SCENE III. The same. The Tragedy of Macbeth  Shakespeare homepage  |  Macbeth  | Act 2, Scene 3 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE III. The same. 

 Knocking within. Enter a Porter  Porter  Here's a knocking indeed! If a 

 man were porter of hell-gate, he should have 

 old turning the key. 



 Knocking within  Knock, 

 knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of 

 Beelzebub? Here's a farmer, that hanged 

 himself on the expectation of plenty: come in 

 time; have napkins enow about you; here 

 you'll sweat for't. 



 Knocking within  Knock, 

 knock! Who's there, in the 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. 



 Knocking within  Knock, 

 knock, knock! 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  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 the everlasting bonfire. 



 Knocking within  Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the porter. 



 Opens the gate 

 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 

 urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes; 

 it provokes the desire, but it takes 

 away the performance: 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 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 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 labour 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 to-day? 

 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 

 Clamour'd 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. 



 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 murder 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. 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 murder'd! 

 LADY MACBETH  Woe, alas! 

 What, in our house? 

 BANQUO  Too cruel any where. 

 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 stopp'd; the very source of it is stopp'd. 

 MACDUFF  Your royal father 's murder'd. 

 MALCOLM  O, by whom? 

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

 Their hands and faces were an 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 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 murderers, 

 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 kno wn? 

 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 brew'd. 

 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 pretence I fight 

 Of treasonous malice. 

 MACDUFF  And so do I. 

 ALL  So all. 

 MACBETH  Let's briefly put on manly readiness, 

 And meet i' the 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  Shakespeare homepage  |  Macbeth  | Act 2, Scene 3 

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