Carv'd out his passage, till he fac'd the slave; And ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps, And fixed his head upon our battlements.
Dun. O, valiant cousin! worthy gentleman! Sold. As whence the sun 'gins his reflexion, Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break; [come, So from that spring, whence comfort seem'd to Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, No sooner justice had, with valour arm'd, [mark: Compell'd these skipping Kernes to trust their heels;
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage, With furbish'd arms, and new supplies of men, Began a fresh assault.
Dismay'd not this Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo? Sold.
As sparrows, eagles; or the hare, the lion.
If I say sooth,2 I must report they were
As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks;
So they
Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe:
Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,
Or memorize another Golgotha,
The worthy thane of Rosse. Len. What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look,
That seems to speak things strange.
Rosse.
God save the king!
Dun. Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane?
Rosse.
From Fife, great king,
Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky,
And fan our people cold.
Norway himself, with terrible numbers,
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor
The thane of Cawdor, 'gan a dismal conflict:
Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof,4
Confronted him with self-comparisons,
Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm,
Curbing his lavish spirit: And, to conclude,
The victory fell on us;-
Rosse. That now Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition; Nor would we deign him burial of his men, Till he disbursed, at St Colme's inch, Ten thousand dollars to our general use.
D. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive
1 Light and heavy armed troops.
2 Truth.
8 Governor.
4 Defended by armour of proof.
Our bosom interest:-Go, pronounce his death, And with his former title greet Macbeth. Rosse. I'll see it done.
[won. D. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath [Exeunt.
SCENE III.-A HEATH.
Thunder. Enter the three Witches.
1 Witch. Where hast thou been, sister? 2 Witch. Killing swine.
3 Witch. Sister, where thou?
1 Witch. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her And mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd:Give me, quoth I:
Aroint thee, witch! the rump-fed ronyon 2 cries.
Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the
But in a sieve I'll thither sail,
[Tiger:
And, like a rat without a tail,
I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do.
2 Witch. I'll give thee a wind.
1 Witch. Thou art kind.
3 Witch. And I another.
1 Witch. I myself have all the other;
And the very ports they blow,
All the quarters that they know
I' the shipman's card.3
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 4:
Weary seven nights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine:
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-toss'd.
Look what I have.
2 Witch. Show me, show me.
1 Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb,
Wreck'd, as homeward he did come.
3 Witch. A drum, a drum; Macbeth doth come.
All. The weird sisters,5 hand in hand,
Posters of the sea and land,
Thus do go about, about;
Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine,
And thrice again, to make up nine:
Peace!-the charm's wound up.
Enter Macbeth and Banquo.
Macb. So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
Ban. How far is't called to Fores-What are
So wither'd, and so wild in their attire; [these
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 under-
By each at once her choppy finger laying bu 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! 1 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis !
2 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane 3 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter.
B. Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear 1 Begone, 3 Compass. 2 A scurvy woman. 4 Accursed.
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'd,1
As 'twere a careless trifle.
There's no art,
To find the mind's construction in the face:
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.-O worthiest cousin!
Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Rosse, and Angus.
The sin of my ingratitude even now
Was heavy on me; Thou art so far before,
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow
To overtakethee.'Would thou hadst less desery'd:
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 [vants;
Are to your throne and state, children, and ser-
Which do but what they should, by doing every
Safe toward your love and honour. [thing
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 infold thee,
And hold thee to my heart.
There if I grow,
Ban.
The harvest is your own.
Dun.
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:2 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.
M. The rest is labour, which is not us'd for you:
I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful
The hearing of my wife with your approach;
So, humbly take my leave.
My worthy Cawdor! Macb. [Aside.] The prince of Cumberland!
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 val-
And in his commendations I am fed; [iant;
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.
INVERNESS. A ROOM IN MACBETH'S CASTLE.
Enter Lady Macbeth, reading a letter.
Lady M. They met me in the day of success;
2 Cumberland was then held as a flef of the crown of England, and was given as a title to the heir apparent.
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 of Cawdor; by which title, before, these
weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the
coming on of time, with, Hail, king that shall
be! This have I thought good to deliver thee,
my dearest partner of greatness; that thou might-
est not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignor
ant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it
to thy heart, and farewell.
What thou art promised:-Yet do I fear thy
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness,
To catch the nearest way: Thou wouldst be great;
The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst
Art not without ambition; but without [highly,
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,
And yet wouldst wrongly win; thou'dst have
That which cries, Thus thou must do, if thou
great Glamis,
[have it;
And that which rather thou dost fear to do,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;
Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither,
And chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round,
Which fate and metaphysicals aid doth seem
To have thee crown'd withal.-What is your
tidings?
Enter an Attendant.
Attend. The king comes here to-night.
Lady M.
Thou'rt mad to say it:
Is not thy master with him? who, wer't so,
Would have inform'd for preparation.
Attend. So please you, it is true; our thane is
One of my fellows had the speed of him; [coming:
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
Than would make up his message.
Lady M.
Give him tending,
He brings great news. The raven himself is
hoarse,
[Exit Attendant,
'That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, come, your spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here;
And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and passage to remorses;
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 minis-
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 thedark,
To cry, Hold, hold! Great Glamis! worthy
Cawdor!
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