Macbeth

Act 2 Scene 3

Original Text	Modern Text
MACDUFF 45Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak. See, and then speak yourselves.	MACDUFF Go into the bedroom and see for yourself. What’s in there will make you freeze with horror. Don’t ask me to talk about it. Go look and then do the talking yourselves.
Exeunt MACBETH and LENNOX	MACBETH and LENNOX exit.
Awake, awake! Ring the alarum bell. Murder and treason! 50Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm! Awake! Shake off this downy sleep, death’s counterfeit, And look on death itself! Up, up, and see The great doom’s image! Malcolm! Banquo! As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites, 55To countenance this horror! Ring the bell	Wake up, wake up! Ring the alarm bell. Murder and treason! Banquo and Donalbain, Malcolm! Wake up! Shake off sleep, which looks like death, and look at death itself! Get up, get up, and look at this image of doomsday! Malcolm! Banquo! Get up from your beds as if you were rising out of your own graves, and walk like ghosts to come witness this horror. Ring the bell.
Bell rings. Enter LADY MACBETH	A bell rings. LADY MACBETH enters.
LADY MACBETH What’s the business, That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley The sleepers of the house? Speak, speak!	LADY MACBETH What’s going on? Why is that terrifying trumpet calling together everyone who’s sleeping in the house? Speak up and tell me!
MACDUFF O gentle lady, 'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak: 60The repetition, in a woman’s ear, Would murder as it fell.	MACDUFF Oh gentle lady, my news isn’t fit for your ears. If I repeated it to you, it would kill you as soon as you heard it.
Enter BANQUO	BANQUO enters.
O Banquo, Banquo, Our royal master’s murdered!	Oh Banquo, Banquo, the king has been murdered!
LADY MACBETH Woe, alas! What, in our house?	LADY MACBETH How horrible! What, in our own house?