The Same. A Room in the Castle. | |
| |
Hautboys and torches. Enter, and pass over the stage, a Sewer, and divers Servants with dishes and service. Then, enter MACBETH. | |
| Macb. If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well | |
| It were done quickly; if the assassination | 4 |
| Could trammel up the consequence, and catch | |
| With his surcease success; that but this blow | |
| Might be the be-all and the end-all here, | |
| But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, | 8 |
| We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases | |
| We still have judgment here; that we but teach | |
| Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return | |
| To plague the inventor; this even-handed justice | 12 |
| Commends the ingredients of our poison’d chalice | |
| To our own lips. He’s here in double trust: | |
| First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, | |
| Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, | 16 |
| Who should against his murderer shut the door, | |
| Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan | |
| Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been | |
| So clear in his great office, that his virtues | 20 |
| Will plead like angels trumpet-tongu’d against | |
| The deep damnation of his taking-off; | |
| And pity, like a naked new-born babe, | |
| Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin, hors’d | 24 |
| Upon the sightless couriers of the air, | |
| Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, | |
| That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur | |
| To prick the sides of my intent, but only | 28 |
| Vaulting ambition, which o’er-leaps itself | |
| And falls on the other.— | |
| |
Enter LADY MACBETH. | |
| How now! what news? | 32 |
| Lady M. He has almost supp’d: why have you left the chamber? | |
| Macb. Hath he ask’d for me? | |
| Lady M. Know you not he has? | |
| Macb. We will proceed no further in this business: | 36 |
| He hath honour’d me of late; and I have bought | |
| Golden opinions from all sorts of people, | |
| Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, | |
| Not cast aside so soon. | 40 |
| Lady M. Was the hope drunk, | |
| Wherein you dress’d yourself? hath it slept since, | |
| And wakes it now, to look so green and pale | |
| At what it did so freely? From this time | 44 |
| Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard | |
| To be the same in thine own act and valour | |
| As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that | |
| Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life, | 48 |
| And live a coward in thine own esteem, | |
| Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’ | |
| Like the poor cat i’ the adage? | |
| Macb. Prithee, peace. | 52 |
| 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? | 56 |
| 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, and yet you would make both: | 60 |
| 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, | 64 |
| Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums, | |
| And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you | |
| Have done to this. | |
| Macb. If we should fail,— | 68 |
| Lady M. 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 | 72 |
| Soundly invite him, his two chamberlains | |
| Will I with wine and wassail so convince | |
| That memory, the warder of the brain, | |
| Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason | 76 |
| 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 | 80 |
| His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt | |
| Of our great quell? | |
| Macb. Bring forth men-children only; | |
| For thy undaunted mettle should compose | 84 |
| Nothing but males. Will it not be receiv’d, | |
| When we have mark’d with blood those sleepy two | |
| Of his own chamber and us’d their very daggers, | |
| That they have done’t? | 88 |
| Lady M. Who dares receive it other, | |
| As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar | |
| Upon his death? | |
| Macb. I am settled, and bend up | 92 |
| 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. | |