ACT II
Sc. II

41

LADY M.
What do you mean?
MACB. 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,

Give me the daggers! the sleeping and the dead

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;

50

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 rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,

Making the green one red.

Re-enter LADY MACBETH.

LADY M. My hands are of your colour, but I shame

60

To wear a heart so white. [Knocking within.] I hear

a knocking

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 within.] Hark! more knocking.

Get on your nightgown,2 lest occasion call us,

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And shew us to be watchers. Be not lost

So poorly in your thoughts.

MACB. To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself.

[Knocking within.

Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou

could'st!

[exeunt.

SCENE III. The Same.

Knocking within. Enter a Porter.

PORT. Here's a knocking indeed! If a man were porter
of Hell-gate, he should have old turning the key.
[Knocking within.] Knock, knock, knock! Who's
there, i' the name of Beelzebub? Here's a farmer
that hang'd himself on the expectation of plenty.1 Come
in time; have napkins enow about you; here you
'11
sweat for 't. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock! Who's
there, in the 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 within.] 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
within.] 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 within.] Anon, anon!
pray you, remember the Porter.
[opens the gate.

I

Enter MACDUFF and LENNOX.

MACD. Was it so late, Friend, ere you went to bed,

22

That you do lie so late?
PORT. 'Faith, Sir, we were carousing till the second cock;
and drink, Sir, is a great provoker of three things.
MACD. What three things does drink especially provoke?
PORT. Marry, Sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine.

1 i.e. fearing a fall in the price of corn.

ACT II
Sc. II

ACT II
Sc. III

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.

35

MACD. I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.
PORT. 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.1

MACD. Is thy master stirring?

Our knocking has awak'd him; here he comes.

40

LEN. Good morrow, noble Sir.

MACB.

Enter MACBETH.

Good morrow, both.

Not yet.

MACD. Is the King stirring, worthy Thane ?
MACB.

MACD. He did command me to call timely on him:

I have almost slipp'd the hour.

LEN. The night has been unruly: where we lay,

Our chimneys were blown down; and, as they say,
Lamentings heard i' the 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 Bird
Clamour'd the livelong night: some say the Earth
Was feverous and did shake.

1 i.e. though it threw me down, I managed to throw it up.

2 assigned.

MACD. O horror, horror, horror! tongue nor heart
Cannot conceive nor name thee!

MACB.)

LEN.

What's the matter?

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.

MACB.

What is 't you say? the life?

LEN. Mean you his Majesty ?

MACD. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight 70

With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak;

See, and then speak yourselves.

[Exeunt MACBETH and LENNOX.
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 see

The great Doom's image! Malcolm! Banquo!

As from your graves rise up, and walk like Sprites,

To countenance this horror. Ring the bell. [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! MACD.

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O gentle Lady,

Re-enter MACBETH and LENNOX, with Ross.

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 mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of.

Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN.

DON. What is amiss?

MACB.

You are, and do not know 't:

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.

O! by whom?

MAL.
LEN. 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 found
Upon their pillows:

They star'd, and were distracted; no man's life
Was to be trusted with them.

MACB. O, yet I do repent me of my fury,

That I did kill them.

MACD.

Wherefore did you so?

90

100

MACB. Who can be wise, amaz'd, 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 lac'd 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,

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