Will I with wine and wassel1 so convince,2
That memory, the warder 3 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? 5

Macb.

Bring forth men-children only!

For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing but males. Will it not be received,6
When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two
Of his own chamber, and used their very daggers,
That they have done 't?

L. Macb.

Who dares receive it other,

As we shall make our griefs and clamor 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.

[Exeunt.

3 Sentinel.

6 Supposed.

A limbeck is a vessel through which distilled liquors pass

1 Intemperance.

into the recipient.

2 Overpower.

5 Murder.

ACT II.

The same.

SCENE I.

Court within the 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 1

in heaven;

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 way to in repose!-Give me my sword ;-

Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch.

Who's there?

Macb. A friend.

1

Ban. What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's a-bed.

1 Thrift.

He hath been in unusual pleasure, and

Sent forth great largess to your officers: 1
This diamond he greets your wife withal,

By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up
In measureless content.2

Macb.

Being unprepared,

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, you would grant the time.

If

Ban.

At your kind'st leisure.

Macb. If you shall cleave to my consent,-when

'tis,

It shall make honor for you.

Ban.

So I lose none,

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

Macb.

Good repose the while!

Ban. Thanks, sir; the like to you! [Exit Banquo. Macb. Go, bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,

1 Officers here signify household servants.
2 i. e. content with every thing around him.

Get thee to bed.

[Exit Servant.

She strike upon the bell.

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 marshal'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 1 gouts 2 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

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,
Which now suits with it.

lives;

Whiles I threat, he

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.

[Exit.

SCENE II.

The same.

Enter LADY MACBETH.

L. Macb. 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!

L. Macb. Alack! I am afraid they have awaked, And 'tis not done :—the attempt, and not the deed,