I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.

Did not you speak?

MACBETH When?

LADY MACBETH Now.

MACBETH As I descended?

LADY MACBETH

Ay.

MACBETH Hark!—Who lies i’th’ second chamber?

LADY MACBETH

Donalbain.

MACBETH (looking at his hands) This is a sorry sight.

LADY MACBETH

A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.

MACBETH

There’s one did laugh in’s sleep, and one cried ‘Murder!’

That they did wake each other. I stood and heard

them.

But they did say their prayers and addressed them

Again to sleep.

LADY MACBETH There are two lodged together.

MACBETH

One cried ‘God bless us’ and ‘Amen’ the other,

As they had seen me with these hangman’s hands.

List‘ning their fear I could not say ‘Amen’

When they did say ‘God bless us.’

LADY MACBETH

Consider it not so deeply.

MACBETH

But wherefore could not I pronounce ‘Amen’?

I had most need of blessing, and ‘Amen’

Stuck in my throat.

LADY MACBETH These deeds must not be thought

After these ways. So, it will make us mad.

MACBETH

Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more,

Macbeth does murder sleep’—the innocent sleep,

Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care,

The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath,

Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,

Chief nourisher in life’s feast—

LADY MACBETH

What do you mean?

MACBETH

Still it cried ‘Sleep no more’ to all the house,

‘Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor

Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more.’

LADY MACBETH

Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane,

You do unbend your noble strength to think

So brain-sickly of things. Go get some water

And wash this filthy witness from your hand.

Why did you bring these daggers from the place?

They must lie there. Go, carry them, and smear

The sleepy grooms with blood.

MACBETH

I’ll go no more.

I am afraid to think what I have done,

Look on’t again I dare not.

LADY MACBETH

Infirm of purpose!

Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead

Are but as pictures. ’Tis the eye of childhood

That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed

I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal,

For it must seem their guilt. Exit

Knock within

MACBETH

Whence is that knocking?—

How is’t with me when every noise appals me?

What hands are here! Ha, they pluck out mine eyes.

Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood

Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather

The multitudinous seas incarnadine,

Making the green one red.

Enter Lady Macbeth

LADY MACBETH

My hands are of your colour, but I shame

To wear a heart so white.

Knock within

I hear a knocking

At the south entry. Retire we to our chamber.

A little water clears us of this deed.

How easy is it then! Your constancy

Hath left you unattended.

Knock within

Hark, more knocking.

Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us

And show us to be watchers. Be not lost

So poorly in your thoughts.

MACBETH

To know my deed ’twere best not know myself.

Knock within

Wake Duncan with thy knocking. I would thou

couldst. Exeunt

2.3 Enter a Porter. Knocking within

PORTER Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were porter

of hell-gate he should have old turning the key.

Knock within

Knock, knock, knock. Who’s there, i‘th’ name of

Beelzebub? Here’s a farmer that hanged himself on

th’expectation of plenty. Come in time! Have napkins

enough about you; here you’ll sweat for’t.

Knock within

Knock, knock. Who’s there, in th‘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.

Knock 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.

Knock 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 professions

that go the primrose way to th’everlasting bonfire.

Knock within

Anon, anon!

He opens the gate

I pray you remember the porter.

Enter Macduff and Lennox

MACDUFF

Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed

That you do lie so late?

PORTER Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock, and drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things.

MACDUFF What three things does drink especially provoke?

PORTER Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes and unprovokes: 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 mars him; it sets him on and it takes him off; it persuades him and disheartens him, makes him stand to and not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him.