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They are not yet come back. But I have spoke 260 *With one that saw him die: who did report, That very frankly he confess'd his treasons; hr Implor'd your highness' pardon; and set forth A deep repentance: nothing in his life Became him, like the leaving it; he dy'd As one that had been *studied in his death, To throw away the dearest thing he ow'd, As 'twere a careless trifle.

King. There's no art,

*To find the mind's construction in the face : 270
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 recompence is slow

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

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

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Are to your throne, and state, children, and servants; *Which do but what they should, by doing every thing

Safe toward your love and honour. ́

King. Welcome hither:

I have

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

Ban. There if I grow,

The harvest is your own.
King. 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

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Our eldest, Malcolm; whom we name hereafter,
The prince of Cumberland: which honour must 300
Not, unaccompanied, invest him only,

But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine

On all deservers.-From hence to *Inverness,

And bind us further to you.

Mac. 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.

King. My worthy Cawdor!

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Mac. The prince of Cumberland* !—That is a step,
On which I must fall down, or else o'er-leap, [Aside.
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. [Exit.

King. True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant;
And

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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. 320

SCENE V.

Enter MACBETH's Wife alone, with a Letter. Lady. -They met me in the day of success; and 1 have learned by the perfectest report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burnt in desire to question them further, they made themselves-air, into which they vanish'd. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who all-hail'd me, Thane of Cawdor; by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referr'd 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 might'st not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promis'd thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewel.

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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 wouldst be great;
Art not without ambition; but without

The illness should attend it. What thou would'st

highly,

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That would'st thou holily; would'st not play false,

And

And yet would'st wrongly win: thou'd'st have

great Glamis,

That which cries, "Thus thou must do, if thou 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, *Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem To have thee crown'd withal.-What is your tidings: Enter a Messenger.

Mes. The king comes here to-night.

Lady. Thou'rt mad to say it :

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

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Mes. 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. Give him tending,.

He brings great news. *The raven himself is hoarse,

[Exit Mes.

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. 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,

360

Stop up the access and passage to remorse;
That no compunctious visitings of nature

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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
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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
Cawdor* !

Enter MACBETH.

Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!
Thy letters have transported me beyond
This ignorant present time*, and I feel now
The future in the instant.

Mac. My dearest love,

uncan comes here to-night.

Lady. And when goes hence?

Mac. To-morow, as he purposes.
Lady. Oh, never

hall sun that morrow see!

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our face, my thane, is as a book*, where men Hay read strange matters :- -To beguile the time, bok like the time*; bear welcome in your eye, our hand, your tongue : look like the innocent flower, ut be the serpent under it. He that's coming 390 ust be provided for: and you shall put

his night's great business into my dispatch; hich shall to all our nights and days to come

Give

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