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. ^note

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 ^note, 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 on me ^note: but I requited him for his lie, and, I think, being too strong for

him, though he took up ^note my legs sometime, yet I made a shift to cast him. ^{note note}

Macd.
Is thy master stirring? ^note Enter Macbeth. ^note
Our knocking has awaked him; here he comes.

Len.
Good morrow, noble sir.

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 have ^note almost slipp'd 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 physics ^note pain.
This ^note is the door.

Macd.
I'll make so bold to call,
For 'tis my limited service. ^note [Exit. ^note

Len.
Goes the king hence ^note to-day?

Macb.
He does: ^note 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' the air, strange screams of death, ^note
And prophesying ^note with accents terrible

Of dire combustion ^note and confused events
New hatch'd to the woful time: the ^{note note} obscure ^note bird
Clamour'd the livelong night: some say, the earth
Was feverous and did shake. ^note

Macb.
'Twas a rough night.

Len.
My young remembrance cannot parallel
A fellow to it. Re-enter Macduff. ^note

Macd.
O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor ^note heart
Cannot conceive nor name thee. ^note

Macb. Len.
What's the matter?

Macd.
Confusion now hath made his masterpiece.
Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope
The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence
The life o' the building.

Macb.
What is't you say? the life?

Len.
Mean you his majesty?

Macd. ^note
Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight
With a new Gorgon: do not bid me speak;
See, and then speak yourselves. [Exeunt ^note Macbeth and Lennox.
Awake, awake!
Ring the alarum-bell. Murder 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! ^note

As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites,
To countenance this horror. Ring the bell. [Bell rings. ^{note note} Enter ^note Lady Macbeth. ^note

Lady M.
What's the business,
That such a ^note hideous trumpet calls to parley
The sleepers of the house? speak, speak! ^note

Macd.
O ^note gentle lady,
'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak:
The repetition, in a woman's ear,
Would murder as it fell. Enter Banquo. ^note
O Banquo, Banquo!
Our royal master's murder'd. ^note

Lady M.
Woe, alas!
What, in our house?

Ban.
Too cruel any where.
Dear Duff ^note, I prithee, contradict ^note thyself,
And say it is not so. Re-enter ^note Macbeth and Lennox, with Ross.

Macb.
Had I but died an hour before this chance,
I had lived a blessed time; for from this instant
There's nothing serious in mortality:
All is but toys: renown and grace is dead ^note;

The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is ^note left this vault to brag of. Enter Malcolm and Donalbain.

Don.
What is amiss?

Macb.
You are, and do not know't ^note:
The spring, the head, ^note 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 ^note done't:
Their hands and faces were all badged ^note with blood;
So were their daggers, which unwiped we found
Upon their pillows:
They stared, and were distracted; no ^note man's life
Was to be trusted with them. ^note

Macb.
O, yet I do repent me of my fury,
That I did kill them. ^note

Macd.
Wherefore did you so?

Macb.
Who can be wise, amazed ^note, temperate and furious,
Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:
The expedition of my violent love
Outrun ^note the pauser reason. Here lay Duncan,
His silver skin laced ^note with his golden ^note blood ^note,
And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature
For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,
Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers
Unmannerly breech'd ^note with gore: who could refrain,

That had a heart to love, and in that heart ^note
Courage to make's ^note love known?

Lady M.
Help me hence, ho!

Macd. ^note
Look to the lady.

Mal. [Aside ^note to Don.]
Why do we hold our tongues,
That most may claim this argument for ours?

Don. [Aside ^note to Mal.]
What should be spoken here, where our fate,
Hid in ^note an auger-hole, may rush, and seize us? ^note
Let's away ^note;
Our tears are not yet brew'd.

Mal. [Aside ^note to Don.]
Nor our strong sorrow
Upon ^note the foot of motion.

Ban.
Look ^note to the lady: [Lady ^note 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 undivulged pretence I fight
Of treasonous malice.

Macd. ^note
And ^note so do I.

All.
So all.

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

All.
Well contented. [Exeunt all but ^note Malcolm and Donalbain.

Mal.
What will you do? Let's not consort with them: ^note
To show an unfelt sorrow is an office
Which the false man does easy. I'll to England. ^note

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 ^note in blood,
The nearer bloody. ^note

Mal.
This murderous shaft that's shot
Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way
Is to avoid the aim. Therefore to horse ^note;
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. ^note

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