3. Witch. Thou shalt get Kings, though thou be none; So, all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!

1. Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail !

Macb. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:
By Sinel's 36) death, I know, I am Thane of Glamis;
But how of Cawdor ? the Thane of Cawdor lives,
A prosperous gentleman; and to be king,
Siands 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 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 seem'd corporal, melted
As breath into the wind. 'Would they had staid!

Ban. Were such things here, as we do spouk about?
Or have we eaten of the insane root *?),
That takes the reason prisoner ?

Macb. Your children shall be Kings.
Ban.

You shall be King...
Macb. And Thane of Cawdor too; went it not so?
Ban. To the self- same tune, and words. Who's here?

Enter Rosse ,and Angus.
Rosse. The King hath happiiy receiv'd, Macbeib,
The news of thy success: and when be reads
Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight,
His wonders and his praises do contend,
Which would be thine, or his 38). Silenc'd with that 39),
In viewing o'er the rest o' the self- same day,
He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,
Nothing afеard of what thyself didst make,

36) Sinel, the father of Macbeth. Pope. 3?) Shakspeare alludes to the qualities anciently ascribed to hemlock. Steevens.

Holingshed informs us that Duncan sent the Danes wine mingled with berries of a soporific quality, and mordered them. 3.8) in e private admiration of your deeds, and a desire to do them pablick justice by commendation, comiend in his mind for

preeminence. Steevens. 39) Silenc'd with that i. e. wrapp'd in silent wonder at the deeds performed by Macbeth. Malonde

e

64

Came post

with

Strange images of death. As thick as tale,

post *); and every one did bear
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence,
And pour'd them down before him.
Ang.

We are sent,
To give thee, from our royal master, thanks;
To herald, thee into his sight, 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.

Ban. What, can the devil speak true?

Macb. The Thane of Cawdor lives: why do you dress me
In borrow'd robes?
Ang

Who was the Thane, lives ret;
But under heavy judgement bears that life,
Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was
Combin'd with Norway; or did line the rebel
With hidden help and vantage, or that with both
He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not:
But treasons capital, confess'd, and prov'd,
Have overthrown him.
Macb.

Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor!
The greatest is behind.

Thanks for your pains.-
Do you not_hope, your children shall be kings ?
When those, that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me,
Promis'd 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 truth;
Win us with honest trilles, to betray us
In deepest consequence.
Cousins, a word, I pray you.
Macb.

Two truths are told,

W

+0) That is, posts arrived as fast as they could be counted. Johnson. As thick, in ancient language signified as fast, Sree

If ill,

As happy prolognes to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme. – I thank you, gentlemen.
This supernatural soliciting *3)
Caanot be ill, cannot be good.
Why haib it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor:'
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion *4),
Whose horrid image doth unlix my hair,
And make my seated 45) 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 +6), that function
Is smother'd in surmise *?); and nothing is,
Bui what is not +8).
Ban.

Look, how our partner 's rapt!
Macb. 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.

Come what come

e may,
Time and the hour +9) runs through the roughest day.

Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.
Macb. Give me your favour 50): my dull brain was

wrought 5) With things forgot. Kind gentlemen, your pains. Are registred where every day I turn

!

*!) soliciting i. e. incitement. Johns o n. **) suggestion i. e. temptation. Steevens. *5) seated i. e. firmly placed, fixed. Steerens. 40) Double and single ancienily signified strong and weak. The single state of Macbeth may therefore signify his weak and debile state of mind. Sree vens. *?) surmise is speculation, conjecture concerning the future. Malone, *8) All powers of aciion are oppressed and crushed by one overwhelming image in The mind, and roihing is present to me, but that which is really future. Of things now about me I have no perception being intent wholly on that which has yet no existence. *9) Time and the hour is ime with his hours. Steesens. so) favour, in dulgence, pardon. Steevens, 51) i. e. my bead was worked, agitated, pur into commotion. Johnson.

2

The leaf to read them 52). Let us toward the King;
Think upon what hath chanc'd; and at more time,
The interiin having weigh’d it 53), let us speak
Our free hearts each to other.
Ban.

Very gladly.
Macb. Till then enough : come,

friends. [ Exeunt.] SCENE Iv.

Fores. A Room in the Palace.
Flourish. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donnlbain, Lenox and

Attendants.
Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not
Those in commission yet return'd?
Mal.

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 confess'd his treasons ;
Implor'd your biglmess' pardon; and set forth
A deep repentance; nothing in his life
Became him, like the leaving 'it; he die’d,
As one, that had been studied 54) in his deuh,
To throw away the dearest thing he owd,
As 'were a careless trifle 55).
Dun.

There's no art,
To find the mind's construction in the face 56).
He was a gentleman, on, whom I built
An absolute trust. O worthiest cousin!

ܪ

53

Or

52) He means, that they are enregistered in the table-book of his heart. Malone.

The interim having weigh'd it. This intervening portion of time is almost personified: it is represented as a cool impartial judge; as the pauser Reason. perhaps .we should read : ľ ili' interim. Sieevens. I believe, the interim is used adverbially: you having weighed it in the in terim. Malone. 5*) Instructed in the are of dying, usual to say studied, for learned in science. Johnson. 55) The behaviour of the Thane of Gawdor corresponds in almost every circumstance with that of the nofortunate earl of Essex. Such an allusion could not fail of having the desired effect on an audience, many of whom were eye- witnesses to the severity of that justice which deprived the age of one of its greatest ornaments, and Southampton, Sbakspeare's patron, of his dearest friend. Step

Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Rasse and Angus.
The sin of my ingratitude even now

1
Was heayy on me.

Thou art so far before,
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow,
To ofertake thee. 'Would thou 'dst less deserv'd,
That the proportion both of thanks and payment
Might have been true! only I have left to say,
More is iliy due than more than all can pay 57).

Macb. The service and the loyalty I owe,
In doing it, pays itself. Your higliness' part
Is 10 receive our duties: and our duties
dre to your throne and state, children and servants ;
Which do, but what they should, by doing every thing,
Safe toward your love and honour 53).
Dun.

Welcome hither:
I have begun to plant thee, and will labour
To make thee full of growing 59).

- Noble Banquo,
Thou hast no less deserv'd, and must be known
No less to have done so: let me infold thee
And hold thee to my heart.
Ban.

There if I grow,
The harvest is your own.
Dun.

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 establishi 'our estate upon
Our eldest, Malcolm, whoin we name hereafter
The Prince of Cuinberland: which honour must,
Not unaccompanied, invest him only,
Bui signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
On all deservers. Hence to Inverness 6.0),
And bind us further to you.

57). More is due to ibee, than, I will not say all, but, 'more than all, i. e. the greatest recompence, can pay. Malone. 58) Read „Safe (i. e. saved) toward you love and honour;” and then the sense will be: „ our duties are your children, and servants or vassals to your throne and state, who do but what they should, by doing every thing with a saving of their love and bonour toward you." Blackstone. 59) full of growing, is, I beliere, exuberant, perfect, complete in thy growih. Malone. *) Dr. Johnson observes, in his Journey to the western Isles of