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Home > Macbeth > ACT II - SCENE I. Court of Macbeth's castle.

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ACT II - SCENE I. Court of Macbeth's castle.
Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE bearing a torch before him

BANQUO
1    How goes the night, boy?
FLEANCE
2    The moon is down; I have not heard the clock.
BANQUO
3    And she goes down at twelve.
FLEANCE
4    I take't, 'tis later, sir.
BANQUO
5    Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven;
6    Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.
7    A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,
8    And yet I would not sleep: merciful powers,
9    Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature
10   Gives way to in repose!
Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch
11   Give me my sword.
12   Who's there?
MACBETH
13   A friend.
BANQUO
14   What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's a-bed:
15   He hath been in unusual pleasure, and
16   Sent forth great largess to your offices.
17   This diamond he greets your wife withal,
18   By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up
19   In measureless content.
MACBETH
20   Being unprepared,
21   Our will became the servant to defect;
22   Which else should free have wrought.
BANQUO
23   All's well.
24   I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:
25   To you they have show'd some truth.
MACBETH
26   I think not of them:
27   Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,
28   We would spend it in some words upon that business,
29   If you would grant the time.
BANQUO
30   At your kind'st leisure.
MACBETH
31   If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis,
32   It shall make honour for you.
BANQUO
33   So I lose none
34   In seeking to augment it, but still keep
35   My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,
36   I shall be counsell'd.
MACBETH
37   Good repose the while!
BANQUO
38   Thanks, sir: the like to you!
Exeunt BANQUO and FLEANCE

MACBETH
39   Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,
40   She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.
Exit Servant
41   Is this a dagger which I see before me,
42   The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
43   I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
44   Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
45   To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
46   A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
47   Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
48   I see thee yet, in form as palpable
49   As this which now I draw.
50   Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;
51   And such an instrument I was to use.
52   Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
53   Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,
54   And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
55   Which was not so before. There's no such thing:
56   It is the bloody business which informs
57   Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworld
58   Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
59   The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates
60   Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder,
61   Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
62   Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace.
63   With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
64   Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
65   Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
66   Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
67   And take the present horror from the time,
68   Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:
69   Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
A bell rings
70   I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
71   Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
72   That summons thee to heaven or to hell.
Exit

< (Previous) ACT I, SCENE VIIACT II, II (Next) >
Scene Index
ACT I
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III
  • SCENE IV
  • SCENE V
  • SCENE VI
  • SCENE VII


  • ACT II
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III
  • SCENE IV


  • ACT III
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III
  • SCENE IV
  • SCENE V
  • SCENE VI


  • ACT IV
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III


  • ACT V
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III
  • SCENE IV
  • SCENE V
  • SCENE VI
  • SCENE VII
  • SCENE VIII

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