Macb.

What cannot you and I perform upon
The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon 70
His

spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell?

Bring forth men-children only ;
For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing but males. Will it not be received,
When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two
Of his own chamber, and used their very daggers,

That they have done 't?
Lady M.

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

[Exeunt.

Act Second.

Scene I.

Inverness. Court of Macbeth's castle. Enter Banquo, and Fleance bearing a torch before him. 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. Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in

heaven,
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 !
Enter Macbeth, and a Servant with a torch.

Give me my sword.
Who's there?
Macb. A friend.
Ban. What, sir, not yet at rest? The king': a-bed:

He hath been in unusual pleasure, and
Sent forth great largess to your offices :
This diamond he greets your wife withal,

IO 20

By the name of most kind hostess ; and shut up

In measureless content.
Macb.

Being unprepared,
Our will became the servant to defect,

Which else should free have wrought.
Ban.

All's well.
I dreamt 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 franchised and allegiance clear,

I shall be counsell’d.
Macb.

Good
repose

the while ! Ban. Thanks, sir : the like to you !

30

[Exeunt Banquo and Fleance. Macb. Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.

[Exit Servant.

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

40
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshall’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 50
The curtain's sleep; 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, towards his design
Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,

of my

Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate whereabout,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he
lives :

60 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. 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

their possets,

That death and nature do contend about them,