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!

Not yet.

Macd. Is the king stirring, worthy thane?

Macb.

Macd. He did command me to call timely on him;

I have almost slipp'd the hour.

Macd. I know, this is a joyful trouble to you;

But yet, 'tis one.

Macb. The labour we delight in, physicks" pain.

He does

he did appoint it so.

From hence to-day?

Macb. Len. The night has been unruly: Where we lay, Our chimneys were blown down: and, as they say, Lamentings heard i'the air; strange screams of death;

i. e. Affords a cordial to it.

1 Appointed service.

And prophecying, with accents terrible,

Of dire combustion, and confus'd events,

New hatch'd to the woeful time. The obscure bird Clamour'd the livelong night: some say, the earth Was feverous, and did shake.

Macb.

'Twas a rough night.

Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel A fellow to it.

Re-enter MACDUFF.

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

heart,

Cannot conceive, nor name thee!2

Macb. Len.

What's the matter?

Macd. Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!

Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope

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;
See, and then speak yourselves.-Awake! awake!-
[Exeunt MACBETH and LENOX.
Ring the alarum-bell:-Murder! and treason!
Banquo, and Donalbain! Malcolm! awake!
Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit,
And look on death itself!-up, up, and see
The great doom's image?--Malcolm! Banquo!

2 The use of two negatives, not to make an affirmative, but to deny more strongly is common in our author.

As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprights, To countenance this horror!

[Bell rings,

Lady M.

1

Enter Lady MACBETH.

What's the business,

A

That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley
The sleepers of the house? speak, speak,
Macd.

O, gentle lady,

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

The repetition, in a woman's ear,

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

Dear Duff, I pr'ythee, contradict thyself,

And say, it is not so.

Re-enter MACBETH and LENOX.

Macb. Had I but died 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 DON ALBAIN.

Don. What is amiss?

Macb.

You are, and do not know it:

The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood

Is stopp'd; the very source of it is stopp'd,
Macd. Your royal father's murder'd.

Mal.

O, by whom?

Len. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had

done't:

Their hands and faces were all badg'd with blood,
So were their daggers, which, unwip'd, we found
Upon their pillows:

They star'd, and were distracted; no man's life
Was to be trusted with them.

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

Out-ran the pauser reason.-Here lay Duncan,
His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood;
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:3 Who could refrain,
That had a heart to love, and in that heart

Courage, to make his love known?

Lady M.

Macd. Look to the lady.

Mal.

Help me hence, ho!

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,

3 Covered with blood to their hilt.

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

And when we have our naked frailties hid,
That suffer in exposure, let us meet,

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

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, 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,