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He hath been in unusual pleasure, and
Sent forth great largess to your offices.
This diamond he greets your wife withal,

By the name of most kind hostess, and shut up
In measureless content.

Macb.

Being unprepar'd,

Our will became the servant to defect,
Which else should free have wrought.
Ban.

All's well.

I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:
To you they have show'd some truth.
Macb.

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 grooms

Do mock their charge with snores: 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,
And 't is not done :-the attempt, and not the deed,
Confounds us.— -Hark!-I laid their daggers ready,

I think not of them: He could not miss them.-Had he not resembled
My father as he slept, I had done 't.-My husband?
Enter MACBETH.

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.

Ban.
At your kind'st leisure.
Macb. If you shall cleave to my consent, when 't is,

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,

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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 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 dudgeon1, gouts of blood,
Which was not so before.-There 's no such thing:
It is the bloody business, which informs
Thus to mine eyes.-Now o'er the one half world
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleeper: witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murder,
Alarum'd by his sentinel the wolf,

3

Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
Moves like a ghost.-Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
The 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.

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.

[A bell rings.

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Lady M. Ay.

Macb. Hark!

When ?

Now.

As I descended?

Who lies i' the second chamber?
Lady M.

Donalbain.
[Showing his hands.
Lady M. A foolish thought to say a sorry sight.
Macb. There's one did laugh in 's sleep, and one

Macb. This is a sorry sight.

cried, "murder !”

That they did wake each other: I stood and heard them;
But they did say their prayers, and address'd them
Again to sleep.
Lady M.

There are two lodg'd together.
Macb. One cried "God bless us !" and "Amen," the
other,

As they had seen me with these hangman's hands.
Listening their fear, I could not say amen,

When they did say God bless us.
Lady M.

Consider it not so deeply.
Macb. But wherefore could not I pronounce amen?

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

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"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.—
[Exit. 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 :

Lady M. That which hath made them drunk hath I am afraid to think what I have done; made me bold: [Peace! Look on 't again, I dare not. What hath quench'd them hath given me fire.-Hark!

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1 Root of box-wood, of which dagger handles were made. 2 sleep in f. e. 3 sides in folio. Pope made the change. 4 Unwrought

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Give me the daggers. The sleeping, and the dead,
Are but as pictures: 't is 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 rather
The multitudinous seas incarnardine,
Making the green one red.1

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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, 't were best not know myself.

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Macd. Is thy master stirring ?—

Enter MACBETH,3 in his night-gown.
Our knocking has awak'd him; here he comes.
Len. Good-morrow, noble sir.
Macb.

Good-morrow, both.
Macd. Is the king stirring, worthy thane?
Macb.
Not yet.
Macd. He did command me to call timely on him:
I have almost slipp'd the hour.
Macb.
I'll bring you to him.
Macd. I know, this is a joyful trouble to you ;
But yet, 't is one.

Mach. The labour we delight in physics pain. This is the door.

Macd.

I'll make so bold to call, For 't is my limited service. Len. Goes the king hence to-day?

He does

[Exit MACDUFF.

he did appoint so.

Macb. Len. The night has been unruly where we lay, Our chimneys were blown down; and, as they say, [Knock. Lamentings heard i' the air; strange screams of death, Wake Duncan with thy knocking: I would thou And prophesying with accents terrible couldst !

[Exeunt. 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.

SCENE III.-The Same. Enter a Porter. [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, 'the name of Beelzebub ?-Here's a farmer, that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty: come in time; have napkins enough about you; here you'll sweat for 't. [Knocking.] Knock, knock. Who's there, in the other devil's name ?-'Faith, here's an equívocator, 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 farther 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. Macd. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed, 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 ?

1

Macb.

'T was a rough night. Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel

A fellow to it.

Re-enter MACDUFF.

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 master-piece.
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
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!
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.

Enter BANQUO unready.*

O, gentle lady! Port. Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes it provokes 'T is not for you to hear what I can speak: the desire, but it takes away the performance. There- The repetition, in a woman's ear, fore, much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mars him; it sets Would murder as it fell.-O Banquo! Banquo! him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him, and Our royal master's murder'd ! disheartens him; makes him stand to, and not stand Lady M. to in conclusion, equivocates him a-sleep, and, giving What! in our house? him the lie, leaves him.

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

Woe, alas! Ban. Too cruel, any where. Dear Duff, I pr'ythee, contradict thyself,

1 So the old copies; some mod. eds. read: the green-one red. 2 Used, as often, as an augmentative. 3 The rest of this direction is not in f. e. 4 This word is not in f. e.

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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 are 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. Mal.

O! by whom? 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?

Macb. Who can be wise, amaz'd, temperate

furious,

Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man: The expedition of my violent love

Out-ran the pauser reason.-Here lay Duncan, His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood

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and 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.

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,
That had a heart to love, and in that heart
Courage to make's love known?
Lady M.
Help me hence, ho!
Macd. Look to the lady. [Lady MACBETH swoons.1
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 in an auger-hole,

May rush, and seize us? Let's away: our tears
Are not yet brew'd.

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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,
Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would
Make war with mankind.
Old M.
'Tis said, they ate each other.
Rosse. They did so; to th' amazement of mine eyes,
That look'd upon 't. Here comes the good Macduff.-
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.

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Ban. Look to the lady. [Lady MACB. is borne out. Suspicion of the deed.

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 farther. Fears and scruples shake us :
In the great hand of God I stand; and, thence,
Against the undivulg'd pretence2 I fight

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Rosse.

'Gainst nature still : Thriftless ambition, that will ravin up Thine own life's means !-Then, 't is 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 Colme-kill; The sacred store-house 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. Farewell, father.

Old M. God's benison go with you; and with those, That would make good of bad, and friends of foes!

1 Not in f. e. 2 Intention. 3 So old copies; most mod eds. read: travelling.

[Exeunt.

ACT III.

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

Enter BANQUO.

Ban. Thou hast it now, king, Cawdor, Glamis, 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 show)
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.
Sennet. 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,
It had been as a gap in our great feast,

Macb. To-night we hold a solemn supper, sir,

And all things unbecoming.

And I'll request your presence.

Ban.

Lay 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.

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, prophet-like,
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't be so,
For Banquo's issue have I fil'd" my mind,
For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd ;
Put rancours in the vessel of my peace
Only for them; and mine eternal jewel
Given to the common enemy of man,
To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings!
Rather than so, come, fate, into the list,
And champion me to the utterance3.-Who's there?
Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers.
Now, go to the door, and stay there till we call.
[Exit Attendant.

Was it not yesterday we spoke together?
1 Mur. It was, so please your highness.
Macb.
Well then, now,
Have you consider'd of my speeches? Know,
That it was he, in the times past, which held you
So under fortune; which, you thought, had been
Our innocent self. This I made good to you
In our last conference; pass'd in probation with you,

Macb. We should have else desir'd your good advice | How you were borne in hand; how cross'd; the instru

(Which still hath been both grave and prosperous)

In 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 the borrower of the night
For a dark hour, or twain.
Macb.

Ban. My lord, I will not.

Fail not our feast.

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 upon us.
Macb. I wish your horses swift, and sure of foot;
And so I do commend you to their backs.
Farewell.-

[Exit BANQUO.

Let every man be master of his time
Till seven at night. To make society
The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself
Till supper-time alone while then, God be with you.
[Exeunt Lady MACBETH, Lords, Ladies, &c.
Sirrah, a word with you. 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

ments;

Who wrought with them; and all things else, that might,
To half a soul, and to a notion craz'd,
Say, "Thus did Banquo."

1 Mur.

You made it known to us.
Macb. I did so; and went farther, which is now
Our point of second meeting. Do you find
Your patience so predominant in your nature,
That you can let this go? Are you so gospell'd
To pray for this good man, and for his issue,
Whose heavy hand hath bow'd you to the grave,
And beggar'd yours for ever?

1 Mur.
We are men, my liege.
Macb. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men,
As hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,
Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are cleped
All by the name of dogs: the valued file
Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle,
The house-keeper, the hunter, every one
According to the gift which bounteous nature
Hath in him clos'd, whereby he does receive
Particular addition, from the quill

That writes them all alike; and so of men.
Now, if you have a station in the file
Not i' the worst rank of manhood, say it,
And I will put that business in your bosoms,
Whose execution takes your enemy off,
Grapples you to the heart and love of us,
Who wear our health but sickly in his life,
Which in his death were perfect.

2 Mur.
I am one, my liege,
Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world

Reigns that which would be fear'd; 't is much he dares; Have so incens'd, that I am reckless what

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To mend it, or be rid on 't.
Macb.

Both of you Know Banquo was your enemy. 2 Mur.

True, my lord.

Macb. So is he mine; and in such bloody distance, That every minute of his being thrusts Against my near'st of life. And though I could With bare-fac'd power sweep him from my sight, And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not, For certain friends that are both his and mine, Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall Whom I myself struck down and thence it is, That I to your assistance do make love, Masking the business from the common eye For sundry weighty reasons.

2 Mur.

Perform what you command us.

1 Mur.

We shall, my lord,

Though our lives

Macb. Your spirits shine through you. Within this hour, at most,

I will advise you where to plant yourselves,
Acquaint you, with a perfect spy, o' the time,
The moment on 't; for 't must be done to-night,
And something from the palace; always thought,
That I require a clearness and with him,
(To leave no rubs, nor botches, in the work)
Fleance his son, that keeps him company,
Whose absence is no less material to me
Than is his father's, must embrace the fate
Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart:
I'll come to you anon.
2 Mur.
We are resolv'd, my lord,
Macb. I'll call upon you straight: abide within.
[Exeunt Murderers.
It is concluded: Banquo, thy soul's flight,
If it find heaven, must find it out to-night.

SCENE II.-The Same. Another Room.
Enter Lady MACBETH and a Servant.

[Exit.

Lady M. Is Banquo gone from court? Serv. Ay, madam, but returns again to-night. Lady M. Say to the king, I would attend his leisure For a few words.

Serv. Lady M.

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Nought's had, all's spent,
Where our desire is got without content:
'T is safer to be that which we destroy,
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.
Enter MACBETH.

How now, my lord! why do you keep alone,
Of sorriest fancies your companions making,
Using those thoughts, which should indeed have died
With them they think on? Things without remedy,
Should be without regard: what's done, is done.

Macb. We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it :
She'll close, and be herself, whilst our poor malice
Remains in danger of her former tooth.
But let the eternal frame of things disjoint,
Both the worlds suffer,

Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep
In the affliction of these terrible dreams,
That shake us nightly. Better be with the dead,
Whom we to gain our peace have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie

In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave;
After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well;

Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing
Can touch him farther!

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Come on:

Lady M.
Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks
Be bright and jovial 'mong your guests to-night.
Macb. So shall I, love; and so, I pray, be you.
Let your remembrance apply to Banquo :
Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue:
Unsafe the while, that we must lave our honours
In these flattering streams, and make our faces
Vizards to our hearts, disguising what they are.

Lady M. You must leave this.

Macb. O! full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife. Thou know'st that Banquo and his Fleance live.

Lady M. But in them nature's copy 's not eterne.
Macb. There's comfort yet; they are assailable:
Then, be thou jocund. Ere the bat hath flown
His cloister'd flight; ere to black Hecate's summons
The shard-borne1 beetle, with his drowsy hums,
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.
Lady M.
What's to be done?
Macb. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling2 night,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day,

And with thy bloody and invisible hand,
Cancel, and tear to pieces, that great bond

Which keeps me pale !-Light thickens; and the crow
Makes wing to the rooky wood :

Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,
Whiles night's black agents to their preys do rouse.
Thou marvell'st at my words; but hold thee still :
Things, bad begun, make strong themselves by ill.
So, pr'ythee, go with me.
[Exeunt.
SCENE III.—The Same. A Park, with a road lead-
SCENE III.-The Same.
ing to the Palace.
Enter three Murderers.

1 Mur. But who did bid thee join with us?
3 Mur.

Macbeth.

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