Good repose, the while!

Macb. Ban. Thanks, sir; the like to you! [Exit BAN. Macb. Go, bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.

[Exit Servant.

Is this a dagger, which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee;—-
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible

To feeling, as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind; a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.

Thou marshal'st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use.

Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still;
And on thy blade, and dudgeon, gouts of blood,
Which was not so before.-There's no such thing:
It is the bloody business, which informs

Thus to mine eyes.-Now o'er the one half world
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtained sleep; now withcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings; and withered murder,
Alarmed by his sentinel, the wolf,

Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
Moves like a ghost.-
Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
The very stones prate of my whereabout,

And take the present horror from the time,

Which now suits with it.-Whiles I threat, he lives;
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.

I

go, and it is done; the bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell

That summons thee to heaven, or to hell.

SCENE II. The same.

Enter LADY MACBETH.

[A bell rings.

[Exit.

Lady M. That which hath made them drunk, hath made

me bold;

What hath quenched them, hath given me fire.—Hark!—

peace!

It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman, Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it: The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms

Do mock their charge with snores. I have drugged their possets,

That death and nature do contend about them,
Whether they live or die.

Macb. [Within.] Who's there?-what, ho!

Lady M. 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 them.-Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done't.- My husband? Enter MACBETH.

Macb. I have done the deed.- Didst thou not hear a noise?

Lady M. I heard the owl scream, and the crickets cry. Did not you speak?

Macb.

When?

Now.

As I descended?

Who lies i' the second chamber?

Lady M.

Donalbain.

[Looking on his hands. say a sorry sight.

Macb. This is a sorry sight.
Lady M. A foolish thought, to
Macb. There's one did laugh in his sleep, and one cried,

murder!

That they did wake each other; I stood and heard them: But they did say their prayers, and addressed them Again to sleep.

Lady M.

There are two lodged together. Macb. 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 M.

Consider it not so deeply. Macb. But wherefore could not I pronounce, amen? I had most need of blessing, and amen

Stuck in my throat.

Lady M.

These deeds must not be thought

After these ways; so, it will make us mad.

Macb. Methought, I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep, the innocent sleep;

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