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" 'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak :

"The repetition in a woman's ear,

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"Would murder as it fell."-O Banquo! Banquo!

Enter BANQUO.

Our royal master's murder'd!

Lady. "Woe, alas!

"*What, in our house?"

Ban. "Too cruel, any where."

" *Dear Duff," I pr'ythee, contradict thyself, And say, it is not so.

Re-enter MACBETH, and LENOX.

Mac. 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:

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?

Mac. You are, and do not know it!

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Ί

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,

Mal. Oh, by whom?

W

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

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Upon their pillows; they star'd, and were distracted;

No man's life was to be trusted with them.

Mac. O, yet I do repent me of my fury, That I did kill them.

Macd. Wherefore did you so?

Mac. Who can be wise, amaz'd, temperate, and

furious,

Loyal and neutral in a moment? No man :
The expedition of my violent lover

Out-ran the pauser reason.-*Here lay Duncan,
*His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood;

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And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature,
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,
That had a heart to love, and in that heart
Courage, to make his love known?
Lady. "Help me hence, ho!" is
Macd. "Look to the lady."
Mal. Why do we hold our tongues,

That most may claim this argument for ours?
Don. What should be spoken here,

Where our fate, hid within an augre-hole,

May rush, and seize us? Let's away, our tears

Are not yet brew'd.

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Mal. Nor our strong sorrow

Upon the foot of motion.

} Ban." Look to the lady

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"And when we have our naked frailties hid,

"That suffer in exposure*," let us meet,

And

And question this most bloody piece of work,
To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us:
*In the great hand of God I stand; and, thence,
Against the undivulg'd pretence I fight
Of treasonous malice.

Mac. And so do I.

All. So all.

Mac. Let's briefly put on manly readiness, And meet i'the hall together.

All. Well contented.

i

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[Exeunt.

Mal. What will you do? Let's not consort with them:

To shew an unfelt sorrow, is an office

Which the false man does easy: I'll to England.

Don. To Ireland, I; our separated fortune

Shall keep us both the safer: where we are,
There's daggers in men's smiles: the near in blood,
The nearer bloody.*

Mal. *This murderous shaft that's shot,
Hath not yet lighted; and our safest way
Is, to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse;
And let us not be dainty of leave-taking,
But shift away: there's warrant in that theft
Which steals itself, when there's no mercy left.

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[Exeunt.

SCENE IV. `.

Enter RossE, with an OLD MAN.

Old M. Threescore and ten I can remember well: Within the volume of which time, I have seen

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Hours dreadful, and things strange; but this sore night Hath trifled former knowings.

Rosse. Ah, good father,

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Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act
Threaten his bloody stage: by the clock, 'tis day,
And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp :
Is it night's predominance, or the day's shame,
That darkness does the face of earth intomb,
When living light should kiss it?

Old M. 'Tis unnatural,

Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last, A faulcon, towring "in her pride of place,

Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at, and kill'd.

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Rosse. And Duncan's horses, a thing most strange,

and certain;

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Beauteous, and swift, "the minions of their race,
Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,
Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would
Make war with mankind.

Old M. 'Tis said, they eat each other.

Rosse. They did so; to the amazement of mine

eyes,

That look'd upon't. Here comes the good Macduff:

Enter MACDUFF.

How goes the world, Sir, now?

Macd. Why, see you not?

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Rosse. Is't known, who did this more than bloody

deed?

Macd.

Macd. Those that Macbeth hath slain.

Rosse. Alas, the day!

*What good could they pretend?

Macd. They were suborn'd:

Malcolm and Donalbain, the king's two sons,
Ase stol'n away and fled: which puts upon them
Suspicion of the deed.

Rosse. 'Gainst nature still

Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up

'Thine own life's means!-Then 'tis most like*, The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.

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Macd. He is already nam'd; and gone to Sconę, To be invested.

Rosse. Where is Duncan's body?

Macd. Carried to Colmes-kill*;

The sacred store-house of his predecessors,

And guardian of their bones.

Rosse. Will you to Scone?

Macd. No, cousin, I'll to Fife.

Rosse. Well, I will thither.

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Macd. Well, may you see things well done there; -adieu!

Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!

Rosse. "Farewel, father."

Old M. "God's benison go with you; and with those "That would make good of bad, and friends of

"foes!"

[Exeunt.

ACT

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