The Tragedy Of Macbeth

1 Hautboys and torches. Enter, and pass over, a Sewer and divers
2 Servants with dishes and service. Then enter Macbeth.
3 MACBETH.
4 If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well
5 It were done quickly. If th’ assassination
6 Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
7 With his surcease success; that but this blow
8 Might be the be-all and the end-all—here,
9 But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
10 We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases
11 We still have judgement here; that we but teach
12 Bloody instructions, which being taught, return
13 To plague th’ inventor. This even-handed justice
14 Commends th’ ingredience of our poison’d chalice
15 To our own lips. He’s here in double trust:
16 First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
17 Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
18 Who should against his murderer shut the door,
19 Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
20 Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
21 So clear in his great office, that his virtues
22 Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
23 The deep damnation of his taking-off;
24 And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
25 Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin, hors’d
26 Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
27 Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
28 That tears shall drown the wind.—I have no spur
29 To prick the sides of my intent, but only
30 Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself
31 And falls on th’ other—
32 Enter Lady Macbeth.
33 How now! what news?
34 LADY MACBETH.
35 He has almost supp’d. Why have you left the chamber?
36 MACBETH.
37 Hath he ask’d for me?
38 LADY MACBETH.
39 Know you not he has?
40 MACBETH.
41 We will proceed no further in this business:
42 He hath honour’d me of late; and I have bought
43 Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
44 Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
45 Not cast aside so soon.
46 LADY MACBETH.
47 Was the hope drunk
48 Wherein you dress’d yourself? Hath it slept since?
49 And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
50 At what it did so freely? From this time
51 Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
52 To be the same in thine own act and valour
53 As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
54 Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life,
55 And live a coward in thine own esteem,
56 Letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would,”
57 Like the poor cat i’ th’ adage?
58 MACBETH.
59 Pr’ythee, peace!
60 I dare do all that may become a man;
61 Who dares do more is none.
62 LADY MACBETH.
63 What beast was’t, then,
64 That made you break this enterprise to me?
65 When you durst do it, then you were a man;
66 And, to be more than what you were, you would
67 Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place
68 Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:
69 They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
70 Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know
71 How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me:
72 I would, while it was smiling in my face,
73 Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums
74 And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you
75 Have done to this.
76 MACBETH.
77 If we should fail?
78 LADY MACBETH.
79 We fail?
80 But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
81 And we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep
82 (Whereto the rather shall his day’s hard journey
83 Soundly invite him), his two chamberlains
84 Will I with wine and wassail so convince
85 That memory, the warder of the brain,
86 Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
87 A limbeck only: when in swinish sleep
88 Their drenched natures lie as in a death,
89 What cannot you and I perform upon
90 Th’ unguarded Duncan? what not put upon
91 His spongy officers; who shall bear the guilt
92 Of our great quell?
93 MACBETH.
94 Bring forth men-children only;
95 For thy undaunted mettle should compose
96 Nothing but males. Will it not be receiv’d,
97 When we have mark’d with blood those sleepy two
98 Of his own chamber, and us’d their very daggers,
99 That they have done’t?
100 LADY MACBETH.
101 Who dares receive it other,
102 As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar
103 Upon his death?
104 MACBETH.
105 I am settled, and bend up
106 Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
107 Away, and mock the time with fairest show:
108 False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
109 [_Exeunt._]