Page 2093 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

Prithee peace.
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.

LADY
What beast was’t then
That made you break this enterprise to me?

When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And to be more than what you were, you would [50]
Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place

Did then adhere, and yet you would make both.
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know
How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me;
I would while it was smiling in my face

Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums
And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.

MACBETH
If we should fail?

LADY

We fail!
But screw your courage to the sticking place, [60]
And we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep −
Whereto the rather shall his day’s hard journey
Soundly invite him − his two chamberlains

Will I with wine and wassail so convince
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a-fume, and the receipt of reason

A limbeck only. When in swinish sleep
Their drenchèd natures lies as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
The unguarded Duncan? What not put upon [70]
His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt

Of our great quell?