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.
BANQUO
The earth hath bubbles as the water has,
80 And these are of them. Whither are they vanished?
MACBETH
81 Into the air, and what seemed corporal melted
As breath into the wind. Would they had stayed!
BANQUO
Were such things here as we do speak about?
84 Or have we eaten on the insane root
That takes the reason prisoner?
MACBETH
Your children shall be kings.
BANQUO You shall be king.
MACBETH
And Thane of Cawdor too. Went it not so?
BANQUO
To th’ selfsame tune and words. Who’s here?
Enter Ross and Angus.
ROSS
The king hath happily received, Macbeth,
90 The news of thy success; and when he reads
Thy personal venture in the rebels’ fight,
His wonders and his praises do contend92
Which should be thine or his. Silenced with that,
In viewing o’er the rest o’ th’ selfsame day,
He finds thee in the stout Norwegian ranks,
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
Strange images of death. As thick as tale97
Came post with post, and every one did bear98
Thy praises in his kingdom’s great defense
And poured them down before him.100
ANGUS 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 honor,
He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor;
In which addition, hail, most worthy thane,106
For it is thine.
BANQUO What, can the devil speak true?
MACBETH
The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me
In borrowed robes?
ANGUS Who was the thane lives yet,
But under heavy judgment bears that life110
Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined111
With those of Norway, or did line the rebel112
With hidden help and vantage, or that with both113
He labored in his country’s wrack, I know not;
But treasons capital, confessed and proved,
Have overthrown him.
MACBETH [Aside] Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor–
117 The greatest is behind.
[To Ross and Angus] Thanks for your pains.
[Aside to Banquo]
Do you not hope your children shall be kings,
When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me
120 Promised no less to them?
BANQUO [To Macbeth] 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’s
126 In deepest consequence.–
127 Cousins, a word, I pray you.
MACBETH [Aside] Two truths are told,
128 As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme.–I thank you, gentlemen.–[Aside]
130 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
136 And make my seated heart knock at my ribs
137 Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings:
139 My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
140 Shakes so my single state of man that function
Is smothered in surmise and nothing is
But what is not.
BANQUO Look how our partner’s rapt.
MACBETH [Aside]
If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me
Without my stir.
BANQUO New honors come upon him,
Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mold145
But with the aid of use.
MACBETH [Aside] Come what come may,
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.147
BANQUO
Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.
MACBETH
Give me your favor. My dull brain was wrought149
With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains150
Are registered where every day I turn
The leaf to read them. Let us toward the king.
[Aside to Banquo]
Think upon what hath chanced, and at more time,
The interim having weighed it, let us speak
Our free hearts each to other.155
BANQUO Very gladly.
MACBETH
Till then, enough.–Come, friends.
Exeunt.
I.4Flourish. Enter King [Duncan], Lennox,
Malcolm, Donalbain, and Attendants.
KING DUNCAN
Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not
Those in commission yet returned?2
MALCOLM My liege,
They are not yet come back. But I have spoke
With one that saw him die, who did report
That very frankly he confessed his treasons,
Implored your highness’ pardon, and set forth
A deep repentance. Nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it. He died
9 As one that had been studied in his death
10 To throw away the dearest thing he owed
As ’twere a careless trifle.
KING DUNCAN There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face.
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.
Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, and Angus.
[To Macbeth] O worthiest cousin,
The sin of my ingratitude even now
16 Was heavy on me. Thou art so far before
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow
To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved,
19 That the proportion both of thanks and payment
20 Might have been mine. Only I have left to say,
More is thy due than more than all can pay.
MACBETH
The service and the loyalty I owe,
In doing it pays itself. Your highness’ part
Is to receive our duties, and our duties
Are to your throne and state children and servants,
Which do but what they should by doing everything
27 Safe toward your love and honor.
KING DUNCAN Welcome hither.
28 I have begun to plant thee and will labor
To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo,
30 That hast no less deserved nor must be known
No less to have done so, let me enfold thee
And hold thee to my heart.
BANQUO There if I grow,
The harvest is your own.
KING DUNCAN My plenteous joys,
Wanton in fullness, seek to hide themselves34
In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes,
And you whose places are the nearest, know
We will establish our estate upon
Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter
The Prince of Cumberland; which honor must39
Not unaccompanied invest him only,40
But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
On all deservers. From hence to Inverness,
And bind us further to you.
MACBETH
The rest is labor which is not used 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 DUNCAN My worthy Cawdor!
MACBETH [Aside]
The Prince of Cumberland–that is a step
On which I must fall down or else o’erleap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;50
Let not light see my black and deep desires.
The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be52
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.
Exit.
KING DUNCAN
True, worthy Banquo: he is full so valiant,
And in his commendations I am fed;
It is a banquet to me. Let’s after him,
Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome.
It is a peerless kinsman.
Flourish. Exeunt.
I.5Enter Macbeth’s Wife, alone, with a letter.
LADY MACBETH[Reads.] “They met me in the day of 2 success; and I have learned by the perfect’st report they have more in them than mortal knowledge.
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