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Macbeth: Act II, Scene 2

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Macbeth
Act II, Scene 2

The court of Macbeth’s castle.

Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers.

Edwin Austin Abbey, 1903

  1. Enter Lady Macbeth.

Lady Macbeth

1 - 8
  1. That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold;
  2. What hath quench’d them hath given me fire. Hark! Peace!
  3. It was the owl that shriek’d, the fatal bellman,
  4. Which gives the stern’st good-night. He is about it:
  5. The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms
  6. Do mock their charge with snores. I have drugg’d their possets,
  7. That death and nature do contend about them,
  8. Whether they live or die.

Macbeth

9
  1. Within.
  2.                           Who’s there? What ho?

Lady Macbeth

10 - 15
  1. Alack, I am afraid they have awak’d,
  2. And ’tis not done; th’ attempt, and not the deed,
  3. Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready,
  4. He could not miss ’em. Had he not resembled
  5. My father as he slept, I had done’t.
  6. Enter Macbeth.
  7.                                      My husband!

Macbeth

16
  1. I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?

Lady Macbeth

17 - 18
  1. I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.
  2. Did not you speak?

Macbeth

19
  1.                    When?

Lady Macbeth

20
  1.       Now.

Macbeth

21
  1.      As I descended?

Lady Macbeth

22
  1. Ay.

Macbeth

23
  1. Hark! Who lies i’ th’ second chamber?

Lady Macbeth

24
  1. Donalbain.

Macbeth

25
  1.            This is a sorry sight.
  1. Looking on his hands.

Lady Macbeth

26
  1. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.

Macbeth

27 - 30
  1. There’s one did laugh in ’s sleep, and one cried, “Murder!”
  2. That they did wake each other. I stood and heard them;
  3. But they did say their prayers, and address’d them
  4. Again to sleep.

Lady Macbeth

31
  1.                 There are two lodg’d together.

Macbeth

32 - 35
  1. One cried, “God bless us!” and “Amen!” the other,
  2. As they had seen me with these hangman’s hands.
  3. List’ning their fear, I could not say “Amen,”
  4. When they did say “God bless us!”

Lady Macbeth

36
  1.                                   Consider it not so deeply.

Macbeth

37 - 39
  1. But wherefore could not I pronounce “Amen”?
  2. I had most need of blessing, and “Amen”
  3. Stuck in my throat.

Lady Macbeth

40 - 41
  1.                     These deeds must not be thought
  2. After these ways; so, it will make us mad.

Macbeth

42 - 47
  1. Methought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more!
  2. Macbeth does murder sleep”—the innocent sleep,
  3. Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care,
  4. The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath,
  5. Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
  6. Chief nourisher in life’s feast.

Lady Macbeth

48
  1.                                  What do you mean?
Sarah Siddons as Lady Macbeth

Sarah Siddons as Lady Macbeth

Robert Smirke, circa 1790

Macbeth

49 - 51
  1. Still it cried, “Sleep no more!” to all the house;
  2. “Glamis hath murder’d sleep, and therefore Cawdor
  3. Shall sleep no more—Macbeth shall sleep no more.”

Lady Macbeth

52 - 58
  1. Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane,
  2. You do unbend your noble strength, to think
  3. So brain-sickly of things. Go get some water,
  4. And wash this filthy witness from your hand.
  5. Why did you bring these daggers from the place?
  6. They must lie there. Go carry them, and smear
  7. The sleepy grooms with blood.

Macbeth

59 - 61
  1.                               I’ll go no more.
  2. I am afraid to think what I have done;
  3. Look on’t again I dare not.

Lady Macbeth

62 - 67
  1.                             Infirm of purpose!
  2. Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead
  3. Are but as pictures; ’tis the eye of childhood
  4. That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
  5. I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal,
  6. For it must seem their guilt.
  1. Exit.
  1. Knock within.

Macbeth

68 - 74
  1.                               Whence is that knocking?
  2. How is’t with me, when every noise appalls me?
  3. What hands are here? Hah! They pluck out mine eyes.
  4. Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
  5. Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather
  6. The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
  7. Making the green one red.
  1. Enter Lady Macbeth.

Lady Macbeth

75 - 85
  1. My hands are of your color; but I shame
  2. To wear a heart so white.
  3. Knock.
  4.                           I hear a knocking
  5. At the south entry. Retire we to our chamber.
  6. A little water clears us of this deed;
  7. How easy is it then! Your constancy
  8. Hath left you unattended.
  9. Knock.
  10.                           Hark, more knocking.
  11. Get on your night-gown, lest occasion call us
  12. And show us to be watchers. Be not lost
  13. So poorly in your thoughts.

Macbeth

86 - 87
  1. To know my deed, ’twere best not know myself.
  2. Knock.
  3. Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!
  1. Exeunt.
Lady Macbeth seizing the daggers

Lady Macbeth seizing the daggers

Henry Fuseli, circa 1812

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