Macbeth

William Shakespeare

Macbeth

Act I, Scene 1

A desert place.

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. 5

Third Witch.

 That will be ere the set of sun.

First Witch.

 Where the place?

Second Witch.

 Upon the heath.

Third Witch.

 There to meet with Macbeth.

First Witch.

 I come, Graymalkin! 10

Second Witch.

 Paddock calls.

Third Witch.

 Anon.

All.

 Fair is foul, and foul is fair:

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

Act I, Scene 2

A camp near Forres.

Duncan.

 What bloody man is that? He can report,

As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

The newest state. 20

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. 25

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 30

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— 35

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, 40

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, 45

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, 50

With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men

Began a fresh assault.

Duncan.

 Dismay'd not this

Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?

Sergeant.

 Yes; 55

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, 60

Or memorise another Golgotha,

I cannot tell.

But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.

Duncan.

 So well thy words become thee as thy wounds;

They smack of honour both. Go get him surgeons. 65

Who comes here?

Malcolm.

 The worthy thane of Ross.

Lennox.

 What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look 70

That seems to speak things strange.

Ross.

 God save the king!

Duncan.

 Whence camest thou, worthy thane?

Ross.

 From Fife, great king;

Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky 75

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, 80

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.

 Great happiness! 85

Ross.

 That now

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. 90

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.

Duncan.

 What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won. 95

Act I, Scene 3

A heath near Forres.

First Witch.

 Where hast thou been, sister?

Second Witch.

 Killing swine.

Third Witch.

 Sister, where thou? 100

First Witch.

 A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap,

And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd:—

'Give me,' quoth I:

'Aroint thee, witch!' the rump-fed ronyon cries.

Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger: 105

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.

First Witch.

 Thou'rt kind. 110

Third Witch.

 And I another.

First Witch.

 I myself have all the other,

And the very ports they blow,

All the quarters that they know

I' the shipman's card. 115

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 se'nnights nine times nine 120

Shall he dwindle, peak and pine:

Though his bark cannot be lost,

Yet it shall be tempest-tost.

Look what I have.

Second Witch.

 Show me, show me. 125

First Witch.

 Here I have a pilot's thumb,

Wreck'd as homeward he did come.

Third Witch.

 A drum, a drum!

Macbeth doth come. 130

All.

 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. 135

Peace! the charm's wound up.

Macbeth.

 So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

Banquo.

 How far is't call'd to Forres? What are these

So wither'd and so wild in their attire, 140

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 chappy finger laying

Upon her skinny lips: you should be women, 145

And yet your beards forbid me to interpret

That you are so.

Macbeth.

 Speak, if you can: what are you?

First Witch.

 All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis!

Second Witch.

 All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! 150

Third Witch.

 All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!

Banquo.

 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 show? My noble partner 155

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, 160

Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear

Your favours nor your hate.

First Witch.

 Hail!

Second Witch.

 Hail!

Third Witch.

 Hail! 165

First Witch.

 Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.

Second Witch.

 Not so happy, yet much happier.

Third Witch.

 Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none:

So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!

First Witch.

 Banquo and Macbeth, all hail! 170

Macbeth.

 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, 175

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? Speak, I charge you.

Banquo.

 The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,

And these are of them. Whither are they vanish'd?

Macbeth.

 Into the air; and what seem'd corporal melted

As breath into the wind. Would they had stay'd!

Banquo.

 Were such things here as we do speak about? 185

Or have we eaten on the insane root

That takes the reason prisoner?

Macbeth.

 Your children shall be kings.

Banquo.

 You shall be king.

Macbeth.

 And thane of Cawdor too: went it not so? 190

Banquo.

 To the selfsame tune and words. Who's here?

Ross.

 The king hath happily received, Macbeth,

The news of thy success; and when he reads

Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight, 195

His wonders and his praises do contend

Which should be thine or his: silenced with that,

In viewing o'er the rest o' the selfsame day,

He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,

Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make, 200

Strange images of death. As thick as hail

Came post with post; and every one did bear

Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence,

And pour'd them down before him.

Angus.

 We are sent 205

To give thee from our royal master thanks;

Only to herald thee into his sight,

Not pay thee.

Ross.

 And, for an earnest of a greater honour,

He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor: 210

In which addition, hail, most worthy thane!

For it is thine.

Banquo.

 What, can the devil speak true?

Macbeth.

 The thane of Cawdor lives: why do you dress me

In borrow'd robes? 215

Angus.

 Who was the thane lives yet;

But under heavy judgment bears that life

Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined

With those of Norway, or did line the rebel

With hidden help and vantage, or that with both 220

He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not;

But treasons capital, confess'd and proved,

Have overthrown him.

Macbeth.

 Glamis, and thane of Cawdor!

The greatest is behind. 225

Thanks for your pains.

Do you not hope your children shall be kings,

When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me 230

Promised no less to them?

Banquo.

 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, 235

The instruments of darkness tell us truths,

Win us with honest trifles, to betray's

In deepest consequence.

Cousins, a word, I pray you.

Macbeth.

. Two truths are told, 240

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, 245

Commencing in a truth? I am 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 250

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, and nothing is

But what is not. 255

Banquo.

 Look, how our partner's rapt.

Macbeth.

 If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me,

Without my stir.

Banquo.

 New horrors come upon him,

Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould 260

But with the aid of use.

Macbeth.

 Come what come may,

Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.

Banquo.

 Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.

Macbeth.

 Give me your favour: my dull brain was wrought 265

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 270

Our free hearts each to other.

Banquo.

 Very gladly.

Macbeth.

 Till then, enough. Come, friends.

Act I, Scene 4

Forres. The palace.

Duncan.

 Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not

Those in commission yet return'd?

Malcolm.

 My liege,

They are not yet come back. But I have spoke

With one that saw him die: who did report 280

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 285

To throw away the dearest thing he owed,

As 'twere a careless trifle.

Duncan.

 There's no art</p