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- THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH
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- Act 2 Scene 1
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- (Enter Banquo and Fleance, with a torch before him)
- l1l Banquo How goes the night, boy?
- l2l Fleance The moon is down. I have not heard the clock.
- l3l Banquo And she goes down at twelve.
- Fleance I take Æt Ætis later, sir.
- Banquo (giving Fleance his sword)
- l4l Hold, take my sword. ThereÆs husbandry in heaven,
- l5l Their candles are all out. Take thee that, too.
- l6l A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,
- l7l And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers,
- l8l Restrain in me the cursΦd thoughts that nature
- l9l Gives way to in repose.
- (Enter Macbeth, and a servant with a torch)
- Give me my sword. WhoÆs there?
- l10l Macbeth A friend.
- l11l Banquo What, sir, not yet at rest? The KingÆs a-bed.
- l12l He hath been in unusual pleasure, and
- l13l Sent forth great largesse to your offices.
- l14l This diamond he greets your wife withal
- l15l By the name of most kind hostess, and shut up
- l16l In measureless content.
- Macbeth Being unprepared
- l17l Our will became the servant to defect,
- l18l Which else should free have wrought.
- Banquo AllÆs well.
- l19l I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters.
- l20l To you they have showed some truth.
- Macbeth I think not of them;
- l21l Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,
- l22l We would spend it in some words upon that business
- l23l If you would grant the time.
- Banquo At your kindÆst leisure.
- l24l Macbeth If you shall cleave to my consent when Ætis,
- l25l It shall make honour for you.
- Banquo So I lose none
- l26l In seeking to augment it, but still keep
- l27l My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,
- l28l I shall be counselled.
- l29l Macbeth Good repose the while.
- l30l Banquo Thanks, sir. The like to you.
- (Exeunt Banquo and Fleance)
- Macbeth (to the Servant)
- l31l Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,
- l32l She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.
- (Exit Servant)
- l33l Is this a dagger which I see before me,
- l34l The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
- l35l I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
- l36l Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
- l37l To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
- l38l A dagger of the mind, a false creation
- l39l Proceeding from the heat-oppressΦd brain?
- l40l I see thee yet, in form as palpable
- l41l As this which now I draw.
- l42l Thou marshallÆst me the way that I was going,
- l43l And such an instrument I was to use.
- l44l Mine eyes are made the fools oÆ thÆ other senses,
- l45l Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still,
- l46l And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
- l47l Which was not so before. ThereÆs no such thing.
- l48l It is the bloody business which informs
- l49l Thus to mine eyes. Now oÆer the one half-world
- l50l Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
- l51l The curtained sleep. Witchcraft celebrates
- l52l Pale HecateÆs offerings, and withered murder,
- l53l Alarumed by his sentinel the wolf,
- l54l Whose howlÆs his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
- l55l With TarquinÆs ravishing strides, towards his design
- l56l Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
- l57l Hear not my steps which way they walk, for fear
- l58l Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
- l59l And take the present horror from the time,
- l60l Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives.
- l61l Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
- (A bell rings)
- l62l I go, and it is done. The bell invites me.
- l63l Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
- l64l That summons thee to heaven or to hell.
- (Exit)
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