Page:Macbethandkingr00kembgoog.djvu/66

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[51]

promises; by night, his dreams suggest the wicked means of realising them; he prays devoutly to Heaven, to be delivered from the bad temptations that assail him in his slumbers;

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![1]

and yet, the moment this prayer has passed his lips, on meeting the newly-created Thane of Cawdor, the prophecy of the Witches again takes complete possession of his brain:—

I dream'd last night of the three Weird Sisters:
To you they have show'd some truth.[2]


  1. Macbeth, Act ii. Sc. 1.
  2. Ib.