Macb. Methought, I heard a voice cry, "Sleep no more !

Macbeth does murther sleep, the innocent sleep;
Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleave 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? Macb. Still it cried, "Sleep no more!" to all the

house:

"Glamis hath murther'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,

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.

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!

Give me the daggers: The sleeping, and the dead,
Are but as pictures; 't is 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.
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
Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather

a Sleave-unwrought silk-the sflilezza of the Italians.

The multitudinous seas incarnadine,

Making the green-one red.a

Re-enter LADY MACBETH.

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

Hath left you unattended.-[Knocking.] 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.

Macb. To know my deed, 't were best not know

Porter. Here's a knocking, indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key. [Knocking.] Knock, knock, knock: Who's there,

a The idea of this passage, and, in some degree, the expression, is to be found in a line of Heywood (Robert Earl of Huntingdon ') :

"The multitudes of seas dyed red with blood." This gives us, we think, the meaning of multitudinous. Upon the mode of reading the following line the commentators are at variance. In the original it stands

"Making the green one, red."

This Malone adopts. The ordinary reading,

"Making the green-one red,"

was suggested by Murphy, and adopted by Steevens. There can be little doubt, we apprehend, of the propriety of the altera tion.

i' the name of Belzebub? Here's a farmer, that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty: Come in time; have napkins enough about you; here you'll sweat for 't. [Knocking.] Knock, knock: Who's there, 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 equivocate to heaven: O, come in, equivocator. [Knocking.] 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.] 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.] Anon, anon; I pray you, remember the porter. [Opens the gate.

Enter MACDUFF and LENOX.

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. Macd. What three things does drink especially provoke?

Port. 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.

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 ?—

Our knocking has awak'd him; here he comes.

Enter MACBETH.

Len. Good morrow, noble sir!

Macb.

Good morrow, both!

Not yet.

Macd. Is the king stirring, worthy thane?
Macb.

Macd. He did command me to call timely on him;

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 't is one.

Macb. The labour we delight in physics pain. This is the door.

Macd.

I'll make so bold to call,

For 't is my limited a service.

Len. Goes the king hence to-day?

[Exit MACDUFF.

Macb. He does :-he did appoint so.

Len. 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 confus'd events,

New hatch'd to the woeful time,

The obscure bird clamour'd the live-long night:
Some say the earth was feverous, and did shake.b
Macb. T was a rough night.

Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel
A fellow to it.

a Limited-appointed.

b We here follow the regulation of the original. But we have adopted a punctuation suggested by a friend, which connects "the obscure bird" with "prophesying."

Re-enter MACDUFF.

Macd. O horror! horror! horror!

Tongue, nor heart, cannot conceive, nor name thee!
Macb., Len. What 's the matter?

Macd. Confusion now hath made his master-piece! Most sacrilegious murther hath broke ope

The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence
The life o' the building.

Macb.

What is 't you say? the life? 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.-Awake! awake!—
[Exeunt MACBETH and LENOX.
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. [Bell rings.

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.

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.

a The words "ring the bell" form part of the original text; and the stage direction, "bell rings," immediately follows. The commentators strike out "ring the bell," contending that these words also were a stage direction. But how natural is it that Macduff, having previously cried "ring the alarum-bell," should repeat the order!