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Ring the alarum bell:-Murther! 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.

Enter LADY MACBETH.

LADY M. What's the business,

That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley
The sleepers of the house? speak, speak!

MACD.

[Bell rings.

O, gentle lady,

"T is not for you to hear what I can speak: The repetition in a woman's ear,

Would murther as it fell.

Enter BANQUO.

O Banquo! Banquo! our royal master 's murther'd!
LADY M. Woe, alas! what, in our house?
BAN.

Dear Duff, I prithee contradict thyself,

And say, it is not so.

Too cruel, anywhere.

Re-enter MACBETH and LENOX.

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 lees
Is left this vault to brag of.

Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN.

DON. What is amiss?

МАСВ.

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 murther'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 found
Upon their pillows: they star'd, and were distracted;
No man's life was 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 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
For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murtherers,
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 his love known?

LADY M.

MACD. Look to the lady.

MAL.

Help me hence, hoa!

Why do we hold our tongues,

That most may claim this argument for ours?

DON. What should be spoken here,

Where our fate, hid in an auger-hole,

May rush, and seize us? Let's away; our tears

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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 undivulg'd pretence I fight

Of treasonous malice.

MACD.
ALL

And so do I.

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 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 murtherous 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.

SCENE IV.-Without the Castle.

Enter ROSSE and an old Man.

OLD M. Threescore and ten I can remember well: Within the volume of which time, I have seen

[Exeunt.

Hours dreadful, and things strange; but this sore night
Hath trifled former knowings.

ROSSE.

Ah, good father,

Thou see'st, the heavens, as troubled with man's act,
Threaten his bloody stage: by the clock, 't is 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 intomb,
When living light should kiss it?

OLD M.

"T is unnatural,

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

A falcon, tow'ring in her pride of place,

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

ROSSE. 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 M.

ROSSE. They did so; That look'd upon 't.

'T is said, they eat each other. to the amazement of mine eyes, Here comes the good Macduff:

Enter MACDUFF.

How goes the world, sir, now?

MACD. Why, see you not?

ROSSE. Is 't known who did this more than bloody deed? MACD. Those that Macbeth hath slain.

ROSSE.

What good could they pretend?

MACD.

Alas, the day!

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.

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Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up

Thine own life's means!-Then 't is most like

The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.

MACD. He is already nam'd; and gone to Scone,

To be invested.

ROSSE.

Where is Duncan's body?

MACD. Carried to Colmes-kill;

The sacred storehouse of his predecessors,

And guardian of their bones.

ROSSE.

Will you to Scone ?

Well, I will thither.

MACD. No, cousin, I'll to Fife.

ROSSE.

MACD. Well, may you see things well done there:

adieu!

Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!

ROSSE. Farewell, father.

OLD M. God's benison go with you, and with those

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

[Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I.-Forres. A Room in the Palace.

Enter BANQUo.

BAN. Thou hast it now, King, Cawdor, Glamis, all,
As the weird women promis'd; and I fear

Thou play'dst most foully for 't: yet it was said,
It should not stand in thy posterity;

But that myself should be the root, and father
Of many kings. If there come truth from them,
(As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine,)
Why, by the verities on thee made good,
May they not be my oracles as well,

And set me up in hope? But, hush; no more.

Senet sounded. Enter MACBETH, as King; LADY MACBETH, as Queen; LENOX, ROSSE, Lords, Ladies, and Attendants.

MACB. Here's our chief guest.

LADY M.

If he had been forgotten

It had been as a gap in our great feast,

And all-thing unbecoming.

MACB. To-night we hold a solemn supper, sir,

And I'll request your presence.

BAN.

Let your highness

Command upon me; to the which, my duties

Are with a most indissoluble tie

For ever knit.

MACB. Ride you this afternoon?
BAN.

Ay, my good lord.

MACB. We should have else desir'd your good advice

(Which still hath been both grave and prosperous) In this day's council; but we 'll take to-morrow.

Is 't far you ride?

BAN. As far, my lord, as will fill up the time Twixt this and supper: go not my horse the better, I must become a borrower of the night,

For a dark hour, or twain.

MACB.

Fail not our feast.

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