| 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: | 5 | ||
| 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. | 10 |
| 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 | 15 | ||
| 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? | 20 |
| MACBETH | When? |
| LADY MACBETH | Now. |
| MACBETH | As I descended? |
| LADY MACBETH | Ay. |
| MACBETH | Hark! | ||
| Who lies i' the second chamber? | 25 |
| 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!' | 30 | ||
| 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. | 35 | ||
| 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' | 40 | ||
| 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, | 45 | ||
| 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? | 50 |
| 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 | 55 | ||
| 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. | 60 |
| 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 | 65 | ||
| 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? | 70 | |
| 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, | 75 | ||
| 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; | 80 | ||
| 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, | 85 | ||
| 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] |