King. Whence camest 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, lapped 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. Colmes' Inch,
Ten thousand dollars for our general use.

King. No more that Thane of Cawdor shall decoivo Our bosom interest ;-Go, pronounce his present death, And with his former titles greet Macbeth.

Macd. I'll see it done. [Exeunt Macduff and Lenox, R. King. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won. [Flourish of Trumpets amd Drums - Exeunt, L.

SCENE III-A Heath.-Bridge in the background, over the Mountains.-Thunder and Lightning.

Enter the Three WITCHES, meeting.

1st Witch. Where hast thou been, sister?

2d Witch. Killing swine.

3d Witch. Sister, where thou?

1st Witch. A sailor's wife had chesnuts in her lap, And mounched, and mounched, and mounched :-" 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'l thither sail,

And like a rat without a tail,
I'll do, I'll do, I'll do.

2d Witch. I'll give thee a wind.

* Inclosed in armour of proof. ↑ Begone.

Fat, bulky woman.

1st Witch. Thou art kind.

3d Witch. And I another.

1st 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.

2d Witch. Show me, show me.

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

[A March at a distance, over the Bridge.

3d 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.

2d Witch. Thrice to thine,—

3d Witch. And thrice to mine,—

1st Witch. And thrice again,

All. To make up nine.

[Join hands, and turn.

1st Witch. Peace:-the charm's wound up.

[They retire, R.

Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, and part of the Army, L. U. E. The remainder halt on the Bridge.

Macb. Command they make a halt upon

[Within.] Halt,-halt,-halt.

the heath,

Macb. So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

Ban. How far is't called to Fores ?—[Observing the Witches. 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

* Sea-chart.

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 ye can:

-What are you?

1st Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Glamis !

2d Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!

3d Witch. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter. [Macbeth starts, confused. Ban. Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair?-[To Witches.] 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 wrapt 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.

1st Witch. Hail!

2d Witch. Hail!

3d Witch. Hail!

1st Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, though greater. 2d Witch. Not so happy, yet much happier.

3d Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none. All. So, all hail, Macbeth and Banquo! Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!

[Going. Macb. Crossing toward Witches.] 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?

[Thunder and Lightning- Witches vanish, R. Speak, I charge you.

Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, And these are of them :-Whither are they vanished? Macb. Into the air; and what seemed corporal, melted As breath into the wind.-'Would they had staid!

Ban. Were such things here, as we do speak about? Or have we eaten of the insane root,

That takes the reason prisoner?

Macb. Your children shall be kings.
Ban. You shall be king.

Macb. And Thane of Cawdor, too; went it not so?
Ban. To the self-same tune and words.-[Flourish, R.]
Who's here?

Enter MACDUFF and LENOX, R.

Macd. The King hath happily received, 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: Silenced with that,
In viewing o'er the rest o' the self-same day,
He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
Strange images of death. As thick as tale,

Came post with post: and every one did bear
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence,
And poured them down before him.

Len. We are sent

To give thee, from our royal master, thanks;
Only to herald thee into his sight,

Not pay thee.

Macd. And, for an earnest of a greater honour,
He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor:
In which addition, hail, most worthy Thane !
For it is thine.

Ban. [Aside.] What! can the devil speak true?
Macb. The Thane of Cawdor lives; why do

me

In borrowed robes ?

Macd. Who was the Thane, lives yet; But under heavy judgment bears that life,

you dress

Which he deserves to lose;

For treasons capital, confessed, and proved,
Have overthrown him.

Macb. Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor!

The greatest is behind.—Thanks for your pains.-
[To Ban.] 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 enkindle 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 trifles, to betray us

In deepest consequences.-Cousin, a word, I pray you. [They retire up the Stage,

Macb. [In front.] 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'm Thane of Cawdor!
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
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 smothered in surmise; and nothing is,

But what is not.

Ban. [To Macduff and Lenox.] Look, how our partner's rapt.

Macb. If chance will have me king, why, chance 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.

B