifs it?

Old Man. 'Tis unnatural;
Even like the Deed that's done.

On Tuesday laft,

A faulcon, towring in her pride of place,

Was by a moufing owl hawkt at, and kill'd.

Roffe. And Duncan's horfes, (a thing moft ftrange and certain!) (12)

Beauteous and fwift, the minions of the Race, Turn'd wild in nature, broke their ftalls, Aung out, Contending 'gainft obedience, as they would

Make war with man.

Old Man. 'Tis faid, they eat each other.

Roffe. They did fo; to the amazement of mine eyes, That look'd upon't.

Enter Macduff.

Here comes the good Macduff.
How goes the world, Sir, now?
Macd. Why, fee you not?

Roffe. Is't known, who did this more than bloody deed? ́Macd. Thofe, that Macbeth hath flain.

Roffe. Alas, the day!

What good could they pretend?
Macd. They were fuborn'd;

(12) And Duncan's Horfes, (a thing moft firange and certain!) Beauteous and fift, the Minions of their Race,]

The

I am pretty certain, all the Copies have err'd, one after another, in this Reading; and that I have reftor'd the true one. Poet does not mean, that they were the beft of their Breed; but that they were excellent Reters: in which Sense he very poetically calls them, the Minions of the Race. This is a Mode of Expreflion, which he feems very fond of.

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Malcolm, and Donalbain, the King's two fons,
Are ftol'n away and fled; which puts upon them
Sufpicion of the deed.

Roffe. 'Gainft nature ftill;

Thriftlefs ambition! that wilt ravin up

Thine own life's means.-Then 'tis moft like,
The Sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth?
Mach. He is already nam'd, and gone to Scone
To be invefted.

Roffe. Where is Duncan's body?

Macd. Carried to Colmes-hill,

The facred ftorehoufe of his predeceffors,
And guardian of their bones.

Roffe. Will you to Scone?

Macd. No, Coufin, I'll to Fife.

Refe. Well, I will thither.

Macd.Well, mayyou fee thingswell done there, (adieu;} Left our old robes fit easier than our new !

Roffe. Farewel, Father.

Old Man. God's benifon go with you, and with thofe That would make good of bad, and friends of foes.

[Exeunt.

A C T III.

SCENE, an Apartment in the Palace.

T

Enter Banquo.

HOU haft it now; King, Cawdor, Glamis, all The weird women promis'd; and, I fear, Thou play'dft most foully for't: yet it was faid, It fhould not ftand in thy pofterity;

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But that myself fhould be the root, and father
Of many Kings. If there come truth from them,
(As upon thee, Macleth, their speeches fhine)

Why,

Why, by the verities on thee made good,

May they not be my oracles as well,

And fet me up in hope? but, hush, no more.

Trumpets found. Enter Macbeth as King; Lady Macbeth, Lenox, Roffe, Lords and Attendants.

Macb. Here's our chief gueft.

Lady. 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 folemn fupper, Sir,

And I'll request your prefence.

Ban. Lay your Highness'

Command upon me; to the which, my Duties
Are with a most indissoluble tye

For ever knit.

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

Macb. We fhould have elfe defir'd

Your good advice (which ftill hath been both grave
And profp'rous) in this day's Council; but
We'll take to-morrow. Is it far you ride?

Ban. As far, my Lord, as will fill up the time 'Twixt this and fupper. Go not my horfe the better, I must become a borrower of the night

For a dark hour or twain.

Mach. Fail not our feast.

Ban. My Lord, I will not.

Macb. We hear, our bloody Coufins are beftow'd In England, and in Ireland; not confeffing Their cruel Parricide, filling their hearers With ftrange invention; but of that to-morrow; When therewithal we shall have caufe of State, Craving us jointly. Hie to horfe, adieu,

'Till you return at night.

Goes Fleance with you ?

Ban. Ay, my good Lord; our time does call upon us. Macb. I with your horses swift, and fure of foot: And fo I do commend you to their backs.

Farewel.

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