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,——
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
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,
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
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking off:
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd
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
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on the other.

Courage.

I dare do all that may become a man ;

Who dares do more is none.

* An allusion to the winds; sightless is used for invisible.

ACT II.

The Visionary Dagger Scene.

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.

ACT III.

Macbeth's Remorse.

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 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,

:

*The handle of the dagger.

+ Spots of blood.

Whom we, to gain our place, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie

grave;

In restless ecstasy.*. Duncan is in his
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 further.

Macbeth's Terror at the Ghost of Banquo.

What man dare, I dare:

Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger,
Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
Shall never tremble; or, be alive again,
And dare me to the desert with thy sword;
If trembling I inhibit thee,† protest me

The baby of a girl.

Hence, horrible shadow!

Unreal mockery, hence!

ACT IV.

Malcolm's Description of the Character of Macbeth.

I grant him bloody,

Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful,

Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin

That has a name.

The Qualities which become a King.

The king-becoming graces,

As justice, verity, temperance, stableness,
Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,

*Mental torture.

+ Inhibit means to forbid; the original reading is inhabit then.

Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude,

I have no relish of them.

A Distracted Kingdom.

Alas, poor country:

Almost afraid to know itself! It cannot

Be call'd our mother, but our grave: where nothing,
But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile;
Where sighs, and groans, and shrieks that rend the air,
Are made, not mark'd: where violent sorrow seems
A modern ecstasy: the dead man's knell

Is there scarce ask'd, for who; and good men's lives
Expire before the flowers in their caps,
Dying, or ere they sicken.

ACT V.

Lady Macbeth in the Sleep-walking Scene.

GENTLEWOMAN. Lo you, here she comes! her very guise; and, upon my life, fast asleep.

her stand close.

:

This is

Observe

DOCTOR. How came she by that light?
GENTLEWOMAN. Why, it stood by her she has light

by her continually; 'tis her command.

DOCTOR. You see, her eyes are open.

:

GENTLEWOMAN. Ay, but their sense is shut.
DOCTOR. What is it she does now?

rubs her hands.

Look, how she

GENTLEWOMAN. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands; I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour.

LADY MACBETH. Yet here's a spot.

DOCTOR. Hark! she speaks: I will set down what

comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.

LADY MACBETH. Out, damned spot! out, I say! One; two; why, then, 'tis time to do't:- Hell is murky - Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?-Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?

DOCTOR. Do you mark that?

LADY MACBETH. The thane of Fife had a wife; where is she now?- -What, will these hands ne'er be clean ?—No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that: you mar all with this starting.

DOCTOR. Go to, go to; you have known what you should not.

GENTLEWOMAN. She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that: heaven knows what she has known. LADY MACBETH. Here's the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh oh oh!

DOCTOR. What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged.

GENTLEWOMAN. I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the dignity of the whole body. DOCTOR. Well, well, well,

GENTLEWOMAN. 'Pray God it be, sir.

DOCTOR. This disease is beyond my practice: yet Ι have known those which have walked in their sleep, who have died holily in their beds.

LADY MACBETH. Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not so pale:-I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he cannot come out of his grave. DOCTOR. Even so.

LADY MACBETH. Тo bed, to bed; there's knocking