ACT 2
[Enter LADY MACBETH]
LADY MACBETH
That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold;
That booze that got the guards drunk makes me bold;
What hath quenched them hath given me fire.
It’s left them comatose, but fired me up.
Hark! Peace!
Listen! Quiet!
It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman,
A screeching owl, an omen warning death,
Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it:
Foreboding in the night. Macbeth is there now:
The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms
The doors are open, and the sozzled guards
Do mock their charge with snores: I have drugged
Don't guard when they are snoring; I have spiked
their possets,
their late-night drinks,
That death and nature do contend about them,
So now, if life and death looked on, they couldn't
Whether they live or die.
Decide if they're alive or dead.
MACBETH
[Within]
Who's there? What, ho!
Who's there? Hello!
LADY MACBETH
Alack, I am afraid they have awaked,
Oh no, I fear the guards have woken up
And 'tis not done. The attempt and not the deed
Before the killing's done. Our failed attempt
Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready;
Will ruin us. Listen! I placed their daggers
He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled
Where he'd see them. If Duncan hadn't looked
My father as he slept, I had done't.
Just like my father, sleeping, I'd have killed him.
[Enter MACBETH]
My husband!
My husband!
MACBETH
I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?
I've murdered Duncan. Did you hear a noise?
LADY MACBETH
I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.
I heard a screeching owl and chirping crickets.
Did not you speak?
Did you not speak?
MACBETH
When?
When?
LADY MACBETH
Now.
Now.
MACBETH
As I descended?
As I came down here?
LADY MACBETH
Ay.
Yes.
MACBETH
Hark!
Listen!
Who lies i' the second chamber?
Who's in the second bedroom?
LADY MACBETH
Donalbain.
Donalbain.
MACBETH
This is a sorry sight.
My bloody hands are such a sorry sight.
[Looking on his hands]
LADY MACBETH
A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.
It's foolish calling it a sorry sight.
MACBETH
There's one did laugh in's sleep, and one cried
One guard laughed in his sleep, and one cried out
'Murder!'
'Murder!'
That they did wake each other: I stood and heard them:
They woke each other up; I stood and heard them,
But they did say their prayers, and addressed them
But they then said their prayers and settled back
Again to sleep.
To sleep again.
LADY MACBETH
There are two lodged together.
The two guards sleep together.
MACBETH
One cried 'God bless us!' and 'Amen' the other;
The guards cried out 'God bless us!' and 'Amen';
As they had seen me with these hangman's hands.
As though they'd seen me, hands covered in blood.
Listening their fear, I could not say 'Amen',
I heard their fear and couldn't say 'Amen',
When they did say 'God bless us!'
When they declared 'God bless us!'
LADY MACBETH
Consider it not so deeply.
Don't think so hard about it.
MACBETH
But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'?
But how come I could not declare, 'Amen'?
I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen'
I needed blessing most, but then 'Amen'
Stuck in my throat.
Got stuck within my throat.
LADY MACBETH
These deeds must not be thought
Don't think about this deed
After these ways; so, it will make us mad.
After it's done, or else we will go mad.
MACBETH
Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more!
I thought I heard a cry: “Don’t go to sleep!
Macbeth does murder sleep', the innocent sleep,
Macbeth will murder sleepers!” Innocent folk–
Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care,
Who’ve let their cares of life fade as they sleep,
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,
As day turns into night – let sleep soothe pain
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
And heal their troubled minds. Sleep’s like a main course
Chief nourisher in life's feast,--
That feeds us through our life…
LADY MACBETH
What do you mean?
What do you mean?
MACBETH
Still it cried 'Sleep no more!' to all the house:
The house filled with the cry, “Don't go to sleep!
'Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor
The Thane of Glamis murders sleepers; Cawdor
Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more.'
Won't sleep again; Macbeth won't sleep again.”
LADY MACBETH
Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane,
Who shouted that? Come on, you noble lord,
You do unbend your noble strength, to think
You undermine your strength of character when
So brainsickly of things. Go get some water,
You let your brain think this. Go get some water
And wash this filthy witness from your hand.
And wash the telling blood from off your hands.
Why did you bring these daggers from the place?
Why did you bring these daggers from his bedroom?
They must lie there: go carry them; and smear
They must stay there. Go take them back and smear
The sleepy grooms with blood.
The sleeping guards with blood.
MACBETH
I'll go no more:
I won't go back.
I am afraid to think what I have done;
I am afraid to think what I have done;
Look on't again I dare not.
I don't dare look at it again.
LADY MACBETH
Infirm of purpose!
You weakling!
Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead
Give me those daggers. People dead or sleeping
Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood
Are merely pictures; only eyes of children
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
Will fear a painted devil. If he's bleeding,
I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal;
I'll wipe his blood across his guardsmen's faces;
For it must seem their guilt.
They must appear guilty.
[Exit. Knocking within]
MACBETH
Whence is that knocking?
Where's that knocking?
How is't with me, when every noise appals me?
How come now every noise I hear I'm frightened?
What hands are here? Ha! They pluck out mine eyes.
What are my hands? Agh! They pluck out my eyes.
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Will all the oceans' water wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
Clean from my hands? No way! Instead, my hands
The multitudinous seas in incarnadine,
Will turn the seas the scarlet tint of flesh,
Making the green one red.
And make the green seas red.
[Re-enter LADY MACBETH]
LADY MACBETH
My hands are of your colour; but I shame
My hands are red like yours, but I'd be shamefaced
To wear a heart so white.
To have your timid heart.
[Knocking within]
I hear a knocking
I hear a knocking
At the south entry: retire we to our chamber;
At the south entry. Let's retire to bed;
A little water clears us of this deed:
Some water cleans the blood to clear our names:
How easy is it, then! Your constancy
It’s easy, see! Your usual strength of purpose
Hath left you unattended.
Has suddenly deserted you.
[Knocking within]
Hark! More knocking.
Hark! More knocks!
Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us,
Get dressed for bed, in case of something happening
And show us to be watchers. Be not lost
That shows we’re up and watching. Don’t be lost
So poorly in your thoughts.
Completely in your thoughts.
MACBETH
To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself.
I’m better lost in thought than in my crime.
[Knocking within]
Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!
Wake, Duncan, at the knocks! I wish you could!
[Exeunt]
