thought to have let in some of all professions, that go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire. [Knocking.] Anon, anon; pray you, remember the porter. [Opens the gate. Enter Macduff and Lenox. Macd. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed, That you do lie so late? Port. 'Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock and drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things. Macd. What three things does drink especially provoke? Port. Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes: it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance: Therefore, much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him, and disheartens him; makes him stand to, and not stand to: in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him. Macd. I believe, drink gave thee the lie last night. Port. That it did, sir, i'the very throat o'me: But I requited him for his lie; and, I think, being too strong for him, though he took up my legs sometime, yet I made a shift to cast him. Macd. Is thy master stirring?— Our knocking has awak'd him; here he comes. Enter Macbeth. Len. Good-morrow, noble sir! Macb. Good-morrow, both! Not yet. Macd. Is the king stirring, worthy thane? Macb. Macd. He did command me to call timely on him; I have almost slipp'd the hour. (1) Cock-crowing. Macb. Macd. I'll bring you to him. know, this is a joyful trouble to you; But yet, 'tis one. Macb. The labour we delight in, physics! pain. Macd. This is the door. For 'tis my limited service.2 From hence to-day? Macb. He does :-he did appoint it so. Len. The night has been unruly: Where we lay, Our chimneys were blown down: and, as they say, Lamentings heard i'the air; strange screams of death; And prophesying, with accents terrible, Of dire combustion, and confus'd events, New hatch'd to the woful time. The obscure bird Clamour'd the livelong night: some say, the earth Was feverous, and did shake. Macb. 'Twas a rough night. Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel A fellow to it. Re-enter Macduff. Macd. O horror! horror! horror! Tongue, nor heart, Cannot conceive, nor name thee !3 Macb. Len. What's the matter? Macd. Confusion now hath made his master piece! Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence The life o'the building. Macb. What is't you say? the life? (1) i. e. Affords a cordial to it. (2) Appointed service. (3) The use of two negatives, not to make an affirmative, but to deny more strongly, is common in our author Len. Mean you his majesty? Macd. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight With a new Gorgon :-Do not bid me speak; Enter Lady Macbeth. Lady M. What's the business, Ó, gentle lady 'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak : The repetition, in a woman's ear, Would murder as it fell.-O Banquo! Banquo! Re-enter Macbeth and Lenox. Macb. Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had liv'd a blessed time; for, from this instant, There's nothing serious in mortality: All is but toys: renown, and grace, is dead; Enter Malcolm and Donalbain. Don. What is amiss? Macb. You are, and do not know it: The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood Is stopp'd; the very source of it is stopp'd. Macd. Your royal father's murder'd." Mal. O, by whom? Len. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done't: Their hands and faces were all badg'd with blood, So were their daggers, which, unwip'd, we found Upon their pillows: They star'd, and were distracted; no man's life Was to be trusted with them. Macb. O, yet I do repent me of my fury, That I did kill them. Macd. Wherefore did you so? Macb. Who can be wise, amaz'd, temperate, and furious, Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man: Out-ran the pauser reason.-Here lay Duncan, That had a heart to love, and in that heart Courage, to make his love known? Lady M. Macd. Look to the lady. Mal. Help me hence, ho! Why do we hold our tongues, That most may claim this argument for ours? Where our fate, hid within an augre-hole, Mal. The foot of motion. Nor our strong sorrow on (1) Covered with blood to their hilt. Ban. Look to the lady :- [Lady Macbeth is carried out. And when we have our naked frailties hid, That suffer in exposure, let us meet, And question this most bloody piece of work, Of treasonous malice. Macb. All. And so do I. So all. Macb. Let's briefly put on manly readiness, And meet i'the hall together. All. Well contented. [Exeunt all but Mal. and Don. Mal. What will you do? Let's not consort with them: To show an unfelt sorrow, is an office Which the false man does easy: I'll to England. Don. To Ireland, I; our separated fortune Shall keep us both the safer: where we are, There's daggers in men's smiles: the near in blood, The nearer bloody. Mal. This murderous shaft that's shot, Hath not yet lighted; and our safest way Is, to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse; And let us not be dainty of leave-taking, But shift away: There's warrant in that theft Which steals itself, when there's no mercy left. [Exeunt. SCENE IV.-Without the castle. Enter Rosse and an Old Man. Old M. Threescore and ten I can remember well: Within the volume of which time, I have seen Hours dreadful, and things strange; but this sore night Hath trifled former knowings. (1) Power. (2) Intention. |