As they had seen me, with these hangman's hands, 10 [Amen? Lady. Consider it not so deeply. Lady. These deeds must not be thought "Macbeth does murder sleep, the innocent sleep; Lady. What do you mean? [house: 15 20 25 Macb. Still it cry'd, "Sleep no more!" to all the You do unbend your noble strength, to think Macb. I'll go no more: I am afraid to think what I have done; Lady. Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers: The sleeping, and the dead, eyes! Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood [ther Re-enter Lady Macbeth. [Knock. At the south entry :-retire we to our chamber : [Knocking Within.] Por. Here's a knocking, indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key. [Knock.]Knock, knock, knock: Who's there, the name of Belzebub? Here's a farmer, that hang'd himself on the expectation of plenty come in time; have napkins' enough about you; here you'll sweat for't. [Knock.] Knock, knock: Who's there i'the other devil's name? 'Faith, here's an equivocator', that could swear in both the scales against either scale; who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven: oh, come in, equivocator. [Knock.] Knock, knock, knock: Who's there? 'Faith, here's an English hose: come in, taylor; here you may roast your taylor come hither, for stealing out of a French goose. [Knock.] Knock, knock: never at quiet! What are you? But this place is too cold for hell. I'll devil porter it no further: I had thought to have let in some of all professions, that go the primrose way, to the everlasting bonfire.[Knock.] Anon, anon; I pray you, remember the porter. Enter Macduff, and Lenox. Macd. Was't so late, friend, ere you went to bed, 40 That you do lie so late? Por. 'Fath, sir, we were carousing 'till the second cock and drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things. Macd. What three things doth drink especially 45 provoke? Por. Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes; it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance: Therefore, much drink may be said to 50be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off'; it persuades him, and disheartens him; makes him stand to, and not stand to: in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and, giving him the 55lie, leaves him. Macd. I believe, drink gave thee the lie last night. Por. That it did, sir, i' the very throat o' me: but I requited him for his lie; and I think, being 2 A skein of silk is called a sleave of silk. 6 3 To incarnar• 1 That is, listening to their fear. dine, is to stain any thing of a flesh colour, or red. 4 i. e. while I have the thoughts of this deed, it were best not know, or be lost to, myself. i. e. handkerchiefs. Meaning, a jesuit; an order so troublesome to the state in queen Elizabeth and king James the first's time; the inventors of the execrable doctrine of equivocation. 3 too Would murder as it fell.-O Banquo! Banquo! [him; 10 Our royal master's murder'd! Macd. He did command me to call timely on I have almost slipt the hour. Mucb. I'll bring you to him. Macd. I know, this is a joyful trouble to you; But yet, 'tis one. Mucb. The labour we delight in, physicks pain. This is the door. Macd. I'll make so bold to call, For 'tis my limited service. 2 Lady. Woe, alas! What, in our house? Ban. Too cruel, any where. Dear Duff, I pr'ythee, contradict thyself, 15 And say, it is not so. Re-enter Macbeth and Lenor. 20 All is but toys: renown and grace is dead; [Exit Macduff Macb. '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. and Len. What's the matter? [piece! Macd. Confusion now hath made his master- [sight Macb. What is't you say? the life 30 35 Enter Malcolm and Donalbain. Don. What is amiss? Macb. You are, and do not know it: [don't: Macd. Wherefore did you so? Macb. Who can be wise, amaz'd, temperate, 40 Loyal and neutral in a moment? No man: 50 That had a heart to love, and in that heart Macd. Look to the lady. Mal. Why do we hold our tongues, That most may claim this argument for ours? 3 2i. e. appointed. Upon this passage, which To cast him up, to ease my stomach of him. has been deemed the crux criticorum, almost every commentator has differed in opinion. Dr. Johnson proposes, instead of breeched, to read, drenched with gore. Dr. Warburton thinks reeched (i. e. soiled with a dark yellow) should be substituted for breeched, as well as unmanly for unmannerly. Mr. Steevens supposes, that the expression may mean, that the daggers were covered with blood quite to their breeches, i. e. their hilts or handles; the lower end of a cannon being called the breech of it. Warton pronounces, that whether the word which follows be reech'd, breech'd, hatch'd, or drench'd, he is at least of opinion, that unmannerly is the genuine reading, which he construes to mean unseemly. Dr. Farmer says, that the sense in plain language is, "Daggers filthily-in a foul manner sheath'd with blood." Bb 2 Don. 372 Don. What should be spoken here, Where our fate, hid within an augre-hole, May rush, and seize us? Let's away, our tears Mal. Nor our strong sorrow Ban. Look to the lady: And when we have our naked frailties' hid, And question this most bloody piece of work, All. Well contented. [Exeunt. That darkness does the face of earth intomb, Old Man. 'Tis unnatural, Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last, 5 A faulcon, towring in her pride of place3, Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at, and kill'd. Rosse. And Duncan's horses, (a thing most Beauteous, and swift, the minions of their race, Old Man. 'Tis said, they eat each other. [eyes, Mal. What will you do? Let's not consort with 20 To shew an unfelt sorrow is an office [them: Which the false man does easy: I'll to England. Don. To Ireland, I; our separated fortune Mal. This murderous shaft that's shot, [Exeunt. Old Man. Threescore and ten I can remember well; Rosse. Is't known, who did thismorethan bloody What good could they pretend"? Macd. They were suborn'd: 25 Malcolm, and Donalbain, the king's two sons, Are stol'n away and fled; which puts upon them Suspicion of the deed. Rosse. 'Gainst nature still : Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up 30 Thine own life's means!-Then 'tis inost like, The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth. 35 Macd. He is already nam'd; and gone to Scone, To be invested. Rosse. Where is Duncan's body? Macd. Carried to Colmes-kill' ; The sacred store-house of his predecessors, Rosse. Will you to Scone? Mucd. No, cousin, I'll to Fife. Rosse. Well, I will thither. [-adieu! [those Macd. Well, may you see things well done there; Meaning, our half-drest bodies. i. e. intention, design. Meaning, confidence in its quality To pretend, means here purpose to themselves. 5 Colmes-hill, or Colm-kill, means Iona, one of the western isles, where most of the ancient kings of Scotland are buried. i. e. prosper. And Macb. Ride you this afternoon? Ban. Ay, my good lord. [advice No son of mine succeeding. If it be so, Macb. We should have else desir'd your good[10] Ban. As far, my lord, as will fill up the time Macb. Fail not our feast. upon us. Who wrought with them; and all things else, 25 To half a soul, and to a notion craz❜d, 1 Mur. You made it known to us. Macb. I did so; and went further, which is now Mach. I wish your horses swift, and sure of foot; Ser. They are, my lord, without the palace gate. But to be safely thus ;-Our fears in Banquo he dares; And, to that dauntless temper of his mind, 1 Mur. We are men, my liege. Macb. Ay, in the catalogue you go for men; 45 That writes them all alike: and so of men, Not in the worst rank of manhood, say it; 2 Mur. I am one, my liege, 1 Mur. And I another, the devil. 6 1i. e. If he does not go well. 1i. e. defiled. 4The word utterance is derived from the French outrance. A challenge or a combat a l'outrance, to extremity, was a fix'd term in the law of arms, used when the combatants engaged with an odium internecinum, an intention to destroy each other. 'i. e. made to believe what was not true. Meaning, are you of that degree of precise virtue? Gospellers was a name of contempt given by the Papists to the Lollards. Shoughs are probably what we now call shocks. The expression, valued file, seems to mean in this place, a post of honour; the first rank, in opposition to the last. File and list are synonymous. 7 So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune', Mach. Both of you Know, Banquo was your enemy. [tance Macb. So is he mine: and in such bloody dis- Mur. We shall, my lord, 1 Mur. Though our lives Macb. Your spirits shine through you. Within I will advise you where to plant yourselves; Mur. We are resolv'd, my lord. Macb. I'll call upon you straight; abide within. Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant. Lady. Is Banquo gone from court? Str. Ay, madam; but returns again to-night. For a few words. Serv. Madam, I will. Lady. Nought's had, all's spent, 5 With them they think on? Things without all Should be without regard: what's done, is done. But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep That shake us nightly: Better be with the dead, In restless ecstacy'.-Duncan is in his grave; 15 After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well; Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison, Lady. Come on; Gentle my lord, 20 Sleek o'er your rugged looks; be bright and jovial Among your guests to-night. Macb. So shall I, love; And so, I pray, be you: Let your remembrance 30 Lady. You must leave this. [wife! 40 [Exit. 45 How now, my lord? why do you keep alone, 1i. e, worried by fortune. 6 Lady. What's to be done? Macb. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck 10 10, Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seel ng" night, Makes wing to the rooky wood": Good things of day begin to droop and drowze; 50 While night's black agents to their preys do rouze. Thou marvell'st at my words: but hold thee still; Things, bad begun, make strong themselves by i!l: So, pr'ythee, go with me. [Exeunt. 2 Such a distance as mortal enemies would stand at from each other 4 i. e. Always 5 ' i. e. Worth 'i. e. Do him when their quarrel must be determined by the sword. 3 Meaning, the exact time. remembering, that throughout the whole transaction I must stand clear of suspicion. less, vile. Ecstacy here signifies any violent emotion of the mind, pain, agony. the highest honours. Eterne for eternal. i. e. according to Mr. Steevens, the beetle borne along the air by its shards or scaly wings; shards signifying scales. But Mr. Tollet says, that shardborn beetle is the beetle born in dung; and that shard signifies dung, is well known in the North of Staffordshire, where cowshard is the word generally used for cow-dung. A term of endearment, "1i. e. blinding. i. e. The light grows dull or muddy. 13i. e. to a rookery. 10 SCENE |