[Exe

I take 't, 'tis later, s

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,
you would grant the time.

If

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 counsell'd.

Macb.

Ban. Thanks, sir; the like to you!

Good repose the while!

[Exeunt BANQUO and FLEANCE.

[Exit Servant.

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,

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 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
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 pace,
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, 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 whereabout,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it.-Whiles I threat, he lives;
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.

[A bell rings.

Lady M. That which hath made them drunk hath m

What hath quench'd them hath given me fire.-Hark

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 th

[Looking on his hand

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

Macb. There's one did laugh in's sleep, and one crie

Listening their fear, I could not say, Amen,
When they did say, God bless us.

Lady M.
Consider it not so deeply.
Macb. But wherefore could not I pronounce, Amen?
I had most need of blessing, and Amen

Stuck in my throat.

Lady M.

These deeds must not be thought

After these ways; so, it will make us mad.

Macb. Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep,-the innocent sleep; Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care, The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, Chief nourisher in life's feast. Lady M.

What do you mean? Macb. Still it cried, Sleep no more! to all the house: Glamis hath murder'd sleep: and therefore Cawdor Shall sleep no more,-Macbeth shall sleep no more!

[thane,

Lady M. Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy You do unbend your noble strength to think So brainsickly of things.-Go get some water, And wash this filthy witness from your hand.Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must lie there: go carry them; and smear The sleepy grooms with blood.

Macb.

I'll go no more:
I am afraid to think what I have done;
Look on 't again I dare not.

Lady M.

Infirm of purpose!

Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead
Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,

I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal,

For it must seem their guilt. [Exit. Knocking within. Whence is that knocking?

Macb.

How is 't with me, when every noise appals me?

What hands are here? Ha! they pluck out mine eyes!
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood

Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnardine,

Making the green one red.

Re-enter LADY MACBETH.

Lady M. My hands are of your colour; but I shame To wear a heart so white. [Knocking within.] I hear a

knocking

At the south entry :--retire we to our chamber.

A little water clears us of this deed:

How easy is it then! Your constancy

Hath left you unattended.-[Knocking within.] Hark! more knocking:

Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us,

And show us to be watchers:-be not lost

So poorly in your thoughts.

Macb. To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself.

[Knocking within.

Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst! [Exeunt.

Enter a Porter. Knocking within.

Porter. Here's a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key. [Knocking.] Knock, knock, knock. Who's there, i' the name of Beelzebub? Here's a farmer that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty: come in time; have napkins enow about you; here you'll sweat for 't.-[Knocking.] Knock, knock ! Who's there, i' the other devil's name? Faith, here's an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale; who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven: O, come in, equivocator. [Knocking.] Knock, knock, knock! Who's there? Faith, here's an English tailor come hither, for stealing out of a French hose: come in, tailor, here you may roast your goose.-[Knocking]. Knock, knock: never at quiet! What are you?-But this place is too cold for hell. I'll devil-porter it no further: I had thought to have let in some of all professions, that go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire. [Knocking.] Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the porter. [Opens the gate.

Enter MACDUFF and LENNOX. Macd. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed, that you do lie so late?

Port. Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock : and drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things.

Macd. What three things does drink especially provoke? Port. Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes and unprovokes; it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance: therefore, much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him, and disheartens him; makes him stand