All. Fair is foul, and foul is fair:

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

SCENE II. A camp near Forres.

[Exeunt.

Alarum within. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant.

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

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.

Sergeant.

Doubtful it stood;

As two spent swimmers, that do cling together

And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald

Worthy to be a rebel, for to that

The multiplying villanies of nature

Do swarm upon him-from the western isles

Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied;

And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,

Show'd like a rebel's whore: but all's too weak:
For brave Macbeth -well he deserves that name—
Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,

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

Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps,
And fix'd his head upon our battlements.

Duncan. O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!
Sergeant. As whence the sun 'gins his reflection
Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break,

So from that spring whence comfort seem'd to come
Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark:
No sooner justice had with valour arm'd

Compell'd these skipping kerns to trust their heels,
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,
With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men
Began a fresh assault.

Yes;

Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?

Sergeant.

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:

Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,

Or memorize another Golgotha,

I cannot tell

But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.

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40

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

Who comes here?

[Exit Sergeant, attended.

Duncan. Whence camest thou, worthy thane ?
Ross.

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

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The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict;
Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd 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.

Duncan.

Ross.

Great happiness!

That now

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Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition;
Nor would we deign him burial of his men
Till he disbursed. at Saint Colme's Inch

Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

Duncan. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive Our bosom interest: go pronounce his present death,

And with his former title greet Macbeth.

Ross. I'll see it done.

Third Witch. Sister, where thou?

First Witch. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap, And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd.

quoth I:

'Give me,'

'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.

Second Witch. I'll give thee a wind.

ΙΟ

First Witch. I myself have all the other,
And the very ports they blow,

All the quarters that they know
I' the shipman's card.

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 :
Weary se'nnights nine times nine
Shall he dwindle, peak and pine:
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tost.

Look what I have.

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Second Witch. Show me, show me.

First Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb,

Wreck'd as homeward he did come.

Third Witch. A drum, a drum!

Macbeth doth come.

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.

Macbeth. So foul and fair

[Drum within.

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day I have not seen.

Banquo. How far is't call'd to Forres? 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

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.

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Macbeth.

Speak, if you can: what are you?
First W. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis !
Sec. W. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!
Third W. All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter !
Banquo. 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 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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Third Witch. Hail!

First Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
Second Witch. Not so happy, yet much happier.

Third Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none: So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!

First Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!

Macbeth. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more: 70 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 you.

[Witches vanish.

Banquo. The earth hath bubbles as the water has, And these are of them. Whither are they vanish'd?

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