Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Act 2 - Scene 2
The same.
Lady Macbeth : That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold;
[p]What hath
quench'd them hath given me fire.
[p]Hark! Peace!
[p]It was the owl
that shriek'd, the fatal bellman,
[p]Which gives the stern'st
good-night. He is about it:
[p]The doors are open; and the surfeited
grooms
[p]Do mock their charge with snores: I have drugg'd
[p]their
possets,
[p]That death and nature do contend about them,
[p]Whether
they live or die.
Macbeth : [Within] Who's there? what, ho!
Lady Macbeth : Alack, I am afraid they have awaked,
[p]And 'tis not done. The attempt
and not the deed
[p]Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers
ready;
[p]He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled
[p]My father as
he slept, I had done't.
[p][Enter MACBETH]
[p]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.
[p]Did not you speak?
Macbeth : When?
Lady Macbeth : Now.
Macbeth : As I descended?
Lady Macbeth : Ay.
Macbeth : Hark!
[p]Who lies i' the second chamber?
Lady Macbeth : Donalbain.
Macbeth : This is a sorry sight.
Lady Macbeth : A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.
Macbeth : There's one did laugh in's sleep, and one cried
[p]'Murder!'
[p]That
they did wake each other: I stood and heard them:
[p]But they did say
their prayers, and address'd them
[p]Again to sleep.
Lady Macbeth : There are two lodged together.
Macbeth : One cried 'God bless us!' and 'Amen' the other;
[p]As they had seen me
with these hangman's hands.
[p]Listening their fear, I could not say
'Amen,'
[p]When they did say 'God bless us!'
Lady Macbeth : Consider it not so deeply.
Macbeth : But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'?
[p]I had most need of
blessing, and 'Amen'
[p]Stuck in my throat.
Lady Macbeth : These deeds must not be thought
[p]After these ways; so, it will make
us mad.
Macbeth : Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more!
[p]Macbeth does murder
sleep', the innocent sleep,
[p]Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve
of care,
[p]The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,
[p]Balm
of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
[p]Chief nourisher in
life's feast,--
Lady Macbeth : What do you mean?
Macbeth : Still it cried 'Sleep no more!' to all the house:
[p]'Glamis hath
murder'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor
[p]Shall sleep no more; Macbeth
shall sleep no more.'
Lady Macbeth : Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane,
[p]You do unbend your
noble strength, to think
[p]So brainsickly of things. Go get some
water,
[p]And wash this filthy witness from your hand.
[p]Why did you
bring these daggers from the place?
[p]They must lie there: go carry
them; and smear
[p]The sleepy grooms with blood.
Macbeth : I'll go no more:
[p]I am afraid to think what I have done;
[p]Look
on't again I dare not.
Lady Macbeth : Infirm of purpose!
[p]Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the
dead
[p]Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood
[p]That fears a
painted devil. If he do bleed,
[p]I'll gild the faces of the grooms
withal;
[p]For it must seem their guilt.
Macbeth : Whence is that knocking?
[p]How is't with me, when every noise appals
me?
[p]What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes.
[p]Will all
great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
[p]Clean from my hand? No, this
my hand will rather
[p]The multitudinous seas in
incarnadine,
[p]Making the green one red.
Lady Macbeth : My hands are of your colour; but I shame
[p]To wear a heart so
white.
[p][Knocking within]
[p]I hear a knocking
[p]At the south
entry: retire we to our chamber;
[p]A little water clears us of this
deed:
[p]How easy is it, then! Your constancy
[p]Hath left you
unattended.
[p][Knocking within]
[p]Hark! more knocking.
[p]Get on
your nightgown, lest occasion call us,
[p]And show us to be watchers.
Be not lost
[p]So poorly in your thoughts.
Macbeth : To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself.
[p][Knocking
within]
[p]Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!
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Next: Act 2 - Scene 3
