Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

Of dire combustion, and confus'd events,

New hatch'd to the woeful time.
Clamour'd the livelong night:
Was feverous, and did shake.

Macb.

The obscure bird

some say, the earth

'Twas a rough night.

Len. My young remembrance, cannot parallel

A fellow to it.

Re-enter MACDUFF.

Macd. O horror! horror! horror! tongue nor heart, Cannot conceive, nor name thee!

Macb. Len.

What's the matter?

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.-Awake! awake!

[Exeunt MACBETH, and LENOX. 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 sprights,
To countenance this horror!

[Bell rings.

Enter Lady MACBETH.

What's the business,

Lady M.

That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley

The sleepers of the house? speak, speak,

Macd.

"Tis not for

h

gration.

you

O, gentle lady,

to hear what I can speak :

combustion,]—in this place means, tumult, distress, and not confla

i New hatch'd to the woeful time:] i. e. Newly bursting forth to suit the woeful

[blocks in formation]
[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Too cruel, any where.

Dear Duff, I pr'ythee, contradict thyself,

And say, it is not so.

Re-enter MACBETH and LENOX.

Macb. Had I but died an hour before this chance,
I had liv'd 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.

Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN.

Don. What is amiss?

Macb.

You are, and do not know it:

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 badg'd with blood, So were their daggers, which, unwip'd, we found

Upon their pillows:

They star'd, 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, amaz'd, 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 lac'd 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 colour 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 his love known?

[blocks in formation]

Help me hence, ho!

Why do we hold our tongues,

That most may claim this argument for ours?

Don. What should be spoken

Here, where our fate, hid in an augre-hole
May rush, and seize us? Let's away; our tears
Are not yet brew'd.

Mal.

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 undivulg'd pretence I fight

Of treasonous malice."

* His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood ;] The allusion here is to the rich habits worn in the age of Shakspeare; and, "it is," says Dr. Warburton," so ridiculous on such an occasion, that it shews the declaimer not to be affected in the manner he would represent himself. The whole speech is an unnatural mixture of far-fetched and common-place thoughts, that shews him to be acting a part."

1_

breech'd with gore:] i.e.Having the very hilts, or breeches, covered with blood.-NARES.

m

· augre-hole]—is a hole bored with an augre, and is used proverbially for any narrow space.

n And when we have our naked frailties hid,

That suffer in exposure,] i. e. When we have clothed our half-dressed bodies, which may take cold from being exposed to the air. It is possible that, in such a cloud of words, the meaning might escape the reader.-STEEVENS.

• In the great hand of God I stand; and, thence,

Against the undivulg'd pretence I fight

Of treasonable malice.] Pretence is intention, design, a sense in which the word is often used by Shakspeare. Banquo's meaning is,-in our present state of doubt and uncertainty about this murder, I have nothing to do but to put myself under the direction of God; and, relying on his support, I here declare

Macb.

All.

And so do I.

So all.

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

All.

Well contented.

[Exeunt all but MAL. and DON.

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.P

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,
But shift away: There's warrant in that theft

Which steals itself, when there's no mercy left. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

Without the Castle.

Enter RossE and an old Man.

Old. M. Threescore and ten I can remember well: Within the volume of which time, I have seen

Hours dreadful, and things strange; but this sore night Hath trifled former knowings.

Rosse.

Ah, good father,

Thou see'st, the heavens, as troubled with man's act,
Threaten his bloody stage: by the clock, 'tis day,
And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp :
Is it night's predominance, or the day's shame,

myself an eternal enemy to this treason, and to all its further designs that have not yet come to light.-STEEVENS.

[ocr errors]

the near in blood,

The nearer bloody.] Meaning that he suspected Macbeth to be the murderer; for he was the nearest in blood to the two princes, being the cousingerman of Duncan.-STEEVENS.

[ocr errors]

not yet lighted ;] i. e. Has not yet fallen upon the object it was de

signed to hit.

« PreviousContinue »