The Tragedy Of Macbeth

1 Enter a Porter. Knocking within.
2 PORTER.
3 Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell gate, he should
4 have old turning the key. [_Knocking._] Knock, knock, knock. Who’s
5 there, i’ th’ name of Belzebub? Here’s a farmer that hanged himself on
6 the expectation of plenty: come in time; have napkins enow about you;
7 here you’ll sweat for’t. [_Knocking._] Knock, knock! Who’s there, i’
8 th’ other devil’s name? Faith, here’s an equivocator, that could swear
9 in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough
10 for God’s sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven: O, come in,
11 equivocator. [_Knocking._] Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there? Faith,
12 here’s an English tailor come hither, for stealing out of a French
13 hose: come in, tailor; here you may roast your goose. [_Knocking._]
14 Knock, knock. Never at quiet! What are you?—But this place is too cold
15 for hell. I’ll devil-porter it no further: I had thought to have let in
16 some of all professions, that go the primrose way to th’ everlasting
17 bonfire. [_Knocking._] Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the porter.
18 [_Opens the gate._]
19 Enter Macduff and Lennox.
20 MACDUFF.
21 Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed,
22 That you do lie so late?
23 PORTER.
24 Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock; and drink, sir, is
25 a great provoker of three things.
26 MACDUFF.
27 What three things does drink especially provoke?
28 PORTER.
29 Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes
30 and unprovokes; it provokes the desire, but it takes away the
31 performance. Therefore much drink may be said to be an equivocator with
32 lechery: it makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes
33 him off; it persuades him, and disheartens him; makes him stand to, and
34 not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and giving him
35 the lie, leaves him.
36 MACDUFF.
37 I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.
38 PORTER.
39 That it did, sir, i’ the very throat on me; but I requited him for his
40 lie; and (I think) being too strong for him, though he took up my legs
41 sometime, yet I made a shift to cast him.
42 MACDUFF.
43 Is thy master stirring?
44 Enter Macbeth.
45 Our knocking has awak’d him; here he comes.
46 LENNOX.
47 Good morrow, noble sir!
48 MACBETH.
49 Good morrow, both!
50 MACDUFF.
51 Is the King stirring, worthy thane?
52 MACBETH.
53 Not yet.
54 MACDUFF.
55 He did command me to call timely on him.
56 I have almost slipp’d the hour.
57 MACBETH.
58 I’ll bring you to him.
59 MACDUFF.
60 I know this is a joyful trouble to you;
61 But yet ’tis one.
62 MACBETH.
63 The labour we delight in physics pain.
64 This is the door.
65 MACDUFF.
66 I’ll make so bold to call.
67 For ’tis my limited service.
68 [_Exit Macduff._]
69 LENNOX.
70 Goes the King hence today?
71 MACBETH.
72 He does. He did appoint so.
73 LENNOX.
74 The night has been unruly: where we lay,
75 Our chimneys were blown down and, as they say,
76 Lamentings heard i’ th’ air, strange screams of death,
77 And prophesying, with accents terrible,
78 Of dire combustion and confus’d events,
79 New hatch’d to the woeful time. The obscure bird
80 Clamour’d the live-long night. Some say the earth
81 Was feverous, and did shake.
82 MACBETH.
83 ’Twas a rough night.
84 LENNOX.
85 My young remembrance cannot parallel
86 A fellow to it.
87 Enter Macduff.
88 MACDUFF.
89 O horror, horror, horror!
90 Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee!
91 MACBETH, LENNOX.
92 What’s the matter?
93 MACDUFF.
94 Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!
95 Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope
96 The Lord’s anointed temple, and stole thence
97 The life o’ th’ building.
98 MACBETH.
99 What is’t you say? the life?
100 LENNOX.
101 Mean you his majesty?
102 MACDUFF.
103 Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight
104 With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak.
105 See, and then speak yourselves.
106 [_Exeunt Macbeth and Lennox._]
107 Awake, awake!—
108 Ring the alarum bell.—Murder and treason!
109 Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm! awake!
110 Shake off this downy sleep, death’s counterfeit,
111 And look on death itself! Up, up, and see
112 The great doom’s image. Malcolm! Banquo!
113 As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites
114 To countenance this horror!
115 [_Alarum-bell rings._]
116 Enter Lady Macbeth.
117 LADY MACBETH.
118 What’s the business,
119 That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley
120 The sleepers of the house? Speak, speak!
121 MACDUFF.
122 O gentle lady,
123 ’Tis not for you to hear what I can speak:
124 The repetition, in a woman’s ear,
125 Would murder as it fell.
126 Enter Banquo.
127 O Banquo, Banquo!
128 Our royal master’s murder’d!
129 LADY MACBETH.
130 Woe, alas!
131 What, in our house?
132 BANQUO.
133 Too cruel anywhere.—
134 Dear Duff, I pr’ythee, contradict thyself,
135 And say it is not so.
136 Enter Macbeth and Lennox with Ross.
137 MACBETH.
138 Had I but died an hour before this chance,
139 I had liv’d a blessed time; for, from this instant
140 There’s nothing serious in mortality.
141 All is but toys: renown and grace is dead;
142 The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
143 Is left this vault to brag of.
144 Enter Malcolm and Donalbain.
145 DONALBAIN.
146 What is amiss?
147 MACBETH.
148 You are, and do not know’t:
149 The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood
150 Is stopp’d; the very source of it is stopp’d.
151 MACDUFF.
152 Your royal father’s murder’d.
153 MALCOLM.
154 O, by whom?
155 LENNOX.
156 Those of his chamber, as it seem’d, had done’t:
157 Their hands and faces were all badg’d with blood;
158 So were their daggers, which, unwip’d, we found
159 Upon their pillows. They star’d, and were distracted;
160 No man’s life was to be trusted with them.
161 MACBETH.
162 O, yet I do repent me of my fury,
163 That I did kill them.
164 MACDUFF.
165 Wherefore did you so?
166 MACBETH.
167 Who can be wise, amaz’d, temperate, and furious,
168 Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:
169 Th’ expedition of my violent love
170 Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,
171 His silver skin lac’d with his golden blood;
172 And his gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in nature
173 For ruin’s wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,
174 Steep’d in the colours of their trade, their daggers
175 Unmannerly breech’d with gore. Who could refrain,
176 That had a heart to love, and in that heart
177 Courage to make’s love known?
178 LADY MACBETH.
179 Help me hence, ho!
180 MACDUFF.
181 Look to the lady.
182 MALCOLM.
183 Why do we hold our tongues,
184 That most may claim this argument for ours?
185 DONALBAIN.
186 What should be spoken here, where our fate,
187 Hid in an auger hole, may rush, and seize us?
188 Let’s away. Our tears are not yet brew’d.
189 MALCOLM.
190 Nor our strong sorrow
191 Upon the foot of motion.
192 BANQUO.
193 Look to the lady:—
194 [_Lady Macbeth is carried out._]
195 And when we have our naked frailties hid,
196 That suffer in exposure, let us meet,
197 And question this most bloody piece of work
198 To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us:
199 In the great hand of God I stand; and thence
200 Against the undivulg’d pretence I fight
201 Of treasonous malice.
202 MACDUFF.
203 And so do I.
204 ALL.
205 So all.
206 MACBETH.
207 Let’s briefly put on manly readiness,
208 And meet i’ th’ hall together.
209 ALL.
210 Well contented.
211 [_Exeunt all but Malcolm and Donalbain._]
212 MALCOLM.
213 What will you do? Let’s not consort with them:
214 To show an unfelt sorrow is an office
215 Which the false man does easy. I’ll to England.
216 DONALBAIN.
217 To Ireland, I. Our separated fortune
218 Shall keep us both the safer. Where we are,
219 There’s daggers in men’s smiles: the near in blood,
220 The nearer bloody.
221 MALCOLM.
222 This murderous shaft that’s shot
223 Hath not yet lighted; and our safest way
224 Is to avoid the aim. Therefore to horse;
225 And let us not be dainty of leave-taking,
226 But shift away. There’s warrant in that theft
227 Which steals itself, when there’s no mercy left.
228 [_Exeunt._]