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Lady Macbeth herself has also had some wine, but she feels bold and fierce, not drunk and sleepy.Īt this moment she thinks she hears something and says, "Hark! Peace! / It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, / Which gives the stern'st good-night. It's something you would drink just before going to bed, to help you sleep, but Lady Macbeth has drugged the grooms' possets, so that their sleep is the next thing to death. The "them" whom she refers to are the King's two personal servants, his "grooms." She has given each of them a "posset," a mixture of wine and milk. She is very excited, and says of herself, "That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold / What hath quench'd them hath given me fire" (2.2.1-2). The courtyard is apparently quite near the King's bedchamber, and she listens intently, as though she could actually hear the murder being committed. Now, where Macbeth waited for his wife's bell, she waits for the news that he has killed the King. In the previous scene Macbeth had an ostensibly casual conversation with Banquo, but as soon as Banquo went to bed, it became apparent that Macbeth was awaiting his wife's signal (a bell) to go do the murder. This scene, like the previous one and the next, is usually shown as taking place in the courtyard of Macbeth's castle. ≺ knocking at the castle gate frightens Macbeth, and his wife comes to lead him away, so that they can wash the blood from their hands. —Macbeth announces that he has done the deed, but he is so shaken by the murder that he brings the bloody daggers with him, and Lady Macbeth takes them from him, to place them with the sleeping grooms. —Lady Macbeth waits for Macbeth to come with the news that he has killed the King. Detailed Summary of Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2