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 curtained sleep; witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings, and withered murder,
Alarumed 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,
Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat he lives :
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.

I 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.

[A bell rings.

W. Shakespeare.

* Dudgeon, the handle of the dagger.

Lady
M.

CXCVIII.

MACBETH.

ACT II. SCENE II.-Court of Macbeth's Castle.

MACBETH, LADY MACBETH.

HAT which hath made them drunk hath made me bold;

What hath quenched them hath given me
fire. Hark! Peace!

It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman,
Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it :
The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms

Do mock their charge with snores: I have drugged their

possets,

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.

Enter MACBETH.

My husband!

Macb. I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?

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

Macb. This is a sorry sight.

[Looking on his hands.

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

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

'Murder!'

That they did wake each other: I stood and heard them : 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?

Macb. 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, worthy thane,

You do unbend your noble strength, to think
So brainsickly of things. Go get some water,
And wash this filthy witness from your hand.
Why did you bring these daggers from the place?

* Sleave, floss silk.

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. Knocking within. Whence is that knocking?

Macb.

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 incarnadine,

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 within.] 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.

more knocking.

[Knocking within.] Hark!

Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us,
And show us to be watchers. Be not lost

So poorly in your thoughts.

Mach. To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself.

[Knocking within.

Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!

W. Shakespeare.

CXCIX.

READÈN OV A HEADSTWONE.

(IN THE DORSET DIALECT.)

SI wer readèn ov a stwone,
In Grenley church-yard, all alwone,
A little maïd ran up, wi' pride
To zee me there; an' pushed azide
A bunch o' bennets,* that did hide
A verse her father, as she zaid,
Put
up above her mother's head
To tell how much he loved her.

The verse wer short, but very good,
I stood an' learned en as I stood,
'Mid God, dear Meäry, gi'e me greäce
To vind, like thee, a better pleäce,
Where I, oonce mwore, mid zee thy feäce,
An' bring thy children up, to know
His word, that they mid come an' show
Thy soul, how much I loved thee.'

'Where's father, then,' I zaid, 'my chile,'
'Dead, too,' she answered wi' a smile :
'An' I an' brother Jem do bide
At Betty White's, o' tother zide

O' road.' 'Mid He, my child,' I cried,
'That's father to the fatherless,
Become thy father now, an' bless

An' keep, an' leäd, an' love thee.'

Though she've a-lost, I thought, so much,
Still He dont let the thoughts o't touch
Her litsome+ heart, by day or night;
An' zoo, if we could teäke it right,

*Bennets, bents, bent grass.

Disposed to be gay or light.