FLEANCE, Son to Banquo.

SIWARD, Earl of Northumberland, General of the English Forces
Young SIWARD, Son to the Earl of Northumberland.

SEYTON, an Officer attending on Macbeth.

Son to Macduff.

An English Doctor.

A Scotch Doctor.

A Soldier.

A Porter.

An old Man.

Lady MACBETH.

Lady MACDUff.

Gentlewoman attending on Lady Macbeth.

HECATE.

Three Witches.

Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants, and Messengers.

SCENE, in the end of Act IV. in England; through the rest of the Play, in

Scotland.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-An open Place.- Thunder and Lightning.

Enter three Witches.

1 Witch. When shall we three meet again,

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

2 Witch. When the hurly-burly's1 done,

When the battle's lost and won:

3 Witch. That will be ere the set of sun.

1 A tumultuous roaring of the elements.

1 Witch. Where the place?

2 Witch.

Upon the heath: 3 Witch. There to meet with Macbeth.

1 Witch. I come, Graymalkin!!

All. Paddock? calls: Anon.

Fair is foul, and foul is fair :

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

[Witches vanish.

SCENE II.-A Camp near Forres. Alarum within.

Enter King DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Soldier.

Dun. What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

The newest state.

This is the sergeant,

Mal.
Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought
'Gainst my captivity:-Hail, brave friend!
Say to the king the knowledge of the broil,
As thou didst leave it.

Sold.

Doubtful it stood;

As two spent swimmers, that do cling together,
And choke their art.

The merciless Macdonald from the western isles
Of 3 kernes 4 and gallowglasses 5 is supplied:
But all's too weak:

For brave Macbeth, (well he deserves that name,)
Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,

Like valour's minion 6, carved out his passage
Till he faced the slave,

And fixed his head upon our battlements.

Dun. O, valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!
Sold. As when the sun 'gins his reflection
Shipwracking storms and direful thunders break!
So from that spring, whence comfort seemed to come,
Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark:
No sooner justice had, with valour armed,

1 A cat.

2 A great frog, or toad (still an Essex word).

3 Of is here used for with.

4 Peasants, foot soldiers.

5 Heavy-armed soldiers.
6 Darling, favoured son.

Compelled their skipping kernes to trust their heels,
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,

With furbished arms, and new supplies of men,
Began a fresh assault.

Dun. Dismayed not this our captains, Macbeth and
Banquo?

Sold. Yes: As sparrows, eagles; or the hare, the lion. If I say sooth, I must report they were

As cannons overcharged with double cracks;

So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe:

But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.

Dun. So well thy words become thee, as thy wounds; They smack of honour both : Go, get him surgeons.

Enter ROSSE.

[Exit Soldier, attended.

Who comes here?

Mal.

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 camest 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, began a dismal conflict:
Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapped in proof,
Confronted him with self-comparisons,

Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm,
Curbing his lavish spirit: And, to conclude,
The victory fell on us;

Dun.

Rosse. That now

Great happiness! 2

Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition;

Nor would we deign him burial of his men

Till he disbursèd, at St. Colmès' inch 3,

Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

Dun. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive

1 "Bellona's bridegroom " is here Macbeth. Bellona is alluded to in the Roman poets as the wife of Mars.

2 Good fortune.

3 Island.

Our bosom interest:-Go, pronounce his present death,
And with his former title greet Macbeth.

Rosse. I'll see it done.

Dun. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.

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?

[Exeunt.

1 Witch. A sailor's wife had chesnuts in her lap, And mounched, and mounched, and mounched: me," quoth I:

"Aroint thee, witch!" the rump-fed ronyon cries.
Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger:
But in a sieve I'll thither sail,

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 blow1,
All the quarters that they know
In the shipman's card.2

I'll drain him dry as hay:

Sleep shall, neither night nor day,
Hang upon his pent-house lid;
He shall live a man forbid :

Weary seven-nights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine:
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tossed.
Look what I have.

2 Witch. Show me, show me.

1 Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wracked, as homeward he did come. 3. Witch. A drum, a drum! Macbeth doth come.

1 To or towards (understood).

"Give

[Drum within.

2 The compass.

All. The weird 1 sisters, hand in hand, Posters 2 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 it called to Forres? What are these, So withered, and so wild in their attire ;

That look not like 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?

1 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis! 2 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! 3 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter. Ban. Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair?-In the name of truth, Are ye fantastical3, 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 rapt5 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.

1 Witch. Hail!

2 Witch. Hail!

3 Witch. Hail!

1 Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 2 Witch. Not so happy, yet much happier.

a

1 From wyrd, Anglo-Saxon; spoken word, in the same way as fate means originally something spoken. Observe, there are three weird sisters, as there were three Fates.

2 Posters; those who ride post. 3 Imaginary.

4 Possession.

5 Hurried out of his sober thoughts.