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