МАСВЕТН.

ACT I. SCENE I.

An open Place. Thunder and Lightning.

Enter three Witches.

1 Witch. WHEN shall we three meet again

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

2 Witch. When the hurlyburly's done,

When the battle's lost and won:

3 Witch. That will be ere set of sun.

1 Witch. Where the place ?

2 Witch.

Upon the heath :

3 Witch. There to meet with Macbeth.

1 Witch. I come, Graymalkin!

All. Paddock calls: -Anon.

Fair is foul, and foul is fair :

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

SCENE II.

[Witches vanish.

A Camp near Fores. Alarum within. Enter King DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Soldier. Dun. What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt The newest state.

Mal.

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.

Sold.

Doubtfully 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 villainies of nature
Do swarm upon him,) from the western isles
Of Kernes 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,)
Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,
Which smok'd with bloody execution,
Like valour's minion,

Carv'd out his passage, till he fac'd the slave;
And ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chops,
And fix'd his head upon our battlements.

Dun. O, valiant cousin! worthy gentleman !
Sold. As whence the sun 'gins his reflexion
Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break;
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 Kernes to trust their heels;
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,

With furbish'd arms, and new supplies of men,

As sparrows, eagles; or the hare, the lion.

If I say sooth, I must report they were

As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks;

So they

Doubly redoubled strokes 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 surgeons. [Exit Soldier, attended.

Enter ROSSE.

Who comes here?
Mal.

The worthy thane of Rosse.

Len. What a haste looks through his eyes! So

Norway himself, with terrible numbers,
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor
The thane of Cawdor, 'gan a dismal conflict:
Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapt in proof3,
Confronted him with self-comparisons 1,
Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm,
Curbing his lavish spirit: And, to conclude,
The victory fell on us;-
Dun.

Rosse. That now

Great happiness!

Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition;
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 shall deceive

Our bosom interest :-Go, pronounce his death,

And with his former title greet Macbeth.

Rosse. I'll see it done.

Dun. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

A Heath. Thunder.

Enter the three Witches.

1 Witch. Where hast thou been, sister ?

2 Witch. Killing swine.

3 Witch. Sister, where thou ?

1 Witch. A sailor's wife had chesnuts in her lap,

And mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd :

Give me, quoth I:

Aroint thee, witch! the rump-fed ronyon 7 cries. Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o'the Tiger:

But in a sieve I'll thither sail,

And, like a rat without a tail 8,

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 shipman's card.

I will drain him dry as hay :
Sleep shall, neither night nor day,
Hang upon his penthouse lid;
He shall live a man forbid 9:
Weary sev'n-nights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine:
Though his back cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tost.
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. [Drum within.

3 Witch. A drum, a drum;

Macbeth doth come.

All. The weird 10 sisters, hand in hand,

Posters of the sea and land,