MACBETH.

ACT THE FIRST.

SCENE I.

The open Country.

Thunder and Lightning.

Three WITCHES discovered.

1 Witch. When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

2 Witch. When the hurly-burly's done, When the battle's lost and won.

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3 Witch. That will be ere th' set of sun.
1 Witch. Where the place?

2 Witch. Upon the heath.
3 Witch. There to meet with-
1 Witch. Whom?

2 Witch. Macbeth.

1 Witch. I come, Gray-malkin. 2 Witch. Paddock calls.

1 Witch. Anon.

All. Fair is foul, and foul is fair:

[Noise of a Cat. [Noise of a Toad.

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

[Thunder and Lightning-Exeunt severally.

SCENE II.

The Palace at Fores.

Flourish of Trumpets and Drums.

Enter KING DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENOX, ROSSE, and ATTENDANTS, meeting a bleeding OFFICER.

King. 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.

Off. Doubtfully it stood;

As two spent swimmers, that do cling together,
And choke their art. The merciless Macdowald
From the western isles

Of Kernes and Gallow-glasses is supply'd;
And Fortune, on his damned quarrel 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 smoked with bloody execution,
Like valour's minion,

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

King. O, valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!
Off. Mark, king of Scotland, mark:

No sooner justice had, with valour arm'd,
Compell❜d these skipping Kernes to trust their heels,

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But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,
With furbish'd arms, and new supplies of men,
Began a fresh assault.

King. Dismay'd not this

Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?
Off: Yes;

As sparrows, eagles; or the hare, the lion.-
But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.

King. So well thy words become thee, as thy
wounds;

They smack of honour both :-Go, get him surgeons. [Exeunt OFFICER and two ATTENDANTS

Who comes here?

Mal. The worthy thane of Fife.

Len. What a haste looks through his eyes!
Rosse. So should he look,

That seems to speak things strange.

Enter MACDuff.

Macd. God save the king!

King. Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane?
Macd. 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, 'gan a dismal conflict:
Till that Bellona's bridegroom, Japp'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 ;-

King. Great happiness!

Macd. That now

Sweno, the Norway's king, craves composition
Nor would we deign him burial of his men,
Till he disbursed, at St Colme's inch,
Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

King. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive

Our bosom interest:-Go, pronounce his present

death,

And with his former title greet Macbeth.

Macd. I'll see it done.

[Exeunt MACDUFF and LENOX.

King. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won. [Flourish of Trumpets and Drums.-Exeunt.

SCENE III.

A Heath.

Thunder and Lightning.

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 mouncht, and mouncht, and mouncht :-" Give me," quoth I.

"Aroint thee, witch!" the rump-fed ronyon cries. Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tyger: 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:
Weary seven nights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine:
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tost.-
Look what I have.

2 Witch. Show me, show me.

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

[A March at a Distance.

3 Witch. A drum, a drum ;

Macbeth doth come.

All. The weird sisters, hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land,

Thus do go about, about.

2 Witch. Thrice to thine,

3 Witch. And thrice to mine,— 1 Witch. And thrice again,

All. To make up nine.

1 Witch. Peace;-the charm's wound up.

Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, and the Army. Macb. Command they make a halt upon the heath. [Within.] Halt,-halt,-halt.

Macb. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. Ban. How far is't called to Fores?-What are these So withered, 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.

Macb. Speak, if you can:-What are you?