MACBETH

Is this a dagger that I see before me,

The handle toward my hand? Here, let me clutch you.

I do not have you, yet I see you still.

Are you not, fatal vision, evident

To touch as well as sight? Or are you but

A dagger in my mind, a false illusion,

Emerging from an overheated brain?

And yet this form looks just as tangible

As this one I now draw. [draws his dagger]

You guide me down the path that I was going

And are the instrument I was to use.

My eyes are either fools or worth more than

My other senses. I can see you still,

And on the blade and hilt are clots of blood,

Which were not there before.—There’s no such thing.

It is this bloody business which has done

This to my eyes. Across the world’s dark half,

Nature seems dead, encased in sleep, deceived

By wicked dreams. The sorcerer’s goddess Hecate

Receives the witches’ offering, and gaunt Murder,

Alerted by his sentinel, the wolf,

Its howl his timepiece, at a stealthy pace,

Moves ghostlike, with a rapist’s wary stride,

In on his prey. O, firm and stable earth,

Don’t hear my steps, or how they walk, for fear

These stones of yours will leak my whereabouts

And break the ghastly silence of this hour,

Which suits this deed. While I make threats, he lives.

Cold wind to cool hot deeds is all talk gives.

 

              [A bell chimes]

 

I’ll go, and then it’s done. That chime’s my signal.

Don’t hear it, Duncan, for it is the bell

That summons you to heaven or to hell.

 

---

from Act 2, Scene 2

 

[Enter LADY MACBETH]

 

LADY MACBETH

That which has made them drunk has made me bold.

What’s doused their flame has brought me fire.—What?—Nothing!

An owl just screeched, the bell for the condemned,

The harshest of good nights. He’s doing it.

The doors are open, and the stuffed attendants

Scoff at their job with snores. I’ve drugged their nightcaps,

So nature’s forces battle here to see

If they will live or die.

 

[MACBETH is heard from beyond a door]

 

MACBETH

                                     Who’s there?—What’s that?

 

LADY MACBETH

Oh, no! I am afraid they’ve woken up

And it’s not done. Attempt without the deed

Will wreck us.—Listen!—I laid out their daggers.

He couldn’t miss them.—Had he not resembled

My father as he slept, I would have done it.

My husband?

 

[Enter MACBETH, holding bloody daggers]

 

MACBETH

I’ve done the deed. Did you hear any noise? [excerpt continues....]