Act II, Scene 1

Court of Macbeth’s castle.

[Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE bearing a torch before him]

• Banquo. How goes the night, boy?

• Fleance. The moon is down; I have not heard the clock. 570

• Banquo. And she goes down at twelve.

• Fleance. I take't, 'tis later, sir.

• Banquo. Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven;
  Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.
  A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, 575
  And yet I would not sleep: merciful powers,
  Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature
  Gives way to in repose!
  [Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch]
  Give me my sword. 580
  Who's there?

• Macbeth. A friend.

• Banquo. What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's a-bed:
  He hath been in unusual pleasure, and
  Sent forth great largess to your offices. 585
  This diamond he greets your wife withal,
  By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up
  In measureless content.

• Macbeth. Being unprepared,
  Our will became the servant to defect; 590
  Which else should free have wrought.

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

• Macbeth. I think not of them: 595
  Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,
  We would spend it in some words upon that business,
  If you would grant the time.

• Banquo. At your kind'st leisure.

• Macbeth. If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis, 600
  It shall make honour for you.

• Banquo. So I lose none
  In seeking to augment it, but still keep
  My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,
  I shall be counsell'd. 605

• Macbeth. Good repose the while!

• Banquo. Thanks, sir: the like to you!

[Exeunt BANQUO and FLEANCE]

• Macbeth. Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,
  She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. 610
  [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 615
  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. 620
  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, 625
  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 halfworld
  Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
  The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates 630
  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, 635
  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. 640
  [A bell rings]
  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.

[Exit]

Act II, Scene 2

The same.

[Enter LADY MACBETH]

• Lady Macbeth. 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, 650
  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, 655
  Whether they live or die.

• Macbeth. [Within] Who's there? what, ho!

• Lady Macbeth. 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; 660
  He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled
  My father as he slept, I had done't.
  [Enter MACBETH]
  My husband!

• Macbeth. I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise? 665

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

• Macbeth. When?

• Lady Macbeth. Now.

• Macbeth. As I descended? 670

• Lady Macbeth. Ay.

• Macbeth. Hark!
  Who lies i' the second chamber?

• Lady Macbeth. Donalbain.

• Macbeth. This is a sorry sight. 675

[Looking on his hands]

• Lady Macbeth. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.

• Macbeth. There's one did laugh in's sleep, and one cried
  'Murder!'
  That they did wake each other: I stood and heard them: 680
  But they did say their prayers, and address'd them
  Again to sleep.

• Lady Macbeth. There are two lodged together.

• Macbeth. One cried 'God bless us!' and 'Amen' the other;
  As they had seen me with these hangman's hands. 685
  Listening their fear, I could not say 'Amen,'
  When they did say 'God bless us!'

• Lady Macbeth. Consider it not so deeply.

• Macbeth. But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'?
  I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen' 690
  Stuck in my throat.

• Lady Macbeth. These deeds must not be thought
  After these ways; so, it will make us mad.

• Macbeth. Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more!
  Macbeth does murder sleep', the innocent sleep, 695
  Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve 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 Macbeth. What do you mean? 700

• Macbeth. Still it cried 'Sleep no more!' to all the house:
  'Glamis hath murder'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor
  Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more.'

• Lady Macbeth. Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane,
  You do unbend your noble strength, to think 705
  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?
  They must lie there: go carry them; and smear
  The sleepy grooms with blood. 710

• Macbeth. I'll go no more:
  I am afraid to think what I have done;
  Look on't again I dare not.

• Lady Macbeth. Infirm of purpose!
  Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead 715
  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]

• Macbeth. 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 725
  The multitudinous seas in incarnadine,
  Making the green one red.

[Re-enter LADY MACBETH]

• Lady Macbeth. My hands are of your colour; but I shame
  To wear a heart so white. 730
  [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 735
  Hath left you unattended.
  [Knocking within]
  Hark! more knocking.
  Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us,
  And show us to be watchers. Be not lost 740
  So poorly in your thoughts.

• Macbeth. To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself.
  [Knocking within]
  Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!

[Exeunt]

Act II, Scene 3

The same.

[Knocking within. Enter a Porter]

• Porter. Here's a knocking indeed! If a
  man were porter of hell-gate, he should have
  old turning the key.
  [Knocking within] 750
  Knock,
  knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of
  Beelzebub? Here's a farmer, that hanged
  himself on the expectation of plenty: come in
  time; have napkins enow about you; here 755
  you'll sweat for't.
  [Knocking within]
  Knock,
  knock! Who's there, in the other devil's
  name? Faith, here's an equivocator, that could 760
  swear in both the scales against either scale;
  who committed treason enough for God's sake,
  yet could not equivocate to heaven: O, come
  in, equivocator.
  [Knocking within] 765
  Knock,
  knock, knock! Who's there? Faith, here's an
  English tailor come hither, for stealing out of
  a French hose: come in, tailor; here you may
  roast your goose. 770
  [Knocking within]
  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 775
  some of all professions that go the primrose
  way to the everlasting bonfire.
  [Knocking within]
  Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the porter.

[Opens the gate]

[Enter MACDUFF and LENNOX]

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

• Porter. 'Faith sir, we were carousing till the
  second cock: and drink, sir, is a great 785
  provoker of three things.

• Macduff. What three things does drink especially provoke?

• Porter. Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and
  urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes;
  it provokes the desire, but it takes 790
  away the performance: therefore, much drink
  may be said to be 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 795
  not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him
  in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him.

• Macduff. I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.

• Porter. That it did, sir, i' the very throat on
  me: but I requited him for his lie; and, I 800
  think, being too strong for him, though he took
  up my legs sometime, yet I made a shift to cast
  him.

• Macduff. Is thy master stirring?
  [Enter MACBETH] 805
  Our knocking has awaked him; here he comes.

• Lennox. Good morrow, noble sir.

• Macbeth. Good morrow, both.

• Macduff. Is the king stirring, worthy thane?

• Macbeth. Not yet. 810

• Macduff. He did command me to call timely on him:
  I have almost slipp'd the hour.

• Macbeth. I'll bring you to him.

• Macduff. I know this is a joyful trouble to you;
  But yet 'tis one. 815

• Macbeth. The labour we delight in physics pain.
  This is the door.

• Macduff. I'll make so bold to call,
  For 'tis my limited service.

[Exit]

• Lennox. Goes the king hence to-day?

• Macbeth. He does: he did appoint so.

• Lennox. 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, 825
  And prophesying with accents terrible
  Of dire combustion and confused events
  New hatch'd to the woeful time: the obscure bird
  Clamour'd the livelong night: some say, the earth
  Was feverous and did shake. 830

• Macbeth. 'Twas a rough night.

• Lennox. My young remembrance cannot parallel
  A fellow to it.

[Re-enter MACDUFF]

• Macduff. O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart 835
  Cannot conceive nor name thee!

• Macbeth. [with Lennox] What's the matter.

• Macduff. Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!
  Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope
  The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence 840
  The life o' the building!

• Macbeth. What is 't you say? the life?

• Lennox. Mean you his majesty?

• Macduff. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight
  With a new Gorgon: do not bid me speak; 845
  See, and then speak yourselves.
  [Exeunt MACBETH and LENNOX]
  Awake, awake!
  Ring the alarum-bell. Murder and treason!
  Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm! awake! 850
  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! Ring the bell. 855

[Bell rings]

[Enter LADY MACBETH]

• Lady Macbeth. What's the business,
  That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley
  The sleepers of the house? speak, speak! 860

• Macduff. O gentle lady,
  'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak:
  The repetition, in a woman's ear,
  Would murder as it fell.
  [Enter BANQUO] 865
  O Banquo, Banquo,
  Our royal master 's murder'd!

• Lady Macbeth. Woe, alas!
  What, in our house?

• Banquo. Too cruel any where. 870
  Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself,
  And say it is not so.

[Re-enter MACBETH and LENNOX, with ROSS]

• Macbeth. Had I but died an hour before this chance,
  I had lived a blessed time; for, from this instant, 875
  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]

• Donalbain. What is amiss?

• Macbeth. You are, and do not know't:
  The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood
  Is stopp'd; the very source of it is stopp'd.

• Macduff. Your royal father 's murder'd. 885

• Malcolm. O, by whom?

• Lennox. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done 't:
  Their hands and faces were an badged with blood;
  So were their daggers, which unwiped we found
  Upon their pillows: 890
  They stared, and were distracted; no man's life
  Was to be trusted with them.

• Macbeth. O, yet I do repent me of my fury,
  That I did kill them.

• Macduff. Wherefore did you so? 895

• Macbeth. Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,
  Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:
  The expedition my violent love
  Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,
  His silver skin laced with his golden blood; 900
  And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature
  For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,
  Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers
  Unmannerly breech'd with gore: who could refrain,
  That had a heart to love, and in that heart 905
  Courage to make 's love known?

• Lady Macbeth. Help me hence, ho!

• Macduff. Look to the lady.

• Malcolm. [Aside to DONALBAIN] Why do we hold our tongues,
  That most may claim this argument for ours? 910

• Donalbain. [Aside to MALCOLM] What should be spoken here,
  where our fate,
  Hid in an auger-hole, may rush, and seize us?
  Let 's away;
  Our tears are not yet brew'd. 915

• Malcolm. [Aside to DONALBAIN] Nor our strong sorrow
  Upon the foot of motion.

• Banquo. Look to the lady:
  [LADY MACBETH is carried out]
  And when we have our naked frailties hid, 920
  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 undivulged pretence I fight 925
  Of treasonous malice.

• Macduff. And so do I.

• All. So all.

• Macbeth. Let's briefly put on manly readiness,
  And meet i' the hall together. 930

• All. Well contented.

[Exeunt all but Malcolm and Donalbain.]

• Malcolm. 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. 935

• Donalbain. 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.

• Malcolm. This murderous shaft that's shot 940
  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. 945

[Exeunt]

Act II, Scene 4

Outside Macbeth’s castle.

[Enter ROSS and an old Man]

• Old Man. 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 950
  Hath trifled former knowings.

• Ross. Ah, good father,
  Thou seest, 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: 955
  Is't night's predominance, or the day's shame,
  That darkness does the face of earth entomb,
  When living light should kiss it?

• Old Man. 'Tis unnatural,
  Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last, 960
  A falcon, towering in her pride of place,
  Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd.

• Ross. And Duncan's horses—a thing most strange and certain—
  Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race,
  Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, 965
  Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make
  War with mankind.

• Old Man. 'Tis said they eat each other.

• Ross. They did so, to the amazement of mine eyes
  That look'd upon't. Here comes the good Macduff. 970
  [Enter MACDUFF]
  How goes the world, sir, now?

• Macduff. Why, see you not?

• Ross. Is't known who did this more than bloody deed?

• Macduff. Those that Macbeth hath slain. 975

• Ross. Alas, the day!
  What good could they pretend?

• Macduff. They were suborn'd:
  Malcolm and Donalbain, the king's two sons,
  Are stol'n away and fled; which puts upon them 980
  Suspicion of the deed.

• Ross. 'Gainst nature still!
  Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up
  Thine own life's means! Then 'tis most like
  The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth. 985

• Macduff. He is already named, and gone to Scone
  To be invested.

• Ross. Where is Duncan's body?

• Macduff. Carried to Colmekill,
  The sacred storehouse of his predecessors, 990
  And guardian of their bones.

• Ross. Will you to Scone?

• Macduff. No, cousin, I'll to Fife.

• Ross. Well, I will thither.

• Macduff. Well, may you see things well done there: adieu! 995
  Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!

• Ross. Farewell, father.

• Old Man. God's benison go with you; and with those
  That would make good of bad, and friends of foes!

[Exeunt]