| ACT II SCENE I | Court of Macbeth's castle. | |
| | Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE bearing a torch before him | |
| BANQUO | How goes the night, boy? | |
| FLEANCE | The moon is down; I have not heard the clock. | |
| BANQUO | And she goes down at twelve. | |
| FLEANCE | I take't, 'tis later, sir. | 5 |
| BANQUO | Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven; | |
| | 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 | 10 |
| | Gives way to in repose! | |
| | Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch | |
| | Give me my sword. | |
| | Who's there? | |
| MACBETH | A friend. | |
| BANQUO | What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's a-bed: | 15 |
| | 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. | 20 |
| MACBETH | Being unprepared
Our will became the servant to defect
Which else should free have wrought. | |
| BANQUO | All's well. | |
| | I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters: | 25 |
| | To you they have show'd some truth. | |
| MACBETH | 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. | 30 |
| BANQUO | At your kind'st leisure. | |
| MACBETH | If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis, | |
| | It shall make honour for you. | |
| BANQUO | So I lose none | |
| | In seeking to augment it, but still keep | 35 |
| | My bosom franchised and allegiance clear, | |
| | I shall be counsell'd. | |
| MACBETH | Good repose the while! | |
| BANQUO | Thanks, sir: the like to you! | |
| | Exeunt BANQUO and FLEANCE | |
| MACBETH | Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, | 40 |
| | She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. | |
| | 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 | 45 |
| | 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 | |
| | As this which now I draw. | 50 |
| | 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, | |
| | Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still, | |
| | And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, | 55 |
| | 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 halfworld | |
| | Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse | |
| | The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates | 60 |
| | Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder, | |
| | 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, | 65 |
| | 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: | |
| | Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. | 70 |
| | 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 | |
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