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That death and nature do contend about them,
Whether they live or die.

Macb. Within.] Who's there?—what, ho!

Lady M. Alack! I am afraid they have awaked,
And 'tis not done !—the attempt, and not the deed,
Confounds us. Hark!-I laid their daggers ready,-
He could not miss them!-Had he not resembled
My father, as he slept, I had done't!-My husband!
Enter MACBETH, r.

Macb. I have done the deed: -Did'st thou not hear a noise?

Lady M. I heard the owl scream, and the crickets cry. Did not you speak?

Mach. When?

Lady M. Now.

Macb. As I descended?

Lady M. Ay.

Macb. Hark! Who lies i'the second chamber?

Lady M. Donalbain.

Macb. This is a sorry sight.

[Showing his hands.

Lady M. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.

Macb. There's one did laugh in his sleep, and one cried

"Murder!"

That they did wake each other; I stood and heard thern :
But they did say their prayers, and addressed them
Again to sleep.

Lady M. There are two lodged together.

Mach. One cried, "God bless us :" and "Amen," the other;

As they had seen me, with these hangman's hands,
Listening their fear. I could not say, Amen,
When they did say, God bless us.

Lady M. Consider it not so deeply.

Macb. But wherefore could not I pronounce, amen?

I had most need of blessing, and amen

Stuck in my throat.

Lady M. These deeds must not be thought

After these ways: so, it will make us mad.

Macb. Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep, the innocent sleep ;

Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care,

The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast.

Lady M. What do you mean?

Mac. Still it cried, sleep no more! to all the house: Glamis hath murdered sleep; and therefore Cawdor Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more ! Lady M. Who was it that thus cried? Why, worth▾ Thane,

You do unbend your noble strength, to think
So brain-sickly of things; go, get some water,
And wash this filthy witness from your hand.-
Why did you bring these daggers from the place!
They must lie there: Go, carry them; and smear
The sleepy grooms with blood.

Macb. I'll go no more :

I am afraid to think what I have done ;-
Look on't again, I dare not!

Lady M. Infirm of purpose!

Give me the daggers. The sleeping, and the dead,
Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil.—If he do bleed,

I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal,

For it must seem their guilt.

[Exit, R.-Knocking within, M. D.

Macb. Whence is that knocking?

How is't with me, when every noise appals me?
What hands are here? Ha! they pluck out mine eyes!
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnardine,

Making the green-one red.

Re-enter LADY MACBETH.

Lady M. My hands are of your colour; but I shame To wear a heart so white.-[Knocking.] I hear a knocking At the south entry-retire we to our chamber:

A little water clears us of this deed:

How easy is it, then? Your constancy

Hath left you unattended.-[Knocking.]-Hark! more knocking:

Get on your night-gown, lest occasion call us,

C

And shew us to be watchers.-Be not lost

So poorly in your thoughts.

Macb. To know my deed-'twere best not know myself. Wake Duncan with thy knocking! Ay, would thon could'st! | Exeunt-Knocking again.-Lady Mac beth pulls Macbeth away, L.

Enter MACDUFF, LENOX, and SEYTON, M. D.

Macd. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed, That you do lie so late?

Sey. 'Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock Macd. Is thy master stirring?

Our knocking has awaked him; here he comes.

Enter MACBETH and SEYTON, L.

Len. Good morrow, noble sir!

Macb. Good morrow, both!

Macd. Is the King stirring, worthy Thane ?

Macb. Not yet.

Macd. He did command me to call timely on him: I have almost slipped 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.

This is the door. [Throwing open the door leading to the King's bedchamber, R.

Macd. I'll make so bold to call,

For 'tis my limited service.

Len. Goes the King hence to-day?

Macb. He does-he did appoint so.

[Exit, R.

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 confused events,
New-hatched to the woeful time.

The obscure bird

Clamoured the livelong night; some say, the earth
Was feverish, and did shake.

Macb. 'Twas a rough night.

Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel A fellow to it.

Re-enter MACDuff, r.

Macd. O horror! horror! horror!

Tongue, nor heart,

Cannot conceive, nor name thee!

Mach. & Len. What's the matter?

Macd. Confusion now hath made his master-piece!

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.

[Exeunt Macbeth and Lenox, R.

Awake! awake!--
Ring the alarum bell!-Murder! and treason!
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!-

[Bell rings out.

Enter BANQUO and Rosse down the stairs, L, U. E.

Oh, Banquo, Banquo,

Our royal master's murdered!

Re-enter MACBETH aud LENOX, R.

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 are dead;
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees

Is left this vault to brag of.

Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN, down the stairs, R. U. E

Mal. What is amiss?

Mach. You are, and do not know it?

The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood
Is stopped; the very source of it is stopped.
Maed. Your royal father's murdered!

Mal. Oh, by whom?

Len. Those of his chamber, as it seemed, 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.

[Exeunt Malcolm and Donalbain, R. Macb. Oh, yet do I repent me of my fury,

That I did kill them.

Macd. [Starting.] 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

Out-ran the pauser, reason.-Here lay Duncan,
His silver skin laced with his golden blood;

And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature,
For ruin's wasteful entrance: there the murderers,
Steeped in the colours of their trade, their daggers
Unmannerly breached with gore: Who could refrain,
That had a heart to love, and in that heart
Courage, to make his love known ?

Ban. Fears and scruples shake us;

In the great hand of Heaven I stand; and, thence,
Against the undivulged pretence I fight
Of treasonous malice.

Macb. And so do I.

All. So all.

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

And question this most bloody piece of work,

To know it further.

All. Well contented.

[Exeunt, L.

SCENE II.-A Wood on the Skirt of a Heath.-Thunder

and Lightning.

Enter the Three WITCHES, and a Chorus of WITCHES, L

1st Witch. Speak, sister, speak-is the deed done? 2d Witch. Long ago, Long ago:

Above twelve glasses since have run.

3d Witch. Ill deeds are seldom slow,

Nor single; following crimes on former wait;
The worst of creatures fastest propagate.

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