49 It is the bloody business which informs 50 Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one half-world Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtained sleep. Witchcraft celebrates
53 Pale Hecate's offerings; and withered murder, 54 Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf, Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
56 With Tarquin's ravishing side, 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
60 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.
II.2Enter Lady [Macbeth].
LADY MACBETH
That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold;
What hath quenched them hath given me fire.
[An owl shrieks.] Hark! Peace.
It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman3
Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it.
The doors are open, and the surfeited grooms
Do mock their charge with snores.
I have drugged their6 possets, That death and nature do contend about them7
Whether they live or die.
MACBETH [Within]
Who's there? What, ho?
LADY MACBETH
Alack, I am afraid they have awaked,
And 'tis not done. Th' attempt, and not the deed,10
Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready-11