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.