Things that do sound so fair?-I'the name of truth,

Dun. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath Are ye fantastical, or that indeed

[Exeunt. Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner

You greet with present grace, and great prediction Enter the Of noble having,10 and of royal hope,

Rosse. The king hath happily receiv'd, 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: Silenc'd 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,1
Came post with post; and every one did bear
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence,
And pour'd them down before him.

Ang.
We are sent,
To give thee, from our royal master, thanks;
To herald thee into his sight, not pay thee.

Rosse. 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.

What, can the devil speak true? Macb. The thane of Cawdor lives; Why do you dress me

In borrow'd robes?
Ang.

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.
Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your lei

sure.

Macb. Give me your favour:-my dull brain
was wrought

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 chanc'd: and, at more time,
The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak
Our free hearts each to other.

Ban.

Very gladly.
Macb. Till then, enough.-Come, friends. [Ere.
SCENE IV.-Fores. A room in the Palace.
Flourish. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain,
Lenox, and attendants.

Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not
Those in commission yet return'd?

Mal.
My liege,
They are not yet come back. But I have spoke
With one that saw him die: who did report,
Who was the thane, lives yet; Implor'd your highness' pardon; and set forth
That very frankly he confess'd his treasons;

But under heavy judgment bears that life
Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was
Combin'd with Norway; or did line the rebel
With hidden help and vantage; or that with both
He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not;
But treasons capital, confess'd, and prov'd,
Have overthrown him.
Glamis, the thane of Cawdor:
The greatest is behind.-Thanks for your pains.
Do you not hope your children shall be kings,
When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me,
Promis'd no less to them?

Macb.

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 consequence.-
Cousins, a word, I pray you.

Macb.

A deep repentance: nothing in his life
Became him, like the leaving it: he died
As one that had been studied in his death,
To throw away the dearest thing he ow'd, 10
As 'twere a careless trifle.

Dun.

There's no art,
To find the mind's construction in the face:"1
He was a gentleman on whom I built

An absolute trust.-O worthiest cousin!

Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Rosse, and Angus.
The sin of my ingratitude even now
Was heavy on me: Thou art so far before,
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow

To overtake thee. 'Would thou hadst less deserv'd;
That the proportion both of thanks and payment
Might have been mine! only I have left to say,
More is thy due than more than all can pay.
Macb. The service and the loyalty I owe,

Two truths are told, In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part
Is to receive our duties: and our duties

As happy prologues to the swelling act

Of the imperial theme.-I thank you, gentlemen.-Are to your throne and state, children, and servants;

This supernatural soliciting4

Cannot be ill; cannot be good: If ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of success,
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
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.

Ban.
Look, how our partner's rapt.
Macb. If chance will have me king, why, chance

may crown me,

(1) As fast as they could be counted. (2) Title.
(3) Stimulate. (4) Encitement.
(5) Temptation. (6) Firmly fixed.

Which do but what they should, by doing every

thing

Safe toward your love and honour.
Dun.

Welcome hither:

I have begun to plant thee, and will labour
To make thee full of growing. 12-Noble Banquo,
That hast no less deserv'd, nor must be known
No less to have done so, let me infold thee,
And hold thee to my heart.
Ban.

There if I grow,
My plenteous joys,
Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves
In drops of sorrow.-Sons, kinsmen, thanes,
And you whose places are the nearest, know,
We will establish our estate upon

The harvest is your own.
Dun.

(8) Time and opportunity.

(11) We cannot construe the disposition of the

The powers of action are oppressed by con- mind by the lineaments of the face.

jecture.

(12) Exuberant.

Our eldest, Malcolm; whom we name hereafter,
The prince of Cumberland: which honour must
Not, unaccompanied, invest him only,
But sign of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
On all deservers.-From hence to Inverness,
And bind us further to you.

Macb. The rest is labour, which is not us'd for you:
I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful
The hearing of my wife with your approach;
So, humbly take my leave.
Dun.
My worthy Cawdor!
Macb. The prince of Cumberland!-That is a
step,

On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,

(Aside.

Attend. So please you, it is true; our thane is
coming:

One of my fellows had the speed of him;
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
Than would make up his message.
Lady M.
Give him tending,
He brings great news. The raven himself is hoarse,
[Exit Attendant.

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here;
And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and passage to remorse;"
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect, and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell!
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes;
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry, Hold, Hold !-Great Glamis, worthy Caw-

dor!

Enter Macbeth.

For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires! Let not light see my black and deep desires: The eye wink at the hand! yet let that be, Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. [Ex. Dun. True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant; And in his commendations I am fed ; It is a banquet to me. Let us after him, Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome: It is a peerless kinsman. [Flourish. Exeunt. SCENE V.-Inverness. A room in Macbeth's castle. Enter Lady Macbeth, reading a letter. Lady M. They met me in the day of success; Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter! and I have learned by the perfectest report,2 they Thy letters have transported me beyond have more in them than mortal knowledge. When This ignorant present, 1o and I feel now I burned in desire to question them further, they The future in the instant. made themselves-air, into which they vanished. My dearest love, Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came Duncan comes here to-night. missives from the king, who all-hailed me, Thane And when goes hence? of Cawdor; by which title, before, these weird| sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on of time, with, Hail, king that shalt be! This Shall sun that morrow see! have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men partner of greatness; that thou mightest rot lose May read strange matters:-To beguile the time, the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent and farewell.

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promis'd:-Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o'the milk of human kindness,

To catch the nearest way: Thou would'st be great;
Art not without ambition; but without

Macb.

Lady M.
Macb. To-morrow,-as he purposes.
Lady M.

flower,

O, never,

But be the serpent under it. He that's coming
This night's great business into my despatch;
Must be provided for: and you shall put
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Macb. We will speak further.
Lady M.

Only look up clear;

The illness should attend it. What thou would'st
highly,
That would'st thou holily; would'st not play false, To alter favour11 ever is to fear:
And yet would'st wrongly win: thou'd'st have, Leave all the rest to me.

great Glamis,

That which cries, Thus thou must do, if thou SCENE VI.-The same.

have it;

And that which rather thou dost fear to do,
Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;
And chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round;4
Which fate and metaphysical' aid doth seem
To have thee crown'd withal.-What is your
tidings?

Enter an Attendant.

[Exeunt.

Before the castle.
Hautboys. Servants of Macbeth attending.
Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo,
Lenox, Macduff, Rosse, Angus, and attendants.

Dun. This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses.
Ban.

The temple-haunting martlet, does approve,
This guest of summer,
By his lov'd mansionry, that the heaven's breath
Smells wooingly here; no jutty, frieze, buttress,
Nor coigne of vantage, 12 but this bird hath made
Thou'rt mad to say it: His pendent bed, and procreant cradle: Where they
Most breed and haunt, I have observ'd, the air
Is delicate.

Attend. The king comes here to-night.
Lady M.

Is not thy master with him? who, were't so,
Would have inform'd for preparation.

(9) Knife anciently meant a sword or dagger. (10) i. e. Beyond the present time, which is, 'according to the process of nature, ignorant of the future.

(11) Look, countenance. (12) Convenient corner.

Dun.

Lady M.

Enter Lady Macbeth.
See, see! our honour'd hostess!
The love that follows us, sometime is our trouble,
Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you,
How you shall bid God yield' us for your pains,
And thank us for your trouble.
All our service
In every point twice done, and then done double,
Were poor and single business, to contend
Against those honours deep and broad, wherewith
Your majesty loads our house: For those of old,
And the late dignities heap'd up to them,.
We rest your hermits.2
Dun.
Where's the thane of Cawdor?
We cours'd him at the heels, and had a purpose
To be his purveyor: but he rides well;
And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him
To his home before us: Fair and noble hostess,
We are your guest to-night.

Lady M.

Your servants ever Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt,3

To make their audit at your highness' pleasure,
Still to return your own.

Dun.

Give me your hand:

Conduct me to mine host; we love him highly,
And shall continue our graces towards him.
By your leave, hostess."

He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon.
Lady M.
Was the hope drunk,
Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time,
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour,
As thou art in desire? Would'st thou have that
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem;
Letting I dare not wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat i'the adage?

Macb.

Pr'ythee, peace:

I dare do all that may become a man ;
Who dares do more, is none.
Lady M.

What beast was it then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And, to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man. Nor time, nor place,
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:
They have made themselves, and that their fitness

now

6

Does unmake you. I have given suck; and know
How tender 'tís, to love the babe that milks me:
[Exeunt.
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
A room in the castle. Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
Enter, and pass over And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn, as you

SCENE VII.-The same.
Hautboys and torches.
the stage, a Sewer, and divers Servants with Have done to this.
dishes and service. Then enter Macbeth.

Macb. If it were done, when 'tis done, then
't were well

It were done quickly: If the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch,
With his surcease, success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,-
We'd jump the life to come.-But, in these cases,
We still have judgment here; that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague the inventor: This even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
To our own lips. He's here in double trust:
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the deor,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off:
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin, hors'd
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,

If we should fail,

Macb.
Lady M.
We fail!
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep,
(Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey
Soundly invite him,) his two chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassel" so convince,
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbeck only: When in swinish sleep
Their drenched natures lie, as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon
His spongy officers; who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell?10

Macb.

Bring forth men children only!
For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing but males. Will it not be received,"
When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two
Of his own chamber, and us'd their very daggers,
That they have done't?
Lady M.
Who dares receive it other,
As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar
Upon his death?
I am settled, and bend up

Macb.

Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.

That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur Away, and mock the time with fairest show;

To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'er-leaps itself,

And falls on the other.-How now, what news?

False face must hide what the false heart doth know. [Exeunt.

ACT II.

SCENE I.-The same. Court within the castle. Enter Banquo and Fleance, and a servant, with a torch before them.

Ban. How goes the night, boy?

(5) Winds; sightless is invisible.
(6) In the same sense as cohere.
(7) Intemperance.
(8) Overpower.
Sentinel. (10) Murder. (11) Apprehended.

Ban. And she goes down at twelve.
Fle.
I take't, 'tis later, sir.
Ban. Hold, take my sword :-There's husbandry'
in heaven,

Fle. The moon is down; I have not heard the Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
clock.
The very stones prate of my where-about,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it.-Whiles I threat, he lives;
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
[A bell rings.
I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell,
That summons thee to heaven, or to hell. [Exit.
SCENE II.-The same. Enter Lady Macbeth.
Lady M. That which hath made them drunk,
hath made me bold:

Their candles are all out.-Take thee that too.
A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,
And yet I would not sleep: Merciful powers!
Restrain in me the cursed thoughts, that nature
Gives way to in repose!-Give me my sword ;-
Enter Macbeth, and a servant with a torch.
Who's there?

Macb. A friend.

What hath quench'd them, hath given me fire :-
Hark!-Peace!

Ban. What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's a-bed: It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman,

He hath been in unusual pleasure, and
Sent forth great largess to your offices:
This diamond he greets your wife withal,

By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up*
In measureless content.

Macb.

Being unprepar'd,

Our will became the servant to defect;
Which else should free have wrought.

All's well.

Ban.
I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:
To you they have show'd come truth.
Mach.
I think not of them;
Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,
Would spend it in some words upon that business,
If you would grant the time.
Ban.
At your kind'st leisure.
Macb. If you shall cleave to my consent,-when

'tis,

It shall make honour for you.

Ban.

So I lose none,

In seeking to augment it, but still keep
My bosom franchis'd, and allegiance clear,
I shall be counsel'd.

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling, as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind; a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable,
As this which now I draw.

Thou marshal'st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o'the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest: I see thee still;
And on thy blade, and dudgeon, gouts of blood,
Which was not so before.-There's no such thing:
It is the bloody business, which informs
Thus to mine eves.-Now o'er the one half world
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleep; now witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murder,
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,

Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy
pace,

With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design

Moves likes a ghost.-Thou sure and firm set earth,

(1) Thrift.
(2) Bounty.
(3) The rooms appropriated to servants.

Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it:
The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms
Do mock their charge with snores: I have drugg'd
their possets,

That death and nature do contend about them,
Whether they live or die.

Macb. [Within.] Who's there?-what, ho!

Lady M. Alack! I am afraid they have awak'd, And 'tis not done :-the attempt, and not the deed, Confounds us:-Hark!-I laid their daggers ready, He could not miss them.-Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had don't.-My husband? Enter Macbeth.

Macb. I have done the deed :-Didst thou not hear a noise?

Lady M. I heard the owl scream, and the crick ets cry. Did not you speak ?

Macb.
Lady M.

Macb.

Lady M. Ay.

Macb. Hark !—

When?

Now.

As I descended?