Then however as her husband refuses to look again upon his deed Lady Macbeth herself seizes the daggers:
“The sleeping and the dead
Are but as pictures; 'tis the eye of childhood,
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal.”
Macbeth (alone):
“Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.”
Lady Macbeth (returning):
“My hands are of your colour; but I shame
To wear a heart so white . . . . .
. . . . . . . retire we to our chamber:
A little water clears us of this deed;
How easy is it then! Your constancy
Hath left you unattended.”
But the horrid deed has not brought the expected good fortune. After Duncan's murder Macbeth finds no rest and no sleep: “To be thus, is nothing; But to be safely thus.” So he first considers removing Banquo and his son. But Lady Macbeth is little content:
“Nought's had, all's spent,
Where our desire is got without content;
'Tis safer to be that which we destroy,
Than, by destruction, dwell in doubtful joy.”
Then comes her husband. All night he has been so shaken with terrible dreams that he would rather be in Duncan's place, “Than on the torture of the mind to lie, In restless ecstasy.” Lady Macbeth tries here to comfort him with the only tender impulse in the drama:
“Come on;
Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks;
Be bright and jovial 'mong your guests to-night.”[35]