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Act 2, page 3

Table of Contents

ACT 2, SCENE 3
Setting: The same.

Knocking within. Enter a Porter.

Porter Here's a knocking indeed!
If a man were porter of hell–gate, he should have old turning the key.
[Knocking within.] Knock, knock, knock!
Who's there, i' the name of Beelzebub?
Here's a farmer, that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty:
come in time; have napkins enow about you; here you'll sweat for't.
[Knocking 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.
[Knocking 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. [Knocking within.]
Knock, knock; never at quiet! What are you?
I'll devil–porter it no further:
I had thought to have let in some of all professions that go
the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire.
But this place is too cold for hell. [Knocking within.]
Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the porter. [Opens the gate.]
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.
MACDUFF I believe drink gave thee the lie last night. 42
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.
LENNOX Good morrow, noble sir.
MACBETH Good morrow, both.
MACDUFF Is the king stirring, worthy thane?
MACBETH Not yet. 50
MACDUFF He did command me to call timely on him:
I have almost slipp'd 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
LENNOX Goes the king hence to–day?
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, 60
Lamentings heard i' the air; strange screams of death,
And prophesying with accents terrible
Of dire combustion and confused events
New hatch'd to the woeful time: the obscure bird
Clamour'd 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.
Re–enter MACDUFF.
MACDUFF O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart
Cannot conceive nor name thee!
MACBETH
What's the matter. 70
LENNOX
MACDUFF Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!
Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope
The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence
The life o' the 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! 80
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! Ring the bell.
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, 91
Would murder as it fell.
Enter BANQUO.
O Banquo, Banquo,
Our royal master 's murder'd!
LADY MACBETH Woe, alas!
What, in our house?
BANQUO Too cruel any where.
Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself,
And say it is not so.
Re–enter MACBETH and LENNOX, with 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 100
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 stopp'd; the very source of it is stopp'd.
MACDUFF Your royal father 's murder'd.
MALCOLM O, by whom?
LENNOX Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done 't:
Their hands and faces were an badged with blood;
So were their daggers, which unwiped we found
Upon their pillows:
They stared, and were distracted; no man's life 110
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, temperate and furious,
Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:
The expedition my violent love
Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,
His silver skin laced with his golden blood;
And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature
For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murderers, 120
Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers
Unmannerly breech'd 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 brew'd.
MALCOLM Aside to DONALBAIN. Nor our strong sorrow
Upon the foot of motion. 130
BANQUO Look to the lady:
LADY MACBETH is carried out.
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,
And meet i' the hall together.
ALL Well contented. 140
Exeunt all but Malcolm and Donalbain.
MALCOLM What will you do?
Let's not consort with them:
To show an unfelt sorrow is an office
Which the false man does easy. I'll to England.
DONALBAIN To Ireland, I; our separated fortune
Shall keep us both the safer: where we are,
There's daggers in men's smiles: the near in blood,
The nearer bloody.
MALCOLM This murderous shaft that's shot
Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way
Is to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse;
And let us not be dainty of leave–taking, 150
But shift away: there's warrant in that theft
Which steals itself, when there's no mercy left.
Exeunt.