MACBETH
Within
Who's there? what, ho!

LADY MACBETH
Alack, I am afraid they have awaked,
And 'tis not done. The attempt and not the deed
Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready;
He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled
My father as he slept, I had done't.

Enter MACBETH
My husband!

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

LADY MACBETH
I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.
Did not you speak?

MACBETH
When?

LADY MACBETH
Now.

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Notes and Glossary
This scene follows on quickly from the last ACT 2 Scene 2 Line 612 That which. ..hath made me bold. Even Lady Macbeth welcomes the courage that alcohol can give. ACT 2 Scene 2 Line 614 Owl. A presage of death. ACT 2 Scene 2 Line 616 Bellman. A watchman who rings a bell at a funeral. ACT 2 Scene 2 Line 617 Grooms. Servants. ACT 2 Scene 2 Line 617 Mock their charge with snores. Make a mockery of their duty to guard the King. ACT 2 Scene 2 Line 618 Possets. The cups prepared for the already "surfeited" (drunk) grooms is "drugg' d" to make the plan doubly secure. ACT 2 Scene 2 Line 626 Death and nature do contend. "Nature" is here used for 'natural strength.' [Enter Macbeth]. How does he enter; in particular how does he hold his hands? Lady Macbeth must not see the daggers too early. ACT 2 Scene 2 Line 628 My husband! This is the only occasion on which she speaks of Macbeth in this way. Crickets. Presage death, as does the owl mentioned by Lady Macbeth. ACT 2 Scene 2 Line 634 Hark! Macbeth' s "Hark!" is similar with Lady Macbeth' s "Hark!" which she twice utters. It is put into both their mouths to denote the anxious listening, the eager sensitive ears, the breathless strain with which each murderous accomplice hearkens after any sound that they dread should break the silence of the night. Macbeth, as the shudder subsides, gasps, "Who lies i' the second chamber?" showing that he is listening for possible sounds, and not listening to actual ones. ACT 2 Scene 2 Line 645 As they had seen. As if. ACT 2 Scene 2 Line 646 , Amen' ...stuck in my throat. The inability to pray was a sign of demonic possession. Sleep no more. It is very significant that Macbeth murders sleep -the ability to sleep and restore oneself, while Lady Macbeth becomes unable to wake up. Even in her sleep she remembers the murder and acts it out while sleepwalking. ACT 2 Scene 2 Line 654 Sleave. 'Raw silk. ' 'unwrought silk;' sometimes called 'floss silk.' ACT 2 Scene 2 Line 656 What do you mean? Wonderfully characteristic is this inquiry on the part of Lady Macbeth. Utterly unable to follow the flights of overwrought fancy which shake her imaginative and impressionable husband, she interrupts him with this amazed exclamation. The mental effect produced by their deed upon each of these partners in guilt is indeed a profound metaphysical study. ACT 2 Scene 2 Line 660 Incarnardine. A magnificently poetic verb; formed from the Italian word incarnardino, , carnation or flesh colour ., ACT 2 Scene 2 Line 685 Making the green-one red. The Folio prints, 'making the green one, red.' The sense of the line is, 'making the green of the seas one entire red colour.' ACT 2 Scene 2 Line 686 Your constancy hath left you unattended. ' Your firmness has deserted you. , ACT 2 Scene 2 Line 692 I would thou couldst! This burst of anguished desire that his deed could be undone, so early after its commital, underlines the lesson read with such terrible force throughout this uniquely drawn scene. The brave soldier -familiar with slaughter and death in their ghastly forms -converted into the trembling dastard who shudders forth, " I am afraid to think what I have done; look on't again I dare not;" the racked imagination, blinded with gazing upon his blood-dyed hands; the writhing desire to be rid of his own identity; and, finally, this anguished cry of at-once-awakened remorse, aI form a matchless picture of present torture foreboding future unending misery.

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MACBETH
I'll go no more:
I am afraid to think what I have done;
Look on't again I dare not.

LADY MACBETH
Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead
Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal;
For it must seem their guilt.
Exit. Knocking within

MACBETH
Whence is that knocking?
How is't with me, when every noise appals me?
What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes.
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas in incarnadine,
Making the green one red.

Re-enter LADY MACBETH

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