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“Is this a dagger which I see before
me…”
Act Two, scene 1:
A court within Castle Inverness.
{Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE bearing a
lantern before him.}
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Line
1: How goes the night, boy? - What time is it? Line
5: There’s husbandry in heaven.- heaven is carefully spending the lights. Line
7: summons – sleepiness Line
8: powers – angels Line
9: Restrain in me the cursed thoughts – take away the nightmares and let me
sleep Line
10: repose – lying at rest Line
15: entreat - ask Line
16: serve – find a good time Line
17: spend it in some words – talk about Line
19: cleave – support; consent – cause Line
21: so – as long as Line
22: augment – enlarge Line
23: franchised – free of guilt; clear – pure Line
24: counsell’d – open to your suggestion Line 34:
sensible – perceptible Line
38: false creation – figment Line
39: heat oppressed – fevered Line
40: palpable – tangible Line
42: marshall’st – guide Line
46: dungeon gouts – handle Line
48: inform – makes shape Line
50: abuse – deceive Line
52: Hecate – goddess of sorcery Line
53: sentinel – guard/watchman Line
54: watch – cry Line
55: Tarquin – Roman prince who raped Lucrece; design – prey Line
58: prate – talk idly Line
59: take – diminish: horror – grim silence Line
63: knell – the bell that is rung primarily at funeral |
BANQUO: How goes the night, boy?
FLEANCE: The moon is down; I have not heard the clock.
BANQUO: And she goes down at twelve.
FLEANCE: I take't, 'tis
later, sir.
BANQUO: Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven;
Their candles are all
out. Take thee that too.
A heavy summons lies like
lead upon me,
And yet I would not sleep:
merciful powers,
Restrain in me the cursed
thoughts that nature
Gives way to in repose!
{Enter MACBETH.}
Give
me my sword.
Who's there? 10
MACBETH: A friend.
BANQUO: What, sir, not yet at rest?
The king's a-bed: All's well.
I dreamt last night of the
three weird sisters:
To you they have show'd
some truth.
MACBETH: I think not
of them:
Yet, when we can entreat
an hour to serve,
We would spend it in some
words upon that business,
If you would grant the
time.
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Scene start;
Fleance is sitting down |
BANQUO: At your kind'st
leisure.
MACBETH: If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis,
It shall make honor for
you.
BANQUO: So I lose none
In seeking to augment it,
but still keep
My bosom franchised and
allegiance clear,
I shall be counsell'd.
MACBETH: Good repose the while!
BANQUO: Thanks, sir:
the like to you!
30
[Exeunt BANQUO and
FLEANCE.]
MACBETH: Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my
hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I
see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal
vision, sensible
To feeling as to
sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a
false creation,
Proceeding from the
heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as
palpable 40
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshall'st me the
way that I was going;
And such an instrument I
was to use.
Mine eyes are made the
fools o' the other senses,
Or else worth all the
rest; I see thee still,
And on thy blade and
dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so
before. There's no such thing:
It is the bloody business
which informs
Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworld
Nature seems dead, and
wicked dreams abuse 50
The curtain'd sleep;
witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings,
and wither'd murder,
Alarum'd by his sentinel,
the wolf,
Whose howl's his watch,
thus with his stealthy pace.
With Tarquin's ravishing
strides, towards his design
Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which
way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of
my whereabout,
And take the present
horror from the time,
Which now suits with
it. Whiles I threat, he lives: 60
Words to the heat of deeds
too cold breath gives.
[A bell rings.]
I go, and it is done; the
bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan; for
it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven
or to hell.
[Exit.]