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!

^{1 note}What, in our house?—

Ban.
Too cruel, any where.
^{2 note}Macduff, 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.

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}

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}

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.

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