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Macbeth: Act II, Scene 3

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Macbeth
Act II, Scene 3

The court of Macbeth’s castle.

A Sketch of Dame Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth

A Sketch of Dame Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth

John Singer Sargent, 1888

  1. Enter a Porter. Knocking within.

Porter

1 - 20
  1. Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of Hell Gate,
  2. he should have old turning the key.
  3. Knock.
  4. Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there, i’ th’ name of Beelzebub?
  5. Here’s a farmer, that hang’d himself on th’ expectation of
  6. plenty. Come in time! Have napkins enow about you, here
  7. you’ll sweat for’t.
  8. Knock.
  9. Knock, knock! Who’s there, in th’ other devil’s name? Faith,
  10. here’s an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales
  11. against either scale, who committed treason enough for God’s
  12. sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven. O, come in,
  13. equivocator.
  14. Knock.
  15. Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there? Faith, here’s an English
  16. tailor come hither for stealing out of a French hose. Come
  17. in, tailor, here you may roast your goose.
  18. Knock.
  19. Knock, knock! Never at quiet! What are you? But this place
  20. is too cold for hell. I’ll devil—porter it no further. I had
  21. thought to have let in some of all professions that go the
  22. primrose way to th’ everlasting bonfire.
  23. Knock.
  24. Anon, anon!
  25. Opens the gate.
  26. I pray you remember the porter.
  1. Enter Macduff and Lennox.

Macduff

21 - 22
  1. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed,
  2. That you do lie so late?

Porter

23 - 24
  1. Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock; and
  2. drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things.

Macduff

25
  1. What three things does drink especially provoke?

Porter

26 - 33
  1. Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir,
  2. it provokes, and unprovokes: it provokes the desire, but it
  3. takes away the performance. Therefore much drink may be said
  4. to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mars
  5. him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him,
  6. and disheartens him; makes him stand to, and not stand to;
  7. in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and giving him
  8. the lie, leaves him.

Macduff

34
  1. I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.

Porter

35 - 38
  1. That it did, sir, i’ the very throat on me; but I requited
  2. him for his lie, and (I think) being too strong for him,
  3. though he took up my legs sometime, yet I made a shift to
  4. cast him.

Macduff

39 - 40
  1. Is thy master stirring?
  2. Enter Macbeth.
  3. Our knocking has awak’d him; here he comes.

Lennox

41
  1. Good morrow, noble sir.

Macbeth

42
  1.                         Good morrow, both.

Macduff

43
  1. Is the King stirring, worthy thane?

Macbeth

44
  1.                                     Not yet.

Macduff

45 - 46
  1. He did command me to call timely on him,
  2. I have almost slipp’d the hour.

Macbeth

47
  1.                                 I’ll bring you to him.

Macduff

48 - 49
  1. I know this is a joyful trouble to you;
  2. But yet ’tis one.

Macbeth

50 - 51
  1. The labor we delight in physics pain.
  2. This is the door.

Macduff

52 - 53
  1.                   I’ll make so bold to call,
  2. For ’tis my limited service.
  1. Exit Macduff.

Lennox

54
  1. Goes the King hence today?

Macbeth

55
  1.                            He does; he did appoint so.

Lennox

56 - 63
  1. The night has been unruly. Where we lay,
  2. Our chimneys were blown down, and (as they say)
  3. Lamentings heard i’ th’ air; strange screams of death,
  4. And prophesying, with accents terrible,
  5. Of dire combustion and confus’d events
  6. New hatch’d to th’ woeful time. The obscure bird
  7. Clamor’d the livelong night. Some say, the earth
  8. Was feverous, and did shake.
Charles Kemble as MacDuff

Charles Kemble as MacDuff

Colnaghi & Puckle; Richard James Lane, printmaker; 1840

Macbeth

64
  1.                              ’Twas a rough night.

Lennox

65 - 66
  1. My young remembrance cannot parallel
  2. A fellow to it.
  1. Enter Macduff.

Macduff

67 - 68
  1. O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart
  2. Cannot conceive nor name thee!

Macbeth and Lennox

69
  1.                                What’s the matter?

Macduff

70 - 73
  1. Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!
  2. Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope
  3. The Lord’s anointed temple, and stole thence
  4. The life o’ th’ building!

Macbeth

74
  1.                           What is’t you say—the life?

Lennox

75
  1. Mean you his Majesty?

Macduff

76 - 86
  1. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight
  2. With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak;
  3. See, and then speak yourselves.
  4. Exeunt Macbeth and Lennox.
  5.                                 Awake, awake!
  6. Ring the alarum-bell! Murder and treason!
  7. Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm, awake!
  8. Shake off this downy sleep, death’s counterfeit,
  9. And look on death itself! Up, up, and see
  10. The great doom’s image! Malcolm! Banquo!
  11. As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites,
  12. To countenance this horror! Ring the bell.
  1. Bell rings.
  1. Enter Lady Macbeth.

Lady Macbeth

87 - 89
  1. What’s the business,
  2. That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley
  3. The sleepers of the house? Speak, speak!

Macduff

90 - 95
  1.                                          O gentle lady,
  2. ’Tis not for you to hear what I can speak:
  3. The repetition in a woman’s ear
  4. Would murder as it fell.
  5. Enter Banquo.
  6.                          O Banquo, Banquo,
  7. Our royal master’s murder’d!

Lady Macbeth

96 - 97
  1.                              Woe, alas!
  2. What, in our house?

Banquo

98 - 100
  1.                     Too cruel any where.
  2. Dear Duff, I prithee contradict thyself,
  3. And say, it is not so.
  1. Enter Macbeth, Lennox, Rosse.

Macbeth

101 - 106
  1. Had I but died an hour before this chance,
  2. I had liv’d a blessed time; for from this instant
  3. There’s nothing serious in mortality:
  4. All is but toys: renown and grace is dead,
  5. The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
  6. Is left this vault to brag of.
  1. Enter Malcolm and Donalbain.

Donalbain

107
  1. What is amiss?

Macbeth

108 - 110
  1.                You are, and do not know’t.
  2. The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood
  3. Is stopp’d, the very source of it is stopp’d.

Macduff

111
  1. Your royal father’s murder’d.

Malcolm

112
  1.                               O, by whom?

Lennox

113 - 117
  1. Those of his chamber, as it seem’d, had done’t.
  2. Their hands and faces were all badg’d with blood;
  3. So were their daggers, which unwip’d we found
  4. Upon their pillows. They star’d and were distracted;
  5. No man’s life was to be trusted with them.

Macbeth

118 - 119
  1. O, yet I do repent me of my fury,
  2. That I did kill them.

Macduff

120
  1.                       Wherefore did you so?

Macbeth

121 - 131
  1. Who can be wise, amaz’d, temp’rate, and furious,
  2. Loyal, and neutral, in a moment? No man.
  3. Th’ expedition of my violent love
  4. Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,
  5. His silver skin lac’d with his golden blood,
  6. And his gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in nature
  7. For ruin’s wasteful entrance; there, the murderers,
  8. Steep’d in the colors of their trade, their daggers
  9. Unmannerly breech’d with gore. Who could refrain,
  10. That had a heart to love, and in that heart
  11. Courage to make ’s love known?
Mrs. D.P. Bowers as Lady Macbeth

Mrs. D.P. Bowers as Lady Macbeth

Gebbie & Co., circa 1887

Lady Macbeth

132
  1.                                Help me hence, ho!

Macduff

133
  1. Look to the lady.

Malcolm

134 - 135
  1. Aside to Donalbain
  2.                   Why do we hold our tongues,
  3. That most may claim this argument for ours?

Donalbain

136 - 139
  1. Aside to Malcolm
  2. What should be spoken here, where our fate,
  3. Hid in an auger-hole, may rush and seize us?
  4. Let’s away,
  5. Our tears are not yet brew’d.

Malcolm

140 - 141
  1. Aside to Donalbain
  2.                               Nor our strong sorrow
  3. Upon the foot of motion.

Banquo

142 - 149
  1.                          Look to the lady.
  2. Lady Macbeth is carried out.
  3. And when we have our naked frailties hid,
  4. That suffer in exposure, let us meet
  5. And question this most bloody piece of work,
  6. To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us.
  7. In the great hand of God I stand, and thence
  8. Against the undivulg’d pretense I fight
  9. Of treasonous malice.

Macduff

150
  1.                       And so do I.

All

151
  1.              So all.

Macbeth

152 - 153
  1. Let’s briefly put on manly readiness,
  2. And meet i’ th’ hall together.

All

154
  1.                                Well contented.
  1. Exeunt all but Malcolm and Donalbain.

Malcolm

155 - 157
  1. What will you do? Let’s not consort with them;
  2. To show an unfelt sorrow is an office
  3. Which the false man does easy. I’ll to England.

Donalbain

158 - 161
  1. To Ireland, I; our separated fortune
  2. Shall keep us both the safer. Where we are,
  3. There’s daggers in men’s smiles; the near in blood,
  4. The nearer bloody.

Malcolm

162 - 167
  1.                    This murderous shaft that’s shot
  2. Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way
  3. Is to avoid the aim. Therefore to horse,
  4. And let us not be dainty of leave-taking,
  5. But shift away. There’s warrant in that theft
  6. Which steals itself, when there’s no mercy left.
  1. Exeunt.
Viola Allen as Lady Macbeth

Viola Allen as Lady Macbeth

White Studio, photographer; circa 1900

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