Enter MACBETH.
Greater than both, by tne all-hail hereafter!
Thy letters have transported me beyond
This ignorant present, and I feel now
The future in the instant.
Macb.
My dearest love,
Duncan comes here to-night.
Lady M.
And when goes hence ?
Macb. T'o-morrow, as he purposes.
Lady M.
O, never
Shall sun that morrow see !
Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men
May read strange matters ;– To beguile the time,
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue : look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under it. He that's coming
Must be provided for : and you shall put
This night's great business into my dispatch;
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
Macb. We will speak further.
Lady M.
Only look
up clear. To alter favor ever is to fear : Leave all the rest to me.
(Exeunt. SCENE VI.—The same. Before the Castle.
Hautboys. Servants of Macbeth attending.
Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, BANQUO, LENOX, MACDUFT
Rosse, Angus, and Attendants.
Dun. The castle hath a pleasant seat; the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses.
Ban.
This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve,
By his lov'd mansionry, that the heaven's breath
Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze, buttress,
No coigne of vantage, but this bird hath made
His pendent bed, and procreant cradle : Where they
Most breed and haunt, I have obsery'd the air
Is delicate.
Enter Lady Macbeth.
Dun. See, see ! our honor'd hostess !
The love that follows us, sometimes is our trouble,
Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you,
How you shall bid Heaven yield us for your pains,
And thank us for your
Lady M.
All our service
In every point twice done, and then done double,
Were poor and single business to contend
Against those honors deep and broad, wherewith
Your majesty loads our house : For those of old,
And the late dignities heap'd up to them,
We rest your hermits.
Duin.
Where's the thane of Cawdor ?
We cours'd him at the heels, and had a purpose
To be his purveyor : but he rides well;
And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him
To his home before us : Fair and noble hostess,
We are your guest to-night.
Lady M.
Your servants ever
Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt,
To make their audit at your highness' pleasure,
Still to return your own.
Dun.
Give me your hand :
Conduct me to mine host; we love him highly,
And shall continue our graces towards him.
By your leave, hostess.
SCENE VII.-The same. A Room in the Castle. Hautboys and torches. Enter, and pass over the stage, a Sewer, and
divers Servants with dishes and service. Then enter MACBETH.
Macb. If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly : If the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch,
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 goad the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'er-leaps itself,
And falls on the other.-How now, what news ?
Enter Lady MACBETH.
Lady M. He has almost supp’d; Why have you left the chamber ?
Macb. Hath he ask'd for me?
Lady M. Know you not, he has ?
Macb. We will proceed no further in this business :
He hath honor'd me of late; and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon.
Was the hope drunk,
Wherein
you dress’d yourself? hath it slept since ?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time,
Such I account thy love. · Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valor,
As thou art in desire ? Would'st thou have that
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem;
Letting I dare not wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat i' the adage ?
Macb.
Pr’ythee, peace :
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more, is none.
Lady M.
What beast was it then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And, to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man. Nor time, nor place,
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
Does unmake you.
Macb.
If we should fail,
Lady M.
We fail !
But screw your courage to the sticking place,
And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep,
(Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey
Soundly invite him,) his two chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassel so convince,
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbeck* only: When in swinish sleep,
Their drenched natures lie, as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon
His
spongy officers; who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell ?*
Macb.
Will it not be receiv'd,
When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two
Of his own chamber, and us’d their very daggers,
That they have done 't?
Lady M.
Who dares receive it other,
As we shall make our griefs and clamor roar
Upon his death ?
Macb.
I am settled, and bend up
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
Away, and mock the time with fairest show :
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
ACT II.
SCENE 1.— 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 a-bed:
He hath been in unusual pleasure, and
Sent forth great largess to your
I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters :
To you they have show'd 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.
At your kind'st leisure.
Macb. If you shall cleave to my consent,—when 'tis,
It shall make honor 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 counsel'd.
Macb.
Good repose, the while !
Ban. Thanks, sir : The like to you !
[Eri Box. 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, 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 curtain'd sleep; now witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murder, Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf, Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, With Tarquin's ravishing strides, toward his design Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm set earth, Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear Thy very stones prate of my where-about, 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. [A bell rings 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
|