Lady M.

What, in our house?

Ban.

Woe, alas!

Too cruel, any where.

Dear Duff, I pr'ythee, contradict thyself,

And say, it is not so.

Re-enter MACBETH and LENOX.

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 meer lees
Is left this vault to brag of.

Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN.

Don. What is amiss?

Macb.

You are, and do not know it:

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, and furious,

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

t-ran the pauser reason. Here lay Duncan, s silver skin lac'd with his golden blood;

And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in na

ture,

For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,
Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers
Unmannerly breech'd with gore3: Who could re-
frain,

That had a heart to love, and in that heart
Courage to make his love known?

Lady M.

Macd. Look to the lady.

Mal.

Help me hence, ho!

Why do we hold our tongues,

That most may claim this argument for ours?
Don. What should be spoken here,

Where our fate, hid within an augre-hole,
May rush and seize us? Let's away; our tears
Are not yet brew'd.

Mal.

The foot of motion.

Ban.

Nor our strong sorrow on

Look to the lady :

[Lady MACBETH is carried out.

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

Of treasonous malice.

Macb.

All.

And so do I.

So all.

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

All.

Well contented.

[Exeunt all but MAL. and Don.

Mal. What will you do? Let's not consort with

them:

To show an unfelt sorrow, is an office

Which the false man does easy: I'll to England.

3 Covered with blood to their hilt.

Don. To Ireland, I; our separated fortune Shall keep us both the safer: where we are, There's daggers in men's smiles: the near in blood, The nearer bloody.

Mal. This murderous shaft that's shot, Hath not yet lighted; and our safest way Is, to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse; And let us not be dainty of leave-taking, But shift away: there's warrant in that theft, Which steals itself, when there's no mercy left.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

Without the Castle.

Enter ROSSE and an Old Man.

Old M. Threescore and ten I can remember well. Within the volume of which time, I have seen Hours dreadful, and things strange; but this sore

night

Hath trifled further knowings.

Rosse.

Ah, good father,

Thou see'st the heavens, as troubled with man's act, Threaten this bloody stage: by the clock, 'tis day, And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp: Is it night's predominance, or the day's shame, That darkness does the face of earth intomb, When living light should kiss it?

Old M. 'Tis unnatural, 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.

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 eat each other. Rosse. They did so; to the amazement of mine

Why, see you not?

Rosse. Is't known who did this more than bloody

deed?

Macd. Those that Macbeth hath slain.

Rosse.

What good could they pretend ?4

Alas, the day!

Macd. They were suborn'd: Malcolm, and Donalbain, the king's two sons, Are stol'n away and fled; which puts upon them Suspicion of the deed.

Rosse.

'Gainst nature still

Thriftless ambition, that wilt raven up

Thine own life's means !-Then 'tis 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 Colmes-kill;

The sacred storehouse of his predecessors,

And guardian of their bones.

Rosse.

Will you to Scone ?

Well, I will thither.

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

Rosse.

Macd. Well, may you see things well done there!-adieu!

Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!

Rosse. Father, farewell.

Old M. God's benison go with you: and with

those

That would make good of bad, and friends of foes;

[Exeunt.

ACT THE THIRD.

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 shine,)
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.

Senet sounded. 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,
And all things unbecoming.