SCENE III. ［The same］
Enter a PORTER. Knocking within
PORTER. Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hellgate, he should have old turning〖Slang. Plenty of turning.〗 the key. (Knocking.) Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there, i’ the name of Beelzebub? Here’s a farmer, that hang’d himself on the expectation of plenty.〖Having hoarded grain.〗 Come in time; have napkins enow about you; here you’ll sweat for ’t. (Knocking.) Knock, knock! Who’s there, in the 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.) Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there? Faith, here’s an English tailor come hither, for stealing〖Stealing part of the cloth supplied.〗 out of a French hose. Come in, tailor; here you may roast your goose. (Knocking.) Knock, knock; never at quiet! What are you? But this place is too cold for hell. 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. (Knocking.) Anon, anon. I pray you, remember the porter. ［Opens the gate.］
Enter MACDUFF and LENNOX
MACD. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed,
That you do lie so late?
PORT. Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock; and drink,
sir, is a great provoker of three things.
MACD. What three things does drink especially provoke?
PORT. 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.
MACD. I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.
PORT. 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.
Enter MACBETH
MACD. Is thy master stirring?
Our knocking has awak’d him; here he comes.
LEN. Good morrow, noble sir.
MACB. Good morrow, both.
MACD. Is the King stirring, worthy thane?
MACB. Not yet.
MACD. He did command me to call timely〖Early.〗 on him.
I have almost slipp’d the hour.
MACB. I’ll bring you to him.
MACD. I know this is a joyful trouble to you;
But yet ’tis one.
MACB. The labour we delight in physics pain.
This is the door.
MACD. I’ll make so bold to call,
For ’tis my limited〖Appointed.〗 service. ［Exit.
LEN. Goes the King hence to-day?
MACB. He does;—he did appoint so.
LEN. The night has been unruly. Where we lay,
Our chimneys were blown down; and, as they say,
Lamentings heard i’ the air; strange screams of death,
And prophesying with accents terrible
Of dire combustion〖Turmoil.〗 and confus’d 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.
MACB. ’Twas a rough night.
LEN. My young remembrance cannot parallel
A fellow to it.
Re-enter MACDUFF
MACD. O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart
Cannot conceive nor name thee!
MACB.
LEN. What’s the matter?
MACD. 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!
MACB. What is ’t you say? The life?
LEN. Mean you his Majesty?
MACD. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight
With a new Gorgon.〖Which will turn you to stone, like Medusa’s head.〗 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〖Judgment day.〗 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 M. What’s the business,
That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley
The sleepers of the house? Speak, speak!
MACD. 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 murder’d!
LADY M. Woe, alas!
What, in our house?
BAN. Too cruel anywhere.
Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself,
And say it is not so.
Re-enter MACBETH and LENNOX, with ROSS
MACB. Had I but died an hour before this chance,
I had liv’d a blessed time; for, from this instant,
There’s nothing serious in mortality.〖Human life.〗
All is but toys;〖Trifles.〗 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
DON. What is amiss?
MACB. 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.
MACD. Your royal father’s murder’d.
MAL. O, by whom?
LEN. Those of his chamber, as it seem’d, had done ’t.
Their hands and faces were all badg’d〖Marked.〗 with blood;
So were their daggers, which unwip’d we found
Upon their pillows.
They star’d, and were distracted; no man’s life
Was to be trusted with them.
MACB. O, yet I do repent me of my fury,
That I did kill them.
MACD. Wherefore did you so?
MACB. Who can be wise, amaz’d, temperate and furious,
Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man.
The expedition〖Haste.〗 of my violent love
Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,
His silver skin lac’d with his golden blood,
And his gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in nature
For ruin’s wasteful entrance; there, the murderers,
Steeped in the colours of their trade, their daggers
Unmannerly breech’d〖Smeared to the handles.〗 with gore. Who could refrain,
That had a heart to love, and in that heart
Courage to make’s love known?
LADY M. Help me hence, ho!
MACD. Look to the lady.
MAL. ［Aside to DON.］ Why do we hold our tongues,
That most may claim this argument〖Subject of discussion.〗 for ours?
DON. ［Aside to MAL. ］ 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.
MAL. ［Aside to DON.］Nor our strong sorrow
Upon the foot of motion.〖Begun to move.〗
BAN. Look to the lady;
［LADY MACBETH is carried out.］
And when we have our naked frailties〖Frail bodies.〗 hid,
That suffer in exposure, let us meet
And question〖Discuss.〗 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 undivulg’d pretence〖Undiscovered purpose.〗 I fight
Of treasonous malice.
MACD. And so do I.
ALL. So all.
MACB. Let’s briefly put on manly readiness,〖Men’s clothes.〗
And meet i’ the hall together.
ALL. Well contented.
Exeunt ［all but MALCOLM and DONALBAIN］.
MAL. 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.
DON. To Ireland, I; our separated fortune
Shall keep us both the safer. Where we are,
There’s daggers in men’s smiles; the near〖Nearer.〗 in blood,
The nearer bloody.
MAL. 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,
But shift away. There’s warrant in that theft
Which steals itself, when there’s no mercy left. ［Exeunt.
SCENE IV. ［Outside Macbeth’s castle］
Enter ROSS and an Old MAN
OLD M. Threescore and ten I can remember well;
Within the volume of which time I have seen
Hours dreadful and things strange; but this sore night
Hath trifled〖Made trifling by comparison.〗 former knowings.
ROSS. Ah, good father,
Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man’s act,
Threatens his bloody stage. By the clock ’tis day,
And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp.〖The sun.〗
Is’t night’s predominance or the day’s shame
That darkness does the face of earth entomb,
When living light should kiss it?
OLD M. ’Tis unnatural,
Even like the deed that’s done. On Tuesday last,
A falcon, tow’ring in her pride of place,
Was by a mousing owl hawk’d at and kill’d.
ROSS. And Duncan’s horses—a thing most strange and certain—
Beauteous and swift, the minions〖Favorites.〗 of their race,
Turn’d wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,
Contending ’gainst obedience, as they would make
War with mankind.
OLD M. ’Tis said they eat each other.
ROSS. They did so, to the amazement of mine eyes
That look’d upon ’t.
Enter MACDUFF
Here comes the good Macduff.
How goes the world, sir, now?
MACD. Why, see you not?
ROSS. Is’t known who did this more than bloody deed?
MACD. Those that Macbeth hath slain.
ROSS. Alas, the day!
What good could they pretend?〖Mean.〗
MACD. They were suborn’d.
Malcolm and Donalbain, the King’s two sons,
Are stolen away and fled; which puts upon them
Suspicion of the deed.
ROSS. ’Gainst nature still!
Thriftless ambition, that will ravin up〖Devour.〗
Thine own life’s means! Then ’tis most like
The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.
MACD. He is already nam’d, and gone to Scone
To be invested.
ROSS. Where is Duncan’s body?
MACD. Carried to Colmekill,
The sacred storehouse of his predecessors,
And guardian of their bones.
ROSS. Will you to Scone?
MACD. No, cousin, I’ll to Fife.
ROSS. Well, I will thither.
MACD. Well, may you see things well done there,—adieu!—
Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!
ROSS. Farewell, father.
OLD M. God’s benison go with you; and with those
That would make good of bad, and friends of foes!Exeunt.