Enter MACBETH. Good morrow, both! Len. Good morrow, noble sir! Macb. Macd. Is the king stirring, worthy thane? 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, For 'tis my limited service. Len. Goes the king hence to-day? Macb. He does :-he did appoint so. [Exit MACDUFf. Len. The night has been unruly: Where we lay, Lamentings heard i' the air; strange screams of death: Of dire combustion and confus'd events, New hatch'd to the woeful time, The obscure bird clamour'd the live-long night: Some say the earth was feverous, and did shake.' Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel Re-enter MACDUFF. Macd. O horror! horror! horror! Tongue, nor heart, cannot conceive, nor name thee! Macd. Confusion now hath made his master-piece! The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence The life o' the building. Macb. What is't you say? the life? Len. Mean you his majesty? Macd. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight With a new Gorgon :-Do not bid me speak; (1) The night has been unruly, &c. In "Julius Cæsar" allusion is made to the prevalent opinion that the death of kings and great men was preceded by portentous signs such as are here enumerated. Perhaps this opinion was founded on something better than superstition; we believe it is a historical fact, undisputed, that the night on which the usurper Oliver Cromwell died was attended by one of the most fearful storms of wind, thunder and lightning, that any age before or since ever witnessed. See, and then speak yourselves.-Awake! awake! Ring the alarum-bell :-Murther! and treason! Enter LADY MACBETH. Lady M. What's the business, That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley "Tis not for you to hear what I can speak : Would murther as it fell. Enter BANQUO. [Bell rings. O, gentle lady, O Banquo! Banquo! our royal master's murther'd! Dear Duff, I prithee contradict thyself, Too cruel, anywhere. Re-enter MACBETH and LENOX. Macb. Had I but died an hour before this chance, All is but toys: renown, and grace, is dead; Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN. You are, and do not know 't, your Don. What is amiss? O, by whom? Len. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done 't: (1) There's nothing serious in mortality. Serious is here used for valuable; the meaning is, "there is nothing in life worth anything, or worth caring for. Macb. O, yet I do repent me of my fury, That I did kill them. Macd. Wherefore did you so? Macb. Who can be wise, amaz'd, temperate, and furious, Loyal, and neutral, in a moment? No man : The expedition of my violent love Outran the pauser reason.-Here lay Duncan, And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature Lady M. Macd. Look to the lady. Mal. Help me hence, hoa! Why do we hold our tongues, That most may claim this argument for ours? Where our fate, hid in an auger-hole, May rush, and seize us? Let's away; our tears Mal. Nor our strong sorrow Upon the foot of motion. Ban. And when we have our naked frailties hid,2 And question this most bloody piece of work, Of treasonous malice. Macd. All. And so do I. So all. Macb. Let's briefly put on manly readiness, And meet i' the hall together. All. Well contented. [Exeunt all but MAL. and DON Mal. What will you do? Let's not consort with them To show 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, (1) Breech'd with gore, i. e. covered with blood. (2) And when we have our naked frailties hid, i. e. when we have clothed our bodies; which, from our being aroused from our sleep, are half naked. There's daggers in men's smiles: the near in blood, SCENE IV. Without the Castle. Enter ROSSE and an Old Man. Old M. Threescore and ten I can remember well: Hours dreadful, and things strange; but this sore night Rosse. Ah, good father, Thou see'st, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, Old M. 'Tis unnatural, Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last, A falcon, towering in her pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd. [Exit. Rosse. And Duncan's horses, (a thing most strange and certain,) Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, Old M. Rosse. They did so; That look'd upon't. 'Tis said, they eat each other. to the amazement of mine eyes, Here comes the good Macduff: Enter MACDuff. How goes the world, sir, now? Macd. Why, see you not? Rosse. Is 't known who did this more than bloody deed? Macd. Those that Macbeth hath slain. Rosse. Alas, the day! What good could they pretend? (1) The near in blood, the nearer bloody. A suspicion is here intended that Macbeth, Duncan's near kinsman, has done the bloody deed. (2) This murtherous shaft that's shot hath not yet lighted, i. e. the murderer's full intent is not yet attained: we may fall next. Macd. They were suborn'd: Malcolm and Donalbain, the king's two sons, Rosse. 'Gainst nature still: Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up Thine own life's means!-Then 'tis most like Macd. He is already named; and gone to Scone, Rosse. Where is Duncan's body? Macd. Carried to Colmes-kill; The sacred storehouse of his predecessors, Rosse. Will you to Scone? Well, I will thither. Macd. No, cousin, I'll to Fife. Rosse. Macd. Well, may you see things well done there :—adieu ! Lest our old robes sit easier than our new! Rosse. Farewell, father. Old M. God's benison go with you, and with those That would make good of bad, and friends of foes! [Exeunt. ACT III. SCENE I.-Forres. A Room in the Palace. Enter BANQUO. Ban. Thou hast it now, king, Cawdor, Glamis, all, As the weird women promis'd; and I fear Thou play'dst most foully for 't: yet it was said, But that myself should be the root, and father And set me up in hope? But, hush; no more. Senet sounded. Enter MACBETH, as King; LADY MACBETH, as Queen; LENOX, Rosse, Lords, Ladies, and Attendants. Macb. Here's our chief guest. Lady M. If he had been forgotten It had been as a gap in our great feast, |