Act I. Scene I.
A desert Heath.
Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches.
First Witch. When
shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain? 4
Sec. Witch. When the hurlyburly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and
won.
Third Witch. That will be ere the set of sun.
First
Witch. Where the place? 8
Sec. Witch. Upon the heath.
Third Witch. There to meet with Macbeth.
First Witch. I come,
Graymalkin!
Sec. Witch. Paddock calls. 12
Third Witch.
Anon.
All. Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the
fog and filthy air. [Exeunt.
Act I. Scene II.
A Camp near Forres.
Alarum within. Enter KING DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, with
Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant.
Dun. What bloody man is
that? He can report,
As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt 4
The
newest state.
Mal. This is the sergeant
Who, like a good and
hardy soldier fought
’Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend! 8
Say
to the king the knowledge of the broil
As thou didst leave it.
Serg. Doubtful it stood;
As two spent swimmers, that do cling
together 12
And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald—
Worthy to
be a rebel, for to that
The multiplying villanies of nature
Do swarm
upon him—from the western isles 16
Of kerns and gallowglasses is
supplied;
And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,
Show’d like a
rebel’s whore: but all’s too weak;
For brave Macbeth,—well he deserves that
name,— 20
Disdaining fortune, with his brandish’d steel,
Which smok’d
with bloody execution,
Like valour’s minion carv’d out his passage
Till he fac’d the slave; 24
Which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell
to him,
Till he unseam’d him from the nave to the chaps,
And fix’d his
head upon our battlements.
Dun. O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!
28
Serg. As whence the sun ’gins his reflection
Shipwracking storms
and direful thunders break,
So from that spring whence comfort seem’d to
come
Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark: 32
No sooner
justice had with valour arm’d
Compell’d these skipping kerns to trust their
heels,
But the Norweyan lord surveying vantage,
With furbish’d arms and
new supplies of men 36
Dun. Dismay’d not this
Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?
Serg. Yes; 40
As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.
If I say sooth, I must report they were
As cannons overcharg’d with double cracks;
So they 44
Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe:
Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,
Or memorize another Golgotha,
I cannot tell— 48
But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.
Dun. So well thy words become thee as thy wounds;
They smack of honour both. Go, get him surgeons. [Exit. Sergeant, attended.
Enter ROSS. 52
Who comes here?
Mal. The worthy Thane of Ross.
Len. What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look
That seems to speak things strange. 56
Ross. God save the king!
Dun. Whence cam’st thou, worthy thane?
Ross. From Fife, great king;
Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky 60
And fan our people cold. Norway himself,
With terrible numbers,
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor,
The Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict; 64
Till that Bellona’s bridegroom, lapp’d in proof,
Confronted him with self-comparisons,
Point against point, rebellious arm ’gainst arm,
Curbing his lavish spirit: and, to conclude, 68
The victory fell on us.—
Dun. Great happiness!
Ross. That now
Sweno, the Norways’ king, craves composition; 72
Nor would we deign him burial of his men
Till he disbursed, at Saint Colme’s Inch,
Ten thousand dollars to our general use.
Dun. No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive 76
Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death,
And with his former title greet Macbeth.
Ross. I’ll see it done.
Dun. What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won. [Exeunt. <!--pagebreak-->
Act I. Scene III.
A Heath.
Thunder. Enter the three Witches.
First Witch. Where hast thou been,
sister?
Sec. Witch. Killing swine. 4
Third Witch. Sister,
where thou?
First Witch. A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap,
And munch’d, and munch’d, and munch’d: ‘Give me,’ quoth I:
‘Aroint
thee, witch!’ the rump-fed ronyon cries. 8
Her husband’s to Aleppo gone,
master o’ the Tiger:
But in a sieve I’ll thither sail,
And, like a rat
without a tail,
I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do. 12
Sec. Witch.
I’ll give thee a wind.
First Witch. Thou’rt kind.
Third
Witch. And I another.
First Witch. I myself have all the other;
16
And the very ports they blow,
All the quarters that they know
I’ the shipman’s card.
I’ll drain him dry as hay: 20
Sleep shall
neither night nor day
Hang upon his pent-house lid;
He shall live a man
forbid.
Weary se’nnights nine times nine 24
Shall he dwindle, peak
and pine:
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be
tempest-tost.
Look what I have. 28
Sec. Witch. Show me, show
me.
First Witch. Here I have a pilot’s thumb,
Wrack’d as
homeward he did come. [Drum within.
Third Witch. A drum! a drum! 32
Macbeth doth come.
All. The weird sisters, hand in hand,
Posters of the sea and land,
Thus do go about, about: 36
Thrice to
thine, and thrice to mine,
And thrice again, to make up nine.
Peace!
the charm’s wound up.
Enter MACBETH and BANQUO. 40
Macb. So
foul and fair a day I have not seen.
Ban. How far is ’t call’d to
Forres? What are these,
So wither’d and so wild in their attire,
That
look not like th’ inhabitants o’ the earth, 44
And yet are on’t? Live you?
or are you aught
That man may question? You seem to understand me,
By
each at once her choppy finger laying
Upon her skinny lips: you should be
women, 48
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.
Macb. Speak, if you can: what are you?
First Witch. All
hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! 52
Sec. Witch. All hail,
Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
Third Witch. All hail, Macbeth!
that shalt be king hereafter.
Ban. Good sir, why do you start, and seem
to fear
Things that do sound so fair? I’ the name of truth, 56
Are ye
fantastical, or that indeed
Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner
You greet with present grace and great prediction
Of noble having and
of royal hope, 60
That he seems rapt withal: to me you speak not.
If
you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow and which
will not,
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear 64
Your favours
nor your hate.
First Witch. Hail!
Sec. Witch. Hail!
Third Witch. Hail! 68
First Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
Sec. Witch. Not so happy, yet much happier.
Third Witch.
Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none:
So, all hail, Macbeth and
Banquo! 72
First Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!
Macb.
Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:
By Sinel’s death I know I am
Thane of Glamis;
But how of Cawdor? the Thane of Cawdor lives, 76
A
prosperous gentleman; and to be king
Stands not within the prospect of
belief
No more than to be Cawdor. Say, from whence
You owe this strange
intelligence? or why 80
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
With
such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you. [Witches vanish.
Ban.
The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
And these are of them. Whither are
they vanish’d? 84
Macb. Into the air, and what seem’d corporal melted
As breath into the wind. Would they had stay’d!
Ban. Were such
things here as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten on the insane root
88
That takes the reason prisoner?
Macb. Your children shall be
kings.
Ban. You shall be king.
Macb. And Thane of Cawdor
too; went it not so? 92
Ban. To the self-same tune and words. Who’s
here?
Enter ROSS and ANGUS.
Ross. The king hath happily receiv’d,
Macbeth,
The news of thy success; and when he reads 96
Thy personal
venture in the rebels’ fight,
His wonders and his praises do contend
Which should be thine or his. Silenc’d with that,
In viewing o’er the
rest o’ the self-same day, 100
He finds thee in the stout Norweyan
ranks,
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
Strange images of
death. As thick as hail
Came post with post, and every one did bear 104
Thy praises in his kingdom’s great defence,
And pour’d them down before
him.
Ang. We are sent
To give thee from our royal master
thanks; 108
Only to herald thee into his sight,
Not pay thee.
Ross. And, for an earnest of a greater honour,
He bade me, from him,
call thee Thane of Cawdor: 112
In which addition, hail, most worthy
thane!
For it is thine.
Ban. What! can the devil speak true?
Macb. The Thane of Cawdor lives: why do you dress me 116
In
borrow’d robes?
Ang. Who was the thane lives yet;
But under
heavy judgment bears that life
Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was
combin’d 120
With those of Norway, or did line the rebel
With hidden
help or vantage, or that with both
He labour’d in his country’s wrack, I know
not;
But treasons capital, confess’d and prov’d, 124
Have overthrown
him.
Macb. [Aside.] Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor:
The greatest is
behind. [To ROSS and ANGUS.] Thanks for your pains.
[To BANQUO.] Do you not
hope your children shall be kings, 128
When those that gave the Thane of
Cawdor to me
Promis’d no less to them?
Ban. That, trusted
home,
Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, 132
Besides the Thane of
Cawdor. But ’tis strange:
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The
instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to
betray’s 136
In deepest consequence.
Cousins, a word, I pray you.
Macb. [Aside.] Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the
swelling act 140
Of the imperial theme. I thank you, gentlemen.
[Aside.]
This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill, cannot be good; if ill,
Why
hath it given me earnest of success, 144
Commencing in a truth? I am Thane
of Cawdor:
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image
doth unfix my hair
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, 148
Against
the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings;
My
thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of
man that function 152
Is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is
But what is
not.
Ban. Look, how our partner’s rapt.
Macb. [Aside.] If
chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, 156
Without my
stir.
Ban. New honours come upon him,
Like our strange
garments, cleave not to their mould
But with the aid of use. 160
Macb. [Aside.] Come what come may,
Time and the hour runs through
the roughest day.
Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your
leisure.
Macb. Give me your favour: my dull brain was wrought 164
With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains
Are register’d where
every day I turn
The leaf to read them. Let us toward the king.
Think
upon what hath chanc’d; and, at more time, 168
The interim having weigh’d
it, let us speak
Our free hearts each to other.
Ban. Very
gladly.
Macb. Till then, enough. Come, friends. [Exeunt.
Act I. Scene IV.
Forres. A Room in the Palace.
Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, and Attendants.
Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not
Those in commission yet
return’d? 4
Mal. My liege,
They are not yet come back;
but I have spoke
With one that saw him die; who did report
That very
frankly he confess’d his treasons, 8
Implor’d your highness’ pardon and
set forth
A deep repentance. Nothing in his life
Became him like the
leaving it; he died
As one that had been studied in his death 12
To
throw away the dearest thing he ow’d,
As ’twere a careless trifle.
Dun. There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face: 16
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.
Enter
MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSS and ANGUS.
O worthiest cousin! 20
The sin of my
ingratitude even now
Was heavy on me. Thou art so far before
That
swiftest wing of recompense is slow
To overtake thee; would thou hadst
less deserv’d, 24
That the proportion both of thanks and payment
Might
have been mine! only I have left to say,
More is thy due than more than all
can pay.
Macb. The service and the loyalty I owe, 28
In doing
it, pays itself. Your highness’ part
Is to receive our duties: and our
duties
Are to your throne and state, children and servants;
Which do
but what they should, by doing everything 32
Safe toward your love and
honour.
Dun. Welcome hither:
I have begun to plant thee, and
will labour
To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo, 36
That hast no
less deserv’d, nor must be known
No less to have done so, let me infold
thee
And hold thee to my heart.
Ban. There if I grow, 40
The harvest is your own.
Dun. My plenteous joys
Wanton in
fulness, seek to hide themselves
In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen,
thanes, 44
And you whose places are the nearest, know
We will establish
our estate upon
Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter
The Prince
of Cumberland; which honour must 48
Not unaccompanied invest him
only,
But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
On all deservers.
From hence to Inverness,
And bind us further to you. 52
Macb.
The rest is labour, which is not us’d for you:
I’ll be myself the
harbinger, and make joyful
The hearing of my wife with your approach;
So, humbly take my leave. 56
So, humbly take my leave. 56
Macb. [Aside.] The Prince of Cumberland! that is a step
On which I must
fall down, or else o’er-leap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your
fires! 60
Let not light see my black and deep desires;
The eye wink
at the hand; yet let that be
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.
[Exit.
Dun. True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant, 64
And in
his commendations I am fed;
It is a banquet to me. Let’s after him,
Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome:
It is a peerless kinsman.
[Flourish. Exeunt.
Act I. Scene V.
Inverness. MACBETH’S Castle.
Enter LADY MACBETH, reading a letter.
They met me in the day of success;
and I have learned by the perfectest report, they have more in them than mortal
knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they made
themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of
it, came missives from the king, who all-hailed me, ‘Thane of Cawdor;’ by which
title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on
of time, with, ‘Hail, king that shalt be!’ This have I thought good to deliver
thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou mightest not lose the dues of
rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy
heart, and farewell.
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be 4
What thou art promis’d. Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o’ the
milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way; thou wouldst be
great,
Art not without ambition, but without 8
The illness should
attend it; what thou wouldst highly,
That thou wouldst holily; wouldst not
play false,
And yet wouldst wrongly win; thou ’dst have, great
Glamis,
That which cries, ‘Thus thou must do, if thou have it;’ 12
And
that which rather thou dost fear to do
Than wishest should be undone. Hie
thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear,
And chastise with
the valour of my tongue 16
All that impedes thee from the golden round,
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
To have thee crown’d withal.
Enter a Messenger. 20
What is your tidings?
Mess. The king comes here to-night.
Lady M. Thou’rt
mad to say it.
Is not thy master with him? who, were’t so, 24
Would
have inform’d for preparation.
Mess. So please you, it is true: our
thane is coming;
One of my fellows had the speed of him,
Who, almost dead
for breath, had scarcely more 28
Than would make up his message.
Lady M. Give him tending;
He brings great news.—[Exit Messenger.] The
raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
32
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts!
unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top full
Of direst
cruelty; make thick my blood, 36
Stop up the access and passage to
remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose,
nor keep peace between
The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts, 40
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your
sightless substances
You wait on nature’s mischief! Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, 44
That my keen knife see
not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry, ‘Hold, hold!’
Enter MACBETH. 48
Great Glamis! worthy
Cawdor!
Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!
Thy letters have
transported me beyond
This ignorant present, and I feel now 52
The
future in the instant.
Macb. My dearest love,
Duncan comes
here to-night.
Lady M. And when goes hence? 56
Macb.
To-morrow, as he purposes.
Lady M. O! never
Shall sun that
morrow see.
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men 60
May read
strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time; bear welcome in
your eye,
Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,
But be
the serpent under ’t. He that’s coming 64
Must be provided for; and you
shall put
This night’s great business into my dispatch;
Which shall to
all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
68
Macb. We will speak further.
Lady M. Only look up
clear;
To alter favour ever is to fear.
Leave all the rest to me.
[Exeunt.
Act I. Scene VI.
The Same. Before the Castle.
Hautboys and torches. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, BANQUO, LENNOX,
MACDUFF, ROSS, ANGUS, and Attendants.
Dun. This castle hath a pleasant
seat; the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself 4
Unto our gentle
senses.
Ban. This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet,
does approve
By his lov’d mansionry that the heaven’s breath 8
Smells
wooingly here: no jutty, frieze,
Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this
bird
Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle:
Where they most
breed and haunt, I have observ’d 12
The air is delicate.
Enter LADY MACBETH.
Dun. See, see, our honour’d hostess!
The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, 16
Which still we
thank as love. Herein I teach you
How you shall bid God ’eyld us for your
pains,
And thank us for your trouble.
Lady M. All our
service, 20
In every point twice done, and then done double,
Were poor
and single business, to contend
Against those honours deep and broad
wherewith
Your majesty loads our house: for those of old, 24
And the
late dignities heap’d up to them,
We rest your hermits.
Dun.
Where’s the Thane of Cawdor?
We cours’d him at the heels, and had a purpose
28
To be his purveyor; but he rides well,
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. 32
Lady M. Your servants ever
Have
theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt,
To make their audit at
your highness’ pleasure,
Still to return your own. 36
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.
Act I. 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 4
Could trammel up 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, 8
We’d jump the life
to come. But in these cases
We still have judgment here; that we but
teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague the
inventor; this even-handed justice 12
Commends the ingredients of our
poison’d chalice
To our own lips. He’s here in double trust:
First, as I
am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his
host, 16
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the
knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath
been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues 20
Will plead like
angels trumpet-tongu’d against
The deep damnation of his taking-off;
And
pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin,
hors’d 24
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid
deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
To
prick the sides of my intent, but only 28
Vaulting ambition, which
o’er-leaps itself
And falls on the other.—
Enter LADY MACBETH.
How
now! what news? 32
Lady M. He has almost supp’d: why have you left
the chamber?
Macb. Hath he ask’d for me?
Lady M. Know you
not he has?
Macb. We will proceed no further in this business: 36
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 gloss,
Not cast
aside so soon. 40
Lady M. Was the hope drunk,
Wherein you
dress’d yourself? hath it slept since,
And wakes it now, to look so green
and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time 44
Such I account thy
love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour
As thou
art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
Which thou esteem’st the ornament of
life, 48
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting ‘I dare not’
wait upon ‘I would,’
Like the poor cat i’ the adage?
Macb.
Prithee, peace. 52
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do
more is none.
Lady M. What beast was’t, then,
That made you
break this enterprise to me? 56
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. Nor time nor place
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:
60
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
Does unmake you.
I have given suck, and know
How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face, 64
Have pluck’d my nipple
from his boneless gums,
And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as
you
Have done to this.
Macb. If we should fail,— 68
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 journey 72
Soundly invite him, his two chamberlains
Will I
with wine and wassail so convince
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason 76
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 80
His spongy
officers, who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell?
Macb.
Bring forth men-children only;
For thy undaunted mettle should compose 84
Nothing but males. Will it not be receiv’d,
When we have mark’d with
blood those sleepy two
Of his own chamber and us’d their very
daggers,
That they have done’t? 88
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 92
Each corporal agent
to this terrible feat.
Away, and mock the time with fairest show:
False
face must hide what the false heart doth know. [Exeunt.
Act II. Scene I.
Inverness. Court within the Castle.
Enter BANQUO and FLEANCE, with a Servant bearing a torch before him
Ban. How goes the night, boy?
Fle. The moon is down; I have not heard
the clock.
Ban. And she goes down at twelve.
Fle. I
take’t, ’tis later, sir.
Ban. Hold, take my sword. There’s husbandry in
heaven;
Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.
A heavy summons
lies like lead upon me,
And yet I would not sleep: merciful
powers!
Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature
Gives way to in
repose.
Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch.
Give me my
sword.—
Who’s there?
Macb. A friend.
Ban. What, sir! not yet
at rest? The king’s a bed:
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. I think not of them:
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 ’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
counsell’d.
Macb. Good repose the while!
Ban. Thanks,
sir: the like to you. [Exeunt BANQUO and FLEANCE.
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 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
dudgeon 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 sleep; witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate’s offerings; and wither’d
murder,
Alarum’d by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl’s his watch, thus
with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin’s ravishing strides, toward his
design
Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my
steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my
whereabout,
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.
[Exit.
Act II. Scene II.
The Same.
Enter LADY MACBETH.
Lady M. That which hath made them drunk hath made
me bold,
What hath quench’d them hath given me fire. Hark!
Peace!
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 ’tis not done; the attempt and not the
deed
Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready;
He could not miss
them. Had he not resembled
My father as he slept I had done ’t. My
husband!
Enter MACBETH.
Macb. I have done the deed. Didst thou
not hear a noise?
Lady M. I heard the owl scream and the crickets
cry.
Did not you speak?
Macb. When?
Lady M.
Now.
Macb. As I descended?
Lady M. Ay.
Macb.
Hark!
Who lies i’ the second chamber?
Lady M. Donalbain.
Macb. [Looking on his hands.] This is a sorry sight.
Lady M. A foolish
thought to say a sorry sight.
Macb. There’s one did laugh in ’s sleep,
and one 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 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?
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;
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
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 night-gown, 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. [Knocking within.
Wake Duncan with
thy knocking! I would thou couldst! [Exeunt.
