Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?

SOLD. Yes;

As fparrows, eagles; or the hare the lion.
If I fay footh, I must report they were

As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks;
So they

Doubly redoubled ftrokes 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.

DUN. So well thy words become thee, as thy wounds; They smack of honour both :-Go, get him furgeons. [Exit SOLDIER, attended.

Enter Rosse.

Who comes here?

MAL. The worthy thane of Roffe.

[he look,

LEN. What a haste looks through his eyes! So fhould

That seems to speak things ftrange.

ROSSE. God fave the king!

DUN. Whence cam'ft thou, worthy thane?
ROSSE. From Fife, great king,

Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky,

And fan our people cold.

Norway himself, with terrible numbers,
Affifted by that most difloyal traitor
The thane of Cawdor, 'gan a difmal conflict.
Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapt in proof,
Confronted him with felf-comparisons, -
Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm,
Curbing his lavish fpirit: And, to conclude,
The victory fell on us ;-

DUN. Great happiness !

ROSSE. That now

Sweno, the Norways' king, craves compofition;
Nor would we deign him burial of his men,
Till he disbursed, at Saint Colmes' inch,
Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

DUN. No more that thane of Cawdor fhall deceive
Our bofom intereft :-Go, pronounce his death,
And with his former title greet Macbeth.

ROSSE. I'll fee it done.

DUN. What he hath loft, noble Macbeth hath won.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III. A Heath.

Thunder. Enter the three WITCHES.

I WITCH. Where haft thou been, fifter?

2 WITCH. Killing fwine.

3 WITCH. Sifter, where thou?

1 WITCH. A failor's wife had chefnuts in her lap, And mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd :-Give

me, quoth I:

Aroint thee, witch! the rump-fed ronyon cries.
Her husband's to Aleppo gone, mafter o'the Tiger;

But in a fieve I'll thither fail,

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

2 WITCH. I'll give thee a wind.

1 WITCH. Thou art kind.

3 WITCH. And I another.

1 WITCH. I myself have all the other; And the very ports they blow, All the quarters that they know

.I' the fhipman's card.

I will drain him dry as hay:

Sleep fhall, neither night nor day,
his penthouse lid;

Hang upon
He fhall live a man forbid :

Weary fev'n-nights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine:
Though his bark cannot be loft,
Yet it shall be tempest-toft.

Look what I have.

2 WITCH. Show me, show me.'

1 WITCH. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wreck'd, as homeward he did come. 3 WITCH. A drum, a drum;

Macbeth doth come.

ALL. The weird fifters, 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:
Peace!_the charm's wound up.

Enter MACBETH and BANQUO.
MACB. So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

BAN. How far is't call'd to Fores ?-What are these, So wither'd, and fo wild in their attire ;

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 feem 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 fo.

[Drum within.

MACB. Speak, if you can ;-What are you?

I WITCH. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of

Glamis,

2 WITCH. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!

3 WITCH. All hail, Macbeth! that fhalt beking hereafter. BAN. Good fir, why do you start; and seem to fear Things that do found so fair?—I'the name of truth, Are ye fantastical, or that indeed

Which outwardly ye fhow? My noble partner

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 feeds of time,

And fay, which grain will grow, and which will not;
Speak then to me, who neither beg, nor fear,
Your favours, nor your

hate.

I WITCH. Hail!

2 WITCH. Hail!

3

WITCH. Hail!

1 WITCH. Leffer than Macbeth, and greater.

2 WITCH. Not fo happy, yet much happier.

3 WITCH. Thou fhalt get kings, though thou be none : So, all hail, Macbeth, and Banquo!

I WITCH. Banquo, and Macbeth, all hail!
MACв. 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 profperous gentleman; and, to be king,
Stands not within the profpect of belief,

No more than to be Cawdor. Say, from whence
You owe this strange intelligence? or why
Upon this blafted heath you stop our way

With fuch prophetick greeting?Speak, I charge you.

[Witches vanish.

BAN. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,

And these are of them :-Whither are they vanish'd?
MACB. Into the air; and what feem'd 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 infane root,

That takes the reason prisoner?

MACB. Your children fhall be kings.

BAN. You fhall be king.

MACB. And thane of Cawdor too; went it not fo?
BAN. To the felf-fame tune, and words. Who's here?
Enter ROSSE and ANGUS.

ROSSE. The king hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth,
The news of thy fuccefs: and when he reads
Thy perfonal 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 ftout Norweyan ranks,
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
Strange images of death. As thick as tale,
Came poft 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 fent,

To give thee, from our royal master, thanks;
To herald thee into his fight, 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.

BẠN. What, can the devil speak true?

MACB. The thane of Cawdor lives; Why do you dress me In borrow'd robes?

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