Macbeth: Act 2, Scene 3 Translation

A side-by-side translation of Act 2, Scene 3 of Macbeth from the original Shakespeare into modern English.

Original Text	Translated Text
Source: Folger Shakespeare Library
Knocking within. Enter a Porter. PORTER Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell gate, he should have old turning the key. (Knock.) Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there, i’ th’ name of Beelzebub? Here’s a farmer that hanged himself on th’ expectation of plenty. Come in time! 5 Have napkins enough about you; here you’ll sweat for ’t. (Knock.) Knock, knock! Who’s there, in th’ other devil’s name? Faith, here’s an equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God’s 10 sake yet could not equivocate to heaven. O, come in, equivocator. (Knock.) Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there? Faith, here’s an English tailor come hither for stealing out of a French hose. Come in, tailor. Here you may roast your goose. (Knock.) Knock, knock! 15 Never at quiet.—What are you?—But this place is too cold for hell. I’ll devil-porter it no further. I had thought to have let in some of all professions that go the primrose way to th’ everlasting bonfire. (Knock.) Anon, anon! 20 The Porter opens the door to Macduff and Lennox. I pray you, remember the porter.	Now that there's been a murder and a lot of spooky crazy talk, it's time for a brief, comedic interlude. There's a ton of knocking and the Porter (the guy who's supposed to answer the door) does a lot of joking around about what it would be like to be a porter at the gates of hell. Probably pretty busy, since there are so many evil and corrupt people in the world.The Porter runs through a bunch of scenarios for who could be at the door if this were hell (a farmer, a con-man, a tailor) and he has witty remarks for all of them. Things like: "I hope you brought a handkerchief—you're going to get sweaty!" and "You can heat up your iron in here!" (Ba-DUM-bum.)
MACDUFF Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed That you do lie so late? PORTER Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock, and drink, sir, is a great provoker of three 25 things. MACDUFF What three things does drink especially provoke? PORTER Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes and unprovokes. It provokes 30 the desire, but it takes away the performance. Therefore much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery. It makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him and disheartens him; makes him 35 stand to and not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep and, giving him the lie, leaves him. MACDUFF I believe drink gave thee the lie last night. PORTER That it did, sir, i’ th’ very throat on me; but I 40 requited him for his lie, and, I think, being too strong for him, though he took up my legs sometime, yet I made a shift to cast him.	It's Macduff and Lennox, who have come to fetch the king. The laugh-a-minute Porter makes a bunch of jokes about how drinking an excessive amount of alcohol, like he's been doing, makes a man frisky —but it also detracts from his "performance" in the sack, not to mention turning his nose red and making him have to pee.
MACDUFF Is thy master stirring? Enter Macbeth. Our knocking has awaked him. Here he comes. 45 Porter exits. LENNOX Good morrow, noble sir. MACBETH Good morrow, both. MACDUFF Is the King stirring, worthy thane? MACBETH Not yet. MACDUFF He did command me to call timely on him. 50 I have almost slipped the hour. MACBETH I’ll bring you to him. MACDUFF I know this is a joyful trouble to you, But yet ’tis one. MACBETH The labor we delight in physics pain. 55 This is the door. MACDUFF I’ll make so bold to call, For ’tis my limited service. Macduff exits.	Enter Macbeth, the picture of sleepy innocence while he makes small talk with Lennox and sends Macduff to wake Duncan.
LENNOX Goes the King hence today? MACBETH He does. He did appoint so. 60 LENNOX The night has been unruly. Where we lay, Our chimneys were blown down and, as they say, Lamentings heard i’ th’ air, strange screams of death, And prophesying, with accents terrible, 65 Of dire combustion and confused events New hatched to th’ woeful time. The obscure bird Clamored the livelong night. Some say the Earth Was feverous and did shake. MACBETH ’Twas a rough night. 70 LENNOX My young remembrance cannot parallel A fellow to it.	Lennox notes that some spooky things have been happening all night—he heard a bunch of screams, there was a little earthquake, and the fire in his chimney blew out. Yep, says Macbeth, it was a pretty rough night, and Lennox says he can't remember a rougher one.
Enter Macduff. MACDUFF O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee! MACBETH AND LENNOX What’s the matter? 75 MACDUFF Confusion now hath made his masterpiece. Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord’s anointed temple and stole thence The life o’ th’ building. MACBETH What is ’t you say? The life? 80 LENNOX Mean you his Majesty?	But it wasn't as rough for them as it was for Duncan, who Macduff has just found murdered.
MACDUFF Approach the chamber and destroy your sight With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak. See and then speak yourselves. Macbeth and Lennox exit. Awake, awake! 85 Ring the alarum bell.—Murder and treason! Banquo 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, 90 As from your graves rise up and walk like sprites To countenance this horror.—Ring the bell. Bell rings.	Macduff tells Macbeth and Lennox to go see Duncan's body for themselves. It's too gruesome for him to describe, except to say that viewing the scene is like looking at a Gorgon. (Medusa was a Gorgon, and when men looked at her they turned to stone, Chamber of Secrets style.) Macduff sounds the alarm to wake the whole castle, both by yelling his head off and calling for a bell to be rung.
Enter Lady Macbeth. LADY MACBETH What’s the business, That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley The sleepers of the house? Speak, speak! 95 MACDUFF O gentle lady, ’Tis not for you to hear what I can speak. The repetition in a woman’s ear Would murder as it fell. Enter Banquo. O Banquo, Banquo, 100 Our royal master’s murdered. LADY MACBETH Woe, alas! What, in our house? BANQUO Too cruel anywhere.— Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself 105 And say it is not so. Enter Macbeth, Lennox, and Ross. MACBETH Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had lived a blessèd time; for from this instant There’s nothing serious in mortality. All is but toys. Renown and grace is dead. 110 The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees Is left this vault to brag of.	Everyone starts running around. Lady Macbeth and Banquo show up, and Macbeth expresses his extreme sorrow at this horrible turn of events.
Enter Malcolm and Donalbain. DONALBAIN What is amiss? MACBETH You are, and do not know ’t. The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood 115 Is stopped; the very source of it is stopped. MACDUFF Your royal father’s murdered. MALCOLM O, by whom? LENNOX Those of his chamber, as it seemed, had done ’t. Their hands and faces were all badged with blood. 120 So were their daggers, which unwiped we found Upon their pillows. They stared and were distracted. No man’s life was to be trusted with them. MACBETH O, yet I do repent me of my fury, That I did kill them. 125 MACDUFF Wherefore did you so? MACBETH Who can be wise, amazed, temp’rate, and furious, Loyal, and neutral, in a moment? No man. Th’ expedition of my violent love Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan, 130 His silver skin laced with his golden blood, And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature For ruin’s wasteful entrance; there the murderers, Steeped in the colors of their trade, their daggers Unmannerly breeched with gore. Who could refrain 135 That had a heart to love, and in that heart Courage to make ’s love known?	When Malcolm and Donalbain find out what's happened, they ask who's responsible. Hmmm...Lennox thinks that the drunken guards covered in the King's blood and holding their daggers are a good bet. After he says this, Macbeth casually announces that he killed both of the guards in a fit of pious rage, out of his love for the King. "Wait a second," says Macduff. "When did you do that?" Macbeth's timeline doesn't exactly make sense. So...the guards killed Duncan and then went to sleep next to his body with their bloody daggers still in their hands?
LADY MACBETH Help me hence, ho! MACDUFF Look to the lady. MALCOLM, aside to Donalbain Why do we hold our 140 tongues, That most may claim this argument for ours? DONALBAIN, aside to Malcolm What should be spoken here, where our fate, Hid in an auger hole, may rush and seize us? Let’s away. Our tears are not yet brewed. 145 MALCOLM, aside to Donalbain Nor our strong sorrow upon the foot of motion. BANQUO Look to the lady. Lady Macbeth is assisted to leave. And when we have our naked frailties hid, That suffer in exposure, let us meet And question this most bloody piece of work 150 To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us. In the great hand of God I stand, and thence Against the undivulged pretense I fight Of treasonous malice. MACDUFF And so do I. 155 ALL So all. MACBETH Let’s briefly put on manly readiness And meet i’ th’ hall together. ALL Well contented.	Lady Macbeth, upon hearing that Macbeth has done this, wisely stages a diversion—or maybe she really does nearly faint in response to her husband's stupidity. In either case, she needs to be escorted out. (Having Macbeth take credit for the killing of the guards was not part of the plan). Donalbain and Malcolm privately decide that they probably shouldn't stay in the house where their dad was killed. Good thinking. A+ for self-preservation. The rest of the men say they suspect treason and agree to meet in the hall to discuss the situation, pronto.
All but Malcolm and Donalbain exit. MALCOLM What will you do? Let’s not consort with them. 160 To show an unfelt sorrow is an office Which the false man does easy. I’ll to England. DONALBAIN To Ireland I. Our separated fortune Shall keep us both the safer. Where we are, There’s daggers in men’s smiles. The near in blood, 165 The nearer bloody. MALCOLM This murderous shaft that’s shot Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way Is to avoid the aim. Therefore to horse, And let us not be dainty of leave-taking 170 But shift away. There’s warrant in that theft Which steals itself when there’s no mercy left. They exit.	Left alone, Macolm and Donalbain solidify their plans to flee. Malcolm will go to England and Donalbain to Ireland, making it more difficult to murder them both. They pretty much suspect that whoever killed their dad will come for them, as his heirs, next. The dead king's sons slip out, unnoticed, while everyone else gets dressed and prepares to talk this thing through.