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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!

Enter MACBETH.

Mac. Good-morrow, both!

Macd. Is the king stirring, worthy thane?

Mac. Not yet,

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

I have almost slipt the hour.

Mac. I'll bring you to him.

Macd. I know this is a joyful trouble to you;

But yet, 'tis one.

Mac. The labour we delight in, physicks pain. 210 This is the door.

Macd. I'll make so bold to call,

For 'tis my limited service.

Len. Goes the king hence to-day ?

Mac. He does; he did appoint so.

[Exit MACDUFF.

Len. 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 confus'd events,

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New hatch'd to the woeful time: the obscure bird Clamour'd the live-long night: some say, the earth Was feverous and did shake.

Mac.. 'Twas a rough night.

Len.

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

Re-enter MACDUFF.

Macd. O horror! horror! horror! tongue, nor heart, Cannot conceive, nor name thee!

Mac. and Len. What's the matter?

Macd. Confusion now hath made his master-piece!

Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope

The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence
The life o' the building.

Mac. What is't you say? the life?

Len. Mean you his majesty?

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Macd. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight With a new Gorgon :-Do not bid me speak; See, and then speak yourselves.-Awake! awake! [Exeunt MACBETH and LENOX. 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 sprights, To countenance this horror!- -Ring the bell.

Bell rings. Enter Lady MACBETH.

Lady. What's the business,

That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley

The sleepers of the house? speak, speak.—
Macd. O, gentle lady,

'Tis

'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak :

The repetition in a woman's ear,

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Would murder as it fell.-O Banquo! Banquo!

Enter BANQUO,

Our royal master's murder'd!

Lady. Woe, alas!

What, in our house?

Ban. Too cruel, any where.

Dear Duff, I pr'ythee, contradict thyself,

And say, it is not so.

Re-enter MACBETH, and LENOX.

Mac. 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 MALCOLM, and DONALBAIN.

Don. What is amiss?

Mac. You are, and do not know it:

The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood

Is stopt; the very source of it is stopt.

Macd. Your royal father's murder'd.

Mal. Oh, by whom?

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Len. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had don't : Their hands and faces were all badg'd with blood, So were their daggers, which, unwip'd, we found.

Upon

Upon their pillows; they star'd, and were distracted; No man's life was to be trusted with them.

Mac. O, yet I do repent me of my fury, That I did kill them.

Macd. Wherefore did you so?

Mac. Who can be wise, amaz'd, temperate, and furious,

Loyal and neutral in a moment? No man:
The expedition of my violent love

Out-ran the pauser reason.-Here lay Duncan,
His silver-skin lac'd with his golden blood;

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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 his love known?

Lady. Help me hence, ho!

Macd. Look to the lady.

Mal. Why do we hold our tongues,

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 seize us? Let's away, our tears

Are not yet brew'd.

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Mal. Nor our strong sorrow

Upon the foot of motion.

Ban. Look to the lady :

And when we have our naked frailties hid,
That suffer in exposure, let us meet,

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And

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 treasonous malice.

Mac. And so do I.

All. So all.

Mac. Let's briefly put on manly readiness, And meet i' the hall together.

All. Well contented.

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[Exeunt.

Mal. What will you do? Let's not consort with them:

To shew an unfelt sorrow is an office

Which the false man does easy: I'll to England.

Don. 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.

Mal. 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.

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[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

Enter RossE, with an old Man.

Old M. Threescore and ten I can remember well: Within the volume of which time, I have seen

Hours

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