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SCENES VI. AND VII.

Mach. To-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 despatch;
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.

Mach. We will speak further.

Lady M.
To alter favour ever is to fear:
Leave all the rest to me.

Only look up clear;

:

[Exeunt.

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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
't were 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 poisoned 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, horsed
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 prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on the other-How now, what news?

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SCENE VII.

Lady M.

Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dressed 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 valour,
As thou art in desire? Wouldst 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?
Mach.

Pr'y thee, 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 fit

ness now

Does unmake you. I have given suck; and know
How tender 't is to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn
As you have done to this.

Macb.

Lady M.

If we should fail,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.

Bring forth men-children only!

For thy undaunted metal should compose Nothing but males. Will it not be received, When we have marked with blood those sleepy two Of his own chamber, and used their very daggers, That they have done 't?

Lady M.

Who dares receive it other, As we shall make our griefs and clamour 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. [Exeunt.

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SCENE II.

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Mach. Go, bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,

She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.-
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
[Exit Servant.
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 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 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 curtained sleep; now 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 de-
sign
Moves like a ghost. --Thou sure and firm set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
The 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.

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The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms

Do mock their charge with snores: drugged their possets,

I have

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, 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 MACBЕТН.

Macb. I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?

Lady M. I heard the owl scream, and the

crickets cry.

Did you not speak?

Mach.

Lady M.

Macb.

When?

Now.

As I descended?

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one cried "Murder!"

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