Act II.
Scene III.
Scene III.—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.] Knock,
knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of
Beelzebub? Here's a farmer that hanged him-
self on the expectation of plenty: come in time;
have napkins enough about you; here you'll
sweat for't. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock!
Who's there, 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
equivocate to heaven: O! come in, equivocator.
[Knocking within.] 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.
[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 some of all pro-
fessions, that go the primrose way to the ever-
lasting bonfire. [Knocking within.] Anon, anon!
I pray you, remember the porter.
[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.
Macd. What three things does drink espe-
cially provoke?
Port. Many, 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
be said to be an equivocator with lechery; it
makes him, and it mare 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.
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?
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:
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,
For 'tis my limited service. [Exit.
Len. Goes the king hence to-day?
Macb. He does: he did appoint so.
Len. 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,
And prophesying with accents terrible
Of dire combustion and confus'd 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.
Macb. 'Twas a rough night.
Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel
A fellow to it.
Re-enter MACDUFF.
Macd. O horror! horror! horror! Tongue
nor heart
Cannot conceive nor name thee!
Macb. & Len.} What's the matter?
Macd. Confusion now hath made his master-
piece!
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?
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!
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
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 MACBETH.
Lady M. What's the business,
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
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 any where.
Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself,
And say it is not so.
Re-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,
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:
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 dis-
tracted; no man's life
Was to be trusted with them.
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:
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
For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the mur-
derers,
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
Courage to make his love known?
Lady M. Help me hence, ho I
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
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:
[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
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.
[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
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.
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