Act 2 — Scene I. Inverness. Court of Macbeth's Castle.[3924]
Reading edition
Scene I. Inverness. Court of Macbeth's Castle.[3924]
Enter Banquo, and Fleance bearing a torch before him.[3925]
Ban. How goes the night, boy? Fle. The moon is down; I have not heard the clock.[3926] Ban. And she goes down at twelve. Fle. I take't, 'tis later, sir. Ban. Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven,[3927] Their candles are all out. Take thee that too. 5 A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers,[3928] Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature[3928] Gives way to in repose![3928][3929]
Enter Macbeth, and a Servant with a torch.[3930]
Give me my sword. Who's there?[3929] 10 Macb. A friend. Ban. What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's a-bed: He hath been in unusual pleasure, and[3931] Sent forth great largess to your offices:[3931] This diamond he greets your wife withal, 15 By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up[3932][3933] In measureless content.[3932] Macb. Being unprepared, Our will became the servant to defect, Which else should free have wrought. Ban. All's well.[3934] I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:[3935] 20 To you they have show'd some truth.[3936] 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,[3937] If you would grant the time. Ban. At your kind'st leisure.[3938] Macb. If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis[3939][3940]25 It shall make honour for you.[3940] Ban. So I lose none In seeking to augment it, but still keep My bosom franchised and allegiance clear, I shall be counsell'd. Macb. Good repose the while! Ban. Thanks, sir: the like to you![3941] 30
[Exeunt Banquo and Fleance.[3942]
Macb. Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. [Exit Servant.[3943] 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. 35 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 40 As this which now I draw.[3944][3945] Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;[3944][3945] And such an instrument I was to use.[3944][3945] Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,[3945] Or else worth all the rest: I see thee still;[3945] 45 And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,[3946] 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 half-world[3947] Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse 50 The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates[3948] Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murder,[3949] Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf, Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,[3950] With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design[3951] 55 Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,[3952] Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear[3953] Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,[3954] And take the present horror from the time,[3955] Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:[3955][3956] 60 Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.[3957]
[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.