SCENE II.-The same.

Enter Lady МАСВЕТН.

Lady M. 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 bellman,

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 have drugg'd their possets,
That death and nature do contend about them,
Whether they live, or die.

Macb. [Within.]—Who's there?—what, ho!
Lady M. Alack! I am afraid they have awak'd,
And 'tis not done :—the attempt, and not the deed,
Confounds us-Hark!-I laid their daggers ready,
He could not miss them.-Had he not resembled
My father as he slept I had done't.-My husband?
Enter MACBETH.

A

Macb. I have done the deed :-Didst thou not hear a noise,
Lady M. I heard the owl scream, and the crickets cry.

Did not you speak ?

Macb.

When ?

Macb. This is a sorry sight.

Donalbain.

[Looking on his hands

Lady M. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.

Macb. There's one did laugh in his sleep, and one cried, murder?

That they did wake each other; I stood and heard them :

But they did say their prayers, and address'd them

Again to sleep.

Lady M.

There are two lodg'd together.

Macb. One cried, 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 M.

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 M.

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 does murder sleep, the innocent sleep;

Sleep, that knus up the ravell'd sleave of care,
The death of ei day's life, sore labor's bath,
Balm of hurt mnds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast.

Lady M.

What do you mean?

Macb. Still it cried, Sleep no more! to all the house : Glamis hath murder'd sleep: and therefore Cawdor

Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more!

Lady M. Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane,
You do unbend your noble strength, to think
So brainsickly 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 lie 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 on't again, I dare not.

Lady M.

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 gild the faces of the grooms withal,

For it must seem their guilt.

Macb.

[Exit. Knocking within

Whence is that knocking?

How is't with me, when every noise appals me?

What hands are here? Ha! they pluck out mine eyes!
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood

Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnardine,

Making the green-one red.

Re-enter Lady MACBETH.

Lady M. My hands are of your color; but I shame
To wear a heart so white.-[Knock.]—I hear a knocking

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.-[Knocking.]-Hark! more knocking. Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us,

And show us to be watchers :-Be not lost

So poorly in your thoughts.

Mach. To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself. [Knock. Wake Duncan with thy knocking; Ay, 'would thou could'st!

Enter MACDUFF, LENOX, and Porter.

Macd. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed,

[Exeunt

Port. 'Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock.
Macd. Is thy master stirring ?—

Our knocking has awak'd him; here he comes.

Len. Good-morrow, noble sir!

Macb.

Enter МАСВЕТН.

Good-morrow, both!

Not yet.

Macd. Is the king stirring, worthy thane ?
Macb.
Macd. He did command me to call timely on him:

I have 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 labor we delight in, physics pain.

This is the door.

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;
And prophesying, with accents terrible,

Of dire cumbustion, and confus'd events,
New hatch'd to the woeful time.

The obscure bird

Clamor'd the livelong night: some say, the earth
Was feverish, and did shake.

Macb.

"Twas a rough night.

Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel

A fellow to it.

Re-enter MACDuff.

Macd. O horror! horror! horror! Tongue, nor heart,

Cannot conceive, nor name thee!

Macb. Len.

What's the matter?

Macd. Confusion now hath made his master-piece!

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. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight
Wit a new Gorgon :-Do not bid me speak;
See, and then speak yourselves.-Awake! awake!—

[Exeunt MACBETH and LENOX

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!
As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprights,
To countenance this horror!

O Banquo! Banquo!

Enter BANQUO.

Our royal master's murder'd!

Re-enter MACBETH and LENOX.

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;
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

The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood
Is stopp'd; the very source of it is stopp'd.
Mac. Your royal father's murder'd.

Mal.

O, by whom?
Len. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done'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?

[Bell rings.

Macb. Who can be wise, amaz'd, temperate, and furious, Loyal and neutral, in a moment?

The expedition of my violent love

No man :

Out-ran the pauser reason.-Here lay Duncan,
His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood;
And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature
For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,
Steep'd in the colors of their trade, their daggers
Unmannerly breech'd with gore: Who could refrain,
That had a heart to love, and in that heart
Courage to make his love known?

Ban. Fears and scruples shake us:

In the great hand of Heaven I stand; and, thence,
Against the undivulg'd pretence I fight
Of treasonous malice.

Macb. Let's briefly put on manly readiness,

And meet i' the hall together.

All. Well contented.

[Exeunt all but MAL. and Do

Mal. What will you do? Let's not consort with them:

To show an unfelt sorrow is an office

Which the false man does easy: I'll to England.

Don. To Ireland, I; our separate 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.

This murderous 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

The King's two sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, fly to England, and Macbeth is crowned king of Scotland; but fearing the prediction of the witches, that Banquo's issue should he king, he employs "two murderers," to assassinate Banquo and his son Fleance. The consequences of guilty ambition are finely portrayed in the following scene.

Enter Lady MACBETH, and a Servant.

Lady M. Is Banquo gone from court?

Serv. Ay, madam, but returns again to-night.

Lady M. Say to the king, I would attend his leisure For a few words.

Serv.

Lady M.

Madam, I will.

[Exit.

Nought's had, all's spent,

Where our desire is got without content: 'Tis safer to be that which we destroy,

Than, by destruction, dwell in doubtful joy.

Enter MACBETH.

How now, my lord? why do you keep alone,
Of sorriest fancies your companions making?
Using those thoughts, which should indeed have died
With them they think on? Things without remedy
Should be without regard: what's done, is done.

Macb. 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.