First Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wrecked as homeward he did come.

Third Witch. A drum, a drum! Macbeth doth come.

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.
Peace! the charm's wound up.

Enter MACBETH and BANQUO.

[Drum within.

Mach. So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

Ban.

How far is't called to Forres? What are these

So withered and so 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 seem to understand me, By each at once her chappy finger laying

Upon her skinny lips: you should be women,

And yet your beards forbid me to interpret

That you are so.

Macb.

Speak, if you can: what are you?

First Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane

of Glamis !

Sec. Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!

Third Witch. All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter !

Ban. 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
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,
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear

Your favours nor your hate.

First Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.

Sec. 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 !
Macb.. 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,

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.
[Witches vanish.

Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
And these are of them. Whither are they vanished?
Macb. Into the air; and what seemed corporal
melted

As breath into the wind. Would they had stayed!
Ban. Were such things here as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten on the insane root*
That takes the reason prisoner?

Macb. Your children shall be kings.

Ban.

Macb.

Ban.

You shall be king.

And thane of Cawdor too: went it not so?
To the selfsame tune and words.
here?

Who's

* Insane root. Henbane is called insana in an old book of medicine.

Enter Ross and ANGUS.

Ross. The king hath happily received, 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: 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,
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 poured them down before him.

Ang.

We are sent

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: 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 borrowed robes?

Ang.

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

He laboured in his country's wreck, I know not;
But treasons capital, confessed and proved,
Have overthrown him.

Macb.

[Aside] Glamis, and thane of Cawdor. [To Ross and Angus]

The greatest is behind.

Thanks for your pains.

[To Ban.] Do you not hope your children shall be kings,

When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me
Promised no less to them?

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.

[Aside] Two truths are told,

As happy prologues to the swelling act

Of the imperial theme.—I thank you, gentlemen. [Aside] This supernatural soliciting

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 smothered in surmise, and nothing is

But what is not.

Ban.

Look, how our partner's rapt.

Macb. [Aside] If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me,

Without my stir.

Ban.

New honours come upon him,

Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould
But with the aid of use.

Macb.

[Aside] Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. Mach. Give me your favour: my dull brain was wrought

With things forgotten.

Kind gentlemen, your pains

Are registered 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 weighed it, let us speak

Our free hearts each to other.

Ban.

Macb. Till then, enough. Come, friends.

Very gladly.

W. Shakespeare.

CXCV.

Lady
M.

MACBETH.

ACT I. SCENE V.-Inverness. Macbeth's Castle.

Enter LADY MACBETH, reading a letter.

HEY met me in the day of success; and I have learned by the perfectest report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who all-hailed me 'Thane 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 have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell.'

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be

What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature;

It is too full o' the milk of human kindness

To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great;

Art not without ambition, but without

The illness should attend it: what thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,

And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou'dst have, great Glamis,