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MACBETH.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-An open Place.

Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches.
I Witch. When shall we three meet again

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
'Gainst my captivity.-Hail, brave friend! .
Say to the king the knowledge of the broil,
As thou didst leave it.

Sold.

Doubtful it stood;

As two spent swimmers, that do cling together
The merciless Macdonwald

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
Of Kernes and Gallowglasses is supplied;
And Fortune, on his damnèd quarry 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 smok'd with bloody execution,

Like valour's minion,

Carv'd out his passage till he fac'd the slave;
Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chops,
And fix'd his head upon our battlements.

Dun. O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!
Sold. 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 Kernes to trust their heels,
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,

With furbish'd arms, and new supplies of men,
Began a fresh assault.

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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;
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.

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
And fan our people cold.

Norway himself, with terrible numbers,
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor,

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 ;

Dun.

Rosse. That now

Great happiness!

Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition;
Nor would we.deign him burial of his men

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,
I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do.

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
I' the shipman's card.
I'll 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.

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 :-
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 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,
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.

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:
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.

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:
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.

Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
And these are of them :-whither are they vanish'd?
Mach. Into the air; and what seem'd corporal, melted
As breath into the wind.-'Would they had stay'd!
Ban. Were such things here as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten on the insane root,

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,
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,

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