Macbeth: Complete Text and Explanatory Notes for Act 2, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's Macbeth

Macbeth

ACT II SCENE II	The same.
	Enter LADY MACBETH
LADY MACBETH	That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold;
	What hath quench'd them hath given me fire.
	Hark! Peace!
	It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it:
	The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms
	Do mock their charge with snores: I have drugg'd
	their possets,
	That death and nature do contend about them,	10
	Whether they live or die.
MACBETH	Within
LADY MACBETH	Alack, I am afraid they have awaked,
	And 'tis not done. The attempt and not the deed Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready; He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done't.
	Enter MACBETH
	My husband!
MACBETH	I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?
LADY MACBETH	I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.
	Did not you speak?	20
MACBETH	When?
LADY MACBETH	Now.
MACBETH	As I descended?
LADY MACBETH	Ay.
MACBETH	Hark!	25
	Who lies i' the second chamber?
LADY MACBETH	Donalbain.
MACBETH	This is a sorry sight.
	Looking on his hands
LADY MACBETH	A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.
MACBETH	There's one did laugh in's sleep, and one cried	30
	'Murder!'
	That they did wake each other: I stood and heard them:
	But they did say their prayers, and address'd them
	Again to sleep.
LADY MACBETH	There are two lodged together.	35
MACBETH	One cried 'God bless us!' and 'Amen' the other;
	As they had seen me with these hangman's hands.
	Listening their fear, I could not say 'Amen,'
	When they did say 'God bless us!'
LADY MACBETH	Consider it not so deeply.	40
MACBETH	But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'?
	I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen'
	Stuck in my throat.
LADY MACBETH	These deeds must not be thought
	After these ways; so, it will make us mad.	45
MACBETH	Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more!
	Macbeth does murder sleep', the innocent sleep,
	Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care,
	The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,
	Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,	50
	Chief nourisher in life's feast,--
LADY MACBETH	What do you mean?
MACBETH	Still it cried 'Sleep no more!' to all the house:
	'Glamis hath murder'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor
	Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more.'	55
LADY MACBETH	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?	60
	They must lie there: go carry them; and smear
	The sleepy grooms with blood.
MACBETH	I'll go no more:
	I am afraid to think what I have done;
	Look on't again I dare not.	65
LADY MACBETH	Infirm of purpose!
	Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead
	Are but as pictures: 'tis 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
MACBETH	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	75
	Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
	The multitudinous seas in incarnadine,
	Making the green one red.
	Re-enter LADY MACBETH
LADY MACBETH	My hands are of your colour; but I shame
	To wear a heart so white.	80
	Knocking within
	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.	85
	Knocking within
	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.
MACBETH	To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself.	90
	Knocking within
	Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!
	Exeunt