Macbeth

Shakespeare, William

• Publisher: pubOne.info
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN: 9782819932901
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

pubOne.info present you this new edition. SIWARD, Earl of Northumberland, General of the English Forces.

ACT II.

SCENE I. Inverness. Court within the Castle.

[Enter Banquo, preceeded by Fleance with a torch. ]

BANQUO.

How goes the night, boy?

FLEANCE.

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

BANQUO.

And she goes down at twelve.

FLEANCE.

I take't, 'tis later, sir.

BANQUO.

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.

Who's there?

[Enter Macbeth, and a Servant with a torch. ]

MACBETH.

A friend.

BANQUO.

What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's a-bed:

He hath been in unusual pleasure and

Sent forth great largess to your officers:

This diamond he greets your wife withal,

By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up

In measureless content.

MACBETH.

Being unprepar'd,

Our will became the servant to defect;

Which else should free have wrought.

BANQUO.

All's well.

I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:

To you they have show'd some truth.

MACBETH.

I think not of them:

Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,

We would spend it in some words upon that business,

If you would grant the time.

BANQUO.

At your kind'st leisure.

MACBETH.

If you shall cleave to my consent, — when 'tis,

It shall make honor for you.

BANQUO.

So I lose none

In seeking to augment it, but still keep

My bosom franchis'd, and allegiance clear,

I shall be counsell'd.

MACBETH.

Good repose the while!

BANQUO.

Thanks, sir: the like to you!

[Exeunt Banquo and Fleance. ]

MACBETH.

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 marshall'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 curtain'd sleep; now witchcraft celebrates

Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murder,

Alarum'd 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

Thy 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.

[A bell rings. ]

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.

[Exit. ]

[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 awak'd,

And 'tis not done: the attempt, and not the deed,

Confounds us. — Hark! — I laid their daggers ready;

He...

Table of contents

• MACBETH
• Persons Represented
• SCENE: In the end of the Fourth Act, in England; through the rest of the Play, in Scotland; and chiefly at Macbeth's Castle.
• SCENE II. A Camp near Forres.
• SCENE III. A heath.
• SCENE IV. Forres. A Room in the Palace.
• SCENE V. Inverness. A Room in Macbeth's Castle.
• SCENE VI. The same. Before the Castle.
• SCENE VII. The same. A Lobby in the Castle.
• ACT II.
• SCENE II. The same. Without the Castle.
• ACT III.
• SCENE II. The same. Another Room in the Palace.
• SCENE III. The same. A Park or Lawn, with a gate leading to the Palace.
• SCENE IV. The same. A Room of state in the Palace. A banquet prepared.
• SCENE V. The heath.
• SCENE VI. Forres. A Room in the Palace.
• ACT IV.
• SCENE II. Fife. A Room in Macduff's Castle.
• SCENE III. England. Before the King's Palace.
• ACT V.
• SCENE II. The Country near Dunsinane.
• SCENE III. Dunsinane. A Room in the Castle.
• SCENE IV. Country nearDunsinane: a Wood in view.
• SCENE V. Dunsinane. Within the castle.
• SCENE VI. The same. A Plain before the Castle.
• SCENE VII. The same. Another part of the Plain.
• SCENE VIII. The same. Another part of the field.
• Copyright