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2 Witch. All hail, Macbeth thane of Cawdor!

hail to thee,

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 pre-
diction

Of noble having, + and of royal hope, [not:
That he seems rapt withal; to me you speak
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.
3 Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou

be none:

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.
Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water
has,
[nish'd?
And these are of them :-Whither are they va-
Macb. Into the air; and what seem'd cor-
poral melted

you.

As breath into the wind.-'Would they

staid !

had

Ban. Were such things here, as we do speak

about;

Or have we eaten of the insane root,

That takes the reason prisoner?

Macb. Your children shall be kings.
Ban. You shall be king.

Macb. And thane of Cawdor too; went it

not so? [here? Ban. To the self-same tune and words. Who's

Enter ROSSE and ANGUS.

Rosse. The king hath happily receiv'd, Mac-
beth,

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 rauks,
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
Strange images of death. As thick as tale, T
Came post with post; and every one did bear
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence,
And pour'd them down before him.

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In which addition, hail, most worthy thane!
For it is thine.

Ban. What, can the devil speak true?
Mucb. The thane of Cawdor lives: Why do
you dress me
In borrow'd robes ?

Ang. Who was the thane, lives yet;
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 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
Promis'd no less to them?
[me,

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.

Macb. Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme.-I thank you, gentle-
This supernatural soliciting t
[men.-
Cannot be ill; cannot be good:-If ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Caw-
dor: §

If good, why do I yield to that suggestion ||
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present fears
[tical,
Are less than horrible imaginings:
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantas-
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,

Without my stir.

Ban. New honours come upon him Like our strange garments; cleave not to the 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 leisure.

Macb. Give me your favour: ‡‡-my dull brain was wrought [pains With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your Are register'd where every day I turn The leaf to read them.-Let us toward the [time, Think upon what hath chanc'd; and, at more The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak Our free hearts each to other.

king;

Ban. Very gladly.

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

SCENE IV.-Fores.-A Room in the Palace.
Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONAL-
BAIN, LENOX, and ATTENDANTS.
Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor?
not
Those in commission yet return'd?

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Are

t Encitement.

Glamis is still standing, and is the magnificent residence of Earl Strathmore.

Firmly fixed.
oppressed by conjecture.
tunity.

11 Pardon.

Temptation.

The powers of action are ft Time and oppor

2 T

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: +
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.

Mach. 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. There if I grow,
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
[after,
Our eldest Malcolm; whom we name here-
The prince of Cumberland: 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.

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 1-That is a step,

On which I must fall down, or else o'er-leap, [Aside.

For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your tires! 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 valiant ; ||

And in his comniendations, 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 suc-
cess; and I have learned by the perfectest

Owned, possessed.

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|report, they have more in them than morta, knowledge. When I burned in desire & 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 shalt be! This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness; that thou mightest not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, 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
The illness should attend it. What thou would'st
highly,
[false,
That would'st thou holily; would'st not play
And yet would'st wrongly win: thou'd'st have
great Glamis,
[have it;
That which cries, Thus thou must do, if thou
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, ‡
Which fate and metaphysicalý 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 coming:

One of my fellows had the speed of him;
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely

more

That would make up bis 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 mortal || thought, 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 t† see not the wound it makes;

Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, Cawdor! To cry, Hold, Hold!-Great Glamis ! worthy

Enter MACBETH

Greater than both, by the all-bail hereafter !
Thy letters have transported me beyond
This ignorant present, and I feel now
The future in the instant.

The best intelligence.

↑ Messengers. Supernatural.

↑ Diadem. Pity. ++ Knife aucientl it I e. Beyond the

1 Murderous. 4 We cannot construe the disposition of the mind by **Wrap as in a mantle. the lineaments of the face. 1 Exuberant. meant a sword or dagger. present time, which is according to the process of naFull as valiant as described.ture ignorant of the future.

The walls of Macbeth's Castle at Inverness, are yet standing.

Mecb. My dearest love,

Duncan comes here to-night.

Lady M. And when goes bence?

Macb. To-morrow,-as he purposes.

Lady M. Oh! never

Shall sun that morrow see!

Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men May read strange matters :-To beguile the time,

Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,

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;
To alter favour ever is to fear:
Leave all the rest to me.

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SCENE VII.-The same.-A Room in the Castle.

Hautboys and torches. Enter, and pass over the stage, a Sewer, and divers Servants with dishes and service. Then enter MACBETH.

Macb. If it were doue, when 'tis done, then 'twere well

It were done quickly: If the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch,
With his surcease, success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon, this bank and shoal of time,
We'd jump the life to come. But, in these
cases,

We still have judgment here; that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague the inventor: This even-handed jus-
Commends the ingredients of our poison'd
chalice

tice

can

To our own lips. He's here in double trust:
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Dun-
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off:
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd
Upon the sightless couriers + of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind.-I have no
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'er-leaps itself,
And falls on the other.-How now, what news!
Enter Lady MACBETH.

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Lady M. Was the hope drunk,

Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since?

And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time,
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour,
As thou art in desire? Would'st thou have
that

Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem;
Letting I dare not wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat i'the adage ?

Macb. Pr'ythee, peace:

I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more, is none.

Lady M. What beast was it then,
That made you break this enterprize to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man ;

And, to be more than what you were, you

would

[place, Be so much more the man. Nor time, nor Did then adhere, and yet you would make both :

They have made themselves, and that their fit[know

ness now

Does unmake you. I have given suck; and

An officer so called from his placing th. dishes on the table.

Winds; sightless is invisible.
In the same sense as cohere.

How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me :
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless

gums,

And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn, as

you

Have done to this.

Macb. If we should fail,

Lady M. We fail!

But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep,
(Whereto the rather shall his day's hard jour-

ney

Sonndly invite him,) his two chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassel so convince, t
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbeck only: When in swinish sleep
Their drenched natures lie, as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon
His spongy officers; who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell?

Macb. Bring forth men-children only!
For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing but males. Will it not be receiv'd,
When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy

two

Would spend it in some words upon that bus
ness,

If you would grant the time.
Ban. At your kind'st leisure.

Macb. If you shall cleave to my consent,→
when 'tis,

It shall make honour for you.

Ban. So I lose none,

In seeking to augment it, but still keep
My bosom franchis'd and allegiance clear,
I shall be counsel'd.

Macb. Good repose, the while!

Ban. Thanks, Sir; The like to you!

[Exit BANQUo. Macb. Go, bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,

She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.

[Exit Servant.

Is this a dagger, which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me
clutch thee:-

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind; a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable

As this which now I draw.

Of his own chamber, and us'd their very dag-Thou marshal'st me the way that I was going;

gers,

That they have don't?

Lady M. Who dares receive it other,

As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar
Upon his death?

Macb. I am settled, and bend up

Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
Away, and mock the time with fairest show:
False face must hide what the false heart doth
know.
[Exeunt.

ACT II.

SCENE 1.-The same.-Court within the

Castle.

Enter BANQUO and FLEANCE, and a Servant, with a torch before them.

Ban. How goes the night, boy?

And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o'the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest: I see thee still;
And on thy blade and dudgeon, gouts of blood,
Which was not so before.--There's no such
thing;

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It is the bloody business, which informs
Thus to mine eyes.-Now o'er the one half
world

Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleep; now witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murder,
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,

Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy

pace

With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design

Moves like a ghost.--Thou sure and firm-set earth,

Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear

Fle. The moon is down; I have not heard the Thy very stones prate of my where-about,

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Ban. What, Sir, not yet at rest? The king's What hath quench'd them bath given me fire: a-bed :

He hath been in unusual pleasure, and

Sent forth great largess ¶ to your offices;
This diamond he greets your wife withal,

-Hark!-Peace!

He is

It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman,
Which gives the stern'st good-night.
about it:

By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms

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Again to sleep.

Lady M. There are two lodg'd together. Macb. One cried, God bless us! aud Amen, the other;

As they had seen me, with these hangman's hands,

Listening their fear-I could not say, Amen,
When they did say, God bless us.

Lady M. Consider it not so deeply.
Macb. But wherefore could not I pronounce
Amen ?

I had most need of blessing, and Amen
Stuck in my throat.

Lady M. These deeds must not be thought After these ways; so, it will make us mad. Mach. Methought, I heard a voice cry, Sleep

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How is't with me, when every uoise appals me ? What hands are here? Ha! they pluck out mine eyes!

Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather

The multitudinous seas incarnardine,
Making the green-one red.

Re-enter Lady MACBETH.

Lady M. My hands are of your colour; but
I shame
[knocking
To wear a heart so white. [Knock.] I hear a
At the south entry :-retire we to our chamber :
A little water clears us of this deed :
How easy is it then? Your constancy
Hath left you unattended.-[Knocking] Hark!
more knocking :

Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us,
And show us to be watchers:-Be not lost
So poorly in your thoughts.

Macb. To know my deed,-'twere best not
know myself.
[Knock.

Wake Duncan with thy knocking! Ay, 'would thou could'st! [Exeunt.

SCENE III.-The same.

Enter a PORTER.—[Knocking within.] Port. Here's a knocking, indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old * turning the key. [Knocking.] Knock, knock, knock: Who's there, i'the name of Belzebub ? Here's a farmer, that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty: Come in time; have napkius enough about you; here you'll sweat for't. [Knocking.] Knock, knock: Who's there, i'the devil's name? 'Faith, here's an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale; who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven: O come in, equivocator. [Knocking.] Knock, kuock, knock: Who's there? 'Faith here's an English tailor come hither for stealing out of a French hose: Come in, tailor; here you may roast your goose. [Knocking.] Knock, knock: Never at quiet! What are you?-But this place is too cold for hell. I'll devil-porter it no further: 1 had thought to have let in some of all professions, that go the primrose way to the ever lasting bonfire. [Knocking.] Anon, anon; I pray you, remember the porter.

[Opens the gate.

Enter MACDUFF and LENOX. Macd. Was it so late, friend, ere you went That you do lie so late? [to bed, Port. 'Faith, Sir, we were carousing till the secoud cock and drink, Sir, is a great provoker of three things. Macd. What three things does drink especially provoke?

Port. Marry, Sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, Sir, it provokes and unpro. vokes it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance: Therefore, much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him, and disheartens him; makes him staud to, and not stand to: in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him.

Macd. I believe, drink gave thee the lie last night.

Port. That it did, Sir, i'the very throat o'me : But I requited him for his lie; and, I think, being too strong for him, though he took up my legs sometime, yet I made a shift to cast him.

Macd. Is thy master stirring ?Our knocking has awak'd him; here he comes.

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