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: Silenc'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 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?
Macb. The thane of Cawdor lives; Why do
dress me

In borrow'd robes?

Ang.

you

Who was the thane, lives yet; But under heavy judgment bears that life Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was

His wonders and his praises do contend,

Which should be thine, or his: &c.] i. e. private admiration of your deeds, and a desire to do them public justice by commendation, contend in his mind for pre-eminence.-Or,-There is a contest in his mind whether he should indulge his desire of publishing to the world the commendations due to your heroism, or whether he should remain in silent admiration of what no words could celebrate in proportion to its desert.

6

As thick as tale,] Meaning, that the news came as thick as a tale can travel with the post.

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 him.

Macb.

Glamis, and thane of Cawdor: The greatest is behind.—Thanks for your pains.— 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?

8

That, trusted home,"

Ban. 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.

Macb.

Two truths are told,"

As happy prologues to the swelling act

Of the imperial theme.-I thank you, gentlemen.This supernatural soliciting1

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

7 trusted home,] i. e. entirely, thoroughly relied on, or perhaps we should read thrusted home.

8

seek.

Might yet enkindle you-] Enkindle, for to stimulate you to

9 Two truths are told, &c.] How the former of these truths has been fulfilled, we are yet to learn. Macbeth could not become Thane of Glamis, till after his father's decease, of which there is no mention throughout the play. If the Hag only announced what Macbeth already understood to have happened, her words could scarcely claim rank as a prediction.

This supernatural soliciting-] Soliciting for information. WARBURTON. Soliciting is rather, in my opinion, incitement, than information.

JOHNSON.

Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,
And make my seated2 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,3 that function
Is smother'd in surmise; and nothing is,

But what is not.4

Ban.

Look, how our partner's rapt. Macb. If chance will have me king, why, chance

Macb.

Come what come may; Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your lei

3

sure.

Macb. Give me your favour:-my dull brain was wrought

seated i. e. fixed, firmly placed.

single state of man,] Dr. Johnson says, that the single state of man seems to be used by Shakspeare for an individual, in opposition to a commonwealth, or conjunct body. But Mr. Steevens thinks that the single state of Macbeth may signify his weak and debile state of mind.

-function

Is smother'd in surmise; and nothing is,

But what is not.] All powers of action are oppressed and crushed by one overwhelming image in the mind, and nothing is present to me but that which is really future. Of things now about me I have no perception, being intent wholly on that which has yet no existence. JOHNSON.

5 Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.] i. e. time and occasion will carry the thing through, and bring it to some determined point and end, let its nature be what it will.

6-favour:] i. e. indulgence, pardon.

Mrs. MONTAGUE.

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.

[Exeunt.

Macb. Till then, enough.-Come, friends.

SCENE IV.

Fores. A Room in the Palace.

Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENOX, and Attendants.

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,
That very frankly he confess'd his treasons;
Implor'd 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 ow'd,
As 'twere a careless trifle.

Dun.

There's no art, To find the mind's construction in the face:"

7

my dull brain was wrought

With things forgotten.] My head was worked, agitated, put into commotion.

To find the mind's construction in the face:] Dr. Johnson seems to have understood the word construction in this place in

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 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,
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 deserv'd, 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

the sense of frame or structure; but the school-term was, I believe, intended by Shakspeare. The meaning is-We cannot construe or discover the disposition of the mind by the lineaments of the face. MALONE.

9

-full of growing.] Is, exuberant, perfect, complete in thy growth.