William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The Tragedy of Macbeth.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

Scene III

Act II

[The same]
Enter a Porter. Knocking within

Porter.Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hellgate, he should have old turning the key. (Knocking.) Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there, i’ the name of Beelzebub? Here’s a farmer, that hang’d himself on the expectation of plenty. Come in time; have napkins enow about you; here you’ll sweat for ’t. (Knocking.) Knock, knock! Who’s there, in the other devil’s name? Faith, here’s an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale; who committed treason enough for God’s sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven. O, come in, equivocator. (Knocking.) Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there? Faith, here’s an English tailor come hither, for stealing out of a French hose. Come in, tailor; here you may roast your goose. (Knocking.) Knock, knock; never at quiet! What are you? But this place is too cold for hell. I’ll devil-porter it no further. I had thought to have let in some of all professions that go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire. (Knocking.) Anon, anon. I pray you, remember the porter.[Opens the gate.]

Enter MACDUFF and LENNOX

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 on 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.

Enter MACBETH

Macd.Is thy master stirring?Our knocking has awak’d him; here he comes.Len.Good morrow, noble sir.Macb.Good morrow, both.Macd.Is the King stirring, worthy thane?Macb.Not yet.Macd.He did command me to call timely on him.I have almost slipp’d the hour.Macb.I’ll bring you to him.Macd.I know this is a joyful trouble to you;But yet ’tis one.Macb.The labour we delight in physics pain.This is the door.Macd.I’ll make so bold to call,For ’tis my limited service.[Exit.Len.Goes the King hence to-day?Macb.He does;—he did appoint 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 terribleOf dire combustion and confus’d eventsNew hatch’d to the woeful time. The obscure birdClamour’d the livelong night; some say, the earthWas feverous and did shake.Macb.’Twas a rough night.Len.My young remembrance cannot parallelA fellow to it.

Re-enter MACDUFF

Macd.O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heartCannot conceive nor name thee!Macb. & Len.What’s the matter?Macd.Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!Most sacrilegious murder hath broke opeThe Lord’s anointed temple, and stole thenceThe life o’ the building!Macb.What is ’t you say? The life?Len.Mean you his Majesty?Macd.Approach the chamber, and destroy your sightWith a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak;See, and then speak yourselves.Exeunt MACBETH and LENNOX.Awake, awake!Ring the alarum-bell. Murder and treason!Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm! awake!Shake off this downy sleep, death’s counterfeit,And look on death itself! Up, up, and seeThe great doom’s image! Malcolm! Banquo!As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites,To countenance this horror. Ring the bell.Bell rings.

Enter LADY MACBETH

Lady M.What’s the business,That such a hideous trumpet calls to parleyThe sleepers of the house? Speak, speak!Macd.O gentle lady,’Tis not for you to hear what I can speak;The repetition in a woman’s earWould murder as it fell.

Enter BANQUO

O Banquo, Banquo,Our royal master’s murder’d!Lady M.Woe, alas!What, in our house?Ban.Too cruel anywhere.Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself,And say it is not so.

Re-enter MACBETH and LENNOX, with Ross

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;The wine of life is drawn, and the mere leesIs left this vault to brag of.

Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN

Don.What is amiss?Macb.You are, and do not know ’t.The spring, the head, the fountain of your bloodIs 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 foundUpon their pillows.They star’d, and were distracted; no man’s lifeWas 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.The expedition of my violent loveOutrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,His silver skin lac’d with his golden blood,And his gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in natureFor ruin’s wasteful entrance; there, the murderers,Steeped in the colours of their trade, their daggersUnmannerly breech’d with gore. Who could refrain,That had a heart to love, and in that heartCourage to make’s love known?Lady M.Help me hence, ho!Macd.Look to the lady.Mal.[Aside to DON.]Why do we hold our tongues,That most may claim this argument for ours?Don.[Aside to MAL.]What should be spoken here, where our fate,Hid in an auger-hole, may rush and seize us?Let’s away;Our tears are not yet brew’d.Mal.[Aside to DON.]Nor our strong sorrowUpon the foot of motion.Ban.Look to the lady;[LADY MACBETH is carried out.]And when we have our naked frailties hid,That suffer in exposure, let us meetAnd question this most bloody piece of work,To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us.In the great hand of God I stand, and thenceAgainst the undivulg’d pretence I fightOf treasonous malice.Macd.And so do I.All.So all.Macb.Let’s briefly put on manly readiness,And meet i’ the hall together.All.Well contented.Exeunt [all but MALCOLM and DONALBAIN].Mal.What will you do? Let’s not consort with them;To show an unfelt sorrow is an officeWhich the false man does easy. I’ll to England.Don.To Ireland, I; our separated fortuneShall 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 shotHath not yet lighted, and our safest wayIs to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse;And let us not be dainty of leave-taking,But shift away. There’s warrant in that theftWhich steals itself, when there’s no mercy left.[Exeunt.]

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