Inverness. Court within the Castle.
 Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE, with a torch before him.

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	[Giving his sword.]
	Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven;
	Their candles are all out.
	[Giving the torch.]		Take thee that too.
	A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,
	And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers,
	Restrain in me the cursd thoughts that nature
	Gives way to in repose.

                Enter MACBETH, and a SERVANT with a torch.

									Give me my sword.
	Who's there?

Macbeth	A friend.

Banquo	What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's abed.
	He hath been in unusual pleasure, and
	Sent forth great largess to your offices.
	This diamond he greets your wife withal
	By the name of most kind hostess, and shut up
	In measureless content.

Macbeth								Being unprepared,
	Our will became the servant to defect,
	Which else should free have wrought.

Banquo										All's well.
	I dreamt last night of the three Weird sisters:
	To you they have showed 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.

Banquo								At your kind'st leisure.

Macbeth	If you shall cleave to my consent when 'tis,
	It shall make honour for you.

Banquo										So I lose none
	In seeking to augment it, but still keep
	My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,
	I shall be counselled.

Macbeth								Good repose the while.

Banquo	Thanks, sir; the like to you.
									 [Exeunt BANQUO and FLEANCE.

Macbeth	Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready
	She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.
												[Exit SERVANT.
	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-oppressd brain?
	I see thee yet, in form as palpable
	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'th' 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 half-world
	Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
	The curtained sleep. Witchcraft celebrates
	Pale Hecate's off'rings, and withered murder,
	Alarumed 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.
	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.
