That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect, and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances

You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night,
And pall* thee in the dunnest smoke of hell!
That my keen knifet see not the wound it makes;
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry, Hold, Hold!-Great Glamis! worthy Caw-
dor!

Enter Macbeth.

Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter !
Thy letters have transported me beyond

This ignorant present‡, and I feel now
The future in the instant.

Macb.

Duncan comes here to-night.

Lady M.

My dearest love,

And when goes hence?

O, never

Macb. To-morrow, as he purposes.
Lady M.

Shall sun that morrow see!

Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men

May read strange matters :-To beguile the time,
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent

flower,

But be the serpent under it. He that's coming
Must be provided for: and you shall put
This night's great business into my despatch;
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
Macb. We will speak further.
Lady M.

Wrap as in a mantle.

Only look up clear;

+ Knife anciently meant a sword or dagger.

i.e. Beyond the present time, which is according to the process of

nature, ignorant of the future.

To alter favour* ever is to fear:

Leave all the rest to me.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI.

The same. Before the castle.

Hautboys. Servants of Macbeth attending.

Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lenox, Macduff, Rosse, Angus, and attendants. Dun. This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself

Unto our gentle senses.

Ban. This guest of summer, The temple-haunting martlet, does approve, By his lov'd mansionry, that the heaven's breath, Smells wooingly here; no jutty, frieze, buttress, Nor coigne of vantage†, but this bird hath made His pendant bed, and procreant cradle: Where they Most breed and haunt, I have observ'd, the air Is delicate.

Dun.

Enter Lady Macbeth.

See, see! our honour'd hostess! The love that follows us, sometime is our trouble, Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you, How you shall bid God‡ yield us for your pains, And thank us for your trouble.

Lady M.

- All our service In every point twice done, and then done double, Were poor and single business, to contend

Against those honours deep and broad, wherewith
Your majesty loads our house: For those of old,
And the late dignities heap'd up to them,
We rest your hermits§.

Dun. Where's the thane of Cawdor? We cours'd him at the heels, and had a purpose To be his purveyor: but he rides well;

And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him To his home before us: Fair and noble hostess, We are your guest to-night.

Lady M.

Your servants ever

Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in

compt*,

To make their audit at your highness' pleasure,

Still to return your own.

Give me your

hand:

Dun.
Conduct me to mine host; we love him highly,
And shall continue our graces towards him.
By your leave, hostess.

SCENE VII.

The same. A room in the castle.

[Exeunt.

Hautboys and torches. Enter, and pass over the stage, a Sewert, and divers Servants with dishes and service. Then enter Macbeth.

Macb. If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well

It were done quickly: If the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch,
With his surcease, success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,-
We'd jump the life to come.-But, in these cases,
We still have judgment here; that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague the inventor: This even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
To our own lips. He's here in double trust:
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,

*Subject to accompt.

† An officer so called from his placing the dishes on the table.

[ACT I. Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, Who should against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against The deep damnation of his taking-off: And pity, like a naked new-born babe, Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin, hors'd Upon the sightless couriers* of the air, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, That tears shall drown the wind.-I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o'er-leaps itself, And falls on the other.-How now, what news?

Enter Lady Macbeth.

Lady M. He has almost supp'd; Why have you left the chamber?

Mach. Hath he ask'd for me?

Lady M.

Know you not, he has ?. Macb. We will proceed no further in this business : 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. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour,
As thou art in desire? Would'st 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.

Pr'ythee, peace :

I dare do all that may become a man ;

* Winds; sightless is invisible.

Who dares do more, is none.
Lady M.
What beast was it then,
That made you break this enterprize to me?
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 wasselt 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 us'd their very daggers, That they have done't.

* In the same sense as cohere.

Overpower.

|| Murder.

+ Intemperance.

§ Sentinel.
¶ Apprehended.