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?1

Macb.

Pr'ythee, peace.

I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more, is none.
Lady M.
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
Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place
Did then adhere,3 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 plucked my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn, as you
Have done to this.

Macb.

Lady M.

If we should fail,

We fail!

But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
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 wassel5 so convince,
That memory, the warder of the brain,

1 The adage of the cat is among Heywood's Proverbs, 1566:-" The cat would eate fishe, and would not wet her feete."

2❝ Who dares do more is none." The old copy, instead of "do more," reads "no more:" the emendation is Rowe's.

3 Adhere in the same sense as cohere.

4 The circumstance relative to Macbeth's slaughter of Duncan's chamberlains is copied from Holinshed's account of king Duffe's murder by Donwald.

5 Wassel is thus explained by Bullokar in his Expositor, 1616: "Wassaile, a term usual heretofore for quaffing and carowsing; but more especially signifying a merry cup (ritually composed, deckt and fill'd with country liquor) passing about amongst neighbours, meeting and entertaining one another on the vigil or eve of the new year, and commonly called the wassail bol."

6 To convince is to overcome.

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
His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell??

Macb.

Bring forth men children only! For thy undaunted mettle should compose

Nothing but males. Will it not be received,

When we have marked with blood those sleepy two
Of his own chamber, and used their very daggers,
That they have done't?

Lady M.

Who dares receive it other,

As we shall make our griefs and clamor roar
Upon his death?

Macb.

I am settled, and bend up

Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.

Away, and mock the time with fairest show;

False face must hide what the false heart doth know.

[Exeunt.

ACT II.

SCENE I. The same. Court within the Castle.

Enter BANQUO and FLEANCE, and a Servant, with a torch before them.

Ban. How goes the night, boy?

Fle. The moon is down; I have not heard the clock.

Ban. And she goes down at twelve.

1 A limbeck is a vessel through which distilled liquors pass into the recipient. So shall the receipt (i. e. receptacle) of reason be like this empty vessel.

2 Quell is murder; from the Saxon quellan, to kill.

Fle.

I take't, 'tis later, sir.

Ban. Hold, take my sword.-There's husbandry in

heaven;

Their candles are all out.-Take thee that too.
A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,
And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers!
Restrain in me the cursed thoughts, that nature
Gives way to in repose.'-Give me my sword;-

Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch. Who's there?

Macb. A friend.

Ban. What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's abed. He hath been in unusual pleasure, and

Sent forth great largess to your officers:
This diamond he greets your wife withal,

2

By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up3
In measureless content.

Macb.

Being unprepared,

Our will became the servant to defect;

Which else should free have wrought.1

Ban.

All's well.

I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:
To you they have showed some truth.

Macb.

I think not of them; Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,

1 It is apparent from what Banquo says afterwards, that he had been solicited in a dream to attempt something in consequence of the prophecy of the witches, that his waking senses were shocked at; and Shakspeare has here most exquisitely contrasted his character with that of Macbeth. Banquo is praying against being tempted to encourage thoughts of guilt even in his sleep; while Macbeth is hurrying into temptation, and revolving in his mind every scheme, however flagitious, that may assist him to complete his purpose. The one is unwilling to sleep, lest the same phantoms should assail his resolution again, while the other is depriving himself of rest through impatience to commit the murder.

2 The old copy reads offices. Officers of a household was the common term for servants.

3 Steevens has explained "to shut up," by "to conclude," and the examples he has adduced are satisfactory.

4 Being unprepared, our desire to entertain the king honorably was constrained by defective means, otherwise our zeal should have been manifest by more liberal entertainments.

Would spend it in some words upon that business,
If you would grant the time.

Ban.

At your kind'st leisure. Macb If you shall cleave to my consent,'-when

'tis,

It shall make honor for you.

So I lose none,

Ban.
In seeking to augment it, but still keep
My bosom franchised, and allegiance clear,

I shall be counselled.

Macb.

Good repose, the while! 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.

Is this a dagger, which I see before me,

[Exit Servant.

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;

3

And on thy blade, and dudgeon,2 gouts of blood,
Which was not so before.-There's no such thing:

1 Consent is accord, agreement, a combination for a particular purpose. By "if you shall cleave to my consent," Macbeth means, "if you shall adhere to me (i. e. agree or accord with my views), when 'tis (i. e. when events shall fall out as they are predicted), it shall make honor for you." Macbeth mentally refers to the crown which he expected to obtain in consequence of the murder that he was about to commit. We comprehend all that passes in his mind; but Banquo is still in ignorance of it.

2 Dudgeon, for handle; "a dudgeon dagger is a dagger whose handle is made of the root of box."

3 Gouts, drops; from the French gouttes.

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:1 now witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings; and withered murder,
Alarumed 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.2- Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my where-about,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it.3-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

[A bell rings.

That summons thee to heaven, or to hell.

[Exit.

SCENE II. The same.

Enter LADY MACBETH.

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

1 Steevens proposed to substitute the word "sleeper" for "sleep," and to erase the word "now," in order to render the measure harmonious.

2 The old copy reads sides: Pope made the alteration. Johnson objects to the epithet ravishing strides. But a stride was not always an action of violence, impetuosity, or tumult. Thus in The Faerie Queene, b. iv. c. viii.,

"With easy steps so soft as foot could stride."

3 Macbeth would have nothing break through the universal silence that added such horror to the night, as well suited with the bloody deed he was about to perform.