And the very ports they blow,

All the quarters that they know
I' the shipman's card.1]

I will drain him dry as hay:
Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his pent-house lid;
He shall live a man forbid:2
Weary se'nnights nine times nine
Shall he dwindle, peak,3 and pine:
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tost.—
Look what I have.

Sec. Witch. Show me, show me.

First Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wreck'd as homeward he did come.

20

Macb. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. Ban. How far is 't call'd to Forres? What are these

So wither'd, and so wild in their attire,

40

That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth, And yet are on 't? Live you? or are you aught

That man may question? You seem to understand me,

By each at once her choppy finger laying Upon her skinny lips: you should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so.

Macb. Speak, if you can: what are you? First Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis!

Sec. Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!

1 The shipman's card, ie. the card contained in the compass, on which the points are marked.

2 Forbid, i.e. under a curse.

Peak, grow thin.

Things that do sound so fair? I' the name of truth,

Are ye fantastical,5 or that indeed

Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner You greet with present grace and great prediction

Of noble having and of royal hope,

That he seems rapt withal: to me you speak not:

If you can look into the seeds of time,

And say which grain will grow and which will

not,

Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear Your favours nor your hate.

First Witch. Hail!

Sec. Witch. Hail!

Third Witch. Hail!

59

By Sinel's death I know I am thane of Glamis; But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives,

A prosperous gentleman; and to be king
Stands not within the prospect of belief,
No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence
You owe this strange intelligence? or why
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting?- Speak, I
charge you.
[Witches vanish.

Ban. The earth hath bubbles as the water has,

And these are of them: whither are they vanish'd?

80

Macb. Into the air; and what seem'd corporal melted

As breath into the wind.-Would they had stay'd!

4 Posters, quick travellers.

Cousins, a word, I pray you. Macb. [Aside]

130

Two truths are told, As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme.-[To Ross and Angus] I thank you, gentlemen. [Aside] This supernatural soliciting Cannot be ill; cannot be good: if ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success, Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor: If good, why do I yield to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair, And make my seated3 heart knock at my ribs, Against the use of nature? Present fears* Are less than horrible imaginings:

My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,

Shakes so my single state of man that function Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is 141 But what is not.

Ban. [To Ross and Angus] Look, how our partner's rapt.

Macb. [Aside] If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me,

Flourish.

Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, and Attendants.

Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not

Those in commission yet return'd?
Mal.

My liege,
They are not yet come back. But I have spoke
With one that saw him die, who did report
That very frankly he confess'd his treasons,
Implor'd your highness' pardon, and set forth
A deep repentance: nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it; he died
As one that had been studied in his death
To throw away the dearest thing he ow'd1 10
As 't were a careless trifle.

have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burn'd in desire to question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanish'd. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who all-hail'd me 'Thane of Cawdor;' by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referr'd me to the coming on of time, with Hail, king that shalt be!' This have I thought good to deliver3 thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou might'st not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promis'd thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell."