After life's fitful fever he sleeps well;
Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison, 24
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing
Can touch him further.
Lady M. Come on;
Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks;
Be bright and jovial among your guests to-night.
Macb. 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 we 32
Must lave our honours in these flattering streams,
And make our faces vizards to our hearts,
Disguising what they are.
Lady M. You must leave this.
Macb. O! full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife; 36
Thou know'st that Banquo and his Fleance lives.
Lady M. But in them nature's copy's not eterne.
Macb. There's comfort yet; they are assailable;
Then be thou jocund. Ere the bat hath flown 40
His cloister'd flight, ere to black Hecate's summons
The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.
Lady M. What's to be done? 44
Macb. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day,
And with thy bloody and invisible hand 48
31 Present him eminence: do him honor
32 Unsafe: we being unsafe
the while that: so long as
34 vizards: masks
38 copy: lease (of life)
42 shard-borne: borne on scaly wings
46 seeling: blindfolding (a term from falconry)
