Page 24
Macbeth:
So shall I, love; and so, I pray, be you.
Let your remembrance apply to Banquo;
Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue:
Unsafe the while, that we
Must lave our honours in these flattering streams,
And make our faces vizards to our hearts,
Disguising what they are.
Lady Macbeth:
You must leave this.
Macbeth:
O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!
Thou know’st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives.
Lady Macbeth:
But in them nature’s copy’s not eterne.
Macbeth:
There’s comfort yet; they are assailable.
Then be thou jocund. Ere the bat hath flown
His cloister’d flight, ere to black Hecate’s summons
The shard-born beetle, with his drowsy hums,
Hath rung night’s yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.
Lady Macbeth:
What’s to be done?
Macbeth:
Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day,
And with thy bloody and invisible hand
Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond
Which keeps me pale!—Light thickens; and the crow
Makes wing to th’ rooky wood.
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,
Whiles night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.
Thou marvell’st at my words: but hold thee still;
Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.
So, pr’ythee, go with me.
(Exeunt.)
Scene Three. The same. A Park or Lawn, with a gate leading to the Palace.
Enter three Murderers.
First Murderer:
But who did bid thee join with us?
Third Murderer:
Macbeth.
Second Murderer:
He needs not our mistrust; since he delivers
Our offices and what we have to do
To the direction just.
First Murderer:
Then stand with us.
The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day.
Now spurs the lated traveller apace,
To gain the timely inn; and near approaches
The subject of our watch.
Third Murderer:
Hark! I hear horses.
Banquo:
(Within.) Give us a light there, ho!
Second Murderer:
Then ’tis he; the rest
That are within the note of expectation
Already are i’ th’ court.
First Murderer:
His horses go about.
Third Murderer:
Almost a mile; but he does usually,
So all men do, from hence to the palace gate
Make it their walk.
Enter Banquo and Fleance with a torch.
Second Murderer:
A light, a light!
Third Murderer:
’Tis he.
First Murderer:
Stand to't.