That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
And falls on the other.

Enter LADY MACBETH.

How now! what news?

Lady M. He has almost supp'd: why have you

He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,

Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon.

Lady M.

Was the hope drunk

Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale

At what it did so freely? From this time

Such I account thy love.

To be the same in thine

Art thou afeard

own act and valour

As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would,'
Like the poor cat i' the adage?

Macb.

Prithee, peace:

I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.

Lady M.

That made you break this

45. the poor cat i' the adage. The adage, as given in Heywood's Proverbs, declared that

What beast was 't, then
enterprise to me?

40

'The cate would eat fyshe and would not wet her feete.'

When you durst do it, then you were a man ;
And, to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both :
They have made themselves, and that their fitness

now

Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,

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 wassail 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?

Macb.
Bring forth men-children only;
For thy undaunted mettle should compose

Nothing but males. Will it not be received,
When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two
Of his own chamber and used their very daggers,
That they have done 't?

50. to be, by being.

52. adhere, accord (with our

design).

64. convince, overcome. 67. limbeck, alembic, still. 72. quell, murder.

50

70

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.

ACT II.

SCENE I. Inverness.

Court of Macbeth's castle.

&c

Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE bearing a torch
before him.

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, 'tis later, sir.

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

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!

Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch.
Give me my sword.

Who's there?

4. husbandry, thrift.

5. that; some other part of his accoutrement, probably the shield or targe. 'On the stage

ΙΟ

the action would explain, and all Shakespeare's plays were written for the stage' (Chambers).

Mach. A friend.

Ban. What, sir, not yet at rest?

a-bed:

He hath been in unusual pleasure, and

Sent forth great largess to your offices.

The king's

This diamond he greets your wife withal, yos
By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up
In measureless content.

Macb.

Being unprepared,

Our will became the servant to defect;
Which else should free have wrought.

Ban.

All's well.

20

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

Macb.

I think not of them:

Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,
We would spend it in some words upon that

At your kind'st leisure.

you.

люди

Ban.
Macb. If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis,

It shall make honour for

Ban. Ber

、{ཏ༩kཐtརྐ So I lose none

In seeking to augment it, but still keep

My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,

I shall be counsell'd.

Macb.

Good repose the while!

Ban. Thanks, sir: the like to you!

[Exeunt Banquo and Fleance. Mach. Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is

23. We. Perhaps an involuntary anticipation of the his wife's.

Idia of

Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand?

clutch thee.

Come, let me

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
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,

40

50

Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives: 60 Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.

I

[A bell rings.

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.

36. sensible, perceptible.

[Exit.

46. dudgeon, haft.

46. gouts, thick drops.