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Assisted by that most disloyal traitor

The thane of Cawdor, 'gan a dismal conflict:

All. The weird sisters, 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 call'd to Fores ?-What are

these,

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

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

Till that Bellona's bridegroom,2 lapp'd in proof,'That man may question? You seem to understand Confronted him with self-comparisons,

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

Dun.

Great happiness!

Rosse. That now Swenc, the Norways' king, craves composition; Nor would we deign him burial of his men, Till he disbursed, at Saint Colmes' inch, Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

Dun. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive

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

Rosse. I'll see it done.

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1 Witch. Where hast thou been, sister? 2 Witch. Killing swine.

3 Witch. Sister, where thou?

1 Witch. A sailor's wife had chesnuts in her lap, And mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd :Give 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 blow,
All the quarters that they know
I'the shipman's card.

1 will drain him dry as hay:
Sleep shall, neither night nor day,
Hang upon his pent-house lid;
He shall live a man forbid :"
Weary sev'n-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.

[Drum within.

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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?-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 prediction
Of noble having,10 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.

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So, all hail, Macbeth, and Banquo!

1 Witch. Banquo, and Macbeth, all hail! Macb. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more: 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 [Witches vanish.

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Macb. And thane of Cawdor too; went it not so ?Without my stir.
Ban. To the self-same tune, and words. Who's Ban.
here?

Enter Rosse and Angus.

Rosse. The king hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth,
The news of thy success: and when he reads
Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight,
His wonders and his praises do contend,
Which should be thine, or his: Silene'd with that,
In viewing o'er the rest o'the self-same day,
He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
Strange images of death. As thick as tale,'
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,
To give thee, from our royal master, thanks;
To herald thee into his sight, not pay thee.

Rosse. And, for an carnest 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?
Macb. The thane of Cawdor lives; Why do
you dress me

In borrow'd robes?

Ang.

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 lei

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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 chanc'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. [Exe. SCENE IV.-Fores. A room in the Palace. Flourish. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lenox, and allendants.

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,
Who was the thane, lives yet; Implor'd your highness' pardon; and set forth
That very frankly he confess'd his treasons;

But under heavy judgment bears that life
Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was
Combin'd with 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 prov’d,
Have overthrown in.
Macb.

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.

Dun.

There's no art,
To find the mind's construction in the face:"1
An absolute trust.-O worthiest cousin!

Glamis, the thane of Cawdor:
The greatest is behind.-Thanks for your pains.He was a gentleman on whom I built
Do you not hope your children shall be kings,
When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me,
Promis'd no less to them?

Ban.
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

In deepest consequence.-
Cousins, a word, I pray you.

Mach.

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 overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserv'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,

Two truths are told, In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part
Is to receive our duties: and our duties

As happy prologues to the swelling act

Of the imperial theme.-I thank you, gentlemen.-Are to your throne and state, children, and servants; 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 any 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. If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me,

(1) As fast as they could be counted. (2) Title.

Which do but what they should, by doing every

thing

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(11) We cannot construe the disposition of the

(8) Time and opportunity.

(3) Stimulate.

(5) Temptation.

(4) Encitement.
(6) Firmly fixed.

(10) Owned, possessed.

jecture.

(12) Exuberant,

(7) The powers of action are oppressed by con-mind by the lineaments of the face.

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

Macb. 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.
Dun.
My worthy Cawdor!
Mach. The prince of Cumberland!-That is
step,

On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,

Aside.

a

Attend. So please you, it is true; our thane is

coming:

One of my fellows had the speed of him;
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, you spirits
That tend on mortals 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 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 ministers,
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,
To cry, Hold, Hold !-Great Glamis, worthy Caw
dor!

Enter Macbeth.

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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. [Ex. 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-Inverness. A room in Macbeth's castle. Enter Lady Macbeth, reading a letter. Lady M. They met me in the day of success; Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter ! and I have learned by the perfectest report, they Thy letters have transported me beyond have more in them than mortal knowledge. When This ignorant present, and I feel now I burned in desire to question them further, they The future in the instant. made themselves-air, into which they vanished. Macb. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came Duncan comes here to-night. 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 shalt be! This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men partner of greatness; that thou mightest not lose May read strange matters:-To beguile the time, the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent and farewell.

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promis'd:-Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o'the milk of human kindness,
To catch the nearest way: Thou would'st be great;
Art not without ambition; but without

Lady M.

My dearest love,

And when goes hence!
Mach. To-morrow,-as he purposes.
Lady M.
Shall sun that morrow see!

flower,

O, never,

But be the serpent under it. He that's coming
Must be provided for: and you shall put
This night's great business into my despatch;
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
Macb. We will speak further.
Lady M.
Only look up clear;

The illness should attend it. What thou would'st
highly,
That would'st thou holily; would'st not play false, To alter favour11 ever is to fear:
And yet would'st wrongly win: thou'd'st have, Leave all the rest to me.

great Glamis,

That which cries, Thus thou must do, if thou
have it;

And that which rather thou dost fear to do,
Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;
And chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round;4
Which fate and metaphysicals aid doth seem
To have thee crown'd withal.-What is your
tidings?

SCENE VI.-The same.

[Exeunt.

Before the castle. Hautboys. Servants of Macbeth attending. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lenox, Macduff, Rosse, Angus, and attendants.

Ban.

Dun. This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses.
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve,
This guest of summer,
By his lov'd mansionry, that the heaven's breath
Smells wooingly here; no jutty, frieze, buttress,
Nor coigne of vantage, 12 but this bird hath made
Thou'rt mad to say it: His pendent bed, and procreant cradle: Where they
Most breed and haunt, I have observ'd, the air
Is delicate.

Enter an Attendant.

Attend. The king comes here to-night.
Lady M.

Is not thy master with him? who, were't so,
Would have inform'd for preparation.

(1) Full as valiant as described.

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(9) Knife anciently meant a sword or dagger. (10) i, e. Beyond the present time, which is, according to the process of nature, ignorant of the future,

(11) Look, countenance. (12) Convenient corner,

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