3 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king in borrow'd robes?

hereafter.

Ang Who was the thane, lives yet; Ban. Good sir, why do you start; and seem But under heavy judgment bears that life

to fear

Things that do sound so fair 7-I' the name of
truth,

Are ye fantastical, or that indeed
Which outwardly ye show ? My noble partner
You greet with present grace, and great predic-
tion

Of noble having, and of royal hope,

Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combin'd

With those of Norway, or did line the rebel
With hidden help and vantage; or that with both
He labour'd in in his country's wreck, I know not;
But treasons capital, confess'd, and prov'd,
Have overthrown him.
Macb.

Glamis, and thane of Cawdor; That he seems rapt withal; to me you speak The greatest is behind.Thanks for your

Speak then to me, who neither beg, nor fear,

Your favours, nor your hate.

1 Witch. Hail!

2 Witch. Hail!

3 Witch. Hail!

1 Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.

2 Witch. Not so happy, yet much happier.

That, trusted home,

Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange:

And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths;

Win us with honest trifles, to betray us

3 Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be In deepest consequence

In which addition, hail most worthy thane!
For it is thine.
Ban.

What, can the devil speak true?
Mach. The thane of Cawdor lives: Why do

Consins, a word, I pray you.
Macb.

Two truths are told,

As happy prologues to the swelling act

Of the imperial theme. I thank you, gentle

men.

This supernatural soliciting

Cannot be ill; cannot be good:If im,
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 seated 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,
But what is not.

Ban.

Look, how our partner's rapt. Mach. If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me,

Without my stir.

Ban.

New honours come upon him Like our strange garments; cleave not to their

mould,
But with the aid of use.
Macb.
Come what come may,
Time and the hour runs through the roughest
day.
Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your
leisure.

Macb. Give me your favour:-my dull brain
was wrought
With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your

pains
Are register'd where every day I turn
The leaf to read them. Let us toward the king.-
Think upon what hath chane'd: and, at more

time,

The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak
Our free hearts each to other.
Ban.

Very gladly.
Macb. Till then, enough.-Come, friends.
[Exeunt.

SCENE IV. Fores. A Room in the Palace.
Flourish. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain,
Lenox, 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 deares. thing he ow'd,
As 'twere a careless trifle.

Dun.

There's no art, To find the mind's construction in the face: He was a gentleman on whom I built

An absolute trust.-0 worthiest cousin!

Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Rosse, and Angus.

serv'd;

The sin of my ingratitude even now
Was heavy on me: Thou art so far before,
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow
To overtake thee. 'Would, thou hadst less de-
That the proportion both of thanks and payment
Might have mine! only I have left to say,
More is thy due than more than all can pay.
Mach. The service and the loyalty I owe,
In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part
Is to receive our duties: and our duties

Are to your throne and state, children, and ser-
vants;

thing

Which do but what they should, by doing every
Safe toward your love and honour.

Dun.

Welcome hither:

I have begun to plant thee, and will labour
To make thee full of growing.-Noble Banquo,
That hast no less deserv'd, nor must be known
No less to have done so, let me enfold thee,
And hold thee to my heart.
Ban.

The harvest is your own.
Dun.

There if I grow,

My plenteous joys,
Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves
In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes,
And you whose places are the nearest, know,
We will establish our estate upon

Our eldest, Malcolm; whom we name hereafter,
The prince of Cumberland: which honour must
Not, unaccompanied, invest him only,
But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
On all deservers. From hence to Inverness,
And bind us further to you.

you:

Mach. The rest is labour, which is not us'd for
I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful
The hearing of my wife with your approach;
So, humbly take my leave.
Dun.

step

My worthy Cawdor!
Mach. The prince of Cumberland! That is a
On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires!
Aside.
Let not light see my black and deep desires:
The eye wink at the hand ! yet let that be,
Which the eye fears, when when it is done, to see.

One of my fellows had the speed of him;
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
Lady M.
Than would make up his message.
He brings great news. The raven himself is
Give him tending,
[Exit Attendant.

hoarse,

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, come, you spirits
And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here;
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and passage to remorse;
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect, and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring mi

nisters,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick

night,

And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell!
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes;
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,

Exit. To cry, Hold, hold! Great Glamis! worthy

Dun. True, worthy Banquo; he is full so

valiant;

And in his commendations I am fed;
It is a banquet to me. Let us after him,
Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome:
It is a peerless kinsman. (Flourish. Exeunt.

SCENE V.

Cawdor!

Inverness. A Room in Macbeth's Castle. Enter Lady Macbeth, reading a Letter. Lady M. They met me in the day of success; and I have learned by the perfectest report, they have more in them em than mortal knowledge. Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men

Shall

sun that morrow see!

O, never

May read strange matters:-To beguile the time,

When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves-air, into which they Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent of it, came missives from the king, who allhailed me, Thane flower, of Cawdor; dor; by which title, But be the serpent under it. He that's coming before, these weird sisters saluted me, and re- Must be provided for: and you shall put ferred me to the coming on of time, with, Hail, This night's great business into my despatch; king that shalt be! This have I thought good to Which shall to all our nights and days to come deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness; Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom. that thou mighiest not lose the dues of rejoicing, Mach. We will speak further.

Only look up clear; And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin, hors'd
[Exeunt. Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind. I have no

Fle. The moon is down: I have not heard the Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he

Ban. What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's Which gives the stern'st good night. He is

By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up That death and nature do contend about them,

But they did say their prayers, and address'd

them Again to sleep. Lady M. There are two lodg'd together. Macb. One cried, God bless us! and, Amen, the other;

As they had seen me, with these hangman's

bed,

That you do lie so late ?
Port. 'Faith, sir, we were carousing till the
of three things.
second cock and drink, sir, is a great provoker

Macd. What three things does drink especi-
ally provoke ?
Po
ovoke
Port

Marry, sir, nose paintings, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes: it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance: Therefore much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery; it makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him, and disheartens him; makes him stand to, and not stand to in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him.

Macd. I believe, drink gave thee the lie last Po night. Port. That it did, sir, i'the very throat o' me: But I requited him for his lie and, I think, being too strong for him, though he took up my

legs sometime, yet I made a shift to cast him. Macd. Is thy master stirring?

Our knocking has awak'd him; here he comes.

I have almost slipp'd the hour.
Mach.

I'll bring you to him
Macd. I know, this is a joyful trouble to you;
But yet, 'tis one.

Mach. The labour, we delight in, physicks

pain.

This is the door.

Mach. To know my deed, 'twere best not

Our chimneys were blown down: and, as they
Lamentings heard i' the air; strange screams

know myself.

[Knock.

Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would,
thou could'st?
[Exeunt.

SCENE III. The same.

say,

of death;

And prophesying, with accents accents terrible,
Of dire combustion, and confus'd events,
New hatch'd to the woful time. The obscure

bird

Enter a Porter. [Knocking within Porter. Here's a knocking, indeed! If a man were porter of hell gate, he should have old turning the key. [Knocking. Knock, knock, knock: Who's there, i'the name of Belzebub? Here's a farmer, that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty: Come in time; have napkins enough about you; here you'll sweat for't. [Knocking. Knock, knock: Who's there, i' the other devil's name? 'F'aith, here's an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale; who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven: O, come in, equivocator. [Knock- Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope ing.] Knock, knock, knock: Who's there? 'Faith, The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence here's an English tailor come hither, for stealing The life o'the building.

nor heart,

Cannot conceive, nor name thee!

What's the matter?

Macb. Len.
Macd. Confusion now hath made his master-

piece !

out of a French hose: Come in, tailor; here you Macb.

What is't you say ? the life ?

may roast your goose. [Knocking. Knock, Len. Mean you his majesty?

knock: Never at quiet! What are you 1-But this place is too cold for hell. I'll devil-porter it no further: I had thought to have let in some of all professions, that go the primrose way to

your sight

Macd. Approach the chamber, and destroy With a new Gorgon:-Do not bid me speak; See, and then speak yourselves. Awake ! the everlasting bonfire. [Knocking.] Anon, awake!- [Exeunt Mach. and Len. anon; I pray you, remember the porter. Ring the alarum-bell: Murder! and treason! [Opens the gate. Banquo, and Donalbain! Malcolm! awake!