Georg Engel's Leistungskurs Englisch 2006/08 It it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly...

Macbeth: Act 2

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ACT II

SCENE I. Court of Macbeth's castle.


Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE bearing a torch before him


BANQUO


How goes the night, boy?


FLEANCE


The moon is down; I have not heard the clock.


BANQUO


And she goes down at twelve.


FLEANCE


I take't, 'tis later, sir.


BANQUO


Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven;

Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.

A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,

And yet I would not sleep: merciful powers,

Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature

Gives way to in repose!


Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch

Give me my sword.

Who's there?


MACBETH


A friend.


BANQUO


What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's a-bed:

He hath been in unusual pleasure, and

Sent forth great largess to your offices.

This diamond he greets your wife withal,

By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up

In measureless content.


MACBETH


Being unprepared,

Our will became the servant to defect;

Which else should free have wrought.


BANQUO


All's well.

I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:

To you they have show'd some truth.


MACBETH


I think not of them:

Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,

We would spend it in some words upon that business,

If you would grant the time.


BANQUO


At your kind'st leisure.


MACBETH


If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis,

It shall make honour for you.


BANQUO


So I lose none

In seeking to augment it, but still keep

My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,

I shall be counsell'd.


MACBETH


Good repose the while!


BANQUO


Thanks, sir: the like to you!


Exeunt BANQUO and FLEANCE


MACBETH


Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,

She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.


Exit Servant

Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible

To feeling as to sight? or art thou but

A dagger of the mind, a false creation,

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?

I see thee yet, in form as palpable

As this which now I draw.

Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;

And such an instrument I was to use.

Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,

Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,

And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,

Which was not so before. There's no such thing:

It is the bloody business which informs

Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworld

Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse

The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates

Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder,

Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,

Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace.

With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design

Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,

Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear

Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,

And take the present horror from the time,

Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:

Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.


A bell rings

I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.

Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell

That summons thee to heaven or to hell.


Exit


SCENE II. The same.


Enter LADY MACBETH


LADY MACBETH


That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold;

What hath quench'd them hath given me fire.

Hark! Peace!

It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman,

Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it:

The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms

Do mock their charge with snores: I have drugg'd

their possets,

That death and nature do contend about them,

Whether they live or die.


MACBETH


[Within] Who's there? what, ho!


LADY MACBETH


Alack, I am afraid they have awaked,

And 'tis not done. The attempt and not the deed

Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready;

He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled

My father as he slept, I had done't.


Enter MACBETH

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.

Did not you speak?


MACBETH


When?


LADY MACBETH


Now.


MACBETH


As I descended?


LADY MACBETH


Ay.


MACBETH


Hark!

Who lies i' the second chamber?


LADY MACBETH


Donalbain.


MACBETH


This is a sorry sight.


Looking on his hands


LADY MACBETH


A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.


MACBETH


There's one did laugh in's sleep, and one cried

'Murder!'

That they did wake each other: I stood and heard them:

But they did say their prayers, and address'd them

Again to sleep.


LADY MACBETH


There are two lodged together.


MACBETH


One cried 'God bless us!' and 'Amen' the other;

As they had seen me with these hangman's hands.

Listening their fear, I could not say 'Amen,'

When they did say 'God bless us!'


LADY MACBETH


Consider it not so deeply.


MACBETH


But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'?

I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen'

Stuck in my throat.


LADY MACBETH


These deeds must not be thought

After these ways; so, it will make us mad.


MACBETH


Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more!

Macbeth does murder sleep', the innocent sleep,

Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care,

The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,

Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,

Chief nourisher in life's feast,--


LADY MACBETH


What do you mean?


MACBETH


Still it cried 'Sleep no more!' to all the house:

'Glamis hath murder'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor

Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more.'


LADY MACBETH


Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane,

You do unbend your noble strength, to think

So brainsickly of things. Go get some water,

And wash this filthy witness from your hand.

Why did you bring these daggers from the place?

They must lie there: go carry them; and smear

The sleepy grooms with blood.


MACBETH


I'll go no more:

I am afraid to think what I have done;

Look on't again I dare not.


LADY MACBETH


Infirm of purpose!

Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead

Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood

That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,

I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal;

For it must seem their guilt.


Exit. Knocking within


MACBETH


Whence is that knocking?

How is't with me, when every noise appals me?

What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes.

Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood

Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather

The multitudinous seas in incarnadine,

Making the green one red.


Re-enter LADY MACBETH


LADY MACBETH


My hands are of your colour; but I shame

To wear a heart so white.


Knocking within

I hear a knocking

At the south entry: retire we to our chamber;

A little water clears us of this deed:

How easy is it, then! Your constancy

Hath left you unattended.


Knocking within

Hark! more knocking.

Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us,

And show us to be watchers. Be not lost

So poorly in your thoughts.


MACBETH


To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself.


Knocking within

Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!


Exeunt


SCENE III. The same.


Knocking within. Enter a Porter


Porter


Here's a knocking indeed! If a

man were porter of hell-gate, he should have

old turning the key.


Knocking within

Knock,

knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of

Beelzebub? Here's a farmer, that hanged

himself on the expectation of plenty: come in

time; have napkins enow about you; here

you'll sweat for't.


Knocking within

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 within

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 within

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 within

Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the porter.


Opens the gate


Enter MACDUFF and LENNOX


MACDUFF


Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed,

That you do lie so late?


Porter


'Faith sir, we were carousing till the

second cock: and drink, sir, is a great

provoker of three things.


MACDUFF


What three things does drink especially provoke?


Porter


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.


MACDUFF


I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.


Porter


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.


MACDUFF


Is thy master stirring?


Enter MACBETH

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:

I have almost slipp'd the hour.


MACBETH


I'll bring you to him.


MACDUFF


I know this is a joyful trouble to you;

But yet 'tis one.


MACBETH


The labour we delight in physics pain.

This is the door.


MACDUFF


I'll make so bold to call,

For 'tis my limited service.


Exit


LENNOX


Goes the king hence to-day?


MACBETH


He does: he did appoint so.


LENNOX


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 confused events

New hatch'd to the woeful time: the obscure bird

Clamour'd the livelong night: some say, the earth

Was feverous and did shake.


MACBETH


'Twas a rough night.


LENNOX


My young remembrance cannot parallel

A fellow to it.


Re-enter MACDUFF


MACDUFF


O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart

Cannot conceive nor name thee!


MACBETH LENNOX


What's the matter.


MACDUFF


Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!

Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope

The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence

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

With 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 see

The 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 MACBETH


What's the business,

That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley

The sleepers of the house? speak, speak!


MACDUFF


O gentle lady,

'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak:

The repetition, in a woman's ear,

Would murder as it fell.


Enter BANQUO

O Banquo, Banquo,

Our royal master 's murder'd!


LADY MACBETH


Woe, alas!

What, in our house?


BANQUO


Too cruel any where.

Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself,

And say it is not so.


Re-enter MACBETH and LENNOX, with ROSS


MACBETH


Had I but died an hour before this chance,

I had lived 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 lees

Is left this vault to brag of.


Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN


DONALBAIN


What is amiss?


MACBETH


You are, and do not know't:

The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood

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:

Their hands and faces were an badged with blood;

So were their daggers, which unwiped we found

Upon their pillows:

They stared, and were distracted; no man's life

Was to be trusted with them.


MACBETH


O, yet I do repent me of my fury,

That I did kill them.


MACDUFF


Wherefore did you so?


MACBETH


Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,

Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:

The expedition my violent love

Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,

His silver skin laced with his golden blood;

And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature

For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,

Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers

Unmannerly breech'd with gore: who could refrain,

That had a heart to love, and in that heart

Courage to make 's love kno wn?


LADY MACBETH


Help me hence, ho!


MACDUFF


Look to the lady.


MALCOLM


[Aside to DONALBAIN] Why do we hold our tongues,

That most may claim this argument for ours?


DONALBAIN


[Aside to MALCOLM] 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.


MALCOLM


[Aside to DONALBAIN] Nor our strong sorrow

Upon the foot of motion.


BANQUO


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,

To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us:

In the great hand of God I stand; and thence

Against the undivulged pretence I fight

Of treasonous malice.


MACDUFF


And so do I.


ALL


So all.


MACBETH


Let's briefly put on manly readiness,

And meet i' the hall together.


ALL


Well contented.


Exeunt all but Malcolm and Donalbain.


MALCOLM


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.


DONALBAIN


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.


MALCOLM


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. Outside Macbeth's castle.


Enter ROSS and an old Man


Old Man


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.


ROSS


Ah, good father,

Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act,

Threaten his bloody stage: by the clock, 'tis day,

And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp:

Is't night's predominance, or the day's shame,

That darkness does the face of earth entomb,

When living light should kiss it?


Old Man


'Tis unnatural,

Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last,

A falcon, towering in her pride of place,

Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd.


ROSS


And Duncan's horses--a thing most strange and certain--

Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race,

Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,

Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make

War with mankind.


Old Man


'Tis said they eat each other.


ROSS


They did so, to the amazement of mine eyes

That look'd upon't. Here comes the good Macduff.


Enter MACDUFF

How goes the world, sir, now?


MACDUFF


Why, see you not?


ROSS


Is't known who did this more than bloody deed?


MACDUFF


Those that Macbeth hath slain.


ROSS


Alas, the day!

What good could they pretend?


MACDUFF


They were suborn'd:

Malcolm and Donalbain, the king's two sons,

Are stol'n away and fled; which puts upon them

Suspicion of the deed.


ROSS


'Gainst nature still!

Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up

Thine own life's means! Then 'tis most like

The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.


MACDUFF


He is already named, and gone to Scone

To be invested.


ROSS


Where is Duncan's body?


MACDUFF


Carried to Colmekill,

The sacred storehouse of his predecessors,

And guardian of their bones.


ROSS


Will you to Scone?


MACDUFF


No, cousin, I'll to Fife.


ROSS


Well, I will thither.


MACDUFF


Well, may you see things well done there: adieu!

Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!


ROSS


Farewell, father.


Old Man


God's benison go with you; and with those

That would make good of bad, and friends of foes!


Exeunt