And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature,
For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,
Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers
Unmannerly breech'd with gore 13: Who could re-
frain,

That had a heart to love, and in that heart
Courage, to make his love known?

Lady M.

Macd. Look to the lady.

Mal.

Help me hence, ho!

Why do we hold our tongues,

That most may claim this argument for ours?
Don. What should be spoken,

Here, where our fate, hid in an augre-hole,

May rush, and seize us? Let's away; our tears
Are not yet brew'd.

Mal.

Upon the foot of motion.

Ban.

Nor our strong sorrow

Look to the lady :

[LADY MACBETH is carried out.

And when we have our naked frailties hid 14,
That suffer in exposure, let us meet,

And question this most bloody piece of work,
To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us:
In the great hand of God I stand; and, thence,

show the difference between the studied language of hypocrisy and the natural outcries of sudden passion. This whole speech, so considered, is a remarkable instance of judgment, as it consists of antithesis only.'

13 Breech'd with gore,' covered with blood to their hilts.

14 i. e. when we have clothed our half drest bodies, which may take cold from being exposed to the air. It is possible, as Steevens remarks that, in such a cloud of words, the meaning might escape the reader. The Porter had already said that this place is too cold for hell,' meaning the court-yard of the castle in which Banquo and the rest now are. So in Timon of Athens:Call the creatures

Whose naked natures live in all the spight
Of wreakful heaven.'

Against the undivulg'd pretence 15 I fight
Of treasonous malice.

Macb.

All.

And so do I.

So all.

Macb. Let's briefly put on manly readiness, And meet i' the hall together.

All.

Well contented.

[Exeunt all but MAL. and DON.

Mal. What will you do? Let's not consort with

them :

To show an unfelt sorrow, is an office

Which the false man does easy: I'll to England.
Don. To Ireland, I; our separated fortune
Shall keep us both the safer: where we are,
There's daggers in men's smiles: the near in blood,
The nearer bloody 16.

Mal.
This murderous shaft that's shot,
Hath not yet lighted 17; and our safest way

17

15 Pretence is here put for design or intention. It is so used again in The Winter's Tale :-'The pretence whereof being by circumstance partly laid open.' Thus again in this tragedy:

'What good could they pretend;'

i. e. intend to themselves. Banquo's meaning is-'in our present state of doubt and uncertainty about this murder, I have nothing to do but to put myself under the direction of God; and, relying on his support, I here declare myself an eternal enemy to this treason, and to all its further designs that have not yet come to light.'

16

the near in blood,

The nearer bloody.'

Meaning that he suspects Macbeth to be the murderer; for he was the nearest in blood to the two princes, being the cousingerman of Duncan.

17 The allusion of the unlighted shaft appears to be—the death of the king only could neither insure the crown to Macbeth, nor accomplish any other purpose, while his sons were yet living, who had therefore just reason to apprehend that they should be removed by the same means. Malcolm therefore means to say, The shaft has not yet done all its intended mischief; I and my brother are yet to be destroyed before it will light on the ground and do no more harm.'

Is, to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse;.
And let us not be dainty of leave-taking,
But shift away: There's warrant in that theft
Which steals itself, when there's no mercy left.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV. Without the Castle.

Enter ROSSE and an Old Man.

Old M. Threescore and ten I can remember well: Within the volume of which time, I have seen Hours dreadful, and things strange; but this sore

night

Hath trifled former knowings.

Rosse. Ah, good father, Thou see'st, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, Threaten his bloody stage: by the clock, 'tis day, And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp: Is it night's predominance, or the day's shame, That darkness does the face of earth entomb, When living light should kiss it1?

Old M.

Even like the deed that's done.

"Tis unnatural, On Tuesday last,

A falcon, tow'ring in her pride of place2,
Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at, and kill'd.

1' After the murder of King Duffe,' says Holinshed, ‘for the space of six months togither there appeared no sunne by daye, nor moone by night, in anie part of the realme; but still the sky was covered with continual clouds; and sometimes such outrageous winds arose, with lightenings and tempests, that the people were in great fear of present destruction.'-It is evident that Shakspeare had this passage in his thoughts. Most of the portents here mentioned are related by Holinshed, as accompanying King Duffe's death: there was a sparhawk strangled by an owl,' and 'horses of singular beauty and swiftness did eat their own flesh.'

2 A falcon tow'ring in her pride of place,' a technical phrase in falconry for soaring to the highest pitch. Faulcon haultain was the French term for a towering or high flying hawk.

Rosse. And Duncan's horses (a thing most strange

and certain),

Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make War with mankind.

Old M.

'Tis said, they ate each other. Rosse. They did so; to the amazement of mine eyes, That look'd upon't. Here comes the good Mac

duff:

Enter MACDuff.

How goes the world, sir, now?

Macd.

Why, see you not?

Rosse. Is't known who did this more than bloody

Malcolm, and Donalbain, the king's two sons, Are stol'n away and fled; which puts upon them Suspicion of the deed.

Rosse.

'Gainst nature still:

Thriftless ambition, that will ravin up

Thine own life's means!-Then 'tis most like,
The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth".

Macd. He is already nam'd; and gone to Scone, To be invested.

Rosse.

Where is Duncan's body?

3 Pretend, in the sense of the Latin prætendo, to design, or 'lay for a thing before it come,' as the old dictionaries explain it.

4 Macbeth, by his birth, stood next in succession to the crown after the sons of Duncan. King Malcolm, Duncan's predecessor, had two daughters, the eldest of whom was the mother of Duncan, the younger the mother of Macbeth.-Holinshed.

Macd. Carried to Colme-kill 5;

The sacred storehouse of his predecessors,
And guardian of their bones.

Rosse.

Will you to Scone?

Well, I will thither.

Macd. No, cousin, I'll to Fife.

Rosse.

Macd. Well, may you see things well done

there; adieu!

Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!

Rosse. Father, farewell.

Old M. God's benison go with you: and with those That would make good of bad, and friends of foes!

[Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I. Fores. A Room in the Palace.

Enter BANQuo.

Ban. Thou hast it now, King, Cawdor, Glamis, all,
As the weird women promis'd; and, I fear,
Thou play'dst most foully for't; yet it was said,
It should not stand in thy posterity;

But that myself should be the root and father
Of many kings. If there come truth from them
(As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine),
Why, by the verities on thee made good,
May they not be my oracles as well,
And set me up in hope? But, hush; no more.

5 Colme-kill is the famous Iona, one of the western isles mentioned by Holinshed as the burial place of many ancient kings of Scotland. Colme-kill means the cell or chapel of St. Columbo. See note 19, p. 215.