And live a coward in thine own esteem;
Letting I dare not wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat i'the adage?

Pr'ythee, peace:

Macb.
I dare do all that may become a man ;
Who dares do more, is none.
Lady M.
That made

What beast was it then,
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 6, and yet you would make both:
They have made themselves, and that their fitness

now

Does unmake you. I have given suck; and know How tender 'tis, to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face,

Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums, And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn, as you Have done to this.

Macb.
Lady M.

If we should fail,

We fail! But screw your courage to the sticking-place, 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 7 so convince 8, That memory, the warder of the brain, Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason A limbeck only: When in swinish sleep Their drenched 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? 1

7 Intemperance.

9 Sentinel.

6 In the same sense as cohere. Overpower.

1 Murder.

Macb.

Bring forth men-children only! For thy undaunted mettle should compose

Nothing but males. Will it not be receiv'd 1, When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two, Of his own chamber, and us'd their very daggers, That they have done't?

Lady M.

Who dares receive it other,

As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar
Upon his death?

Macb.

I am settled, and bend up

Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.

Away, and mock the time with fairest show:

False face must hide what the false heart doth know

ACT THE SECOND.

[Exeunt.

SCENE I.

Court within Macbeth's Castle.

Enter BANQUO and FLEANCE, and a Servant, with a torch before them.

Ban. How goes the night, boy?

Fle. The moon is down; I have not heard the

clock.

Ban. And she goes down at twelve.

Fle.

I take't, 'tis later, sir.

Ban. Hold, take my sword:-There's husbandry 2

in heaven,

' Supposed.

VOL. IV.

2 Thrift.

Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.
A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,
And yet I would not sleep: Merciful powers!
Restrain in me the cursed thoughts, that nature
Gives to in repose! Give me my sword:
way

Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch.

Who's there?

Mach. A friend.

Ban. What, sir, not yet at rest?

a-bed:

The king's

He hath been in unusual pleasure, and
Sent forth great largess 3 to your offices 4:
This diamond he greets your wife withal,

By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up
In measureless content.

Macb.

Being unprepar'd, Our will became the servant to defect; Which else should free have wrought.

Ban. All's well. I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters: To you they have show'd some truth.

Macb.

I think not of them: Yet when we can entreat an hour to serve, Would spend it in some words upon that business, If you would grant the time.

Ban.

At your kind'st leisure. Macb. If you shall cleave to my consent, - when

'tis,

It shall make honour for you.

So I lose none

Ban.
In seeking to augment it, but still keep
My bosom franchis'd, and allegiance clear,
I shall be counsell'd.

'Mach.

3 Bounty.

Good repose, the while.

4 The rooms appropriated to servants.

5 Conclude.

Ban. Thanks, sir; The like to you.

[Exit BANQUO and FLEANCE. Macb. Go, bid thy mistress, when my drink is

ready,

She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.

[Exit Servant.

Is this a dagger, which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch

thee:

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible

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 6, gouts 7 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 curtain'd sleep; now witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murder,
Alarum'd 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 where-about,

And take the present horror from the time,

6 Haft, handle.

7 Drops.

Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he

lives;

Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.

[A bell rings. go, and it is done; the bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell

I

That summons thee to heaven or to hell.

[Exit.

SCENE 11.

The same.

Enter Lady MACBETH.

Lady M. That which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold;

What hath quench'd them, hath given me fire:

Hark!

Peace!

It was the owl that shriek'd, 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 drugg'd
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 awak'd, And 'tis not done: - the attempt, and not the

He could not miss them. Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done't. My hus

band?

Enter MACBeth.

Macb. I have done the deed:

hear a noise?

Didst thou not