The Tragedy of Macbeth

ACT II. SCENE I. Inverness. Court of Macbeth's castle

Enter Banquo and Fleance, bearing a torch before him.

  BANQUO. How goes the night, boy?  FLEANCE. The moon is down; I have not heard the clock.  BANQUO. And she goes down at twelve.  FLEANCE. I take't 'tis later, sir.  BANQUO. 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!

Enter Macbeth and a Servant with a torch.

    Give me my sword.    Who's there?  MACBETH. A friend.  BANQUO. What, sir, not yet at rest? The King's abed.    He hath been in unusual pleasure and    Sent forth great largess to your offices.    This diamond he greets your wife withal,    By the name of most kind hostess, and shut up    In measureless content.  MACBETH. Being unprepared,    Our will became the servant to defect,    Which else should free have wrought.  BANQUO. All's well.    I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:    To you they have show'd some truth.  MACBETH. I think not of them;    Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,    We would spend it in some words upon that business,    If you would grant the time.  BANQUO. At your kind'st leisure.  MACBETH. If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis,    It shall make honor for you.  BANQUO. So I lose none    In seeking to augment it, but still keep    My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,    I shall be counsel'd.  MACBETH. Good repose the while.  BANQUO. Thanks, sir, the like to you.                                     Exeunt Banquo. and Fleance.  MACBETH. Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,    She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. Exit Servant.    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; witchcraft celebrates    Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd Murther,    Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,    Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,    With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards 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 whereabout,    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.

SCENE II. The same

Enter Lady Macbeth.

  LADY MACBETH. That which hath made them drunk hath made mebold;    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 theirpossets    That death and nature do contend about them,    Whether they live or die.  MACBETH. [Within.] Who's there' what, ho!  LADY MACBETH. Alack, I am afraid they have awaked    And 'tis not done. The attempt and not the deed    Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready;    He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled    My father as he slept, I had done't.

Enter Macbeth,

    My husband!  MACBETH. I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?  LADY MACBETH. I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.    Did not you speak?  MACBETH. When?  LADY MACBETH. Now.  MACBETH. As I descended?  LADY MACBETH. Ay.  MACBETH. Hark!    Who lies i' the second chamber?  LADY MACBETH. Donalbain.  MACBETH. This is a sorry sight. [Looks on his hands.  LADY MACBETH. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.  MACBETH. There's one did laugh in 's sleep, and one cried,      "Murther!"    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 MACBETH. There are two lodged together.  MACBETH. 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 MACBETH. Consider it not so deeply.  MACBETH. But wherefore could not I pronounce "Amen"?    I had most need of blessing, and "Amen"    Stuck in my throat.  LADY MACBETH. These deeds must not be thought    After these ways; so, it will make us mad.  MACBETH. I heard a voice cry, "Sleep no more!    Macbeth does murther sleep" – the innocent sleep,    Sleep that knits up the ravel'd sleave of care,    The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,    Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,    Chief nourisher in life's feast-  LADY MACBETH. What do you mean?  MACBETH. Still it cried, "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 MACBETH. 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.  MACBETH. I'll go no more.    I am afraid to think what I have done;    Look on't again I dare not.  LADY MACBETH. 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. Exit. Knocking within.  MACBETH. 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 incarnadine,    Making the green one red.

Re-enter Lady Macbeth.

  LADY MACBETH. My hands are of your color, but I shame    To wear a heart so white. [Knocking within.] I hear 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 within.] Hark, moreknocking.    Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us    And show us to be watchers. Be not lost    So poorly in your thoughts.  MACBETH. To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself.                                                Knocking within.    Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!Exeunt

SCENE III. The same

Enter a Porter. Knocking within.

  PORTER. Here's a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of Hell    Gate, he should have old turning the key. [Knocking within.]    Knock, knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of Belzebub?Here's    a farmer that hanged himself on th' expectation of plenty.Come    in time! Have napkins enow about you; here you'll sweat fort.    [Knocking within.] Knock, knock! Who's there, in th' other    devil's name? Faith, here's an equivocator that could swearin    both the scales against either scale, who committed treason    enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven. O,    come in, equivocator. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock, knock!    Who's there? Faith, here's an English tailor come hither, for    stealing out of a French hose. Come in, tailor; here you may    roast your goose. [Knocking within.] 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 someof    all professions, that go the primrose way to the everlasting    bonfire. [Knocking within.] Anon, anon! I pray you, rememberthe    porter.                                                 Opens the gate.

Enter Macduff and Lennox.

  MACDUFF. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed,    That you do lie so late?  PORTER. Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock; and    drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things.  MACDUFF. What three things does drink especially provoke?  PORTER. Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery,sir,    it provokes and unprovokes: it provokes the desire, but ittakes    away the performance. Therefore much drink may be said to bean    equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mars him; itsets    him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him anddisheartens    him; makes him stand to and not stand to; in conclusion,    equivocates him in a sleep, and giving him the lie, leaveshim.  MACDUFF. I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.  PORTER. That it did, sir, i' the very throat on me; butrequited    him for his lie, and, I think, being too strong for him,though    he took up my legs sometime, yet I made shift to cast him.  MACDUFF. Is thy master stirring?

Enter Macbeth.

    Our knocking has awaked him; here he comes.  LENNOX. Good morrow, noble sir.  MACBETH. morrow, both.  MACDUFF. Is the King stirring, worthy Thane?  MACBETH. Not yet.  MACDUFF. He did command me to call timely on him;    I have almost slipp'd the hour.  MACBETH. I'll bring you to him.  MACDUFF. I know this is a joyful trouble to you,    But yet 'tis one.  MACBETH. The labor we delight in physics pain.    This is the door.  MACDUFF I'll make so bold to call,    For 'tis my limited service. Exit.  LENNOX. Goes the King hence today?  MACBETH. He does; he did appoint so.  LENNOX. 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 combustion and confused events    New hatch'd to the woeful time. The obscure bird    Clamor'd the livelong night. Some say the earth    Was feverous and did shake.  MACBETH. 'Twas a rough fight.  LENNOX. My young remembrance cannot parallel    A fellow to it.

Re-enter Macduff.

  MACDUFF. O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart    Cannot conceive nor name thee.  MACBETH. LENNOX. What's the matter?  MACDUFF. Confusion now hath made his masterpiece.    Most sacrilegious murther hath broke ope    The Lord's anointed temple and stole thence    The life o' the building.  MACBETH. What is't you say? the life?  LENNOX. Mean you his Majesty?  MACDUFF. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight    With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak;    See, and then speak yourselves.                                      Exeunt Macbeth and Lennox.    Awake, awake!    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 sprites    To countenance this horror! Ring the bell. Bell rings.

Enter Lady Macbeth.

  LADY MACBETH. What's the business,    That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley    The sleepers of the house? Speak, speak!  MACDUFF. O gentle lady,    'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak:    The repetition in a woman's ear    Would murther as it fell.

Enter Banquo.

    O Banquo, Banquo!    Our royal master's murther'd.  LADY MACBETH. Woe, alas!    What, in our house?  BANQUO. Too cruel anywhere.    Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself,    And say it is not so.

Re-enter Macbeth and Lennox, with Ross.

  MACBETH. 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.

  DONALBAIN. What is amiss?  MACBETH. You are, and do not know't.    The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood    Is stopped, the very source of it is stopp'd.  MACDUFF. Your royal father's murther'd.   MALCOLM. O, by whom?  LENNOX. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done't.    Their hands and faces were all badged with blood;    So were their daggers, which unwiped we found    Upon their pillows.    They stared, and were distracted; no man's life    Was to be trusted with them.  MACBETH. O, yet I do repent me of my fury,    That I did kill them.  MACDUFF. Wherefore did you so?  MACBETH. Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,    Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man.    The expedition of my violent love    Outrun the pauser reason. Here lay Duncan,    His 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 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 's love known?  LADY MACBETH. Help me hence, ho!  MACDUFF. Look to the lady.  MALCOLM. [Aside to Donalbain.] Why do we hold our tongues,    That most may claim this argument for ours?  DONALBAIN. [Aside to Malcolm.] What should be spoken here,where      our fate,    Hid in an auger hole, may rush and seize us?    Let's away,    Our tears are not yet brew'd.  MALCOLM. [Aside to Donalbain.] Nor our strong sorrow    Upon the foot of motion.  BANQUO. 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.    In the great hand of God I stand, and thence    Against the undivulged pretense I fight    Of treasonous malice.  MACDUFF. And so do I.  ALL. So all.  MACBETH. Let's briefly put on manly readiness    And meet i' the hall together.  ALL. Well contented.                           Exeunt all but Malcolm and Donalbain.  MALCOLM. 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.  DONALBAIN. 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.  MALCOLM. 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

SCENE IV. Outside Macbeth's castle

Enter Ross with an Old Man.

  OLD MAN. Threescore and ten I can remember well,    Within the volume of which time I have seen    Hours dreadful and things strange, but this sore night    Hath trifled former knowings.  ROSS. Ah, good father,    Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man's act,    Threaten his bloody stage. By the clock 'tis day,    And yet dark night strangles the traveling lamp.    Is't night's predominance, or the day's shame,    That darkness does the face of earth entomb,    When living light should kiss it?  OLD MAN. 'Tis unnatural,    Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last    A falcon towering in her pride of place    Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd.  ROSS. And Duncan's horses-a thing most strange and certain-    Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race,    Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,    Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make    War with mankind.  OLD MAN. 'Tis said they eat each other.  ROSS. They did so, to the amazement of mine eyes    That look'd upon't.

Enter Macduff.

    Here comes the good Macduff.    How goes the world, sir, now?  MACDUFF. Why, see you not?  ROSS. Is't known who did this more than bloody deed?  MACDUFF. Those that Macbeth hath slain.  ROSS. Alas, the day!    What good could they pretend?  MACDUFF. 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.  ROSS. 'Gainst nature still!    Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up    Thine own life's means! Then 'tis most like    The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.  MACDUFF. He is already named, and gone to Scone    To be invested.  ROSS. Where is Duncan's body?  MACDUFF. Carried to Colmekill,    The sacred storehouse of his predecessors    And guardian of their bones.  ROSS. Will you to Scone?  MACDUFF. No, cousin, I'll to Fife.  ROSS. Well, I will thither.  MACDUFF. Well, may you see things well done there.    Adieu,    Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!  ROSS. Farewell, father.  OLD MAN. God's benison go with you and with those    That would make good of bad and friends of foes!Exeunt

ACT III. SCENE I. Forres. The palace

Enter Banquo.

  BANQUO. Thou hast it now: King, Cawdor, Glamis, all,    As the weird women promised, and I fear    Thou play'dst most foully for't; yet it was said    It should not stand in thy posterity,    But that myself should be the root and father    Of many kings. If there come truth from them    (As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine)    Why, by the verities on thee made good,    May they not be my oracles as well    And set me up in hope? But hush, no more.

Sennet sounds. Enter Macbeth as King, Lady Macbeth

as Queen, Lennox, Ross, Lords, Ladies, and Attendants.

  MACBETH. Here's our chief guest.  LADY MACBETH. If he had been forgotten,    It had been as a gap in our great feast    And all thing unbecoming.  MACBETH. Tonight we hold a solemn supper, sir,    And I'll request your presence.  BANQUO. Let your Highness    Command upon me, to the which my duties    Are with a most indissoluble tie    Forever knit.  MACBETH. Ride you this afternoon?  BANQUO. Ay, my good lord.  MACBETH. We should have else desired your good advice,    Which still hath been both grave and prosperous    In this day's council; but we'll take tomorrow.    Is't far you ride'!  BANQUO. As far, my lord, as will fill up the time    'Twixt this and supper. Go not my horse the better,    I must become a borrower of the night    For a dark hour or twain.  MACBETH. Fail not our feast.  BANQUO. My lord, I will not.  MACBETH. We hear our bloody cousins are bestow'd    In England and in Ireland, not confessing    Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers    With strange invention. But of that tomorrow,    When therewithal we shall have cause of state    Craving us jointly. Hie you to horse; adieu,    Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you?  BANQUO. Ay, my good lord. Our time does call upon 's.  MACBETH. I wish your horses swift and sure of foot,    And so I do commend you to their backs.    Farewell. Exit Banquo.    Let every man be master of his time    Till seven at night; to make society    The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself    Till supper time alone. While then, God be with you!                        Exeunt all but Macbeth and an Attendant.    Sirrah, a word with you. Attend those men    Our pleasure?  ATTENDANT. They are, my lord, without the palace gate.  MACBETH. Bring them before us. Exit Attendant.    To be thus is nothing,    But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo.    Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature    Reigns that which would be fear'd. 'Tis much he dares,    And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,    He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor    To act in safety. There is none but he    Whose being I do fear; and under him    My genius is rebuked, as it is said    Mark Antony's was by Caesar. He chid the sisters    When first they put the name of King upon me    And bade them speak to him; then prophet-like    They hail'd him father to a line of kings.    Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown    And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,    Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand,    No son of mine succeeding. If't be so,    For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind,    For them the gracious Duncan have I murther'd,    Put rancors in the vessel of my peace    Only for them, and mine eternal jewel    Given to the common enemy of man,    To make them kings – the seed of Banquo kings!    Rather than so, come, Fate, into the list,    And champion me to the utterance! Who's there?

Re-enter Attendant, with two Murtherers.

    Now go to the door, and stay there till we call.                                                 Exit Attendant.    Was it not yesterday we spoke together?  FIRST MURTHERER. It was, so please your Highness.  MACBETH. Well then, now    Have you consider'd of my speeches? Know    That it was he in the times past which held you    So under fortune, which you thought had been    Our innocent self? This I made good to you    In our last conference, pass'd in probation with you:    How you were borne in hand, how cross'd, the instruments,    Who wrought with them, and all things else that might    To half a soul and to a notion crazed    Say, "Thus did Banquo."  FIRST MURTHERER. You made it known to us.  MACBETH. I did so, and went further, which is now    Our point of second meeting. Do you find    Your patience so predominant in your nature,    That you can let this go? Are you so gospel'd,    To pray for this good man and for his issue,    Whose heavy hand hath bow'd you to the grave    And beggar'd yours forever?  FIRST MURTHERER. We are men, my liege.  MACBETH. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men,    As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,    Shoughs, waterrugs, and demi-wolves are clept    All by the name of dogs. The valued file    Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle,    The housekeeper, the hunter, every one    According to the gift which bounteous nature    Hath in him closed, whereby he does receive    Particular addition, from the bill    That writes them all alike; and so of men.    Now if you have a station in the file,    Not i' the worst rank of manhood, say it,    And I will put that business in your bosoms    Whose execution takes your enemy off,    Grapples you to the heart and love of us,    Who wear our health but sickly in his life,    Which in his death were perfect.  SECOND MURTHERER. I am one, my liege,    Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world    Have so incensed that I am reckless what    I do to spite the world.  FIRST MURTHERER. And I another    So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune,    That I would set my life on any chance,    To mend it or be rid on't.  MACBETH. Both of you    Know Banquo was your enemy.  BOTH MURTHERERS. True, my lord.  MACBETH. So is he mine, and in such bloody distance    That every minute of his being thrusts    Against my near'st of life; and though I could    With barefaced power sweep him from my sight    And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not,    For certain friends that are both his and mine,    Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall    Who I myself struck down. And thence it is    That I to your assistance do make love,    Masking the business from the common eye    For sundry weighty reasons.  SECOND MURTHERER. We shall, my lord,    Perform what you command us.  FIRST MURTHERER. Though our lives-  MACBETH. Your spirits shine through you. Within this hour atmost    I will advise you where to plant yourselves,    Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time,    The moment on't; fort must be done tonight    And something from the palace (always thought    That I require a clearness); and with him-    To leave no rubs nor botches in the work-    Fleance his son, that keeps him company,    Whose absence is no less material to me    Than is his father's, must embrace the fate    Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart;    I'll come to you anon.  BOTH MURTHERERS. We are resolved, my lord.  MACBETH. I'll call upon you straight. Abide within.                                              Exeunt Murtherers.    It is concluded: Banquo, thy soul's flight,    If it find heaven, must find it out tonight. Exit.

SCENE II. The palace

Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant.