MACBETH. ACT I. SCENE I.-An open Place. Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches. In thunder, lightning, or in rain? 2 Witch. When the hurlyburly's done, When the battle's lost and won. 3 Witch. That will be ere the set of sun. Witch. Where the place? I 2 Witch. Upon the heath. 3 Witch. There to meet with Macbeth. I Witch. I come, Graymalkin! All. Paddock calls:-Anon !— Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air. SCENE II.-A Camp near FORES. [Witches vanish 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. Mal. This is the sergeant, Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought Sold. Doubtful it stood; As two spent swimmers, that do cling together And choke their art. (Worthy to be a rebel,-for, to that, The multiplying villanies of nature Do swarm upon him) from the western isles Like valour's minion, Carv'd out his passage till he fac'd the slave; Dun. O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman! Compell'd these skipping Kernes to trust their heels, With furbish'd arms, and new supplies of men, Yes; Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo? Sold. As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. If I say sooth, I must report they were As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks; I cannot tell : 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. Who comes here? Mal. [Exit Soldier, attended The worthy thane of Rosse. Len. What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look, that seems to speak things strange, Enter ROSSE. Rosse. God save the king! Dun. Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane? Rosse. From Fife, great king; Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky Norway himself, with terrible numbers, The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict; Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm, The victory fell on us ; Dun. Rosse. That now Great happiness! Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition; Till he disbursèd, 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 present death, And with his former title greet Macbeth. Rosse. I'll see it done. Dun. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won. [Exeunt. 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? 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, 2 Witch. I'll give thee a wind. I 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 Sleep shall neither night nor day 2 Witch. Show me, show me. I Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wreck'd as homeward he did come. 3 Witch. A drum, a drum! [Drum within 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 :- Enter MACBETH and BANQUO. Macb. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. So wither'd, and so wild in their attire, That look not like th' inhabitants o' the earth, And yet are on't?-Live you? or are you aught That man may question? You seem to understand me, Upon her skinny lips :-You should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so. Mach. 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, and of royal hope, That he seems rapt withal :-to me you speak not: And say which grain will grow, and which will not, Your favours, nor your hate. I Witch. Hail! 2 Witch. Hail! 3 Witch. Hail! I 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! I Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail! Mach. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more: No more than to be Cawdor. Say, from whence Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, That takes the reason prisoner ? Mach. Your children shall be kings. Ban. You shall be king. Mach. And thane of Cawdor too,-went it not so? Ban. To the self-same tune and words. Who's 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, Which should be thine, or his: silenc'd with that, |