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him for his lie, and, I think, being too strong for him, though

he took up my legs sometime, yet I made shift to cast him.

MACDUFF.

Is thy master stirring?

Enter Macbeth.

Our knocking has awaked him; here he comes.

LENNOX.

Good morrow, noble sir.

MACBETH.

morrow, both.

MACDUFF.

Is the King stirring, worthy Thane?

MACBETH.

Not yet.

MACDUFF.

He did command me to call timely on him;

I have almost slipp'd the hour.

MACBETH.

I'll bring you to him.

MACDUFF.

I know this is a joyful trouble to you,

But yet 'tis one.

MACBETH.

The labor we delight in physics pain.

This is the door.

MACDUFF I'll make so bold to call,

For 'tis my limited service. Exit.

LENNOX.

Goes the King hence today?

MACBETH.

He does; he did appoint so.

LENNOX.

The night has been unruly. Where we lay,

Our chimneys were blown down, and, as they say,

Lamentings heard i' the air, strange screams of death,

And prophesying with accents terrible

Of dire combustion and confused events

New hatch'd to the woeful time. The obscure bird

Clamor'd the livelong night. Some say the earth

Was feverous and did shake.

MACBETH.

'Twas a rough fight.

LENNOX.

My young remembrance cannot parallel

A fellow to it.

Re-enter Macduff.

MACDUFF.

O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart

Cannot conceive nor name thee.

MACBETH.

LENNOX. What's the matter?

MACDUFF.

Confusion now hath made his masterpiece.

Most sacrilegious murther hath broke ope

The Lord's anointed temple and stole thence

The life o' the building.

MACBETH.

What is't you say? the life?

LENNOX.

Mean you his Majesty?

MACDUFF.

Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight

With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak;

See, and then speak yourselves.

Exeunt Macbeth and Lennox.

Awake, awake!

Ring the alarum bell. Murther and treason!

Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm, awake!

Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit,

And look on death itself! Up, up, and see

The great doom's image! Malcolm! Banquo!

As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites

To countenance this horror! Ring the bell. Bell rings.

Enter Lady Macbeth.

LADY MACBETH. What's the business,

That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley

The sleepers of the house? Speak, speak!

MACDUFF.

O gentle lady,

'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak:

The repetition in a woman's ear

Would murther as it fell.

Enter Banquo.

O Banquo, Banquo!

Our royal master's murther'd.

LADY MACBETH.

Woe, alas!

What, in our house?

BANQUO.

Too cruel anywhere.

Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself,

And say it is not so.

Re-enter Macbeth and Lennox, with Ross.

MACBETH.

Had I but died an hour before this chance,

I had lived a blessed time, for from this instant

There's nothing serious in mortality.

All is but toys; renown and grace is dead,

The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees

Is left this vault to brag of.

Enter Malcolm and Donalbain.

DONALBAIN. What is amiss?

MACBETH.

You are, and do not know't.

The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood

Is stopped, the very source of it is stopp'd.

MACDUFF.

Your royal father's murther'd.

MALCOLM.

O, by whom?

LENNOX.

Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done't.

Their hands and faces were all badged with blood;

So were their daggers, which unwiped we found

Upon their pillows.

They stared, and were distracted; no man's life

Was to be trusted with them.

MACBETH.

O, yet I do repent me of my fury,

That I did kill them.

MACDUFF.

Wherefore did you so?

MACBETH.

Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,

Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man.

The expedition of my violent love

Outrun the pauser reason. Here lay Duncan,

His silver skin laced with his golden blood,

And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature

For ruin's wasteful entrance; there, the murtherers,

Steep'd in the colors of their trade, their daggers

Unmannerly breech'd with gore. Who could refrain,

That had a heart to love, and in that heart

Courage to make 's love known?

LADY MACBETH.