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SCENE III.

Balm of hurt minds, 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 murdered 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.

Mach.

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.

[Exit. Knocking within.

Mach. 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 MМАСВЕТИ.

Lady M. My hands are of your colour; 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 shew us to be watchers. Be not lost

So poorly in your thoughts.

Mach. To know my deed, 't were best not know

myself.

[Knock.

Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou [Exeunt.

couldst!

SCENE III.-The same.

Enter a Porter. [Knocking within.

Port. Here's a knocking, indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key. [Knocking.] Knock, knock, knock. Who's there, i' the name of Beelzebub? Here's a farmer that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty: Come in time; have napkins enough Knock, knock: who's there i' the other devil's about you; here you 'll sweat for 't. [Knocking.] name? 'Faith, here's an equivocator, that could swear in 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.] 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.] 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 some of all professions that go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire. [Knocking.] Anon, anon; I pray you, remember the porter. [Opens the gate.

Enter MACDUFF and LENOX.

Macd. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed, That you do lie so late?

Port. 'Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock: and drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things.

Macd. What three things does drink especially provoke?

Port. Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes and unprovokes: it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance: therefore, much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him, and disheartens him; makes him, stand to, and not stand to: in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him.

Macd. I believe drink gave thee the lie last
night.

Port. That it did, sir, i' the very throat o' me:
but I requited him for his lie; and I think, being
too strong for him, though he took up my legs
sometime, yet I made a shift to cast him.

Macd. Is thy master stirring?—

Our knocking has awaked him; here he comes.

Enter MACВЕТН.

Len. Good-morrow, noble sir.
Macb.

Good-morrow, both.

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Macd.

I 'll make so bold to call,

For 't is my limited service. [Exit MACDUFF.
Len. Goes the King hence to day?
Macb. He does: he did appoint so.

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 combustion, and confused events,
New hatched to the woful time. The obscure bird
Clamoured the livelong night: some say, the earth
Was feverous, and did shake.

Macb. '"T was a rough night.

Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel A fellow to it.

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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.

Mach. What is 't you say? the life?
Len. Mean you his majesty?

Macd. Approach the chamber, and destroy
your sight

With 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,
[Bell rings.

To countenance this horror!

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Our royal master 's murdered!

Lady M. Woe, alas!

What, in our house?

Ban.

Too cruel, anywhere.

Dear Duff, I pr'y thee, contradict thyself,
And say, it is not so.

Re-enter MACBETH and LENOX.

Macb. Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had lived a blesséd 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 it:

The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood
Is stopped; the very source of it is stopped.
Macd. Your royal father 's murdered.
O, by whom?

Mal.

Len. Those of his chamber, as it seemed, 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 dis

tracted:

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Ban. 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.

Senet sounded. Enter MACBETH, as King; LADY MACBETH, as Queen; Lenox, Rosse, Lords, Ladies, and Attendants.

Mach. Here's our chief guest.

Lady M.

If he had been forgotten, It had been as a gap in our great feast, And all things unbecoming.

Macb. To-night we hold a solemn supper, sir,

And I'll request your presence.

Ban.

Let your highness

Command upon me; to the which, my duties Are with a most indissoluble tie

For ever knit.

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[Exeunt LADY MACBETH, Lords, Ladies, &c. Sirrah, a word with you: attend those men our pleasure?

Attend. They are, my lord, without the palace
gate.

Macb. 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 feared: 'tis much he
dares;

And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour
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 Cæsar. Hechid the sisters,
When first they put the name of King upon me,
And bade them speak to him; then, prophet-like,
They hailed 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 wrenched with an unlineal hand,
No son of mine succeeding. If it be so,

For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind;
For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered ;
Put rancours 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 Murderers. Now to the door, and stay there till we call. [Exit Attendant.

Was it not yesterday we spoke together?

1st Mur. It was, so please your highness.
Well then, now

Macb.

Have you considered 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 ourlast conference: passed in probation with you,
How you were borne in hand; how crossed; 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." 1st Mur.

You made it known to us. Macb. 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 gospelled, To pray for this good man, and for his issue, Whose heavy hand hath bowed you to the grave, And beggared yours for ever?

1st Mur.

We are men, my liege.

Macb. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men; As hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels,

curs,

Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are cleped
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,

And not in 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.

2nd Mur.

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.

1st Mur.

And I another,

So weary with disasters, tugged with fortune,

That I would set my life on any chance,
To mend it, or be rid on 't.

Macb. Both of you

Know Banquo was your enemy.

2nd Mur. True, my lord.

Macb. So is he mine: and in such bloody dis

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
Whom 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.

tance,

2nd Mur.

We shall, my lord,
Perform what you command us.
1st Mur.
Though our lives-

Macb. Your spirits shine through you. With-
in this hour, at most,

!

!

i

!

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