Lady. 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. 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? Would'st 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?
Macb. 'Prythee, 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 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 than 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 'tis, 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,
And dash'd the brains out, had I but so sworn
you have done to this.
Macb. If we should fail-
Lady. We fail:-

As

-?

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 spungy officers; who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell?

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

Lady. Who dares receive it other,

As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar
Upon his death?

Mach. 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.

ACT THE SECOND.

SCENE I.

MACBETH'S Castle at Inverness.

The Gallery.

Enter BANQUO and FLEANCE, with a Torch.

Ban. How goes the night, boy?

Fle. The moon is down; I have not heard the clock.

Ban. And she goes down at twelve.
Fle. I take't, 'tis later, sir.

Ban. There's husbandry in Heaven,
Their candles are all out.-

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!

Enter SEYTON, with a Torch, and MACBETH.

Who's there?

Macb. A friend. ·

Ban. What, sir, not yet at rest? The King's abed:

He hath been in unusual pleasure, and

Sent forth great largess to your offices:
This diamond he greets your wife withal,

By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up
In measureless content.

Mucb. Being unprepar'd,

Our will became the servant to defect;
Which else should free have wrought.

Ban. All's well.

I dream'd last night of the three weird sisters:
To you they have show'd some truth.

Macb. I think not of them:

Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,
We would spend it in some words upon that business,
If you would grant the time.

Ban. At your kind'st leisure.

Macb. If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis, 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 counsel'd.

Macb. Good repose, the while?

Ban. Thanks, sir; the like to you!

[Exeunt FLEANCE and BANQUO.

Macb. 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 SEYTON.

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 that 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 расе,

Towards his design

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.

[4 Clock strikes Two.

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.

[Thunder and Lightning.

Enter LADY MACBETH.

Lady. 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 bell-man,
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
their possets,

That death and nature do contend about them,
Whether they live or die.

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

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

Lady. I heard the owl scream, and the crickets cry.

Did not you speak?

Macb. When?

Lady. Now.

Macb. As I descended?

Lady. Ay.

Mach. Hark!-Who lies i' the second chamber? Lady. Donalbain.

Macb. This is a sorry sight.

Lady. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.