# Macbeth (1918) Yale/Text/Act II

Notes originally placed at the bottom of each page appear below, following Act II. Where these notes gloss a word in the text, the gloss can also be found by hovering over the text.
Where these notes refer to an end note (cf. n. = confer notam; "consult note"), a link to the accompanying end note is provided from the Footnotes section. The end notes accompanying Act II begin on page 96 of the original volume.
Layout 2
ACT SECOND
Scene One
[Court within the Castle]
Enter Banquo, and Fleance with a Torch before him.
Ban. How goes the night, boy?
Fle. The moon is down; I have not heard the clock.
Ban. And she goes down at twelve.
Fle. I take 't, 'tis later, sir.
Ban. Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven; 4 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.— 9 Who's there?
Macb. A friend.
​Ban. What, sir! not yet at rest? The king's a-bed: 12 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.
Macb. Being unprepar'd, 17 Our will became the servant to defect, Which else should free have wrought.
Ban. All's well. I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters: 20 To you they have show'd some truth.
Macb. 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.
Ban. At your kind'st leisure. 24
Macb. If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis, It shall make honour for you.
Ban. So I lose none In seeking to augment it, but still keep My bosom franchis'd and allegiance clear, 28 I shall be counsell'd.
Macb. Good repose the while!
Ban. Thanks, sir: the like to you.
Exit Banquo [with Fleance].
Macb. Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. 32 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 36 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 40 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, 44 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 48 Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one half-world Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murder, 52 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, 56 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: 60 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. 64
Exit.
Scene Two
[The Same]
Enter Lady.
Lady M. 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: 4 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. 8
Macb. [Within.] Who's there? what, ho!
Lady M. Alack! I am afraid they have awak'd, And 'tis not done; the attempt and not the deed Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready; 12 He could not miss them. Had he not resembled My father as he slept I had done 't. My husband!
Enter Macbeth.
Macb. I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?
​Lady M. I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. 16 Did not you speak?
Macb. When?
Lady M. Now.
Macb. As I descended?
Lady M. Ay.
Macb. Hark! Who lies i' the second chamber?
Lady M. Donalbain. 20
Macb. [Looking on his hands.] This is a sorry sight.
Lady M. A foolish thought to say a sorry sight.
Macb. There's one did laugh in 's sleep, and one cried 'Murder!' That they did wake each other: I stood and heard them; 24 But they did say their prayers, and address'd them Again to sleep.
Lady M. There are two lodg'd together.
Macb. One cried 'God bless us!' and 'Amen' the other, As they had seen me with these hangman's hands. 28 Listening their fear, I could not say 'Amen,' When they did say 'God bless us!'
Lady M. Consider it not so deeply.
Macb. But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'? I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen' 32 Stuck in my throat.
Lady M. These deeds must not be thought After these ways; so, it will make us mad.
Macb. Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! 35 ​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 M. What do you mean? 40
Macb. 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 M. Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane, 44 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? 48 They must lie there: go carry them, and smear The sleepy grooms with blood.
Macb. I'll go no more: I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on 't again I dare not.
Lady M. Infirm of purpose! 52 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; 56 For it must seem their guilt. Exit. Knock within.
Macb. 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 60 Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather ​The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red.
Enter Lady.
Lady M. My hands are of your colour, but I shame To wear a heart so white.— Knock. 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 68 Hath left you unattended. Knock. Hark! more knocking. Get on your night-gown, lest occasion call us, And show us to be watchers. Be not lost So poorly in your thoughts. 72
Macb. To know my deed 'twere best not know myself. Knock. Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst! Exeunt.
Scene Three
[The Same]
Enter a Porter. Knocking within.
Porter. Here's a knocking, indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate he should have old turning the key. Knock. Knock, knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of Beelzebub? 4 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. Knock. Knock, knock! Who's there 8 i' 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 12 equivocate to heaven: O! come in, equivocator. Knock. Knock, knock, knock! Who's there? Faith, here's an English tailor come hither for stealing out of a French hose: come in, 16 tailor; here you may roast your goose. Knock. Knock, knock; never at quiet! What are you? But this place is too cold for hell. I'll devil- 20 porter it no further: I had thought to have let in some of all professions, that go the prim- rose way to the everlasting bonfire. Knock. Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the porter. 24
[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. 29
Macd. What three things does drink espe- cially provoke?
Port. Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unpro- vokes; it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance. Therefore much drink may 35 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 dis- ​heartens him; makes him stand to, and not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him. 41
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? 48
Enter Macbeth.
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: 52 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, 57 For 'tis my limited service. Exit Macduff.
Len. Goes the king hence to-day?
Macb. He does: he did appoint so.
Len. The night has been unruly: where we lay, 60 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 64 New hatch'd to the woeful 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. 69
Enter Macduff.
Macd. O horror! horror! horror! Tongue nor heart Cannot conceive nor name thee!
| Macb. | $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ What's the matter? |
| Len. | $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ What's the matter? |
Macd. Confusion now hath made his masterpiece! 72 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? 76
Len. Mean you his majesty?
Macd. 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! 80 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 84 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.
Lady M. What's the business, 88 That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley The 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 ear 92 Would 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, 96 And say it is not so.
Enter Macbeth and Lennox.
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: 100 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.
Don. What is amiss?
Macb. 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.
Macd. Your royal father's murder'd.
Mal. O! by whom?
Len. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done 't: 108 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. 112
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: 116 The expedition of my violent love Outran 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 nature 120 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 124 Courage to make 's love known?
Lady M. Help me hence, ho!
Macd. Look to the lady.
Mal. [Aside to Donalbain.] Why do we hold our tongues, That most may claim this argument for ours?
Don. [Aside to Malcolm.] What should be spoken 128 ​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 Donalbain.] Nor our strong sorrow Upon the foot of motion.
Ban. Look to the lady: 132 [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 137 Against the undivulg'd pretence I fight Of 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. 141
Exeunt [all but Malcolm and Donalbain].
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 149 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 Four
[Without the Castle]
Enter Ross, with 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, 4 Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, Threatens 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, 9 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, 12 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, 16 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. 20
Enter Macduff.
How goes the world, sir, now?
Macd. Why, see you not?
Ross. Is 't known who did this more than bloody deed?
Macd. Those that Macbeth hath slain.
Ross. Alas, the day! What good could they pretend?
Macd. They were suborn'd. 24 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 will ravin up 28 Thine own life's means! Then 'tis most like The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.
Macd. He is already nam'd, and gone to Scone To be invested.
Ross. Where is Duncan's body? 32
Macd. Carried to Colmekill, The sacred storehouse of his predecessors And guardian of their bones.
Ross. Will you to Scone?
Macd. No, cousin, I'll to Fife.
Ross. Well, I will thither. 36
Macd. 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 40 That would make good of bad, and friends of foes!
Exeunt omnes.
Footnotes to Act II
Scene One
​4 husbandry: economy 6 summons: i.e., sleepiness ​14 largess: gifts offices: servants' quarters 16 shut up; cf. n. 17–19 Cf. n. 25 consent: policy, plan when 'tis: i.e., when it takes effect 28 franchis'd: free ​36 sensible: perceptible 46 dudgeon: hilt gouts: drops 48 informs: assumes shape (?) 52 Hecate's offerings: offerings to the goddess of sorcery 53 Alarum'd: aroused 54 Cf. n. 55 Tarquin; cf. n. 59 present horror: i.e., silence
Scene Two
​3 bellman: watchman; cf. n. 5 surfeited: over-filled (with food or drink) 6 possets: a kind of milk-punch 12 Confounds: will ruin ​28 As: as if ​37 ravell'd sleeve; cf. n. 39 second course: i.e., the chief course (in a dinner) ​62 incarnadine: redden 70 night-gown: dressing-gown 73 To know my deed: if I must be aware of my deed
Scene Three
​2 old: endless 5 farmer; cf. n. 6 come in time: welcome 7 napkins: handkerchiefs enow: enough ​10 equivocator; cf. n. 17 goose: tailor's flatiron ​47 cast: throw, throw up 56 physics: cures 58 limited: appointed ​64 combustion: uproar 65 obscure bird: owl 69 fellow: equal 79 Gorgon: a monster who turned beholders to stone 85 great doom's image: likeness of Judgment Day ​86 sprites: spirits 87 countenance: behold (?), be in keeping with (?) 100 mortality: mortal life 101 toys: trivialities 102 lees: dregs 103 vault; cf. n. ​109 badg'd: labeled (i.e., as murderers) 117 expedition: haste 120 nature; cf. n. 123 breech'd: clothed in breeches 127 argument: topic ​132 Upon . . . motion: ready for action 133 naked frailties hid: i.e., dressed ourselves 138 pretence: intention 142 consort: associate 147 near: nearer ​151 dainty: formal 152 shift: steal
Scene Four
​4 trifled: made trifles of 7 travelling lamp: sun 8 predominance: supremacy 12 towering: circling upward pride of place: highest elevation ​24 pretend: intend suborn'd: instigated, led on 28 ravin up: devour 32 invested: robed and crowned ​40 benison: blessing