1 Witch. Hail!

2 Witch. Hail!

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 mouuch'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.

1 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 will drain him dry as hay:

Sleep shall, neither night nor day,
Hang upon his pent-house lid;
He shall live a man forbid 5:
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. Shew me, shew me.

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 Giamis; But how of Cawdor? The thane of Cawdor lives, A prosperous gentleman; and, to be king, Stands Lot 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 1-Speak, I charge [Witches vanish. Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, And these are of them:-Whither are they vanish'd?

you.

Macb. Into the air; and what seem'd corporal, melted

As breath into the wind.-'Would they had staid! Ban. Were such things here, as we do speak

about?

1 Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wreck'd, as homeward he did come.

3 Witch. A drum, a drum;

Macbeth doth come.

Atl. 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 the 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 shew? 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;

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,

Ang. Who was the thane, lives yet; But under heavy judgment bears that life Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was Combined with Norway; or did line the rebet 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 proved, Have overthrown him.

Mach. Giamis, 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, Promised no less to them?

Ban. That, trusted home,

Might yet enkindjes 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 trifes, 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 soliciting ||

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

The root which makes insane.

+ As fast as they could be counted. ↑ Title, § Stimulate. Incitement. Temptation

Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,
And make my seated 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, that function Is smother'd in surmise t; and nothing is,

But what is not.

Ban. Look, how our partner's rapt.

On all deservers.-From hence to Inverness, And bind us further to you.

may crown me,

Without my stir.

Ban. New honours come upon him

Like our strange garments; cleave not to their 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

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 chanced; and, at more time,
The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak
Our free hearts each to other.

Ban. Very gladly.

Macb. Till then, enough.-Come, friends. [Exeunt. 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;
Implored 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 owed,
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 de

served;

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 deserved, nor must be known,
No less to have done so, let me infold thee,
And hold thee to my heart.

Bon. 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

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, [Erit.
Dun. True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant;
And in his commendations 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 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-hail'd me, Thane of Cawdor; by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and that shalt be! This have I thought good to deliver referred me to the coming on of time, with, Hail, king thee, my dearest partner of greatness; that thou might'st not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Luy 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 bodily; 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.-What is your tidings
Enter an ATTENDANT.

Atten. 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.

’

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. 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¶ 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 access and passage to remorse** ;
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Snake 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 ‡‡ see not the wound it makes;
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry, Hold, hold!-Great Glamis! Worthy Cawdor!

Full as valiant as described. + The best intelligence.

» Diadem.

Murderous.

44 Wrap as in a mantle.

1 Messengers. Supernatural. Pity.

#Knife anciently meant a sword or dagger.

Enter MACBETH.

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. My dearest love,

Duncan comes here to-night.

Lady M. And when goes hence?
Mach. To-morrow,-as he purposes.
Lady M. O, 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.
Mach. We will speak further.
Lady M. Only look up clear;
To alter favourt 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.

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 justice
Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
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 Duncan
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 cherubin, horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind.-I have no spur
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.

Lady M. He has almost supp'd; why have you left the chamber?

Macb. Hath he ask'd for me?

Lady M. Know you not, he has?

Macb. We will proceed no further in this busi

ness:

He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon.

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? Wouldst 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
Be so much more the man. Nor time, nor place,
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:
They have made themselves, and that their fitness

now

Does unmake you. I have given suck; and know
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 journey
Soundly invite him,) his two chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassel so convince,
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbeck only:-When in swinish sleep
What cannot you and I perform upon
Their drenched natures lie, as in a death,
The unguarded Duncan! What not put up
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 received",
When we have marked with blood those sicepy

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 I.-The same.-Court within the Castle. Enter BANQUO and FLEANCE; and a Servant, with a Torch before them.

Ban. How goes the night, boy?

Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my where-about,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it.-Whiles 1 threat, he lives;
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
[A Bell rings.

I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven, or to hell.
SCENE II.-The same.

Enter Lady MACBETH.

[Exit.

Ban. And she goes down at twelve.

Fle. I take't, 'tis later, Sir.

Ban. Hold, take my sword :-There's husbandry⚫ in heaven,

Their candles are all out.-Take thee that too. .
A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,
And yet I would not sleep:-Merciful powers!
Restrain in me the cursed thoughts, that nature
Gives way to in repose !-Give me my sword;—
Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a Torch.
Who's there?

Macb. A friend.

Ban. What, Sir, not yet at rest? The king's abed:

He hath been in unusual pleasure, and
Sent forth great largess + to your offices:
This diamond he greets your wife withal,

By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up ý
In measureless content.

Mach. Being unprepared,

Our will became the servant to defect;
Which else should free have wrought.
Ban. All's well.

I dreamt last night of three weird sisters:
To you they have shew'd some truth.
Macb. I think not of them:

Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,
Would spend it in some words upon that business,
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 franchised, and allegiance clear,

I shall be counsel'd.

Macb. Good repose, the while!

Ran. 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.

Thou marshal'st me the way that I was going;
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:
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

Which gives the stern'st good night. He is about it:
The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms
Do mock their charge with snores: I have drugg'd
their possets,

That death and nature do contend about them,
Whether they live or die.

Macb. [Within.] Who's there?-What, ho!
Lady M. Alack! I am afraid they have awaked,
And 'tis not done :-The attempt, and not the deed,
Confounds us :-Hark :-I laid their daggers ready,
He could not miss them.-Had he not resembled
My father as he slept, I had done't.-My husband?
Enter MACBETH.

Macb. I have done the deed :-Didst thou not hear a noise?

Lady M. I head the owl scream, and the crickets cry.

Did not you speak?

Macb. When?

Lady M. Now.

Macb. As I descended?

Lady M. Ay.

Macb. Hark!

Macbeth does murder sleep, the innocent sleep; Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleave + of care, The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, Chief nourisher in life's feast ;

Lady M. What do you mean?

Macb. Still it cried, Steep no more! to all the house :

Glamis hath murder'd sleep; and therefore Cawdor Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more! Lady M. Who was it, that thus cried? Why,

worthy thane,

You do unbend your noble strength, to think
So brainsickly of things:-Go, get some water,
And wash this filthy witness from your hand.-
Why did you bring these daggers from the place?
The sleepy grooms with blood.
They must lie there: Go, carry them; and smear

Macb. I'll go no more:

I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on't again, I dare not.

¶ Drops.