Something wicked this way comes : — [Noise without. Open, locks, whoever knocks.

[Exeunt all but the three Witches.

Enter MACBETH, descending steps, L. U. E.

Macb. How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags! What is't you do?

All. A deed without a name.

Mach. I conjure you, by that which you profess, (Howe'er you come to know it,) answer me

To what I ask you.

1st Witch. Speak.

2d Witch. Demand.

3d Witch. We'll answer.

1st Witch. Say, if thou'd'st rather hear it from our mouths,

Or from our master's?

Macb. Call them, let me see them.

1st Witch. Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten Her nine farrow:-Grease, that's sweaten

From the murderer's gibbet, throw

Into the flame.

All. Come, high, or low;

Thyself, and office, deftly show.

[Thunder.

FIRST APPARITION, an Armed Head, rises.

Macb. Tell me, thou unknown power,1st Witch. He knows thy thought;

Hear his speech, but say thou naught.

App. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff! Beware the Thane of Fife.-Dismiss me-enough.

[Descends. Macb. Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks; Thou hast harped my fear aright: But one word more1st Witch. He will not be commanded: Here's another More potent than the first. [Thunder.

SECOND APPARITION, a Bloody Child, rises.

App. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!—
Mach. Had I three ears, I'd hear thee.

App. Be bloody, bold, and resolute : laugh to scorn
The power of man; for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth.

[Descends.

Mach. Then live, Macduff; what need I fear of thee? But yet I'll make assurance double sure,

And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live:
That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies,

[Thunder.

And sleep in spite of thunder.

THIRD APPARITION, a Child crowned, with a bough in his

What is this,

hand, rises.

That rises like the issue of a king,

And wears upon his baby brow the round

And top of sovereignty?

App. Listen, but speak not to't.

All. Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are : Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until

Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill

Shall come against him.

Mach. That will never be :

Who can impress the forest, bid the tree

¡Descends.

Unfix his earth-bound root? Sweet bodements! good!

Yet my heart

Throbs to know one thing: Tell me, (if your art

Can tell so much,) shall Banquo's issue ever

Reign in this kingdom?

All. Seek to know no more.

Macb. I will be satisfied: deny me this,

And an eternal curse fall on you!—

Thunder.-The Cauldron sinks.

All. Show his eyes, and grieve his heart; Come like shadows, so depart.

[Apparitions of eight Kings, the last with a glass in his hand; and Banquo passes across from R. U. E. to

L. U. E.

Macb. Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo; down! Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls;-and thy hair,

Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first:-
A third is like the former :-Filthy hags,

--

Why do
ye show me this ?-A fourth? Start, eyes!-
What will the line stretch out to the crack of doom?
Another yet?-A seventh ?-I'll see no more :—

And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass,
Which shows me many more :

Enter BANQUO.-The Witches vanish, R.

Horrible sight!-Now, I see, 'tis true;
For the blood-boltered Banquo smiles upon me,
And points at them for his.-What! is this so?
Where are they? Gone? Let this pernicious hour
Stand aye accursed in the calendar!-

Come in, without, there!

Enter SEYTON, l.

Sey. What's your grace's will?
Macb. Saw you the weird sisters?
Sey. No, my lord.

Macb. Came they not by you ?

Sey. No, indeed, my lord.

Macb. Infected be the air whereon they ride,

And damned all those that trust them!-I did hear

The galloping of horses: Who was't came by?

Sey. 'Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word,

Macduff is fled to England.

Macb. Fled to England?

Sey. Ay, my good lord.

Mach. Time, thou anticipat'st my dread exploits :

The flighty purpose never is o'ertook,

Unless the deed go with it: From this moment.

The very firstlings of my heart shall be

The firstlings of my hand. And even now,

To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done.
The castle of Macduff I will surprise;

Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o' the sword
His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls
That trace his line. No boasting like a fool:
This deed I'll do, before this purpose cool.—
Where are these gentlemen?

[Exeunt, L.

SCENE 11.-The Country-in England.

Enter MALCOLM and MACduff, r.

Mal. Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there Weep our sad bosoms empty.

Macd. Let us rather

Hold fast the mortal sword, and, like good men,
Bestride our down-fall'n birthdom; Each new morn,
New widows howl; new orphans cry; new sorrows
Strike Heaven on the face, that it resounds

As if it felt, with Scotland, and yelled out
Like syllables of dolour.

- Mal. What you have spoke, it may be so, perchance.
This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,
Was once thought honest: you have loved him well;
He hath not touched you yet.

Macd. I am not treacherous.

Mal. But Macbeth is.

A good and virtuous nature may recoil,

In an imperial charge.

Macd. I have lost my hopes.

Mal. Perchance, even there, where I did find

Why in that rawness left you wife and child,

my

Those precious motives, those strong knots of love,
Without leave-taking ?-I pray you,

Let not my jealousies be your dishonours,

But mine own safeties :-You may be rightly just,
Whatever I shall think.

Macd. Bleed, bleed, poor country!
Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure,
For goodness dares not check thee!
Fare thee well, lord:

I would not be the villain that thou think'st,
For the whole space that's in the tyrant's grasp,
And the rich East to boot.

Mal. Be not offended:

I speak not as in absolute fear of you.
I think, our country sinks beneath the yoxe!
It weeps, it bleeds; and each new day a gash
Is added to her wounds; I think, withal,
There would be hands uplifted in my right;

doubts.

And here, from gracious England, have I offer
Of goodly thousands: But for all this,
When I shall tread upon the tyrant's head,
Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country
Shall have more vices than it had before;
More suffer, and more sundry ways than ever,
By him that shall succeed.

Macd. What should he be ?

Mal. It is myself I mean: in whom I know
All the particulars of vice so grafted,

That, when they shall be opened, black Macbeth
Will seem as pure as snow; and the poor state
Esteem him as a lamb, being compared
With my confineless harms.

Macd. Not in the legions

Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned
In evils, to top Macbeth.

Mal. I grant him bloody,

Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful;

But there's no bottom, none,

In my voluptuousness.

Nay, had I power, I should

Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell,

Uproar the universal

All unity on earth.

peace, confound

Macd. Oh, Scotland! Scotland!

Mal. If such a one be fit to govern, speak,
Macd. Fit to govern!

No, not to live!-Oh, nation miserable,
With an untitled tyrant bloody-sceptred,
When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again,
Since that the truest issue of thy throne
By his own interdiction stands accursed,

And does blaspheme his breed?-Thy royal father
Was a most sainted king; the queen, that bore thee
Oftener upon her knees than on her feet,

Died every day she lived. Fare thee well!

These evils, thou repeat'st upon thyself,

Have banished me from Scotland.-Oh, my breast, Thy hope ends here!

Mal. Macduff, this noble passion, Child of integrity, hath from my soul