Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
Strange images of death. As thick as hail
Came post with post; and every one did bear
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence,
And pour'd them down before him.

Ang.

We are sent 100

To give thee from our royal master thanks;
Only to herald thee into his sight,

Not pay thee.

Ross. And, for an earnest of a greater honour,

He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor:
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 you

dress me

In borrow'd robes?

Ang.
But under heavy judgement bears that life
Which he deserves to lose.

Who was the thane lives yet;

bined

ΣΤΟ

Whether he was com

With those of Norway, or did line the rebel

With hidden help and vantage, or that with both
He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not;
But treasons capital, confess'd and proved,
Have overthrown him.

Macb. [Aside] Glamis, and thane of Cawdor! The greatest is behind. [To Ross and Angus] Thanks for your pains.

[To Ban.] Do you not hope your children shall

be kings,

When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me
Promised no less to them?

Ban.

That trusted home

120

120. that trusted home, such trust, pushed to its logical con

sequence.

し

ght yet enkindle you unto the crown,
Desides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis straneg :
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,

The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray's

In deepest consequence.

Cousins, a word, I pray you.

Macb.

[Aside] Two truths are told,

As happy prologues to the swelling act

Of the imperial theme.-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 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.

Macb. [Aside] 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.

[Aside] Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.

130. soliciting, temptation.

140. my single state of man, the kingdom of myself.

130

140

Mach. Give me your favour: my dull brain was wrought

With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains 150
Are register'd where every day I turn

The leaf to read them. Let us toward the king.
Think upon what hath chanced, 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. Forres.

The palace.

Flourish.

Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALbain, Lennox, and Attendants.

Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor? Those in commission yet return'd?

Mal.

Are not.

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,
Implored 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 owed
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.

13. He was a gentleman, etc. these words are spoken gives The entrance of Macbeth as

them the effect of tragic irony.

Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, Ross, and ANGUS.

O worthiest cousin!

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 deserved,
That the proportion both of thanks and payment
Might have been mine! only I have left to say,
More is thy due than more than all can pay.

Macb. 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 servants,
Which do but what they should by doing every

thing

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 deserved, nor must be known
No less to have done so, let me infold 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

34. Wanton, capricious from their very excess. L

20

30

40

On all deservers.

From hence to Inverness,

And bind us further to you.

Macb. The rest is labour, which is not used for

you:

I'll be myself the harbinger and make joyful
The hearing of my wife with your approach;
So humbly take my leave.

Dun.

My worthy Cawdor! Macb. [Aside] The Prince of Cumberland! that

is a step

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

[Exit.

Dun. True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant, And in his commendations I am fed ;

It is a banquet to me.

Let's after him,

Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome :

50

It is a peerless kinsman.

[Flourish.

Exeunt.

SCENE V. Inverness. 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 than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who all-hailed me "Thane

45. harbinger, strictly a royal to make arrangements for his reofficial who preceded the king, ception. Cf. purveyor, i. 6. 22.

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177

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