Leave all the rest to me.

Is not thy master with him? who, wer't so,
Would have inform'd for preparation. [coming: 5

Mes. So please you, it is true: our thane is
One of my fellows had the speed of him;
Who almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
Than would make up his message.

Lady. Give him tending,

He brings great news. The raven himself is hoarse,

[Exit Mes.

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal' thoughts, unsex me here;
And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and passage to remorse;
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep pace between
The effect, and it'; Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring mi-
nisters,

10

15

20

Wherever in your sightless substances [night,
You wait on nature's mischief' Come, thick 25,
And pall' thee in the dunnest smoke of hell!
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes;
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
Tocry, Hold,hold! Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor!

Enter Macbeth.

30

35

40

SCENE VI.

[Exeunt.

Hautboys and Torches. Enter King, Malcolm,
Donalbain, Banquo, Lenox, Macduff, Rosse,
Angus, and Attendants.

King. This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle' senses.

Ban. This guest of summer,

The temple-haunting martlet, does approve
By his lov'd mansionry, that the heaven's breath
Sinells wooingly here: no jutty frieze,

Buttress, nor coigue of vantage, but this bird
Hath made his pendant bed, and procreant cradle:
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observ'd,
The air is delicate.

Enter Lady Macbeth.

King. See, see! our honour'd hostess !--
The love that follows us, sometimes is our trouble,
Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you,
How you shall bid God yield us" for your pains,
And thank us for your trouble.

In

Lady. All our service

every point twice done, and then done double, Were poor and single business, to contend Against those honours deep and broad, wherewith Your majesty loads our house: for those of old, And the late dignities heap'd up to them,

We rest your hermits12.

King. Where's the thane of Cawdor?

[him

We cours'd him at the heels, and had a purpose
To be his purveyor; but he rides well;
And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp
To his home before us: Fair and noble hostess,
We are your guest to-night.

Lady. Your servants ever

[compt,

Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in
To make their audit at your highness' pleasure,
Still to return your own.

King. Give me your hand:

Conduct me to mine host: we love him highly, And shall continue our graces towards him. 45By your leave, hostess.

150

[Exeunt.

That is, murtherous, or deadly designs. i. e. nor delay the execution of my purpose. Take away my milk, and put gall into the place. * Nature's mischief is mischief done to Nature. 'i. e. wrap thyself in a pall, which was a robe of state, as well as a covering thrown over the dead. word knife was anciently used to express a sword. Mr. Tollet explains this passage thus: The thought is taken from the old military laws, which inflicted capital punishment upon "whosoever shall strike stroke at his adversary, either in the heat or otherwise, if a third do cry hold, to the intent to part them; except that they did fight in a combat in a place inclosed; and then no man shall be so hardy as to bid hold, but the general." i. e. unknowing. i. e. our calm composed senses. Meaning i. e. God reward; or, perhaps, as Dr. Johnson suggests, protect us. mits, for beadsinen i. e. subject to account. 1 The office of a setter was to place the dishes in order at a feast. His chief mark of distinctio was a towel round his arm. Could

convenient corner.

10

12 Her

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 poison'd 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-tongu'd, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off;
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin, hors'd
Upon the sightless couriers of the air2,
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'er-leaps itself,
And falls on the other-How now! what news?
Enter Lady.

Lady. He has almost supp'd; Why have you

left the chamber?

Macb. Hath he ask'd for me?
Lady. Know you not, he has?

Mach.We will proceed no farther in this business:
He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon.

Lady. Was the hope drunk,

Wherein you drest 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 afraid
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 thy own esteem;
Letting I dare not wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat i' the adage'?

5

Macb. Pr'ythee, peace:

I dare do all that may become a man:
Who dares do more, is none.

Lady. What beast was it then,

That made you break the 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: 10 They have made themselves, and that their fitness

15

25

Macb. If we should fail,-
Lady. We fail!

20 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
30 The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon
His spungy officers; who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell'?

Macb. Bring forth men-children only!
For thy undaunted mettle should compose
35 Nothing but males.

40

Will it not be receiv'd,

When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two

Of his own chamber, and us'd their very daggers
That they have done't?

Ludy. 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.

45 Away, and mock the time with fairest show: False face must hide what the false heart doth know.

[Exeunt.

This obscure soliloquy, about the meaning of which none of the readers of Shakspeare agree, Dr. Johnson explains thus: "If that which I am about to do, when it is once done and executed, were done and ended without any following effects, it would then be best to do it quickly; if the murder could terminate in itself, and restrain the regular course of consequences, if its success could secure its surcease, if being once done successfully, without detection, it could fix a period to all vengeance and enquiry, so that this blow might be all that I have to do, and this anxiety all that I have to suffer; if this could be my condition, even here in this world, in this contracted period of temporal existence, on this narrow bank in the ocean of eternity, I would jump the life to come, I would venture upon the deed without care of any future state. But this is one of these cases in which judgment is pronounced and vengeance inflicted upon us here in our present life. We teach others to do as we have done, and are punished by our example. Couriers of air mean winds, air in motion. Sightless is invisible. The proverb alluded to is, The cat loves fish, but dares not wet her feet." Wassel or Wassail is a word still used in Staffordshire, and the adjoining counties, and signifies at present what is called Lamb's wool, i. e. roasted apples in strong beer, with sugar and spice. Wassel, however, may be put here for riot or intemperance, i. e. overpower or subdue. Or, the centinel. i. e. the re❤eptacle. Meaning, it shall be only a vessel to emit fumes or vapours. ? Quell is murder.

66

4

ACT

SCENE

АСТ

I..

Enter Banquo, and Fleance with a torch before him.

Ban. HOW goes the night, boy?

II.

[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; [blood,

Fle. The moon is down; I have not 5 And on thy blade, and dudgeon, gouts

heard the clock.

I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:
To you they've shew'd some truth.

Macb. I think not of them:

Yet, when we can intreat an hour to serve, [ness,
We would spend it in some words upon that busi-
If you would grant the time.

Ban. At your kind'st leisure.

+ of
Which was not so before.-There's no such thing:
It is the bloody business, which informs
Thus to mine eyes.-Now o'er one half the world
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
10The curtain'd sleep; now witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murder,
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,

Whose howl's his watch,thus with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towardshis design
15 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 horror from the time,
Which now suits with it.-While I threat, he lives,
20 Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
[A bell rings.

25

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.

30 What hath quench'd them, hath given me fire:Hark! Peace!

['tis, 35

Macb. If you shail cleave to my consent, when It shall make honour for you.

Ban. So I lose none

In seeking to augment it, but still keep
My bosom franchis'd, and allegiance clear,
I shall be counsell'd.

Macb. Good repose, the while!

Ban. Thanks, sir; The like to you! [Exit Ban.
Macb. Go, bid thy mistress, when my drink is

ready,

She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. [Ex. Ser.
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me

clutch thee:

It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bell-man, [it:
Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about.
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!
40 Lady. 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.

I have thee not; and yet I see thee still.

1501

Macb. When?

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible

Lady. Now.

To feeling, as to sight? or art thou but

Mucb. As I descended?

A dagger of the mind: a false creation,

Lady. Av.

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?

To shut up, is to conclude.

As this which now I draw.

3

of a dagger, and is used for that particular sort of handle which has some ornament carved on the top of it. i. e. spots; the phrase is borrowed from heraldry, days to eat possets just before bed-time.

Macb. This is a sorry sight. [Looking on his

2 Consent for will. Dudgeon properly means the haft or handle

Lady. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight. Macb. There's one did laugh in his sleep, and one cry'd, murder!

[them
That they did wake each other; I stood and heard
But they did say their prayers, and address'd then
Again to sleep.

Lady. There are two lodg'd together.
Macb. One cry'd, God bless us! and Amen,
the other;

[Knock.

[Exeunt.

As they had seen me, with these hangman's hands, 10 Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would, thou
Listening their fear '. I could not say, Amen,
When they did say, God bless us.
Lady. Consider it not so deeply.

[Amen?

Macb. But wherefore could not I pronounce

I had most need of blessing, and Amen

Stuck in my throat.

Lady. 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 thatknits up the ravell'd sleave of care,
"The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,
"Balmo hurt minds, great nature's second course,
"Chief nourisher in life's feast ;"-

Lady. What do you mean?

[house:

15

20

25

Macb. Still it cry'd, “Sleep no more!" to all the "Glamis hath murder'd sleep;and thereforeCawdor "Shall sleep no more,Macbethshallsleep nomore!" Lady. Who was it, that thus cry'd? Why, wor-30

thy thane,

You do unbend your noble strength, to think
So brain-sickly of things:-Go, get some water,
And wash this filthy witness from your hand.---
Why did you bring these daggers from the place: 35
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. 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
Macb. Whence is that knocking? [within.
How is't with me, when ev'ry noise appals me?
What hands are here? Ha! they pluck out mine

[Knocking Within.] Por. Here's a knocking, indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key. [Knock.Knock, knock, knock: Who's there, the name of Belzebub? Here's a farmer, that hang'd himself on the expectation of plenty come in time; have napkins' enough about you; here you'll sweat for't. [Knock.] Knock, knock : Who's there i'the other devil's 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: oh, come in, equivocator. [Knock.] Knock, knock, knock: Who's there? 'Faith, here's an English taylor come hither, for stealing out of a French hose: come in, taylor; here you may roast your goose. [Knock.] 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.[Knock.} Anon, anon; I pray you, remember the porter. Enter Macduff, and Lenox.

Macd. Was't so late, friend, ere you went to bed, 40 That you do lie so late?

45

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

Macd. What three things doth drink especially provoke?

Por. 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 50 be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mags 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 55lie, leaves him.

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

Por. That it did, sir, i' the very throat o' me: but I requited him for his lie; and I think, being

That is, listening to their fear. 2 A skein of silk is called a sleave of silk. To incarnardine, is to stain any thing of a flesh colour, or red. * i. e. while I have the thoughts of this deed, it were best not know, or be lost to, myself. 'i. e. handkerchiefs. "Meaning, a jesuit; an order

so troublesome to the state in queen Elizabeth and king James the first's time; the inventors of the execrable doctrine of equivocation.

3

too

too strong for him, though he took up my legs
sometime, yet I made a shift to cast him'.
Macd. Isthy master stirring?-

Our knocking has awak'd him; here he comes.
Len. Good-morrow, noble sir!

Enter Macbeth.

Mach. Good-morrow, both!

Macd. Is the king stirring, worthy thane?
Macb. Not yet.

Would murder as it fell.-O Banquo! Banquo!
Enter Banguo.

[him; 10 Our royal master's murder'd!

Macd. He did command me to call timely on

I have almost slipt the hour.

Mach. I'll bring you to him.

Macd. I know, this is a joyful trouble to you; But yet, 'tis one.

Macb. The labour we delight in, physicks pain. This is the door.

Macd. I'll make so bold to call, For 'tis my limited service.

[Exit Macduff Len. Goes the king hence to-day? Macb. He does: he did appoint so.

Lady, Woe, alas!

What, in our house?

Ban. Too cruel, any where.

Dear Duff, I pr'ythee, contradict thyself,

15 And say, it is not so.

Re-enter Macbeth and Lenox.

Macb. Had I but dy'd an hour before this chance
I had liv'd a blessed time; for, from this instant
There's nothing serious in mortality:

20 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.

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
And prophesying with accents terrible, [death; 25
Of dire combustion, and confus'd events,
New hatch'd to the woeful time: The obscure bird
Clamour'd the live-long night: some say the earth
Was feverous, and did shake.

Mucb. 'Twas a rough night.

Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel Afellow to it.

[sight

Macb. What is't you say? the life?
Len. Mean you his majesty?
Macd. Approach the chamber, and destroy your
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! Malcolin! 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!-Ring the bell.

30

35

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 stopt; the very source of it is stopt.
Macd. Your royal father's murder'd.
Mul. Oh, by whom?

[don't:
Len. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had
Their hands and faces were all badg'd with blood,
So were their daggers, which, unwiped, 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?

Macb. Who can be wise, amaz'd, temperate,

and furious,

40 Loyal and neutral in a moment? No man:
The expedition of my violent love
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,
45 For ruin's wasteful entrance: there the murderers
Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers
Unmannerly breech'd' with gore: Who could
refrain,

50

That had a heart to love, and in that heart
Courage, to make his love known?
Lady. Help me hence, ho!

Mucd. Look to the lady.

Mal. Why do we hold our tongues,

That most may claim this argument for ours?

To cast him up, to ease my stomach of him. 2i. e. appointed. 3 Upon this passage, which has been deemed the crux criticorum, almost every commentator has differed in opinion. Dr. Johnson proposes, instead of breeched, to read, drenched with gore. Dr. Warburton thinks reeched (i. e. soiled with a dark yellow) should be substituted for breeched, as well as unmanly for unmannerly. Mr. Steevens supposes, that the expression may mean, that the daggers were covered with blood quite to their breeches, i. e. their hilts or handles; the lower end of a cannon being called the breech of it. Warton pronounces, that whether the word which follows be reech'd, breech'd, hatch'd, or drench'd, he is at least of opinion, that unmannerly is the genuine reading, which he construes to mean unseemly. Dr. Farmer says, that the sense in plain language is, "Daggers filthily—in a foul manner-sheath'd with blood."

Bb 2

Don.