ACT II.

SCENE I. The same. Court within the Castle.

Enter BANQUO and FLEANCE, and a Servant, with a torch

before them.

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.-Give me my sword; -

Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch.
Who's there?

Macb. A friend.

Ban. What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's abed. He hath been in unusual pleasure, and

Sent forth great largess to your officers:

This diamond he greets your wife withal,

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

Macb.

Being unprepared, 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 showed some truth.

Macb.

I think not of them;

Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,
Would spend it in some words upon that business,
If you would grant the time.

Ban.
Macb. If you shall cleave to my consent,-when 'tis,
It shall make honor for you.

Ban.

At your kind'st leisure.

So I lose none,

In seeking to augment it, but still keep
My bosom franchised, and allegiance clear,
I shall be counselled.

Macb.

Good repose, the while!

Ban. Thanks, sir; the like to you!. [Exit BAN. 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 marshal'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 curtained sleep; now withcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings; and withered murder,
Alarmed by his sentinel, the wolf,

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 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.

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.

[A bell rings.

[Exit.

Lady M. That which hath made them drunk, hath made

me bold;

What hath quenched them, hath given me fire.-Hark !—

peace!

It was the owl that shrieked, 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 drugged 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 awaked,
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?

Now.

As I descended?

Who lies i'the second chamber?

Lady M.

Donalbain.

Macb. This is a sorry sight. [Looking on his hands. Lady M. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight. Macb. There's one did laugh in his sleep, and one cried, murder!

That they did wake each other; I stood and heard them: But they did say their prayers, and addressed them Again to sleep.

Lady M.

There are two lodged 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 ravelled sleave of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labor'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 murdered 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. Whence is that knocking?

Macb.

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 color; 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.] 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.

[Knock.

Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou could'st!

[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 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, 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 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? 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?

Our knocking has awaked him; here he comes.