Table of Contents
ACT 1, SCENE 7
Setting: The same. A room in Macbeth's castle.
Hautboys and torches. Enter a Sewer, and divers Servants with dishes and service, and pass over the stage. Then enter MACBETH.
| MACBETH | If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well | |
| It were done quickly: if the assassination | ||
| Could trammel up the consequence, and catch | ||
| With his surcease success; that but this blow | ||
| Might be the be–all and the end–all here, | ||
| But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, | ||
| We'ld jump the life to come. But in these cases | ||
| We still have judgment here; | 10 | |
| that we but teach | ||
| Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return | ||
| To plague the inventor: | ||
| this even–handed justice | ||
| Commends the ingredience of our poison'd chalice | ||
| To our own lips. He's here in double trust; | ||
| First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, | ||
| Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, | ||
| Who should against his murderer shut the door, | ||
| Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan | ||
| Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been | ||
| So clear in his great office, that his virtues | ||
| Will plead like angels, trumpet–tongued, against | ||
| The deep damnation of his taking–off; | 20 | |
| And pity, like a naked new–born babe, | ||
| Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsed | ||
| Upon the sightless couriers of the air, | ||
| Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, | ||
| That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur | ||
| To prick the sides of my intent, but only | ||
| Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself | ||
| And falls on th'other. | ||
| Enter LADY MACBETH. | ||
| How now! what news? | ||
| LADY MACBETH | He has almost supp'd: why have you left the chamber? | |
| MACBETH | Hath he ask'd for me? | |
| LADY MACBETH | Know you not he has? | 30 |
| MACBETH | We will proceed no further in this business: | |
| He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought | ||
| Golden opinions from all sorts of people, | ||
| Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, | ||
| Not cast aside so soon. | ||
| LADY MACBETH | Was the hope drunk | |
| Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since? | ||
| And wakes it now, to look so green and pale | ||
| At what it did so freely? From this time | ||
| Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard | ||
| To be the same in thine own act and valour | 40 | |
| As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that | ||
| Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, | ||
| And live a coward in thine own esteem, | ||
| Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would,' | ||
| Like the poor cat i' the adage? | ||
| MACBETH | Prithee, peace: | |
| I dare do all that may become a man; | ||
| Who dares do more is none. | ||
| LADY MACBETH | What beast was't, then, | |
| That made you break this enterprise to me? | ||
| When you durst do it, then you were a man; | ||
| And, to be more than what you were, you would | 50 | |
| Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place | ||
| Did then adhere, and yet you would make both: | ||
| They have made themselves, and that their fitness now | ||
| Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know | ||
| How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me: | ||
| I would, while it was smiling in my face, | ||
| Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums, | ||
| And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you | ||
| Have done to this. | ||
| MACBETH | If we should fail? | |
| LADY MACBETH | We fail! | |
| But screw your courage to the sticking–place, | 60 | |
| And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep–– | ||
| Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey | ||
| Soundly invite him––his two chamberlains | ||
| Will I with wine and wassail so convince | ||
| That memory, the warder of the brain, | ||
| Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason | ||
| A limbeck only: when in swinish sleep | ||
| Their drenched natures lie as in a death, | ||
| What cannot you and I perform upon | ||
| The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon | 70 | |
| His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt | ||
| Of our great quell? | ||
| MACBETH | Bring forth men–children only; | |
| For thy undaunted mettle should compose | ||
| Nothing but males. Will it not be received, | ||
| When we have mark'd 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. | 80 | |
| Away, and mock the time with fairest show: | ||
| False face must hide what the false heart doth know. | ||
| Exeunt. |