MACDUFF I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.

PORTER That it did, sir, i’the very throat on me; but I requited him for his lie, and, I think, being too strong for him, though he took up my legs sometime, yet I made a shift to cast him.

MACDUFF Is thy master stirring?

Enter Macbeth

Our knocking has awaked him: here he comes. [Exit Porter]

LENNOX (to Macbeth)

Good morrow, noble sir.

MACBETH

Good morrow, both.

MACDUFF

Is the King stirring, worthy thane?

MACBETH

Not yet.

MACDUFF

He did command me to call timely on him.

I have almost slipped the hour.

MACBETH

I’ll bring you to him.

MACDUFF

I know this is a joyful trouble to you,

But yet ’tis one.

MACBETH

The labour we delight in physics pain.

This is the door.

MACDUFF

I’ll make so bold to call,

For ’tis my limited service. Exit Macduff

LENNOX

Goes the King hence today?

MACBETH

He does; he did appoint so.

LENNOX

The night has been unruly. Where we lay

Our chimneys were blown down, and, as they say,

Lamentings heard i’th’ air, strange screams of death,

And prophesying with accents terrible

Of dire combustion and confused events

New-hatched to th’ woeful time. The obscure bird

Clamoured the livelong night. Some say the earth

Was feverous and did shake.

MACBETH

’Twas a rough night.

LENNOX

My young remembrance cannot parallel

A fellow to it.

Enter Macduff

MACDUFF O horror, horror, horror!

Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee.

MACBETH and LENNOX What’s the matter?

MACDUFF

Confusion now hath made his masterpiece.

Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope

The Lord’s anointed temple and stole thence

The life o’th’ building.

MACBETH What is’t you say—the life?

LENNOX Mean you his majesty?

MACDUFF

Approach the chamber and destroy your sight

With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak.

See, and then speak yourselves.

Exeunt Macbeth and Lennox

Awake, awake!

Ring the alarum bell. Murder and treason!

Banquo and Donalbain, Malcolm, awake!

Shake off this downy sleep, death’s counterfeit,

And look on death itself. Up, up, and see

The great doom’s image. Malcolm, Banquo,

As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites

To countenance this horror.

Bell rings. Enter Lady Macbeth

LADY MACBETH

What’s the business,

That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley

The sleepers of the house? Speak, speak.

MACDUFF

O gentle lady,

’Tis not for you to hear what I can speak.

The repetition in a woman’s ear

Would murder as it fell.

Enter Banquo

O Banquo, Banquo,

Our royal master’s murdered!

LADY MACBETH Woe,

alas—

What, in our house?

BANQUO

Too cruel anywhere.

Dear Duff, I prithee contradict thyself,

And say it is not so.

Enter Macbeth, Lennox, [and Ross]

MACBETH

Had I but died an hour before this chance

I had lived a blessed time, for from this instant

There’s nothing serious in mortality.

All is but toys. Renown and grace is dead.

The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees

Is left this vault to brag of.

Enter Malcolm and Donalbain

DONALBAIN What is amiss?

MACBETH You are, and do not know’t.

The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood

Is stopped, the very source of it is stopped.

MACDUFF

Your royal father’s murdered.

MALCOLM

O, by whom?

LENNOX

Those of his chamber, as it seemed, had done’t.

Their hands and faces were all badged with blood,

So were their daggers, which, unwiped, we found

Upon their pillows. They stared and were distracted.

No man’s life was to be trusted with them.

MACBETH

O, yet I do repent me of my fury

That I did kill them.

MACDUFF

Wherefore did you so?

MACBETH

Who can be wise, amazed, temp‘rate and furious,

Loyal and neutral in a moment? No man.

Th’expedition of my violent love

Outran the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,

His silver skin laced with his golden blood,

And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature

For ruin’s wasteful entrance; there the murderers,

Steeped in the colours of their trade, their daggers

Unmannerly breeched with gore. Who could refrain,

That had a heart to love, and in that heart

Courage to make ’s love known?

LADY MACBETH

Help me hence, ho!

MACDUFF

Look to the lady.

MALCOLM (aside to Donalbain)

Why do we hold our tongues,

That most may claim this argument for ours?

DONALBAIN (aside to Malcolm)

What should be spoken here, where our fate,

Hid in an auger-hole, may rush and seize us?

Let’s away. Our tears are not yet brewed.

MALCOLM (aside to Donalbain)

Nor our strong sorrow

Upon the foot of motion.

BANQUO

Look to the lady; Exit Lady Macbeth, attended

And when we have our naked frailties hid,

That suffer in exposure, let us meet

And question this most bloody piece of work,

To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us.

In the great hand of God I stand, and thence

Against the undivulged pretence I fight

Of treasonous malice.

MACDUFF

And SO do I.

ALL

SO all.

MACBETH

Let’s briefly put on manly readiness,