Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Act 2 - Scene 3
The same.
Porter : Here's a knocking indeed! If a
[p]man were porter of hell-gate, he
should have
[p]old turning the key.
[p][Knocking
within]
[p]Knock,
[p]knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name
of
[p]Beelzebub? Here's a farmer, that hanged
[p]himself on the
expectation of plenty: come in
[p]time; have napkins enow about you;
here
[p]you'll sweat for't.
[p][Knocking within]
[p]Knock,
[p]knock!
Who's there, in the other devil's
[p]name? Faith, here's an
equivocator, that could
[p]swear in both the scales against either
scale;
[p]who committed treason enough for God's sake,
[p]yet could
not equivocate to heaven: O, come
[p]in, equivocator.
[p][Knocking
within]
[p]Knock,
[p]knock, knock! Who's there? Faith, here's
an
[p]English tailor come hither, for stealing out of
[p]a French
hose: come in, tailor; here you may
[p]roast your goose.
[p][Knocking
within]
[p]Knock,
[p]knock; never at quiet! What are you? But
[p]this
place is too cold for hell. I'll devil-porter
[p]it no further: I had
thought to have let in
[p]some of all professions that go the
primrose
[p]way to the everlasting bonfire.
[p][Knocking
within]
[p]Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the porter.
Macduff : Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed,
[p]That you do lie so
late?
Porter : 'Faith sir, we were carousing till the
[p]second cock: and drink, sir,
is a great
[p]provoker of three things.
Macduff : What three things does drink especially provoke?
Porter : Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and
[p]urine. Lechery, sir, it
provokes, and unprovokes;
[p]it provokes the desire, but it
takes
[p]away the performance: therefore, much drink
[p]may be said to
be an equivocator with lechery:
[p]it makes him, and it mars him; it
sets
[p]him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him,
[p]and
disheartens him; makes him stand to, and
[p]not stand to; in
conclusion, equivocates him
[p]in a sleep, and, giving him the lie,
leaves him.
Macduff : I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.
Porter : That it did, sir, i' the very throat on
[p]me: but I requited him for
his lie; and, I
[p]think, being too strong for him, though he
took
[p]up my legs sometime, yet I made a shift to cast
[p]him.
Macduff : Is thy master stirring?
[p][Enter MACBETH]
[p]Our knocking has awaked
him; here he comes.
Lennox : Good morrow, noble sir.
Macbeth : Good morrow, both.
Macduff : Is the king stirring, worthy thane?
Macbeth : Not yet.
Macduff : He did command me to call timely on him:
[p]I have almost slipp'd the
hour.
Macbeth : I'll bring you to him.
Macduff : I know this is a joyful trouble to you;
[p]But yet 'tis one.
Macbeth : The labour we delight in physics pain.
[p]This is the door.
Macduff : I'll make so bold to call,
[p]For 'tis my limited service.
Lennox : Goes the king hence to-day?
Macbeth : He does: he did appoint so.
Lennox : The night has been unruly: where we lay,
[p]Our chimneys were blown
down; and, as they say,
[p]Lamentings heard i' the air; strange
screams of death,
[p]And prophesying with accents terrible
[p]Of dire
combustion and confused events
[p]New hatch'd to the woeful time: the
obscure bird
[p]Clamour'd the livelong night: some say, the
earth
[p]Was feverous and did shake.
Macbeth : 'Twas a rough night.
Lennox : My young remembrance cannot parallel
[p]A fellow to it.
Macduff : O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart
[p]Cannot conceive nor name
thee!
Macbeth : [with Lennox] What's the matter.
Macduff : Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!
[p]Most sacrilegious murder
hath broke ope
[p]The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence
[p]The
life o' the building!
Macbeth : What is 't you say? the life?
Lennox : Mean you his majesty?
Macduff : Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight
[p]With a new Gorgon: do
not bid me speak;
[p]See, and then speak yourselves.
[p][Exeunt
MACBETH and LENNOX]
[p]Awake, awake!
[p]Ring the alarum-bell. Murder
and treason!
[p]Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm! awake!
[p]Shake off
this downy sleep, death's counterfeit,
[p]And look on death itself!
up, up, and see
[p]The great doom's image! Malcolm! Banquo!
[p]As from
your graves rise up, and walk like sprites,
[p]To countenance this
horror! Ring the bell.
Lady Macbeth : What's the business,
[p]That such a hideous trumpet calls to
parley
[p]The sleepers of the house? speak, speak!
Macduff : O gentle lady,
[p]'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak:
[p]The
repetition, in a woman's ear,
[p]Would murder as it fell.
[p][Enter
BANQUO]
[p]O Banquo, Banquo,
[p]Our royal master 's murder'd!
Lady Macbeth : Woe, alas!
[p]What, in our house?
Banquo : Too cruel any where.
[p]Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict
thyself,
[p]And say it is not so.
Macbeth : Had I but died an hour before this chance,
[p]I had lived a blessed
time; for, from this instant,
[p]There 's nothing serious in
mortality:
[p]All is but toys: renown and grace is dead;
[p]The wine
of life is drawn, and the mere lees
[p]Is left this vault to brag of.
Donalbain : What is amiss?
Macbeth : You are, and do not know't:
[p]The spring, the head, the fountain of
your blood
[p]Is stopp'd; the very source of it is stopp'd.
Macduff : Your royal father 's murder'd.
Malcolm : O, by whom?
Lennox : Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done 't:
[p]Their hands and
faces were an badged with blood;
[p]So were their daggers, which
unwiped we found
[p]Upon their pillows:
[p]They stared, and were
distracted; no man's life
[p]Was to be trusted with them.
Macbeth : O, yet I do repent me of my fury,
[p]That I did kill them.
Macduff : Wherefore did you so?
Macbeth : Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,
[p]Loyal and neutral,
in a moment? No man:
[p]The expedition my violent love
[p]Outrun the
pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,
[p]His silver skin laced with his
golden blood;
[p]And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in
nature
[p]For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the
murderers,
[p]Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their
daggers
[p]Unmannerly breech'd with gore: who could refrain,
[p]That
had a heart to love, and in that heart
[p]Courage to make 's love
known?
Lady Macbeth : Help me hence, ho!
Macduff : Look to the lady.
Malcolm : [Aside to DONALBAIN] Why do we hold our tongues,
[p]That most may
claim this argument for ours?
Donalbain : [Aside to MALCOLM] What should be spoken here,
[p]where our
fate,
[p]Hid in an auger-hole, may rush, and seize us?
[p]Let 's
away;
[p]Our tears are not yet brew'd.
Malcolm : [Aside to DONALBAIN] Nor our strong sorrow
[p]Upon the foot of
motion.
Banquo : Look to the lady:
[p][LADY MACBETH is carried out]
[p]And when we have
our naked frailties hid,
[p]That suffer in exposure, let us
meet,
[p]And question this most bloody piece of work,
[p]To know it
further. Fears and scruples shake us:
[p]In the great hand of God I
stand; and thence
[p]Against the undivulged pretence I fight
[p]Of
treasonous malice.
Macduff : And so do I.
All : So all.
Macbeth : Let's briefly put on manly readiness,
[p]And meet i' the hall
together.
All : Well contented.
Malcolm : What will you do? Let's not consort with them:
[p]To show an unfelt
sorrow is an office
[p]Which the false man does easy. I'll to
England.
Donalbain : To Ireland, I; our separated fortune
[p]Shall keep us both the safer:
where we are,
[p]There's daggers in men's smiles: the near in
blood,
[p]The nearer bloody.
Malcolm : This murderous shaft that's shot
[p]Hath not yet lighted, and our
safest way
[p]Is to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse;
[p]And let us
not be dainty of leave-taking,
[p]But shift away: there's warrant in
that theft
[p]Which steals itself, when there's no mercy left.
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