MALCOLM      [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 brewed. MALCOLM      [aside to Donalbain] Nor our strong sorrow Upon the foot of […]

MACBETH      Here lay Duncan, His silver skin laced with his golden blood, And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature For ruin’s wasteful entrance; there the murderers, Steeped in the colours of their trade, their daggers Unmannerly breeched with gore. Who could refrain, That had a heart to love, and in that heart […]

MACDUFF     Your royal father’s murdered. MALCOLM    O! By whom? LENNOX        Those of his chamber, as it seemed, had done’t. Their hands and faces were all 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, […]

Enter Macbeth, Lennox, and 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 […]

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 murdered. LADY              Woe, alas! What, in our house? BANQUO        Too cruel anywhere. Dear Duff, I prithee contradict thyself And say it is […]

MACDUFF      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. Bell rings. Enter Lady LADY              What’s […]

Enter MacDuff MACDUFF      O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee. MACBETH AND 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’th’ building. MACBETH      What is’t you say, the life? LENNOX         Mean you […]

LENNOX         Goes the King hence today? 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’th’ air, strange screams of death, And prophesying with accents terrible Of dire combustion and confused events New-hatched to th’ woeful time. […]

Enter Macbeth MACDUFF      Is thy master stirring? Our knocking has awaked him; here he comes. [Exit Porter] 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 slipped the hour. MACBETH      I’ll bring […]

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; […]