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 on 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?

Enter MACBETH.

Our knocking has awaked him; here he comes.
Len. Good morrow, noble sir.

Macb.

Good morrow, both.

Macd. Is the king stirring, worthy thane?
Macb.

40

Not yet. 50

Macd. He did command me to call timely on

him:

I had 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.

Len. The night has been unruly where we lay,

Our chimneys were blown down; and, as they say, 60

Lamentings heard i' the air; strange screams of

death,

And prophesying with accents terrible

Of dire combustion and confused 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

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.

Ring the alarum-bell.

[Exeunt Macbeth and Lennox.
Awake, awake!

Murder and treason!

73. The Lord's anointed temple. A blending of two scriptural phrases: the Lord's anointed' (as in Rich. III. iv. 4. 150) and 'ye are the temple of the living God.'

77. There were three Gorgons, but the reference is to Medusa, whose head, fixed on Minerva's shield, turned all beholders to stone.

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!
As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites,
To countenance this horror! Ring the bell.

Enter LADY MACBETH.

Lady M. What's the business,

[Bell rings.

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.

Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself,

And say it is not so.

Re-enter MACBETH and LENNOX, with Ross.

Macb. Had I but died an hour before this
chance,

I had lived 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.

80

90

100

Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN.

Don. What is amiss?

Macb.

You are, and do not know 't:

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 badged with blood;
So were their daggers, which unwiped we found
Upon their pillows:

They stared, 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, amazed, temperate and

furious,

Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man :
The expedition of my violent love

Outrun the pauser reason. Here lay Duncan,
His silver skin laced 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: who could refrain,
That had a heart to love, and in that heart
Courage to make 's love known?

Lady M.

Macd. Look to the lady.

Help me hence, ho!

Mal. [Aside to Don.] Why do we hold our

tongues,

That most may claim this argument for ours?

110

120

107. badged, marked.

122. breech'd, covered.

Don. [Aside to Mal.] What should be spoken

here, where our fate,

Hid in an auger-hole, may rush, and seize us?
Let's away;

Our tears are not yet brew'd.

Mal. [Aside to Don.] Nor our strong sorrow Upon the foot of motion.

Ban.

Look to the lady :

[Lady Macbeth is carried out.

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 undivulged pretence I fight

Of treasonous malice.

Macd.

All.

And so do I.

So all.

Mach. Let's briefly put on manly readiness, And meet i' the hall together.

All

Well contented.

[Exeunt all but Malcolm and Donalbain. 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,

139. manly readiness, i.e. the equipment and mood of battle.

130

140

150