2 The murder

Enter LADY MACBETH LADY MACBETH

Ay.
LADY MACBETH
That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold; MACBETH
What hath quench'd them hath given me fire. Hark!
Hark! Peace! Who lies i' the second chamber?
It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman,
LADY MACBETH
Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it:
Donalbain.
The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms
Do mock their charge with snores: I have drugg'd MACBETH
their possets, This is a sorry sight.
That death and nature do contend about them,
Whether they live or die. Looking on his hands
MACBETH
[Within] Who's there? what, ho! LADY MACBETH
A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.
LADY MACBETH
Alack, I am afraid they have awaked, MACBETH
And 'tis not done. The attempt and not the deed There's one did laugh in's sleep, and one cried
Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready; 'Murder!'
He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled That they did wake each other: I stood and heard them:
My father as he slept, I had done't. But they did say their prayers, and address'd them
Again to sleep.
Enter MACBETH LADY MACBETH
There are two lodged together.
My husband! MACBETH
MACBETH One cried 'God bless us!' and 'Amen' the other;
I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise? As they had seen me with these hangman's hands.
Listening their fear, I could not say 'Amen,'
LADY MACBETH When they did say 'God bless us!'
I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.
Did not you speak? LADY MACBETH
Consider it not so deeply.
MACBETH
When? MACBETH
But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'?
LADY MACBETH I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen'
Now.
Stuck in my throat.
MACBETH LADY MACBETH
As I descended?
These deeds must not be thought MACBETH
After these ways; so, it will make us mad. Whence is that knocking?
How is't with me, when every noise appals me?
MACBETH
What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes.
Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more!
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Macbeth does murder sleep', the innocent sleep,
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care,
The multitudinous seas in incarnadine,
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, Making the green one red.
Chief nourisher in life's feast,--
Re-enter LADY MACBETH
LADY MACBETH
What do you mean?
LADY MACBETH
MACBETH My hands are of your colour; but I shame
Still it cried 'Sleep no more!' to all the house: To wear a heart so white.
'Glamis hath murder'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor
Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more.' Knocking within
LADY MACBETH
Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane, I hear a knocking
You do unbend your noble strength, to think At the south entry: retire we to our chamber;
So brainsickly of things. Go get some water, A little water clears us of this deed:
And wash this filthy witness from your hand. How easy is it, then! Your constancy
Why did you bring these daggers from the place? Hath left you unattended.
They must lie there: go carry them; and smear
The sleepy grooms with blood. Knocking within
MACBETH
I'll go no more: Hark! more knocking.
I am afraid to think what I have done; Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us,
Look on't again I dare not. And show us to be watchers. Be not lost
LADY MACBETH So poorly in your thoughts.
Infirm of purpose! MACBETH
Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself.
Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, Knocking within
I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal;
For it must seem their guilt.
Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!
Exit. Knocking within
Exeunt
 3 The Banquet
Hall in the palace. A banquet prepared.
MACBETH
Enter MACBETH, LADY MACBETH, ROSS, LENNOX, Lords, and Which of you have done this?
Attendants Lords
LADY MACBETH What, my good lord?
My royal lord, MACBETH
You do not give the cheer: the feast is sold Thou canst not say I did it: never shake
That is not often vouch'd, while 'tis a-making, Thy gory locks at me.
'Tis given with welcome: to feed were best at home; ROSS
From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony; Gentlemen, rise: his highness is not well.
Meeting were bare without it. LADY MACBETH
MACBETH Sit, worthy friends: my lord is often thus,
Sweet remembrancer! And hath been from his youth: pray you, keep seat;
Now, good digestion wait on appetite, The fit is momentary; upon a thought
And health on both! He will again be well: if much you note him,
LENNOX You shall offend him and extend his passion:
May't please your highness sit. Feed, and regard him not. Are you a man?
MACBETH
The GHOST OF BANQUO enters, and sits in MACBETH's place Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
Which might appal the devil.
MACBETH LADY MACBETH
Here had we now our country's honour roof'd, O proper stuff!
Were the graced person of our Banquo present; This is the very painting of your fear:
Who may I rather challenge for unkindness This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said,
Than pity for mischance! Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts,
ROSS Impostors to true fear, would well become
His absence, sir, A woman's story at a winter's fire,
Lays blame upon his promise. Please't your highness Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!
To grace us with your royal company. Why do you make such faces? When all's done,
MACBETH You look but on a stool.
The table's full. MACBETH
LENNOX Prithee, see there! behold! look! lo!
Here is a place reserved, sir. how say you?
MACBETH Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.
Where?
LENNOX GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes
Here, my good lord. What is't that moves your highness?
 Think of this, good peers,
LADY MACBETH But as a thing of custom: 'tis no other;
What, quite unmann'd in folly? Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
MACBETH MACBETH
If I stand here, I saw him. Hence, horrible shadow!
LADY MACBETH Unreal mockery, hence!
Fie, for shame!
MACBETH GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes
Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time,
Ere human statute purged the gentle weal; Why, so: being gone,
Ay, and since too, murders have been perform'd I am a man again. Pray you, sit still.
Too terrible for the ear: the times have been, LADY MACBETH
That, when the brains were out, the man would die, You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting,
And there an end; but now they rise again, With most admired disorder.
With twenty mortal murders on their crowns, MACBETH
And push us from our stools: this is more strange Can such things be,
Than such a murder is. And overcome us like a summer's cloud,
LADY MACBETH Without our special wonder? You make me strange
My worthy lord, Even to the disposition that I owe,
Your noble friends do lack you. When now I think you can behold such sights,
MACBETH And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,
I do forget. When mine is blanched with fear.
Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends, ROSS
I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing What sights, my lord?
To those that know me. Come, love and health to all; LADY MACBETH
Lords I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse;
Our duties, and the pledge. Question enrages him. At once, good night:
Stand not upon the order of your going,
Re-enter GHOST OF BANQUO But go at once.
LENNOX
MACBETH Good night; and better health
Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee! Attend his majesty!
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; LADY MACBETH
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes A kind good night to all!
Which thou dost glare with!
LADY MACBETH

A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron.
Thunder. Enter the three Witches
First Witch
Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
Second Witch
Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.
Third Witch
Harpier cries 'Tis time, 'tis time.
First Witch
Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.
ALL
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
Second Witch
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and owlet's wing,
4 The witches
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
ALL
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Third Witch
Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witches' mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Silver'd in the moon's eclipse,
Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron.
ALL
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Second Witch
Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks, Third Witch
Whoever knocks! We'll answer.
First Witch
Enter MACBETH Say, if thou'dst rather hear it from our mouths,
Or from our masters?
MACBETH
How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags! MACBETH
What is't you do? Call 'em; let me see 'em.
ALL First Witch
A deed without a name. Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten
Her nine farrow; grease that's sweaten
MACBETH
From the murderer's gibbet throw
I conjure you, by that which you profess,
Into the flame.
Howe'er you come to know it, answer me:
Though you untie the winds and let them fight ALL
Against the churches; though the yesty waves Come, high or low;
Confound and swallow navigation up; Thyself and office deftly show!
Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down;
Though castles topple on their warders' heads;
Though palaces and pyramids do slope
Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure
Of nature's germens tumble all together,
Even till destruction sicken; answer me
To what I ask you.
First Witch
Speak.
Second Witch
Demand.