1

Enter a Porter.

[Knocking within.

Port. Here's a knocking, indeed: if a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key. [Knock] Knock, knock, knock. Who's there, i'th' name of Belzebub? here's a farmer, that hang'd himself on the expectation of plenty: come in time, have napkins enough about you, here you'll sweat for't. [Knock] Knock, knock. Who's there, in the other devil's name? faith, here's an equivocator, (16) that could fwear in both the fcales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God's fake, yet could not equivocate to heav'n: oh, come in, equivocator. [Knock] Knock, knock, knock. Who's there? faith, (17) here's an English taylor come hither for stealing out of a French hofe: come in, taylor, here you may roast your goose. [Knock] Knock, knock. Never at quiet! what are you? but this place is too cold for hell. I'll devil-porter it no further: I had thought to have let in some of all professions, that go the primrose way to th' everlasting bonfire. [Knock] Anon, anon, I pray you, remember the porter.

Enter Macduff, and Lenox.

Macd. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed, That you do lie so late ?

Port. Faith, Sir, we were carousing 'till the second cock: And Drink, Sir, is a great provoker of three things. Macd. What three things doth Drink especially pro

voke?

Port.

(16) Here's an Equivocator who committed Treason enough for God's fake, &c.] This Sarcasm is levell'd at the Jesuits, who were fo mifchievous in the Reigns of Q. Elizabeth and K. James 1st. and who then first broach'd that damnable Doctrine. Mr. Warburton.

(17) Here's an English Taylor come hither for stealing out of a French hose: The Archness of this Joak consists in this; That a French Hose being so very short and strait, a Taylor must be a perfect Master of his Art, who could steal any thing out of it. As to the

Nature of the French hose, we have seen that in Henry VIIIth : our

Poet calls them short-bolster'd Breeches.

Mr. Warburton.

Port.

Port. Marry, Sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, Sir, it provokes, and unprovokes; it provokes the defire, but it takes away the performance. Therefore much Drink may be faid to be an equivocator with lechery; it makes him, and it mars him ; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it perswades him, and disheartens him; makes him stand, to and not stand to; in conclufion, equivocates him into a fleep, and giving him the lie, leaves him.

Macd. I believe, Drink gave thee the lie last night, Port. That it did, Sir, i'th' 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.

Macd. Is thy master stirring ?

Our knocking has awak'd him; here he comes.

Len. Good morrow, noble Sir.

Macd. Is the King stirring, worthy Thane ?

Mach. Not yet.

Macd. He did command me to call timely on him;

I've almost slipt the hour.

Mach. I'll bring you to him.

Macd. I know, this is a joyful trouble to you :

But yet 'tis one.

Mach. The labour, we delight in, physicks pain;

This is the door.

Macd. I'll make so bold to call, for 'tis my limited

service.

Len. Goes the King hence to day ?

Mach. He did appoint fo.

[Exit Macduff.

Len. 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 prophefying with accents terrible

Of dire combustion, and confus'd events,

New hatch'd to th' woful time :

The

The obscure bird clamour'd the live-long night.
Some say, the earth was fev'rous, and did shake.
Mach. 'Twas a rough night.

Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel
A fellow to it.

Enter Macduff.

Macd. O horror! horror 1 horror!

Nor tongue, nor heart, cannot conceive, nor name theeMach. and Len. What's the matter?

Macd. Confufion now hath made his master-piece;

Moft facrilegious murther hath broke ope
The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence
The life o'th' building.

Mach. What is't you say? the life?
Len. Mean you his Majesty ?

Macd. Approach the chamber, and destroy your fight With a new Gorgon. - Do not bid me speak; See, and then speak your selves: awake! awake!

[Exeunt Macbeth and Lenox.

- Ring the alarum-bell-murther! and treason!
Banquo, and Donalbain ! Malcolme! awake!
Shake off this downy fleep, death's counterfeit,
And look on death it self-up, up, and fee
The great Doom's image--Malcolme! Banquo!
As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprights,
(18) To countenance this horror.-

Bell rings. Enter Lady Macbeth.

Lady. What's the business,

(18) To countenance this korror. Ring the Bell.]

I have ventur'd to throw out these laft Words, as no part of the Text. Macduff had said at the Beginning of his Speech, Ring out th Alarum-Bell; but if the Bell had rung out immediately, not a Word of What he says could have been distinguish'd. Ring the Bell, I say, was a Marginal Direction in the Prompter's Book for him to order the Bell to be rung, the Minute that Macduff ceases speaking.

In proof of this, we may observe, that the Hemistich ending Mасduff's Speech, and that beginning Lady Macbeth's, make up a compleat, Verse. Now if Ring the Bell had been a part of the Text, can we imagine the Poet would have begun the Lady's Speech with a broken Line ?

That

That such an hideous trumpet calls to parley
The fleepers of the house? speak.

Macd. Gentle lady,

'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak. The repetition in a woman's ear

Would murther as it fell. - O Banquo, Banquo!

Enter Banquo.

Our royal master's murther'd.

Lady. Woe, alas!

What, in our house?

Ban. Too cruel, any where.

Macduff, I pr'ythee, contradict thy self,

And say, it is not fo.

Enter Macbeth, Lenox, and Rosse.

- Mach. Had I but dy'd an hour before this chance,
I had liv'd 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 Malcolme, and Donalbaine.

Don. What is amiss ?

Mach. You are, and do not know't:
The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood
Is stopt; the very fource of it is stopt.
Mach. Your royal father's murder'd.

Mal. Oh, by whom?

Len. Those of his chamber, as it feem'd, had don't; Their hands and faces were all badg'd with blood, So were their daggers, which, unwip'd, we found Upon their pillows; they star'd, and were distracted; No man's life was to be trusted with them.

Macb. O, yet I do repent me of my fury,

That I did kill them.

Macd. Wherefore did you fo ?

3

Mach.

Mach. Who can be wife, amaz'd, temp'rate and fu

rious,
Loyal and neutral in a moment ? no man.
The expedition of my violent love
Out-run the pauser, Reason. Here, lay Duncan;
His filver 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 colours 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. Help me hence, ho!
Macd. Look to the lady.

Mal. Why do we hold our tongues,

[Seeming to faint.

That most may claim this argument for ours ?
Don. What should be spoken here,
Where our Fate, hid within an augre-hole,
May rush, and sieze us? Let's away, our tears
Are not yet brew'd.

Mal. Nor our strong forrow on

The foot of motion.

:

Ran. 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 undivulg'd pretence I fight

Of treas'nous malice.

Mach. So do I.

All. So, all.

Mach. Let's briefly put on manly readiness,

And meet i'th' hall together.

All. Well contented.

[Exeunt.

Mal. What will you do? let's not confort with them:

To shew an unfelt forrow, is an office

Which the false man does easie. I'll to England.

Don. To Ireland, I; our separated fortune

Shall keep us both the safer; where we are,

VOL. V.

Dd

There's