ACT II
SCENE II 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:
 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.

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
 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?

MACBETH                   When?

LADY MACBETH Now.

MACBETH As I descended?

LADY MACBETH Ay.

MACBETH Hark!
 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
 '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.

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.

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.

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,
 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.'

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?
 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.

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;
 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
 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.

 [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.

 [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.

 [Knocking within]

 Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!

 [Exeunt]



 MACBETH


ACT II