Macb. And thane of Cawdor too; went it not so ?Without my stir.
Ban. To the self-same tune, and words. Who's Ban.
here?

An absolute trust.-O worthiest cousin!

Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Rosse, and Angus.
The sin of my ingratitude even now
Was heavy on me: Thou art so far before,
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow

To overtake thee. 'Would thou hadst less deserv'd.
That the proportion both of thanks and payment
Might have been mine! only I have left to say,
More is thy due than more than all can pay.
Macb. The service and the loyalty I owe,

Two truths are told, In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part
Is to receive our duties: and our duties

Of the imperial theme.-I thank you, gentlemen.-Are to your throne and state, children, and servants; This supernatural soliciting4

(7) The powers of action are oppressed by con- mind by the lineaments of the face.

Our eldest, Malcolm; whom we name hereafter,
The prince of Cumberland: which honour must
Not, unaccompanied, invest him only,
But sign of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
On all deservers.-From hence to Inverness,
And bind us further to you.

Macb. The rest is labour, which is not us'd for you:
I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful
The hearing of my wife with your approach;
So, humbly take my leave.
Dun.
My worthy Cawdor!
Macb. The prince of Cumberland!-That is
step,

On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,

[Aside.

a

For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires!
Let not light see my black and deep desires:
The eye wink at the hand! yet let that be,
Which the eye fears, when is done, to see. [Ex.
Dun. True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant;'
And in his commendations I am fed ;
It is a banquet to me. Let us after him,
Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome:
It is a peerless kinsman. [Flourish. Exeunt.

Attend. So please you, it is true; our thane is
coming:

One of my fellows had the speed of him ;
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
Than would make up his message.
Lady M.
Give him tending,
He brings great news. The raven himself is hoarse,
Exit Attendant.

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, come, you spirits
That tend on mortale 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 peace between
The effect, and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring 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,
To cry, Hold, Hold !—Great Glamis, worthy Caw

dor!

Enter Macbeth.

My dearest love,
And when goes hence ?

SCENE V.-Inverness. A room in Macbeth's castle. Enter Lady Macbeth, reading a letter. Lady M. They met me in the day of success; Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter ! and I have learned by the perfectest report,2 they Thy letters have transported me beyond have more in them than mortal knowledge. When This ignorant present,10 and I feel now I burned in desire to question them further, they The future in the instant. made themselves-air, into which they vanished. Macb. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came Duncan comes here to-night. missives from the king, who all-hailed me, Thane of Cawdor; by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on of time, with, Hail, king that shalt be! This Shall sun that morrow see! have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men partner of greatness; that thou mightest not lose May read strange matters:-To beguile the time, the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent and farewell.

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promis'd:-Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o'the milk of human kindness,

To catch the nearest way: Thou would'st be great;
Art not without ambition; but without

Lady M.
Macb. To-morrow,-
,-as he purposes.
Lady M.

flower,

O, never,

But be the serpent under it. He that's coming
This night's great business into my despatch;
Must be provided for: and you shall put
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Macb. We will speak further.
Lady M.

The illness should attend it. What thou would'st
highly,
That would'st thou holily; would'st not play false, To alter favour" ever is to fear:
And yet would'st wrongly win: thou'd'st have, Leave all the rest to me.

great Glamis,

That which cries, Thus thou must do, if thou

have it;

And that which rather thou dost fear to do,
Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;
And chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round;4
Which fate and metaphysical' aid doth seem
To have thee crown'd withal.-What is your
tidings?

Enter an Attendant.

Only look up clear; [Exeunt. SCENE VI.-The same. Before the castle. Servants of Macbeth attending. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lenox, Macduff, Rosse, Angus, and attendants.

Hautboys.

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

Ban.

The temple-haunting martlet, does
This guest of summer,
approve,
By his lov'd mansionry, that the heaven's breath
Smells wooingly here; no jutty, frieze, buttress,
Nor coigne of vantage, 12 but this bird hath made
Thou'rt mad to say it: His pendent bed, and procreant cradle: Where they
Most breed and haunt, I have observ'd, the air
Is delicate.

Attend. The king comes here to-night.
Lady M.

Is not thy master with him? who, were't so,
Would have inform'd for preparation.

(1) Full as valiant as described.
(2) The best intelligence.

(3) Messengers.

Diadem. (5) Supernatural.

(6) Murderous. (7) Pity. (8) Wrap as in a mantle.

(9) Knife anciently meant a sword or dagger. (10) i. e. Beyond the present time, which is, according to the process of nature, ignorant of the future.

(11) Look, countenance. (12) Conven. 'nt corner,

Does unmake you. I have given suck; and know
How tender 'tís, to love the babe that milks me :
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
Enter, and pass over And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn, as you
Have done to this.

I am settled, and bend up Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.

That tears shall drown the wind.-I have no spur Away, and mock the time with fairest show;

Ban. And she goes down at twelve.
Fle.
I take't, 'tis later, sir.
Ban. Hold, take my sword:-There's husbandry'
in heaven,

Fle. The moon is down; I have not heard the Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
clock.
The very stones prate of my where-about,
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.
SCENE II.-The same. Enter Lady Macbeth.

Their candles 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?

Ban. Thanks, sir; The like to you! [Ex. 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:-

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 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;
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 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

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

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

It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman,
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 drugg'd
That death and nature do contend about them,
their possets,
Whether they live or die.

Macb. [Within.] Who's there?-what, ho!

Lady M. 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 don'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 crick ets cry. Did not you speak?

Macb.

Lady M.

Macb.

Lady M. Ay.

Macb. Hark! —

When?

Now.

As I descended?

Macbeth does murder sleep, the innocent sleep;
Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleaves of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast ;—

Lady M. What do you mean? | ver at quiet! What are you?-But this place is too Macb. Still it cried, Sleep no more! to all the cold for hell. I'll devil-porter it no further: I had house: thought to have let in some of all professions, that Glamis hath murder'd sleep; and therefore Cawdor go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfie. Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more! [Knocking.] Anon, anon; I pray you, remember Lady M. Who was it that thus cried? Why, the porter.

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.

Macb.

I'll go no more:
I am afraid to think what I have done;
Look on't again, I dare not.

Infirm of purpose!

Lady M.
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 mus', seem their guilt.

Exit. Knocking within.
Macb.
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 Macbeth.

Lady M. My hands are of your colour; but I

shame

Get on your night-gown, lest occasion call us,
And show us to be watchers :-Be not lost
So poorly in your thoughts.

Opens the gate.

Enter Macduff and Lenox. in 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 vokes the desire, but it takes away the performance. Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes: it proTherefore, 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 awak'd him; here he comes.
Enter Macbeth.

Len. Good-morrow, noble sir!
Macb.
Good-morrow, both!
Macd. Is the king stirring, worthy thane?
Macb.
Not yet.
Macd. He did command me to call timely on him:
I have almost slipp'd the hour.

Macb.
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, physics' pain.
This is the door.

Macd.

I'll make so bold to call,

Macb. To know my deed,-'twere best not For 'tis my limited service.

know myself.

[Knock. Len.

Wake Duncan with thy knocking! Ay, would From hence to-day?

thou could'st!

[Exeunt. Macb.

[Erit Macd. Goes the king

He does:-he did appoint it so. Len. The night has been unruly: Where we lay, SCENE III.-The same. Enter a Porter. Our chimneys were blown down: and, as they say, Lamentings heard i'the air; strange screams death;

[Knocking within.]

Macb.
'Twas a rough night.
Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel
A fellow to it.

Porter. Here's a knocking, indeed! If a man And prophesying, with accents terrible, were porter of hell-gate, he should have old2 turn-Of de combustion, and confus'd events, ing the key. [Knocking.] Knock, knock, knock: New hatch'd to the woful time. The obscure bird Who's there, 'the name of Belzebub? Here's a Clamour'd the livelong night: some say, the earth farmer, that hanged himself on the expectation of Was feverous, and did shake. plenty Come in time; have napkins enough about you; here you'll sweat for't. [Knocking.] 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: 0, 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: Ne

(1) To incarnardine is to stain of a flesh-colour.
(2) Frequent. (3) Handkerchiefs.

(4) Cock-crowing.
(5) 1. e. Affords a cordial to it.

Re-enter Marduff.

Macd. O horror! horror! horror! Tongue, nor
heart,

Cannot conceive, nor name thee!"
Macb. Len.
What's the matter?
Macd. Confusion now hath made his master-
piece!

(6) Appointed service.

(7) The use of two negatives, not to make an affirmative, but to deny more strongly, is common lin our author.