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

Our eldest, Malcolm; whom we name hereafter
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 used 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! Macb. [aside.] The prince of Cumberland !— That is a step

On which I must fall down, or else o'er-leap, For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires! 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 commendations I am fed ;
It is a banquet to me. Let's 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 success; and I have learned by the perfectest report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to 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 promised :-yet do I fear thy nature;

It is too full o' the milk of human kindness, To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great;

Art not without ambition; but without

The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst

highly,

That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,

And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou'dst have, great Glamis,

That which cries, Thus thou must do, if thou have it:

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 metaphysical aid doth seem
To have thee crown'd withal.-

Enter an Attendant.

What is your tidings?

Thou'rt mad to say it :

Atten. The king comes here to-night.

Lady M.

Is not thy master with him? who, were't so,
Would have inform'd for preparation.

Atten. 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 Than would make up his message.

Lady M.

He brings great news.

Give him tending,

[Exit Attendant. The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal ent(e)rance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here; And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood, Stop up the accèss 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 murdering 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 see not the wound it makes;

Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the

dark,

To cry, Hold, hold!—

Enter MACBETH.

Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor!
Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter !
Thy letters have transported me beyond
This ignorant present, and I feel now

The future in the instant.

Macb.

Duncan comes here to-night.

Lady M.

My dearest love,

And when goes hence?

Macb. To-morrow, —as he purposes.
Lady M.

Shall sun that morrow see!

O, never

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 dispatch;
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
Mach. We will speak further.
Lady M.

Only look up clear;
To alter favour ever is to fear :
Leave all the rest to me.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI.-The same. Before the Castle.

Hautboys. Servants of Macbeth attending. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, BANQUO, LENOX, MACDUFF, ROSSE, ANGUS, and Attendants.

Dun. This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself

Unto our gentle senses.

Ban.

This guest of summer, The temple-haunting martlet, does approve, By his loved mansionry, that the heaven's breath Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze,

Buttress, nor coigne of vantage, but this bird Hath made his pendent bed, and procreant cradle :

Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed,

The air is delicate.

Dun.

Enter LADY MACBETH.

See, see! our honour'd hostess ! The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you, How you shall bid God-yield us for your pains, And thank us for your trouble.

Lady M. All our service In every point twice done, and then done double, Were poor and single business, to contend Against those honours deep and broad, wherewith Your majesty loads our house: for those of old, And the late dignities heap'd up to them,

We rest your hermits.

Dun.

Where's the thane of Cawdor? We coursed him at the heels, and had a purpose