Fleance with a torch before him.
Banquo.
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 heav'n,
Their candles are all out.—Take thee that too.
A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,
And yet I would not sleep. Merciful Pow'rs!
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.
-- 403 --
He hath to-night been in unusual pleasure,
And sent 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 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 wayward sisters;
To you they've shew'd some truth.
Macb.
I think not of them,
Yet, when we can intreat an hour to serve,
Would spend it in some words upon that business,
If you would grant the time.
Ban.
At your kind leisure.
Macb.
9 noteIf 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.
SCENE II.
Macb.
Go, bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,
She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.
[Exit Serv.
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
-- 404 --
The handle tow'rd 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'th' other senses,
Or else worth all the rest—I see thee still;
1 note
And on thy blade and dudgeon, 2 notegouts of blood,
Which was not so before.—There's no such thing.—
It is the bloody business, which informs
Thus to mine eyes.—3 note
Now o'er one half the world
-- 405 --
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleep; now witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecat's offerings: and 4 note
wither'd Murther,
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
5 note
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, tow'rds his design
Moves like a ghost.—Thou sound and firm-set earth6Q0217,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my where-about;
-- 406 --
6 note
And take the present horrour from the time,
Which now suits with it.—Whilst I threat, he lives—
[A bell rings.
-- 407 --
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.
[Exit.
SCENE III.
Enter Lady Macbeth.
Lady.
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 bell-man,
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've drugg'd their Possets,
That death and nature do contend about them,
Whether they live or die.
Enter Macbeth.
Macb.
Who's there?—what ho!
Lady.
Alack! I am afraid, they have awak'd;
And 'tis not done. Th' attempt and not the deed,
Confounds us—hark—! I laid their daggers ready,
He could not miss 'em.—7 note
Had he not resembled
-- 408 --
My father as he slept, I had don't—My husband!
Macb.
I've done the deed—didst thou not hear a noise?
Lady.
I heard the owl scream, and the crickets cry.
Did not you speak?
Macb.
When?
Lady.
Now.
Macb.
As I descended?
Lady.
Ay.
Macb.
Hark!—who lies i'th' second chamber?
Lady.
Donalbain.
Macb.
This is a sorry sight.
[Looks on his hands.
Lady.
A foolish thought, to say, a sorry sight.
Macb.
There's one did laugh in's sleep, and one cry'd, Murther!
They wak'd each other; and I stood and heard them;
But they did say their prayers, and address them
Again to sleep.
Lady.
There are two lodg'd together.
Macb.
One cry'd, 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.
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.
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 doth murther Sleep; the innocent sleep;
Sleep that knits up the ravell'd 8 notesleeve of care,
-- 409 --
9 note
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.
What do you mean?
Macb.
Still it cry'd, sleep no more, to all the house;
Glamis hath murther'd sleep. And therefore Cawdor
Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more!
Lady.
Who was it, that thus cry'd? Why, worthy Thane,
You do unbend your noble strength, to think
So brain-sickly 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 lye 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't on't again, I dare not.
Lady.
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 1 note
gild the faces of the grooms withal,
For it must seem their guilt.
[Exit.
-- 410 --
Knocks within.
Macb.
Whence is that knocking!
[Starting.
How is it with me, when every noise appals me?
What hands are here? hah! they pluck out mine eyes.
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? no, this my hand will rather
Thy multitudinous sea incarnardine,
Making the green, One red—
Enter Lady.
Lady.
My hands are of your colour; but I shame
To wear a heart so white; I hear a knocking
[Knock.
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—Hark, more knocking!
[Knock.
Get on your night-gown, lest occasion call us,
And shew us to be Watchers. Be not lost
So poorly in your thoughts.
Macb.
2 note
To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself.
Wake, Duncan, with this knocking. 'Would, thou couldst!
[Exeunt.
-- 411 --
SCENE IV.
Enter a Porter.
[Knocking within.]
Port.
Here's a knocking, indeed;
if a man were porter of hell-gate, he should
have old turning the key. [Knock] Knock, knock,
knock. Who's there, i'th' name of Belzebub? here's
a farmer, that hang'd himself on the expectation of
plenty: come in time, have napkins enough about
you, here you'll sweat for't. [Knock] Knock, knock.
Who's there i'th' other devil's name? Faith, 3 notehere'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 heav'n: oh,
come in, equivocator. [Knock] Knock, knock, knock.
Who's there? Faith, 4 notehere's an English taylor come
hither for stealing out of a French hose: come in, taylor,
here you may roast your goose. [Knock] 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 th' everlasting bonfire. [Knock]
Anon, anon, I pray you, remember the porter.
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
-- 412 --
cock, and drink, Sir, is a great provoker of three
things.
Macd.
What three things doth 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 perswades him,
and disheartens him; makes him stand to, and not
stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him into 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'th' very throat o'me; but
I requited him for his lie; and, I think, being too
strong for him, though he took my legs some time,
yet 5 noteI made a shift to cast him.
Macd.
Is thy master stirring?
Our knocking has awak'd him; here he comes.
Len.
Good morrow, noble Sir.
Enter Macbeth.
Macb.
Good morrow, Both.
Macd.
Is the King stirring, worthy Thane?
Macb.
Not yet.
Macd.
He did command me to call timely on him;
I've almost slipt 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.
-- 413 --
Macd.
I'll make so bold to call, 6 notefor 'tis my limited service.
[Exit Macduff.
Len.
Goes the King hence to day?
Macb.
He did appoint so.
Len.
The night has been unruly; where we lay,
Our chimneys were blown down; and, as they say,
Lamentings heard i'th' air, 7 note
strange screams of death,
8 note
And prophesying with accents terrible
-- 414 --
Of dire combustion, and confus'd events,
New hatch'd to th' woeful time:
The obscure bird clamour'd the live-long night.
Some say, the earth was fev'rous, and did shake.
Macb.
'Twas a rough night.
Len.
My young remembrance cannot parallel
A fellow to it.
Enter Macduff.
Macd.
O horrour! horrour! horrour!
Nor tongue, nor heart, cannot conceive, nor name thee—
Macb. and Len.
What's the matter?
-- 415 --
Macd.
Confusion now hath made his master-piece;
Most sacrilegious murther hath broke ope
The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence
The life o'th' building.
Macb.
What is't you say? the life?—
Len.
Mean you his Majesty?—
Macd.
Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight
With a new Gorgon.—Do not bid me speak;
See, and then speak your selves. Awake! awake!
[Exeunt Macbeth and Lenox.
Ring the alarum-bell—murther! and treason!
Banquo, and Donalbain! Malcolm! awake!
Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit,
And look on death itself—Up, up, and see
The great Doom's image—Malcolm! Banquo!
As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprights,
To countenance 9 notethis horrour.—
SCENE V.
Bell rings. Enter Lady Macbeth.
Lady.
What's the business,
That such an hideous trumpet calls to parley
The sleepers of the house? Speak.
Macd.
Gentle lady,
'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak.
The repetition in a woman's ear
Would murther as it fell.—O Banquo! Banquo!
Enter Banquo.
Our royal master's murther'd.
Lady.
Woe, alas!
-- 416 --
1 noteWhat, in our house?—
Ban.
Too cruel, any where.
2 noteMacduff, I pr'ythee, contradict thyself,
And say, it is not so.
Enter Macbeth, Lenox, and Rosse.
Macb.
Had I but dy'd 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 mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of.
Enter Malcolm, and Donalbain.
Don.
What is amiss?
Macb.
You are, and do not know't:
The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood
Is stopt; the very source of it is stopt.
Macd.
Your royal father's murther'd.
Mal.
Oh, by whom?
Len.
Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had don'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.
-- 417 --
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, temp'rate and furious,
Loyal and neutral in a moment? No man.
The expedition of my violent love
Out-ran the pauser, Reason. 3 note
Here, lay Duncan;
4 noteHis silver skin laced with his golden blood,
And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature
For Ruin's wasteful entrance; there, the murtherers
Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers
5 note
Unmannerly breech'd with gore. Who could refrain,
That had a heart to love, and in that heart
-- 418 --
Courage, to make's love known?
Lady.
Help me hence, ho!—
[Seeming to faint.
Macd.
Look to the lady.
Mal.
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.
Nor our strong sorrow on
The foot of motion.
Ban.
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.
6 note
In the great hand of God I stand, and thence,
-- 419 --
Against the undivulg'd pretence I fight
Of treas'nous malice.
Macb.
So do I.
All.
So, all.
Macb.
Let's briefly put on manly readiness,
And meet i'th' hall together.
All.
Well contented.
[Exeunt.
Mal.
What will you do? Let's not consort with them.
To shew an unfelt sorrow, is an office
Which the false man does easie. I'll to England.
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.
7 note
This murtherous 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.
-- 420 --
SCENE VI.
The Outside of Macbeth's Castle.
Enter Rosse, with an old Man.
Old Man.
Threescore and ten I can remember well,
Within the volume of which time, I've seen
Hours dreadful, and things strange, but this sore night
Hath trifled former knowings.
Rosse.
Ah, good father,
Thou seest, the heav'ns, as troubled with man's act,
Threaten this bloody stage. By th' clock, 'tis day;
And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp.
Is't 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 faulcon, towring 8 notein 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 9 note
minions of their Race,
Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,
Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would
Make war with man.
Old M.
'Tis said, they eat each other.
Rosse.
They did so; to the amazement of mine eyes,
That look'd upon't. Here comes the good Macduff.
-- 421 --
Enter Macduff.
—How goes the world, Sir, now?
Macd.
Why, see you not?
Rosse.
Is't known, who did this more than bloody Deed?
Macd.
Those, that Macbeth hath slain.
Rosse.
Alas, the day!
* noteWhat good could they pretend?
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 ravin 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?
Macd.
No, Cousin, I'll to Fife.
Rosse.
Well, I will thither.
Macd.
Well, may you see things well done there, adieu,
Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!
Rosse.
Farewel, Father.
Old M.
God's benison go with you, and with those
That would make good of bad, and friends of foes.
[Exeunt.
-- 422 --
Samuel Johnson [1765], The plays of William Shakespeare, in eight volumes, with the corrections and illustrations of Various Commentators; To which are added notes by Sam. Johnson (Printed for J. and R. Tonson [and] C. Corbet [etc.], London) [word count] [S11001].
