Chapter: SCENE II.

The same. Another Room in the Palace.

[Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant.]

LADY MACBETH.
Is Banquo gone from court?

SERVANT.
Ay, madam, but returns again to-night.

LADY MACBETH.
Say to the king, I would attend his leisure
For a few words.

SERVANT.
Madam, I will.

[Exit.]

LADY MACBETH.
Naught'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.

[Enter Macbeth.]

How now, my lord! why do you keep alone,
Of sorriest fancies your companions making;
Using those thoughts which should indeed have died
With them they think on? Things without all remedy
Should be without regard: what's done is done.

MACBETH.
We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it;
She'll close, and be herself; whilst our poor malice
Remains in danger of her former tooth.
But let the frame of things disjoint,
Both the worlds suffer,
Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep
In the affliction of these terrible dreams
That shake us nightly: better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave;
After life's fitful fever he sleeps well;
Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
Can touch him further.

LADY MACBETH.
Come on;
Gently my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks;
Be bright and jovial 'mong your guests to-night.

MACBETH.
So shall I, love; and so, I pray, be you:
Let your remembrance apply to Banquo;
Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue:
Unsafe the while, that we
Must lave our honors in these flattering streams;
And make our faces vizards to our hearts,
Disguising what they are.

LADY MACBETH.
You must leave this.

MACBETH.
O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!
Thou know'st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives.

LADY MACBETH.
But in them nature's copy's not eterne.

MACBETH.
There's comfort yet; they are assailable;
Then be thou jocund: ere the bat hath flown
His cloister'd flight, ere to black Hecate's summons,
The shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums,
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.

LADY MACBETH.
What's to be done?

MACBETH.
Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day;
And with thy bloody and invisible hand
Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond
Which keeps me pale!--Light thickens; and the crow
Makes wing to the rooky wood:
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;
Whiles night's black agents to their preys do rouse.--
Thou marvell'st at my words: but hold thee still;
Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill:
So, pr'ythee, go with me.

[Exeunt.]

 This scene opens with Lady Macbeth sending a servant to bring her husband to her. She is obviously lonely and curious to know what is going on. While she is waiting on the king's arrival, she reveals her concern for the brooding Macbeth and his fears. In a soliloquy, she states, "Tis safer to be that which we destroy than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy." She knows that her husband is too fearful to gain any pleasure from the crown, and she wants to try and calm him down. She is still the practical advice giver. When Macbeth arrives, she asks him, "Why do you keep alone of sorriest fancies your companions making? ... What's done is done." Macbeth explains that they have wounded the snake, not killed it. He admits to growing fears of retribution for his actions. He also claims that he would rather be dead than to endure the "torture of mind" he is feeling. Lady Macbeth, surprisingly, does not scorn his fearful words as earlier, but gently warns him to appear bright and jovial amongst the guests at dinner. He promises to disguise what is in his heart and asks her to pay special attention to Banquo during the meal. She tells him to quit worrying about Banquo and Fleance, but the audience, like Macbeth, knows this is an impossibility. In fact, the king replies to his wife that his mind is "full of scorpions" and that "there shall be done a deed of dreadful note." When Lady Macbeth asks what is to be done, her husband leaves her in the dark, saying to her, "Be innocent of the knowledge till thou applaud the deed." He is in charge now, not his wife as in earlier scenes; he, however, is still confident that she will agree with the murders after they are accomplished and "applaud the deed. " The scene ends with Macbeth once again asking for night to come quickly. This time he wants the darkness to "cancel and tear to pieces that great bond  which keeps me paled."

