The Night

Imagine why Macbeth feels fear to murder Duncan, although he is a warrior who has killed many soldiers in wars. The answer is, I think, killing is his business, but he has killed only the people hostile to his nation, & he recognizes which his king trusts him & which his treason will make him lonesome in Scotland. The audience or the readers do not see how he looks & do not hear what he thinks at the moment. There is no scene which Macbeth murders Duncan in the king’s bedroom. While the plot goes on upstairs (act 2 scene 2), the audience hears his wife thinking, who waits downstairs:

LADY MACBETH

That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold:
What hath quench’d them hath given me fire. Hark! Peace!
It was the owl that shriek’d, the fatal bellman,
Which gives the stern’st good-night. He is about it.
The doors are open; the surfeited grooms.
Do mock their charge with snores. I have drugg’d their possets,
That death and nature do contend about them,
Whether they live or die.
あの者どもを酔わせたものがわたしを大胆にしたのだ。
者どもを癒したものがわたしに火を付けたのだ。おや、何だろう。
金切り声の梟、死の鐘を鳴らすやつ、
きびしく楽しい夜をしらせる。主人はその近く。
ドアは開いたまま、飲み過ぎのお付きの者どもは
お役目そっちのけで高いびき。わたしがミルク酒に薬を混ぜたのだ、
あの者どもが助かろうが助かるまいが、
死と自然とが争い合うように。

(ウィリアム・シェイクスピア)

関連
Macbeth Quotes