Table of Contents
ACT 2, SCENE 2
Setting: The same.
[Enter LADY MACBETH]
| LADY MACBETH | That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold; | |
| What hath quench'd them hath given me fire. | ||
| Hark! Peace! | ||
| It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, | ||
| Which gives the stern'st good–night. He is about it: | 5 | |
| The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms | ||
| Do mock their charge with snores: I have drugg'd | ||
| their possets, | ||
| That death and nature do contend about them, | ||
| Whether they live or die. | 10 | |
| MACBETH | [Within] Who's there? what, ho! | |
| LADY MACBETH | Alack, I am afraid they have awaked, | |
| And 'tis not done. The attempt and not the deed | ||
| Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready; | ||
| He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled | 15 | |
| My father as he slept, I had done't. | ||
| [Enter MACBETH] | ||
| My husband! | ||
| MACBETH | I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise? | |
| LADY MACBETH | I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. | |
| Did not you speak? | 20 | |
| MACBETH | When? | |
| LADY MACBETH | Now. | |
| MACBETH | As I descended? | |
| LADY MACBETH | Ay. | |
| MACBETH | Hark! | 25 |
| Who lies i' the second chamber? | ||
| LADY MACBETH | Donalbain. | |
| MACBETH | This is a sorry sight. | |
| [Looking on his hands] | ||
| LADY MACBETH | A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight. | |
| MACBETH | There's one did laugh in's sleep, and one cried | 30 |
| Murder!' | ||
| That they did wake each other: I stood and heard them: | ||
| But they did say their prayers, and address'd them | ||
| Again to sleep. | ||
| LADY MACBETH | There are two lodged together. | 35 |
| MACBETH | One cried 'God bless us!' and 'Amen' the other; | |
| As they had seen me with these hangman's hands. | ||
| Listening their fear, I could not say 'Amen,' | ||
| When they did say 'God bless us!' | ||
| LADY MACBETH | Consider it not so deeply. | 40 |
| 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. | 45 | |
| MACBETH | Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! | |
| Macbeth does murder sleep', the innocent sleep, | ||
| Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care, | ||
| The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath, | ||
| Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, | 50 | |
| 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 murder'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor | ||
| Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more.' | 55 | |
| LADY MACBETH | Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane, | |
| You do unbend your noble strength, to think | ||
| So brainsickly of things. Go get some water, | ||
| And wash this filthy witness from your hand. | ||
| Why did you bring these daggers from the place? | 60 | |
| 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. | 65 | |
| 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; | 70 | |
| For it must seem their guilt. | ||
| [Exit. Knocking 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 | 75 | |
| Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather | ||
| The multitudinous seas in incarnadine, | ||
| Making the green one red. | ||
| [Re–enter LADY MACBETH] | ||
| LADY MACBETH | My hands are of your colour; but I shame | |
| To wear a heart so white. | 80 | |
| [Knocking 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. | 85 | |
| [Knocking 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. | 90 |
| [Knocking within] | ||
| Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst! | ||
| [Exeunt] |