Who's there, i' the name of Belzebub? Here's a farmer2, that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty: Come in time; have napkins 3 enough 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 bonfire5. [Knocking.] Anon, anon; I pray you, remember the porter. [Opens the gate. Enter MACDUFF and LENOX. 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 se 2 Here's a farmer that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty.' So in Hall's Satires, b. iv. sat. 6 :— 'Each muckworme will be rich with lawless gaine, 3 i.e. handkerchiefs. In the dictionaries of the time sudarium is rendered by napkin or handkerchief, wherewith we wipe away the sweat.' 4 i. e. a Jesuit. That order were troublesome to the state, and held in odium in the reigns of Elizabeth and James. They were inventors of the execrable doctrine of equivocation. 5 So in Hamlet: 'Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads.' And in All's Well that Ends Well:- The flowery way that leads to the great fire.' : cond 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 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? Macd. He did command me to call timely on him; I have almost slipp'd the hour. Macb. But yet, 'tis one. 6 i. e. till three o'clock, according to a passage in Romeo and Juliet: The second cock has crow'd, 7 In for into. 8 Macb. The labour, we delight in, physicks pain. This is the door. Macd. For 'tis I'll make so bold to call, [Exit MACDUff. my limited service 9. He does :-he did appoint it so. 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; And prophesying, with accents terrible, Of dire combustion, and confus'd events, New hatch'd to the woful 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 10! 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 ? 8 i.e. alleviates it. Physick is defined by Baret, a remedie, an helping or curing. So in The Tempest: 'There be some sports are painful; and their labour Delight in them sets off.' 9 i. e. Appointed service. 10 It has been already observed that Shakspeare uses two negatives, not to make an affirmative, but to deny more strongly. Macd. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight With a new Gorgon:-Do not bid me speak; Lady M. Enter LADY MACBETH. What's the business, That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley 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 fell11.—O Banquo! Banquo! Dear Duff, I pr'ythee, contradict thyself, it is not so. And say, 11 The repetition, in a woman's ear, So in Hamlet: — He would drown the stage with tears, And cleave the general ear with horrid speech.' And in The Puritan, 1607: The punishments that shall follow you in this world would with horrour kill the ear, should hear them related.' Re-enter MACBETH and LENOX. Mach. 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 DONALBAIN. Don. What is amiss? Macb. You are, and do not know it: The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood 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 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 : Outran the pauser reason. Here lay Duncan, 12 His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood.' To gild with blood is a very common phrase in old plays. See also King John, Act ii. Sc. 2.-Johnson says, it is not improbable that Shakspeare put these forced and unnatural metaphors into the mouth of Macbeth, as a mark of artifice and dissimulation, to |