SCENE I. A desert place.

Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches.

First Witch.

When shall we three meet again

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

Second Witch. When the hurlyburly's done,

When the battle's lost and won.

Third Witch. That will be ere the set of sun.

First Witch. Where the place?

Second Witch.

Third Witch.

Upon the heath.

There to meet with Macbeth.

First Witch. I come, Graymalkin!

All. Fair is foul, and foul is fair:

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

SCENE II. A camp near Forres.

[Exeunt.

Alarum within. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant.

Duncan. What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

The newest state.

Malcolm.

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.

Sergeant.

Doubtful it stood;

As two spent swimmers, that do cling together

And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald

Worthy to be a rebel, for to that

The multiplying villanies of nature

Do swarm upon him-from the western isles

Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied;

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;

Which 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.

Duncan. O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!
Sergeant. As whence the sun 'gins his reflection
Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break,

ΙΟ

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So from that spring whence comfort seem'd to come
Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark:
No sooner justice had with valour arm'd

Compell'd these skipping kerns to trust their heels,
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,
With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men
Began a fresh assault.

Duncan.

Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?

Sergeant.

Dismay'd not this

Yes;

As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.

If I say sooth, I must report they were

As cannons overcharged with double cracks, so they
Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe:

Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,

Or memorize another Golgotha,

I cannot tell

But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.

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40

Duncan. So well thy words become thee as thy wounds;

They smack of honour both. Go get him surgeons.

Duncan. Whence camest thou, worthy thane ?
Ross.

God save the king!

From Fife, great king;

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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, began a dismal conflict;
Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'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.

Duncan.

Ross.

Great happiness!

That now

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Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition;
Nor would we deign him burial of his men
Till he disbursed at Saint Colme's Inch

Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

Duncan. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive Our bosom interest: go pronounce his present death,

And with his former title greet Macbeth.

Ross. I'll see it done.

First Witch. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap, And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd.

quoth I:

'Give me,'

'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.

Second Witch. I'll give thee a wind.

ΙΟ