And that which rather thou dost fear to do,

Than wishest should be undone." Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;
And chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round',
Which fate and metaphysical2 aid doth seem
To have thee crowned withal. What is your tidings?

Enter an Attendant.

Atten. The king comes here to-night.

Lady Macb.

Thou'rt mad to say it:

Is not thy master with him? who, wer't so,

Would have informed for preparation.

Atten. So please you, it is true; our thane is coming:

One of my fellows had the speed of him;

Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more

Than would make up his message.

Lady Macb.

He brings great news.

The raven himself is hoarse,

Give him tending.

[Exit Attendant.

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements.3 Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts4, unsex me here;
And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and passage to remorse;
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell 5 purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect, and it! Come you murthering 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 knife see not the wound it makes;
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry, "Hold, hold!"-Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor!

Enter МАСВЕТН.

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 present.

My dearest love,

And when goes hence?

O, never

Macb. To-morrow, as he purposes.

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 Macb.

To alter favour ever is to fear:

Only look up clear;

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 gentle1 senses.

Ban.

This guest of summer,

The temple-haunting martlet, does approve,

By his loved mansionry, that the heaven's breath,

Smells wooingly here.

Dun.

Enter Lady МАСВЕТН.

See, see! our honoured hostess! *

1 Placid, calm.

The love that follows us sometime is our trouble,
Which still we thank as love.

Lady Macb.

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 heaped up to them,

We rest your hermits.1

Dun.

Where's the thane of Cawdor?
We coursed him at the heels, and had a purpose
To be his purveyor2: 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 Macb.

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.

Dun.

Give me your hand:

[Exeunt.

Conduct me to mine host; we love him highly,
And shall continue our graces3 towards him.
By your leave, hostess.

SCENE VII.-The same. A Room in the Castle.

Hautboys and torches. Enter, and pass over the stage, a Sewer, 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, success4; 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.5-But, in these cases,

1 Beadsmen; bound to pray for (at once, without delay); if the assas

sination could trammel up the consequence (enclose the consequence as in a trammel (net)), and catch, with his surcease (Duncan's death),

success.

5 We would run the risk of what might happen in the life to come.

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 poisoned chalice
To our own lips. He's here in double trust:
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should against his murtherer 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 cherubim, horsed
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'erleaps itself,

And falls on the other3.

How now, what news?

Enter Lady МАСВЕТН.

Lady Macb. He has almost supped; Why have you left

the chamber?

Macb. Hath he asked for me?

Lady Macb.

Know you not, he has?

Macb. We will proceed no further in this business : He hath honoured 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 Macb.

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?

1 Power, authority. 2 Invisible winds.

Would'st thou have that

3 On the other (side of the horse). The metaphor is taken from one

vaulting into a saddle, who leaps over the horse, and falls on the other side.

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 in the adage?1

Macb.

Prithee, peace:

I dare do all that may become a man :
Who dares do more, is none.
Lady Macb.

What beast was it then,

That made you break this enterprise 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 2 now
Does unmake you.

Macb.

Lady Macb.

If we should fail,·

But screw your courage to the sticking place3,
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 drenchèd 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? 9

Macb.

Will it not be received 10,

We fail!

When we have marked with blood those sleepy two
Of his own chamber, and used their very daggers,
That they have done it?
Lady Macb.

Who dares receive it other,