To cry,

66

Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect, and it!a Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murthering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night,
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,

Hold, hold ! ” -Great Glamis, worthy
Cawdor!

Enter MACBETH.
Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!
Thy letters have transported me beyond
This ignorant present, and I feel now
The future in the instant.
Macb.

My dearest love,
Duncan comes here to-night.
Lady M.

And when goes hence ?
Macb. 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 dispatch ;
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.

Macb. We will speak further. a If fear, compassion, or any other compunctious visitings, stand betweeu a cruel purpose and its realization, they may be said to keep peace between them, as one who interferes between a violent man and the object of his wrath keeps peace.

VOL. IX.

C

Lady M.

Only look up clear; To alter favour ever is to fear: Leave all the rest to me.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI.-The same. Before the Castle.

Hautboys. Servants of Macbeth attending.
Enter Duncan, Malcolm, DONALBAIN, BANQUO,
Lenox, Macduff, Rosse, Angus, and Attendants.

Dun. 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
Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze,
Buttress, nor coigne of vantage, but this bird
Hath made his pendent bed, and procreant cradle :
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observ'd,
The air is delicate.

Enter LADY MACBETH.
Dun.

See, see! our honour'd hostess !
The love that follows us sometime is our trouble,
Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you,
How you shall bid God-eyld us for your pains,
And thank us for your trouble.“
Lady M.

All our service
In every point twice done, and then done double,

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 hermits.a
Dun.

Where's the thane of Cawdor?
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 him
To his home before us : Fair and noble hostess,
We are your guest to-night.
Lady M.

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

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

[Exeunt. SCENE VII.-The same. A Room in the Castle. 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 't is 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 b 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 murtherer 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, hors’d
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, a
And falls on the other b_How now, what news ?

Enter LADY MACBETH. Lady M. He has almost supp'd : why have you left

the chamber? Macb. Hath he ask'd for me? Lady M.

Know you not he has ?
Macb. We will proceed no further 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 M.

Was the hope drunk,
Wherein you dress'd 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 ?a
Macb.

Prithee, peace :
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more, is none.
Lady M.

What beast was 't 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 fitness 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,

& We find the adage in Heywood's Proverbs, 1566 :-“The cat would eat fish and would not wet her feet."