and finally develops the entire plan and promises her assistance, before she can persuade her husband to the murder.
She has stupefied the two chamberlains, upon whom the guilt shall be rolled, with spiced wine and drunk herself full of courage for the deed, as so many criminals.
“That which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold;
What hath quenched them, hath given me fire.”
Then she hears Macbeth within at his gruesome work uttering a terrified question, and continues:
“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 them.—Had he not resembled
My father as he slept, I had done't.”
Then her husband appears with the daggers. As he looks at his bloody hands a cry is wrung from him, “This is a sorry sight.” Yet the Lady repulses him harshly, “A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.”
Macbeth:
“Methought, I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more!
Macbeth doth murder sleep . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
And therefore … Macbeth shall sleep no more!”
Lady Macbeth quiets him but he weakens his high courage by brooding over the deed.
“Go, get some water,
And wash this filthy witness from your hand.—
Why did you bring these daggers from the place?
They must lie there. Go, carry them; and smear
The sleepy grooms with blood.”