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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

more!

8

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? 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?

8

-the ravell'd sleave of care,] Sleave signifies the ravell'd knotty part of the silk, which gives great trouble and embarrassment to the knitter or weaver.

9 Glamis hath murder'd sleep; and therefore Cawdor

Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more!] This triple menace, accommodated to the different titles of Macbeth, is too quaint to be received as the natural ebullition of a guilty mind. Introduce the adjuncts of a modern nobleman in the same manner, and the fault of the passage will become yet more conspicuous: as for instance

Norfolk hath murder'd sleep; and therefore Surrey
Shall sleep no more, Howard shall sleep no more !

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

Macb.

I am afraid to think what I have done;

Look on't again, I dare not.
Lady M.

I'll go no more:

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,

For it must seem their guilt.

Macb.

[Exit. Knocking within. 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,1

Making the green-one red.

Re-enter Lady MACBETH.

Lady M. My hands are of your colour; but I shame

To wear a heart so white. [Knock.] 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.]
more knocking:

Hark!

The multitudinous seas incarnardine,] To incarnardine is to stain any thing of a flesh colour, or red. Carnardine is the old term for carnation. By multitudinous, the poet is supposed to mean seas of every denomination: or, the seas which swarm with inhabitants: or, perhaps alludes to the multitude of waves. commentators are not agreed on this point.

The

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.

Wake Duncan with thy knocking! Ay, 'would

thou could'st!

[Knock.

[Exeunt.

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, i'the name of Belzebub? 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, i'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.] 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 ever

2

he should have old turning the key.] i. e. frequent, more than enough.

lasting 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?

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?

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

Enter МАСВЕТН.

Len. Good-morrow, noble sir!

Macb.

Good-morrow, both!

Not yet.

Macd. Is the king stirring, worthy thane?

Macb.

3 — till the second cock:] Cockcrowing, i. e. as Mr. Malone thinks, till three o'clock.

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, 'tis one.

Macb. The labour we delight in, physicks pain. This is the door.

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From hence to-day?

Macb.

He does:-he did appoint it so.3 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 prophecying, 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.

Macb.

"Twas 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!

4 For 'tis my limited service.] Limited, for appointed. 'He does:-he did appoint it so.] The words he does -are omitted by Pope, Theobald, Hanmer, and Warburton. But perhaps Shakspeare designed Macbeth to shelter himself under an immediate falshood, till a sudden recollection of guilt restrained his confidence, and unguardedly disposed him to qualify his assertion; as he well knew the King's journey was effectually prevented by his death.

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