They must lie there: Go, carry them; and smear The sleepy grooms with blood. Macb. I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on't again, I dare not. Lady M. I'll go no more: Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers: The sleeping, and the dead, I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal, For it must seem their guilt 5. Macb. [Exit. Knocking within. Whence is that knocking? How is't with me, when every noise appals me? What hands are here! Ha! they pluck out mine eyes! Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood" 5 This quibble too occurs frequently in old plays. Shakspeare has it again in King Henry IV. Part II. Act iv. Sc, 4: England shall double gild his treble guilt.' And in King Henry V.: 6 'Have for the gilt of France, O guilt indeed.' 'Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood,' &c. Suscipit, ô Gellii, quantum non ultima Tethys, Nec genitor nympharum abluit oceanus. Catullus in Gellium, 83.. Sophoc. Οεδιπ. Οἶμαι γὰρ ἔτ αν Ιστρον ἔ τε φᾶσιν αν Quis eluet me Tanais? aut quæ barbaris Senec. Hippol. Non, si Neptuni fluctu renovare operam des, Lucret. 1. vi. ver. 1074. Thus also, in The Insatiate Countess, by Marston, 1613 :- Should flow for ever through these guilty hands, Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnardine 7, Making the green—one red3. Re-enter LADY MACBETH. Lady M. My hands are of your colour; but I shame To wear a heart so white. [Knock.] I hear a knocking At the south entry:-retire we to our chamber: A little water clears us of this deed: How easy is it then? Your constancy Hath left you unattended 9.—[Knocking.] Hark! more knocking : Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us, And show us to be watchers:-Be not lost Macb. To know my deed,-'twere best not know myself 10. [Knock. Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would, thou could'st? SCENE III. The same. [Exeunt. Enter a Porter. [Knocking within. Porter. Here's a knocking, indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old1 turning the key. [Knocking.] Knock, knock, knock: 7 To incarnardine is to stain of a red colour. In the old copy this line stands thus: 'Making the Green one, Red.' The punctuation in the text was adopted by Steevens at the suggestion of Murphy. Malone prefers the old punctuation. Steevens has well defended the arrangement of his text, which seems to me to deserve the preference. 9 Your constancy hath left you unattended.'-Vide note on King Henry V. Act v. Sc. 2. 10 This is an answer to Lady Macbeth's reproof. 'While I have the thoughts of this deed, it were best not know, or be lost to myself.' 1i.e. frequent. Who's there, i'the name of Belzebub? Here's a farmer2, that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty: Come in time; have napkins 3 enough about you; here you'll sweat for❜t. [Knocking.] Knock, knock: Who's there, i'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.] 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.] 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 bonfire5. [Knocking.] Anon, anon; I pray you, remember the porter. [Opens the gate. 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 se ? Here's a farmer that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty.' So in Hall's Satires, b. iv. sat. 6: 'Each muckworme will be rich with lawless gaine, 3 i.e. handkerchiefs. In the dictionaries of the time sudarium is rendered by napkin or handkerchief, wherewith we wipe away the sweat.' 4 i. e. a Jesuit. That order were troublesome to the state, and held in odium in the reigns of Elizabeth and James. They were inventors of the execrable doctrine of equivocation. 5 So in Hamlet: 'Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads.' And in All's Well that Ends Well:-The flowery way that leads to the great fire.' cond cock 6: and drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things. Macd. What three things does drink especially provoke? Port. 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. Macd. I believe, drink gave thee the lie last night. Port. That it did, sir, i'the very throat o'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. Enter MACBETH. Len. Good-morrow, noble sir! Macb. Good-morrow, both! Not yet. Macd. Is the king stirring, worthy thane? Macb. Macd. He did command me to call timely on him; I have almost slipp'd the hour. Macb. But yet, 'tis one. 6 i. e. till three o'clock, according to a passage in Romeo and Juliet: The second cock has crow'd, The curfew bell has toll'd: 'tis three o'clock. 7 In for into. 8 Macb. The labour, we delight in, physicks pain. This is the door. Macd. I'll make so bold to call; For 'tis my limited service 9. [Exit MACDUff. Len. Goes the king hence to-day? He does: he did appoint it so. 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, New hatch'd to the woful time. The obscure bird Clamour'd the livelong night: some say, the earth Was feverous, and did shake. Mach. "Twas a rough night. 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 10! Macb. Len. What's the matter? Macd. Confusion now hath made his masterpiece! Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence Macb. What is't you say? the life? Len. Mean you his majesty? 8 i. e. alleviates it. Physick is defined by Baret, a remedie, an helping or curing. So in The Tempest : 'There be some sports are painful; and their labour 9 i. e. Appointed service. 10 It has been already observed that Shakspeare uses two negatives, not to make an affirmative, but to deny more strongly. |