Nothing but males. Will it not be received,

When we have marked with blood those sleepy two

Of his own chamber and used their very daggers,

That they have done’t?

LADY MACBETH

Who dares receive it other,

As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar

Upon his death?

MACBETH

I am settled, and bend up

Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.

Away, and mock the time with fairest show.

False face must hide what the false heart doth know.

Exeunt

2.1 Enter Banquo and Fleance, with a torch before him

BANQUO How goes the night, boy?

FLEANCE

The moon is down. I have not heard the clock.

BANQUO

And she goes down at twelve.

FLEANCE

I take’t ’tis later, sir.

BANQUO (giving Fleance his sword)

Hold, take my sword. There’s husbandry in heaven,

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. Who’s there?

MACBETH A friend.

BANQUO

What, sir, not yet at rest? The King’s a-bed.

He hath been in unusual pleasure, and

Sent forth great largesse to your offices.

This diamond he greets your wife withal

By the name of most kind hostess, and shut up

In measureless content.

MACBETH

Being unprepared

Our will became the servant to defect,

Which else should free have wrought.

BANQUO

All’s well.

I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters.

To you they have showed some truth.

MACBETH

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.

BANQUO

At your kind’st leisure.

MACBETH

If you shall cleave to my consent when ’tis,

It shall make honour for you.

BANQUO

So I lose none

In seeking to augment it, but still keep

My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,

I shall be counselled.

MACBETH Good repose the while.

BANQUO Thanks, sir. The like to you.

Exeunt Banquo and Fleance

MACBETH (to the Servant)

Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,

She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. 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

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

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’th’ other senses,

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

Thus to mine eyes. Now o’er the one half-world

Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse

The curtained sleep. Witchcraft celebrates

Pale Hecate’s offerings, and withered murder,

Alarumed 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,

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.

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. Exit

2.2 Enter Lady Macbeth

LADY MACBETH

That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold.

What hath quenched them hath given me fire. Hark,

peace!—

It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman

Which gives the stern’st good-night. He is about it.

The doors are open, and the surfeited grooms

Do mock their charge with snores. I have drugged

their possets

That death and nature do contend about them

Whether they live or die.

Enter Macbeth [above]

MACBETH Who’s there?

What ho? Exit

LADY MACBETH

Alack, I am afraid they have awaked,

And ‘tis not done. Th’attempt and not the deed

Confounds us. Hark!—I laid their daggers ready;

He could not miss ’em. Had he not resembled

My father as he slept, I had done’t.

[Enter Macbeth below]

My husband!

MACBETH

I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?

LADY MACBETH