Macbeth (1918) Yale/Text/Act II
ACT SECOND
Scene One
[Court within the Castle]
Enter Banquo, and Fleance with a Torch before him.
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 in heaven; 4
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.
Enter Macbeth, and a Servant with a torch.
Give me my sword.— 9
Who's there?
Macb. A friend.
Ban. What, sir! not yet at rest? The king's a-bed: 12
He hath been in unusual pleasure, and
Sent forth great largess to your offices.
This diamond he greets your wife withal,
By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up
In measureless content.
Macb. Being unprepar'd, 17
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: 20
To you they have show'd some truth.
Macb. I think not of them:
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.
Ban. At your kind'st leisure. 24
Macb. If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis,
It shall make honour for you.
Ban. So I lose none
In seeking to augment it, but still keep
My bosom franchis'd and allegiance clear, 28
I shall be counsell'd.
Macb. Good repose the while!
Ban. Thanks, sir: the like to you.
Exit Banquo [with Fleance].
Macb. Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready
She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. 32
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 36
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 40
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, 44
Or else worth all the rest: I see thee still;
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before. There's no such thing:
It is the bloody business which informs 48
Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one half-world
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murder, 52
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, 56
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: 60
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
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. 64
Exit.
Scene Two
[The Same]
Enter Lady.
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: 4
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. 8
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 deed
Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready; 12
He could not miss them. Had he not resembled
My father as he slept I had done 't. My husband!
Enter Macbeth.
Macb. I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?
Lady M. I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. 16
Did not you speak?
Macb. When?
Lady M. Now.
Macb. As I descended?
Lady M. Ay.
Macb. Hark!
Who lies i' the second chamber?
Lady M. Donalbain. 20
Macb. [Looking on his hands.] This is a sorry sight.
Lady M. A foolish thought to say a sorry sight.
Macb. There's one did laugh in 's sleep, and one cried 'Murder!'
That they did wake each other: I stood and heard them; 24
But they did say their prayers, and address'd them
Again to sleep.
Lady M. There are two lodg'd together.
Macb. One cried 'God bless us!' and 'Amen' the other,
As they had seen me with these hangman's hands. 28
Listening their fear, I could not say 'Amen,'
When they did say 'God bless us!'
Lady M. Consider it not so deeply.
Macb. But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'?
I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen' 32
Stuck in my throat.
Lady M. These deeds must not be thought
After these ways; so, it will make us mad.
Macb. Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! 35
Macbeth does murder sleep,' the innocent sleep,
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 M. What do you mean? 40
Macb. 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 M. Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane, 44
You do unbend your noble strength to think
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? 48
They must lie there: go carry them, and smear
The sleepy grooms with blood.
Macb. I'll go no more:
I am afraid to think what I have done;
Look on 't again I dare not.
Lady M. Infirm of purpose! 52
Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead
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; 56
For it must seem their guilt. Exit. Knock within.
Macb. 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 60
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
Enter Lady.
Lady M. My hands are of your colour, but I shame
To wear a heart so white.— Knock.
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 68
Hath left you unattended. Knock.
Hark! more knocking.
Get on your night-gown, lest occasion call us,
And show us to be watchers. Be not lost
So poorly in your thoughts. 72
Macb. To know my deed 'twere best not know myself. Knock.
Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst! Exeunt.
Scene Three
[The Same]
Enter a Porter. Knocking within.
Porter. 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, i' the name of Beelzebub? 4
Here's a farmer that hanged himself on the
expectation of plenty: come in time; have
napkins enow about you; here you'll sweat
for 't. Knock. Knock, knock! Who's there 8
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 12
equivocate to heaven: O! come in, equivocator.
Knock. Knock, knock, knock! Who's there?
Faith, here's an English tailor come hither
for stealing out of a French hose: come in, 16
tailor; here you may roast your goose. Knock.
Knock, knock; never at quiet! What are you?
But this place is too cold for hell. I'll devil- 20
porter it no further: I had thought to have let
in some of all professions, that go the prim-
rose way to the everlasting bonfire. Knock.
Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the porter. 24
[Opens the gate.]
Enter Macduff and Lennox.
Macd. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed,
That you do lie so late?
Port. Faith, sir, we were carousing till the
second cock; and drink, sir, is a great provoker
of three things. 29
Macd. What three things does drink espe-
cially provoke?
Port. Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and
urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unpro-
vokes; it provokes the desire, but it takes away
the performance. Therefore much drink may 35
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 dis-
heartens him; makes him stand to, and not
stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him in a
sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him. 41
Macd. I believe drink gave thee the lie last
night.
Port. That it did, sir, i' the very throat o' me:
but I requited him for his lie; and, I think, being
too strong for him, though he took up my legs
sometime, yet I made a shift to cast him.
Macd. Is thy master stirring? 48
Enter Macbeth.
Our knocking has awak'd him; here he comes.
Len. Good morrow, noble sir.
Macb. Good morrow, both.
Macd. Is the king stirring, worthy thane?
Macb. Not yet.
Macd. He did command me to call timely on him: 52
I have almost slipp'd the hour.
Macb. I'll bring you to him.
Macd. I know this is a joyful trouble to you;
But yet 'tis one.
Macb. The labour we delight in physics pain.
This is the door.
Macd. I'll make so bold to call, 57
For 'tis my limited service. Exit Macduff.
Len. Goes the king hence to-day?
Macb. He does: he did appoint so.
Len. The night has been unruly: where we lay, 60
Our chimneys were blown down; and, as they say,
Lamentings heard i' the air; strange screams of death,
And prophesying with accents terrible
Of dire combustion and confus'd events 64
New hatch'd to the woeful time. The obscure bird
Clamour'd the livelong night: some say the earth
Was feverous and did shake.
Macb. 'Twas a rough night.
Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel
A fellow to it. 69
Enter Macduff.
Macd. O horror! horror! horror! Tongue nor heart
Cannot conceive nor name thee!
| Macb. | What's the matter? | |
| Len. |
Macd. Confusion now hath made his masterpiece! 72
Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope
The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence
The life o' the building!
Macb. What is 't you say? the life? 76
Len. Mean you his majesty?
Macd. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight
With a new Gorgon: do not bid me speak;
See, and then speak yourselves.
Exeunt Macbeth and Lennox.
Awake! awake! 80
Ring the alarum-bell. Murder and treason!
Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm! awake!
Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit,
And look on death itself! up, up, and see 84
The great doom's image! Malcolm! Banquo!
As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites,
To countenance this horror! Ring the bell.
Bell rings. Enter Lady.
Lady M. What's the business, 88
That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley
The sleepers of the house? speak, speak!
Macd. O gentle lady!
'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak;
The repetition in a woman's ear 92
Would murder as it fell.
Enter Banquo.
O Banquo! Banquo!
Our royal master's murder'd!
Lady M. Woe, alas!
What! in our house?
Ban. Too cruel anywhere.
Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself, 96
And say it is not so.
Enter Macbeth and Lennox.
Macb. Had I but died an hour before this chance,
I had liv'd a blessed time; for, from this instant,
There's nothing serious in mortality: 100
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.
Don. What is amiss?
Macb. 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.
Macd. Your royal father's murder'd.
Mal. O! by whom?
Len. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done 't: 108
Their hands and faces were all badg'd with blood;
So were their daggers, which unwip'd we found
Upon their pillows: they star'd, and were distracted;
No man's life was to be trusted with them. 112
Macb. O! yet I do repent me of my fury,
That I did kill them.
Macd. Wherefore did you so?
Macb. Who can be wise, amaz'd, temperate and furious,
Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man: 116
The expedition of my violent love
Outran the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,
His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood;
And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature 120
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 124
Courage to make 's love known?
Lady M. Help me hence, ho!
Macd. Look to the lady.
Mal. [Aside to Donalbain.] Why do we hold our tongues,
That most may claim this argument for ours?
Don. [Aside to Malcolm.] What should be spoken 128
Here where our fate, hid in an auger-hole,
May rush and seize us? Let's away: our tears
Are not yet brew'd.
Mal. [Aside to Donalbain.] Nor our strong sorrow
Upon the foot of motion.
Ban. Look to the lady: 132
[Lady Macbeth is carried out.]
And when we have our naked frailties hid,
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 137
Against the undivulg'd pretence I fight
Of treasonous malice.
Macd. And so do I.
All. So all.
Macb. Let's briefly put on manly readiness,
And meet i' the hall together.
All. Well contented. 141
Exeunt [all but Malcolm and Donalbain].
Mal. 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.
Don. 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.
Mal. This murderous shaft that's shot
Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way 149
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.
Exeunt.
Scene Four
[Without the Castle]
Enter Ross, with 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
Hath trifled former knowings.
Ross. Ah! good father, 4
Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act,
Threatens his bloody stage: by the clock 'tis day,
And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp.
Is 't night's predominance, or the day's shame,
That darkness does the face of earth entomb, 9
When living light should kiss it?
Old Man. 'Tis unnatural,
Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last,
A falcon, towering in her pride of place, 12
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, 16
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. 20
Enter Macduff.
How goes the world, sir, now?
Macd. Why, see you not?
Ross. Is 't known who did this more than bloody deed?
Macd. Those that Macbeth hath slain.
Ross. Alas, the day!
What good could they pretend?
Macd. They were suborn'd. 24
Malcolm and Donalbain, the king's two sons,
Are stol'n away and fled, which puts upon them
Suspicion of the deed.
Ross. 'Gainst nature still!
Thriftless ambition, that will ravin up 28
Thine own life's means! Then 'tis most like
The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.
Macd. He is already nam'd, and gone to Scone
To be invested.
Ross. Where is Duncan's body? 32
Macd. Carried to Colmekill,
The sacred storehouse of his predecessors
And guardian of their bones.
Ross. Will you to Scone?
Macd. No, cousin, I'll to Fife.
Ross. Well, I will thither. 36
Macd. Well, may you see things well done there: adieu!
Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!
Ross. Farewell, father.
Old Man. God's benison go with you; and with those 40
That would make good of bad, and friends of foes!
Exeunt omnes.
Footnotes to Act II
Scene One
4 husbandry: economy
6 summons: i.e., sleepiness
14 largess: gifts
offices: servants' quarters
16 shut up; cf. n.
17–19 Cf. n.
25 consent: policy, plan
when 'tis: i.e., when it takes effect
28 franchis'd: free
36 sensible: perceptible
46 dudgeon: hilt
gouts: drops
48 informs: assumes shape (?)
52 Hecate's offerings: offerings to the goddess of sorcery
53 Alarum'd: aroused
54 Cf. n.
55 Tarquin; cf. n.
59 present horror: i.e., silence
Scene Two
3 bellman: watchman; cf. n.
5 surfeited: over-filled (with food or drink)
6 possets: a kind of milk-punch
12 Confounds: will ruin
28 As: as if
37 ravell'd sleeve; cf. n.
39 second course: i.e., the chief course (in a dinner)
62 incarnadine: redden
70 night-gown: dressing-gown
73 To know my deed: if I must be aware of my deed
Scene Three
2 old: endless
5 farmer; cf. n.
6 come in time: welcome
7 napkins: handkerchiefs
enow: enough
10 equivocator; cf. n.
17 goose: tailor's flatiron
47 cast: throw, throw up
56 physics: cures
58 limited: appointed
64 combustion: uproar
65 obscure bird: owl
69 fellow: equal
79 Gorgon: a monster who turned beholders to stone
85 great doom's image: likeness of Judgment Day
86 sprites: spirits
87 countenance: behold (?), be in keeping with (?)
100 mortality: mortal life
101 toys: trivialities
102 lees: dregs
103 vault; cf. n.
109 badg'd: labeled (i.e., as murderers)
117 expedition: haste
120 nature; cf. n.
123 breech'd: clothed in breeches
127 argument: topic
132 Upon . . . motion: ready for action
133 naked frailties hid: i.e., dressed ourselves
138 pretence: intention
142 consort: associate
147 near: nearer
151 dainty: formal
152 shift: steal
Scene Four
4 trifled: made trifles of
7 travelling lamp: sun
8 predominance: supremacy
12 towering: circling upward
pride of place: highest elevation
24 pretend: intend
suborn'd: instigated, led on
28 ravin up: devour
32 invested: robed and crowned
40 benison: blessing