Banquo suspects Macbeth gained the crown by foul means but remembers the prophecy about his own descendants. Macbeth questions Banquo about his plans and learns that he and Fleance will ride out that evening. Fearing Banquo and Fleance, Macbeth hires murderers to kill them both.
SCENE II. The same. Another Room in the Palace.
Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant.
LADY MACBETH
Is Banquo gone from court?
SERVANT
Ay, madam, but returns again tonight.
LADY MACBETH
Say to the King, I would attend his leisureFor a few words.
SERVANT
Madam, I will.
Exit.
LADY MACBETH
Naught’s had, all’s spent,Where our desire is got without content:’Tis safer to be that which we destroy,Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.
Enter Macbeth.
LADY MACBETH
How now, my lord, why do you keep alone,Of sorriest fancies your companions making,Using those thoughts which should indeed have diedWith them they think on? Things without all remedyShould be without regard: what’s done is done.
MACBETH
We have scorch’d the snake, not kill’d it.She’ll close, and be herself; whilst our poor maliceRemains in danger of her former tooth.But let the frame of things disjoint,Both the worlds suffer,Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleepIn the affliction of these terrible dreamsThat shake us nightly. Better be with the dead,Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,Than on the torture of the mind to lieIn restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave;After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well;Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothingCan touch him further.
LADY MACBETH
Come on,Gently my lord, sleek o’er your rugged looks;Be bright and jovial among your guests tonight.
MACBETH
So shall I, love; and so, I pray, be you.Let your remembrance apply to Banquo;Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue:Unsafe the while, that weMust lave our honours in these flattering streams,And make our faces vizards to our hearts,Disguising what they are.
LADY MACBETH
You must leave this.
MACBETH
O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!Thou know’st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives.
LADY MACBETH
But in them nature’s copy’s not eterne.
MACBETH
There’s comfort yet; they are assailable.Then be thou jocund. Ere the bat hath flownHis cloister’d flight, ere to black Hecate’s summonsThe shard-bornborne through the air on hard, shell-like wing-cases. beetle, with his drowsy hums,Hath rung night’s yawning peal, there shall be doneA deed of dreadful note.
LADY MACBETH
What’s to be done?
MACBETH
Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seelingto sew up the eyelids, a falconry practice used figuratively for blinding or shutting out sight. night,Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day,And with thy bloody and invisible handCancel and tear to pieces that great bondWhich keeps me pale!—Light thickens; and the crowMakes wing to th’ rooky wood.Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,Whiles night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.Thou marvell’st at my words: but hold thee still;Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.So, pr’ythee, go with me.
Exeunta stage direction indicating that two or more characters leave the stage..