Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn,

As you have done to this.

Macb.

Lady M.

If we should fail,

We fail.

But screw your courage to the sticking place,
And we 'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep,
(Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey
Soundly invite him, his two chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassel so convince,"
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbeck only: When in swinish sleep
Their drenched natures lie, as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon
His spongy officers; who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell?c

Macb.

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

a Convince-overpower.

b Limbeck-alembic.

c Quell-murder.

ACT II.

SCENE I.-The same.

Court within the Castle.

Enter BANQUO and FLEANCE, and a Servant with a torch before them.

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, 't is later, sir.

Ban. Hold, take my sword.-There 's husbandry a

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!-Give me my sword ;-

Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch.
Who's there?

Macb. A friend.

Ban. What, sir, not yet at rest? The king 's a-bed: He hath been in unusual pleasure, and

Sent forth great largess to your offices:

This diamond he greets your wife withal,

By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up
In measureless content.

Macb.

Being unprepar'd,
Our will became the servant to defect;
Which else should free have wrought.

Ban.
I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:
To you they have show'd some truth.

Macb.

All's well.

I think not of them:

a Husbandry-frugality.

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 't

is,

It shall make honour for you.

So I lose none,

Ban.
In seeking to augment it, but still keep
My bosom franchis'd, and allegiance clear,
I shall be counsell'd.

Macb.

Good repose, the while!

Ban. Thanks, sir; the like to you! [Exit BANQUO. Macb. Go, bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. [Exit Serv. 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: witchcraft celebrates

a Consent-union.

b Dudgeon-the handle of the dagger.

Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murther,
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,

Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin's ravishing sides, 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 where-about,
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.

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.

SCENE II.-The same.

Enter LADY MACBETH.

[A bell rings.

[Exit.

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,
Whether they live, or die.

Macb. [Within.] Who's there?-what, hoa!
Lady M. Alack! I am afraid they have awak'd,

a Sides.-This is the word of the old copies; but Pope changed it to strides. A doubt arises whether this word is compatible with "stealthy pace.". The word, in its usual acceptation, and looking at its etymology, does not convey the notion of stealthy and silent movement. Can we reconcile then the word sides with the context? Tieck contends that sides has been received as the seat of the passions, and is so here poetically used.

And 't is not done :-the attempt, and not the deed,
Confounds us :-Hark!-I laid their daggers ready,
He could not miss them.-Had he not resembled
My father as he slept I had done 't-My husband!
Enter MACBETH.

Macb. I have done the deed :-Didst thou not hear a noise?

Lady M. I heard the owl scream, and the crickets

Macb. This is a sorry sight. [Looking on his hands. Lady M. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight. Macb. There's one did laugh in his sleep,

And one cried, "murther!" that they did wake each other;

I stood and heard them: but they did say their prayers, And address'd them again to sleep.

Lady M. There are two lodg'd together.

Macb. One cried, "God bless us!" and "Amen," the other;

As they had seen me, with these hangman's hands.

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.