[Knocking within] PORTER Here's a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell gate, he should have old turning the key. [Knocking within] Knocking, knocking, knocking! Who's there, i' th' name of Beelzebub? Here's a farmer that hoarded corn in time of scarcity and hanged himself on th' expectation of plenty. Come in time-server; have napkins enough about you; here you'll sweat for 't. [Knocking within] Knocking, knocking! Who's there, in th' other devil's name? Faith, here's an equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God's sake yet could not equivocate to heaven. O come in, equivocator; here's a place for you. [Knocking within] Knocking, knocking, knocking! Who's there? Faith, here's an English tailor come hither for stealing out of a French hose. Come in, tailor. Here you may roast your goose. [Knocking within] Remember the porter of hell gate. [Knocking within] But this place is too cold for hell. I'll devil-porter no further. I had thought to have let in some of all professions that go the primrose way to th' everlasting bonfire. [Knocking within] [Opens the gate] Anon, anon! I pray you remember the porter. [Enter MACDUFF and LENNOX] MACDUFF Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed, that you do lie so late? PORTER Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock, and drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things. MACDUFF What three things does drink especially provoke? PORTER Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and lechery. Therefore, much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him, and it disheartens him; makes him stand to, and not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him. MACDUFF I believe drink gave thee the lie last night. PORTER That it did, sir, i' the very throat on me; but I requited him for his lie, and, I think, being too strong for him, though he took up my legs sometime, yet I made a 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 Good 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 slipped 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 MACDUFF] 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' th' air, strange screams of death, And prophesying, with accents terrible, Of dire combustion and confused events New hatched to th' woeful time. The obscure bird Clamored the livelong night. Some say the earth Was feverous and did shake. MACBETH 'Twas a rough night. LENNOX My young remembrance cannot parallel A fellow to it. [Enter MACDUFF] MACDUFF O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee! MACBETH and LENNOX What's the matter? MACDUFF Confusion now hath made his masterpiece. Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord's anointed temple and stole thence The life o' th' 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. Murder 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 murder as it fell. [Enter BANQUO] O Banquo, Banquo, Our royal master 's murdered. LADY MACBETH Woe, alas! What, in our house? BANQUO Too cruel anywhere. Dear Duff, I prithee contradict thyself And say it is not so. [Enter MACBETH, LENNOX, and 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 stopped. MACDUFF Your royal father 's murdered. MALCOLM O, by whom? LENNOX Those of his chamber, as it seemed, 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, temp'rate, and furious, Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man. Th' expedition of my violent love Outran the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan, His silver skin laced with his golden blood, And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature For ruin's wasteful entrance; there the murderers, Steeped in the colors of their trade, their daggers Unmannerly breeched with gore. Who could refrain That had a heart to love and in that heart Courage to make 's love known? LADY MACBETH Help me hence, ho! MACDUFF Look to the lady. MALCOLM [Aside to DONALBAIN] Why do we hold our tongues, That most may claim this argument for ours? DONALBAIN [Aside to MALCOLM] What should be spoken here, where our fate, Hid in an auger hole, may rush and seize us? Let 's away. Our tears are not yet brewed. MALCOLM [Aside to DONALBAIN] Nor our strong sorrow Upon the foot of motion. BANQUO Look to the lady. [LADY MACBETH is carried out] And when we have our naked frailties hid, 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 Against the undivulged pretense I fight Of treasonous malice. MACDUFF And so do I. ALL So all. MACBETH Let 's briefly put on manly readiness And meet i' th' hall together. ALL Well contented. [Exeunt all but MALCOLM and DONALBAIN] MALCOLM 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. DONALBAIN 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. MALCOLM This murderous shaft that's shot Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way 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]