Court within the castle — the dagger

Past midnight, the courtyard at Inverness. Banquo and his son Fleance walk through with a torch. Banquo cannot sleep — "a heavy summons lies like lead upon me, and yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers, restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature gives way to in repose." The cursed thoughts are about the witches. He has been turning the prophecy over in his head since that morning, and the part of him that wants to believe it is the part keeping him awake.

Macbeth meets him. They exchange a few lines. Banquo, with characteristic care, says he has been dreaming of the weird sisters — they showed Macbeth some truth. Macbeth replies, lying, that he has not thought of them; some other time they will speak of it. Banquo, agreeing only "so I lose none in seeking to augment it, but still keep my bosom franchised and allegiance clear," goes in to bed with Fleance. Macbeth dismisses his servant — ask my mistress to ring a bell when my drink is ready — and is alone in the courtyard.

What follows is one of the most famous soliloquies in the play. "Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee." A dagger has appeared in the air in front of him. He reaches; it cannot be touched. He asks whether it is real or a "dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain." The dagger turns. It points him toward Duncan's chamber — and now, on its blade, drops of blood appear. He invokes the night, witchcraft, withered Murder; he speaks of Tarquin going to ravish Lucrece. The bell rings. He goes. "Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven or to hell."