Tis Not for You to Hear What I Can Speak
Knocking within. Enter a Porter.
PORTER Here's a knocking indeed! If a man were
porter of hell gate, he should have old turning the
key. ( Knock. ) Knock, knock, knock! Who's there, i'
th' name of Beelzebub? Here's a farmer that hanged
5 himself on th' expectation of plenty. Come in time!
Have napkins enough about you; here you'll sweat
for 't. ( Knock. ) Knock, knock! Who's there, in th'
other devil's name? Faith, here's an equivocator
that could swear in both the scales against either
10 scale, who committed treason enough for God's
sake yet could not equivocate to heaven. O, come in,
equivocator. ( Knock. ) 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
15 you may roast your goose. ( Knock. ) 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 th' everlasting bonfire. ( Knock. )
20 Anon, anon!
⌜The Porter opens the door to⌝ Macduff and Lennox.
I pray you, remember the porter.
MACDUFF
Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed
That you do lie so late?
PORTER Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second
25 cock, and drink, sir, is a great provoker of three
things.
MACDUFF What three things does drink especially
provoke?
PORTER Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine.
30 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
35 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.
MACDUFF I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.
PORTER 40 That it did, sir, i' th' very throat on 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.
MACDUFF Is thy master stirring?
Enter Macbeth.
45 Our knocking has awaked him. Here he comes.
⌜Porter exits.⌝
LENNOX
Good morrow, noble sir.
MACBETH Good morrow, both.
MACDUFF
Is the King stirring, worthy thane?
MACBETH Not yet.
MACDUFF
50 He did command me to call timely on him.
I have almost slipped the hour.
MACBETH I'll bring you to him.
MACDUFF
I know this is a joyful trouble to you,
But yet 'tis one.
MACBETH
55 The labor we delight in physics pain.
This is the door.
MACDUFF I'll make so bold to call,
For 'tis my limited service. Macduff exits.
LENNOX Goes the King hence today?
MACBETH 60 He does. He did appoint so.
LENNOX
The night has been unruly. Where we lay,
Our chimneys were blown down and, as they say,
Lamentings heard i' th' air, strange screams of
death,
65 And prophesying, with accents terrible,
Of dire combustion and confused events
New hatched to th' woeful time. The obscure bird
Clamored the livelong night. Some say the Earth
Was feverous and did shake.
MACBETH 70 'Twas a rough night.
LENNOX
My young remembrance cannot parallel
A fellow to it.
Enter Macduff.
MACDUFF O horror, horror, horror!
Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee!
MACBETH AND LENNOX 75 What's the matter?
MACDUFF
Confusion now hath made his masterpiece.
Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope
The Lord's anointed temple and stole thence
The life o' th' building.
MACBETH 80 What is 't you say? The life?
LENNOX Mean you his Majesty?
MACDUFF
Approach the chamber and destroy your sight
With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak.
See and then speak yourselves.
Macbeth and Lennox exit.
85 Awake, awake!
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
90 The great doom's image. Malcolm, Banquo,
As from your graves rise up and walk like sprites
To countenance this horror.—Ring the bell.
Bell rings.
Enter Lady ⌜Macbeth .⌝
LADY MACBETH What's the business,
That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley
95 The sleepers of the house? Speak, speak!
MACDUFF O gentle lady,
'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak.
The repetition in a woman's ear
Would murder as it fell.
Enter Banquo.
100 O Banquo, Banquo,
Our royal master's murdered.
LADY MACBETH Woe, alas!
What, in our house?
BANQUO Too cruel anywhere.—
105 Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself
And say it is not so.
Enter Macbeth, Lennox, and Ross.
MACBETH
Had I but died an hour before this chance,
I had lived a blessèd time; for from this instant
There's nothing serious in mortality.
110 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.
DONALBAIN What is amiss?
MACBETH You are, and do not know 't.
115 The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood
Is stopped; the very source of it is stopped.
MACDUFF
Your royal father's murdered.
MALCOLM O, by whom?
LENNOX
Those of his chamber, as it seemed, had done 't.
120 Their hands and faces were all badged with blood.
So were their daggers, which unwiped we found
Upon their pillows. They stared and were distracted.
No man's life was to be trusted with them.
MACBETH
O, yet I do repent me of my fury,
125 That I did kill them.
MACDUFF Wherefore did you so?
MACBETH
Who can be wise, amazed, temp'rate, and furious,
Loyal, and neutral, in a moment? No man.
Th' expedition of my violent love
130 Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,
His silver skin laced with his golden blood,
And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature
For ruin's wasteful entrance; there the murderers,
Steeped in the colors of their trade, their daggers
135 Unmannerly breeched with gore. Who could refrain
That had a heart to love, and in that heart
Courage to make 's love known?
LADY MACBETH Help me hence, ho!
MACDUFF
Look to the lady.
MALCOLM , ⌜aside to Donalbain⌝ 140 Why do we hold our
tongues,
That most may claim this argument for ours?
DONALBAIN , ⌜aside to Malcolm⌝
What should be spoken here, where our fate,
Hid in an auger hole, may rush and seize us?
145 Let's away. Our tears are not yet brewed.
MALCOLM , ⌜aside to Donalbain⌝
Nor our strong sorrow upon the foot of motion.
BANQUO Look to the lady.
⌜Lady Macbeth is assisted to leave.⌝
And when we have our naked frailties hid,
That suffer in exposure, let us meet
150 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 undivulged pretense I fight
Of treasonous malice.
MACDUFF 155 And so do I.
ALL So all.
MACBETH
Let's briefly put on manly readiness
And meet i' th' hall together.
ALL Well contented.
⌜All but Malcolm and Donalbain⌝ exit.
MALCOLM
160 What will you do? Let's not consort with them.
To show an unfelt sorrow is an office
Which the false man does easy. I'll to England.
DONALBAIN
To Ireland I. Our separated fortune
Shall keep us both the safer. Where we are,
165 There's daggers in men's smiles. The near in blood,
The nearer bloody.
MALCOLM This murderous shaft that's shot
Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way
Is to avoid the aim. Therefore to horse,
170 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.
They exit.
Tis Not for You to Hear What I Can Speak
Source: https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/macbeth/act-2-scene-3/