ACT II.

Court within the Castle.

SCENE I.-Inverness.

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, 't is later, sir.

Ban. Hold, take my sword.-There's husbandry in

heaven,

Their candles2 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 officers:

This diamond he greets your wife withal,

1 Husbandry] Thrift, frugality.

2 Their candles] The stars are called Candles of the night,' in The Merchant of Venice, v. 1, and in Romeo and Juliet, iii. 5.

By the name of most kind hostess:—and shut up1
In measureless content.

I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:

To you they have showed some truth.

Macb.

I think not of them:

Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,3

We would spend it in some words upon that business,

If you

Ban.

would grant the time.

At your kind'st leisure.

Macb. If you shall cleave to my consent,-when 't is,

It shall make honour for you.

Ban.

So 5 I lose none

In seeking to augment it, but still keep
My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,

I shall be counselled.

Macb.

Good repose, the while!

[Exeunt BANQUO and FLEANCE.

Ban. Thanks, sir; the like to you!

Macb. 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,

1 Shut up] Concluded, ended; retired to his chamber.

2 Our will, &c.] Our will was obliged to submit to deficiency of provision.

• When we can entreat, &c.] When we can court a convenient time. The more usual phrase is 'When time shall serve.'

▲ If you shall cleave, &c.] If you shall cleave to unanimity with 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 1 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 marshall'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 2 gouts3 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 curtained sleep: Witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings; and withered murder,
Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf,

Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design

2 Dudgeon] Haft or handle.

4

3 Gouts] Drops. Fr. gouttes. • Tarquin's ravishing strides] An allusion to the ravishing of Lucretia, wife of Tarquinius Collatinus, by Sextus Tarquinius, the son of Tarquinius Superbus. Into the chamber wickedly he stalks.' Shakspeare's Rape of Lucrece.

Tarquin thus

Did softly press the rushes, ere he wakened

The chastity he wounded.'-Cymbeline, ii. 2.

Strides was Pope's correction of the old reading sides. Dr. Johnson objected that 'a ravishing stride is an action of violence, impetuosity, and tumult, like that of a savage rushing on his prey;' but ravishing

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 horror1 from the time,
Which now suits with it.-Whiles I threat he lives:
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.

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.

Enter LADY MACBETH.

[A bell rings.

[Exit.

Lady M. That which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold:

What hath quenched them, hath given me fire :-Hark !Peace!

It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman2

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 drugged 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 awaked

here means with intent to ravish; and a stride does not necessarily imply violent motion. Spenser in the F. Q. IV. viii. 37, has With easy step so soft as foot could stride.'

1 Take the present horror, &c.] Take from the occasion the still, secret, dismal character that now is in keeping with it.

2 The fatal bellman] Fatal means death-portending. The bellman or watchman, in old times, used to be often heard bidding good night, or uttering benedictions or night spells, under the windows of houses.

And 't is 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.

Macb, I have done the deed:-Didst thou not hear a

noise ?

Lady M. I heard the owl scream and the crickets

Did not you speak?

cry.

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 addressed them
Again to sleep.

Lady M.

There are two lodged 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.

! Confounds] Would confound.