Act 1 Macbeth

SCENE Scotland; England

Scene 1^°

Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches.

FIRST WITCH When shall we three meet again?

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

SECOND WITCH When the hurlyburly’s^°; done,

When the battle’s lost and won.

5 THIRD WITCH That will be ere the set of sun.

FIRST WITCH Where the place?

SECOND WITCH Upon the heath.

THIRD WITCH There to meet with Macbeth.

FIRST WITCH I come, Grimalkin!^°

SECOND WITCH Paddock^° calls.

10 THIRD WITCH Anon.^°

ALL Fair is foul, and foul is fair.

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

Exeunt.

Scene 2^°

Alarum^° within. Enter King [Duncan], Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with attendants, meeting a bleeding Captain.

DUNCAN What bloody man is that? He can report,

As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

The newest state.^°

MALCOLM This is the sergeant^°

Who like a good and hardy soldier fought

5 ’Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend!

Say to the King the knowledge of the broil^°

As thou didst leave it.

CAPTAIN Doubtful it stood,

As two spent^° swimmers that do cling together

And choke their art.^° The merciless Macdonwald —

10 Worthy to be a rebel, for to that^°

The multiplying villainies of nature

Do swarm upon him^° — from the Western Isles^°

Of kerns^° and gallowglasses^° is supplied;

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And Fortune, on his damnèd quarrel^° smiling,

15 Showed^° like a rebel’s whore. But all’s too weak;

For brave Macbeth — well he deserves that name^° —

Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel,

Which smoked with bloody execution,

Like valor’s minion^° carved out his passage

20 Till he faced the slave,^°

Which^° ne’er shook hands nor bade farewell to him^°

Till he unseamed him from the nave^° to th’ chops,^°

And fixed his head upon our battlements.

DUNCAN O valiant cousin,^° worthy gentleman!

25 CAPTAIN As whence^° the sun ’gins his reflection^°

Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break,

So from that spring whence comfort seemed to come

Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark.

No sooner justice had, with valor armed,

30 Compelled these skipping^° kerns to trust their heels

But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,^°

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With furbished arms and new supplies of men,

Began a fresh assault.

DUNCAN Dismayed not this our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?

35 CAPTAIN Yes, as sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.

If I say sooth,^° I must report they were

As cannons overcharged with double cracks,^°

So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe.

Except^° they meant to bathe in reeking wounds

40 Or memorize^° another Golgotha,^°

I cannot tell.

But I am faint. My gashes cry for help.

DUNCAN So well thy words become thee as thy wounds;

They smack of honor both. — Go get him surgeons.

[Exit Captain, attended.]

Enter Ross and Angus.

45 Who comes here?

MALCOLM The worthy Thane^° of Ross.

LENNOX What a haste looks through his eyes!

So should he look that seems to^° speak things strange.

ROSS God save the King!

DUNCAN Whence cam’st thou, worthy thane?

50 ROSS From Fife, great King,

Where the Norweyan banners flout^° the sky

And fan our people cold.^°

Norway^° himself, with terrible numbers,^°

Assisted by that most disloyal traitor,

55 The Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal^° conflict,

Till that Bellona’s bridegroom, lapped in proof,^°

Confronted him^° with self-comparisons,^°

Point against point, rebellious arm ’gainst arm,

Curbing his lavish spirit; and to conclude,

The victory fell on us.

60 DUNCAN Great happiness!

ROSS That now

Sweno, the Norways’^° king, craves composition;^°

Nor would we deign him burial of his men

Till he disbursèd at Saint Colme’s Inch^°

65 Ten thousand dollars^° to our general use.

DUNCAN No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive

Our^° bosom^° interest. Go pronounce his present^° death,

And with his former title greet Macbeth.

ROSS I’ll see it done.

70 DUNCAN What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won.

Exeunt.

Scene 3^°

Thunder. Enter the three Witches.

FIRST WITCH Where hast thou been, sister?

SECOND WITCH Killing swine.

THIRD WITCH Sister, where thou?

FIRST WITCH A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap,

5 And munched, and munched, and munched. “Give me,” quoth I.

“Aroint thee,^° witch!” the rump-fed^° runnion^° 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

10 I’ll do,^° I’ll do, and I’ll do.^°

SECOND WITCH I’ll give thee a wind.

FIRST WITCH Thou’rt kind.

THIRD WITCH And I another.

FIRST WITCH I myself have all the other,^°

15 And the very ports they blow,^°

All the quarters that they know

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I’ the shipman’s card^°

I’ll drain him dry as hay.

Sleep shall neither night nor day

20 Hang upon his penthouse lid.^°

He shall live a man forbid.^°

Weary sev’nnights^° nine times nine

Shall he dwindle, peak,^° and pine.

Though his bark cannot be lost,

25 Yet it shall be tempest-tossed.

Look what I have.

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SECOND WITCH Show me, show me.

FIRST WITCH Here I have a pilot’s thumb,

Wrecked as homeward he did come. Drum within.

30 THIRD WITCH A drum, a drum!

Macbeth doth come.

ALL [dancing in a circle] The Weird Sisters,^° hand in hand,

Posters of^° the sea and land,

Thus do go about, about,

35 Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine,

And thrice again, to make up nine.

Peace! The charm’s wound up.

Enter Macbeth and Banquo

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

BANQUO How far is’t called^° to Forres? — What are these,

40 So withered and so wild in their attire,

That look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ 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

45 Upon her skinny lips. You should be women,

And yet your beards forbid me to interpret

That you are so.

MACBETH Speak, if you can. What are you?

FIRST WITCH All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!

SECOND WITCH All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!

50 THIRD WITCH All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!

BANQUO 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

55 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,

60 Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear

Your favors nor your hate.^°

FIRST WITCH Hail!

SECOND WITCH Hail!

THIRD WITCH Hail!

65 FIRST WITCH Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.

SECOND 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!

70 MACBETH 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,

75 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.

BANQUO The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,

80 And these are of them. Whither are they vanished?

MACBETH 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?

Or have we eaten on^° the insane root^°

85 That takes the reason prisoner?

MACBETH Your children shall be kings.

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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 contend

Which should be thine or his. Silenced with that,^°

In viewing o’er the rest o’ the selfsame day

95 He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,

Nothing^° afeard of what thyself didst make,

Strange images of death. As thick as tale

Came post with post,^° and every one did bear

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,

105 He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor;

In which addition,^° hail, most worthy thane,

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,

110 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 labored in his country’s wrack,^° I know not;

115 But treasons capital,^° confessed and proved,

Have overthrown him.

MACBETH [aside] Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor!

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

Promised no less to them?

120 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,

125 Win us with honest trifles, to betray ’s

In deepest consequence.^° —

Cousins,^° a word, I pray you.  [He converses apart with Ross and Angus].

MACBETH [aside] Two truths are told,

As happy prologues to the swelling act^°

130 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.

135 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.

140 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.^°

BANQUO Look how our partner’s rapt.

145 MACBETH [aside] If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me

Without my stir.^°

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BANQUO New honors come^° upon him,

Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mold

But with the aid of use.^°

MACBETH [aside] Come what come may,

Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.^°

150 BANQUO Worthy Macbeth, we stay^° upon your leisure.

MACBETH Give me your favor.^° My dull brain was wrought^°

With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains

Are ^° where every day I turn

The leaf to read them. Let us toward the King.

155 [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.

BANQUO [to Macbeth] Very gladly.

MACBETH [to Banquo] Till then, enough. — Come, friends.

Exeunt.

Scene 4^°

Flourish. Enter King [Duncan], Lennox, Malcolm, Donalbain, and attendants.

DUNCAN Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not

Those in commission^° yet returned?

MALCOLM My liege,

They are not yet come back. But I have spoke

With one that saw him die, who did report

5 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

As one that had been studied^° in his death

10 To throw away the dearest thing he owed^°

As ’twere a careless^° trifle.

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.

O worthiest cousin!

15 The sin of my ingratitude even now

Was heavy on me. Thou art so far before^°

That swiftest wing of recompense is slow

To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved,

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

25 Are to your throne and state children and servants,^°

Which do but what they should by doing everything

Safe toward your love and honor.^°

DUNCAN Welcome hither!

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 infold thee

And hold thee to my heart.

BANQUO There if I grow,

The harvest is your own.

DUNCAN My plenteous joys,

Wanton^° in fullness, seek to hide themselves

35 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

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The Prince of Cumberland;^° which honor must

40 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.^°

MACBETH The rest is labor which is not used for you.^°

45 I’ll be myself the harbinger^° and make joyful

The hearing of my wife with your approach;

So humbly take my leave.

DUNCAN My worthy Cawdor!

MACBETH [aside] The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step

On which I must fall down or else o’erleap,

50 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.

DUNCAN True, worthy Banquo. He is full so valiant,^°

55 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.

Scene 5^°

Enter Macbeth’s Wife, alone, with a letter.

LADY MACBETH [reads] “They met me in the day

of success; and I have learned by the

perfect’st^° report they have more in them

than mortal knowledge. When I burnt in

5 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

10 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

15 mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing by

being ignorant of what greatness is prom-

ised 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;

20 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,

25 And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou’dst 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

30 And chastise with the valor of my tongue

All that impedes thee from the golden round^°

Which fate and metaphysical^° aid doth seem

To have thee crowned withal.^°

Enter [a servant as] Messenger.

What is your tidings?

MESSENGER The King comes here tonight.

LADY MACBETH Thou’rt mad to say it!

35 Is not thy master with him, who, were ’t so,

Would have informed for preparation?^°

MESSENGER So please you, it is true. Our thane is coming.

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One of my fellows had the speed of^° him,

Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more

40 Than would make up his message.

LADY MACBETH Give him tending;^°

He brings great news. Exit Messenger

The raven himself is hoarse

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan

Under my battlements. Come, you spirits

That tend on mortal thoughts,^° unsex me here

45 And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full

Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood;

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Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse,^°

That no compunctious visitings of nature^°

Shake my fell^° purpose, nor keep peace^° between

50 Th’ effect and it!^° Come to my woman’s breasts

And take my milk for gall,^° you murdering ministers,^°

Wherever in your sightless^° substances

You wait on^° nature’s mischief!^° Come, thick night,

And pall^° thee in the dunnest^° smoke of hell,

55 That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,

Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark

To cry “Hold, hold!”

Enter Macbeth.

Great Glamis! Worthy Cawdor!

Greater than both by the all-hail hereafter!

Thy letters have^° transported me beyond

60 This ignorant present, and I feel now

The future in the instant.

MACBETH My dearest love,

Duncan comes here tonight.

LADY MACOBETH And when goes hence?

MACBETH Tomorrow, as he purposes.

LADY MACBETH O, never

Shall sun that morrow see!

65 Your face, my thane, is as a book where men

May read strange matters. To beguile the time,^°

Look like the time;^° bear welcome in your eye,

Your hand, your tongue. Look like th’ innocent flower

But be the serpent under ’t. He that’s coming

70 Must be provided for; and you shall put

This night’s great business into my dispatch,^°

Which shall to all our nights and days to come

Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.

MACBETH We will speak further.

LADY MACBETH Only look up clear.^°

75 To alter favor ever is to fear.^°

Leave all the rest to me.

Exeunt.

Scene 6^°

Hautboys^° and torches. Enter King [Duncan], Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Angus, and attendants.

DUNCAN This castle hath a pleasant seat.^° The air

Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself

Unto our gentle^° senses.

BANQUO This guest of summer,

The temple-haunting^° martlet,^° does approve^°

5 By his loved mansionry^° that the heaven’s breath

Smells wooingly here. No jutty,^° frieze,

Buttress, nor coign of vantage^° but this bird

Hath made his pendent bed and procreant^° cradle.

Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed

The air is delicate.

Enter Lady [Macbeth].

10 DUNCAN See, see, our honored hostess!

The love that follows us sometimes is our trouble,

Which still we thank as love.^° Herein I teach you

How you shall bid God ’ild^° us for your pains,^°

And thank us for your trouble.

LADY MACBETH All our service

15 In every point twice done, and then done double,

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Were poor and single^° business to contend

Against^° those honors deep and broad wherewith

Your Majesty loads our house. For those of old,^°

And the late^° dignities heaped up to^° them,

We rest^° your hermits.^°

20 DUNCAN Where’s the Thane of Cawdor?

We coursed^° him at the heels, and had a purpose

To be his purveyor;^° but he rides well,

And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp^° him

To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess,

We are your guest tonight.

25 LADY MACBETH Your servants ever

Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs in compt

To make their audit at Your Highness’ pleasure,

Still to return your own.^°

DUNCAN Give me your hand.

Conduct me to mine host. We^° love him highly,

30 And shall continue our graces towards him.

By your leave, hostess.

Exeunt.

Scene 7^°

Hautboys. Torches. Enter a sewer,^° and divers servants with dishes and service, [and pass] over the stage. Then enter Macbeth.

MACBETH If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well

It were done quickly. If th’ assassination

Could trammel up the consequence,^° and catch

With his surcease^° success^° — that but^° this blow

5 Might be the be-all and the end-all! — here,^°

But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,

We’d jump^° the life to come. But in these cases

We still have judgment^° here, that^° we but teach

Bloody instructions,^° which, being taught, return

10 To plague th’ inventor. This evenhanded justice

Commends^° th’ ingredience^° of our poisoned chalice

To our own lips. He’s here in double trust:

First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,

Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,

15 Who should against his murderer shut the door,

Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan

Hath borne his faculties^° so meek, hath been

So clear^° in his great office, that his virtues

Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against

20 The deep damnation of his taking-off;^°

And Pity, like a naked newborn babe

Striding^° the blast,^° or heaven’s cherubin, horsed

Upon the sightless couriers^° of the air,

Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,

25 That tears shall drown the wind.^° I have no spur

To prick the sides of my intent, but only

Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself

And falls on th’ other^° —

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Enter Lady [Macbeth].

How now, what news?

30 LADY MACBETH He has almost supped. Why have you left the chamber?

MACBETH Hath he asked for me?

LADY MACBETH Know you not he has?

MACBETH We will proceed no further in this business.

He hath honored me of late, and I have bought^°

Golden opinions from all sorts of people,

35 Which would^° be worn now in their newest gloss,

Not cast aside so soon.

LADY MACBETH Was the hope drunk

Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?

And wakes it now, to look so green^° and pale

At what it did so freely? From this time

40 Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard

To be the same in thine own act and valor

As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that

Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life,^°

And live a coward in thine own esteem,

45 Letting “I dare not” wait upon^° “I would,”

Like the poor cat i’ th’ adage?^°

MACBETH Prithee, peace!

I dare do all that may become a man;

Who dares do more is none.

LADY MACBETH What beast was ’t, then,

That made you break^° this enterprise to me?

50 When you durst do it, then you were a man;

And, to be more than what you were, you would

Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place

Did then adhere,^° and yet you would^° make both.

They have made themselves, and that their fitness^° now

55 Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know

How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me;

I would, while it was smiling in my face,

Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums

And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you

60 Have done to this.

MACBETH If we should fail?

LADY MACBETH We fail?

But^° screw your courage to the sticking place^°

And we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep —

Whereto the rather shall his day’s hard journey

Soundly invite him — his two chamberlains^°

65 Will I with wine and wassail^° so convince^°

That memory, the warder of the brain,

Shall be a fume, and the receipt^° of reason

A limbeck^° only.^° When in swinish sleep

Their drenchèd natures lies as in a death,

70 What cannot you and I perform upon

Th’ unguarded Duncan? What not put upon

His spongy^° officers, who shall bear the guilt

Of our great quell?^°

MACBETH Bring forth men-children only!

For thy undaunted mettle^° should compose

75 Nothing but males. Will it not be received,^°

When we have marked with blood those sleepy two

Of his own chamber and used their very daggers,

That they have done ’t?

LADY MACBETH Who dares receive it other,^°

As^° we shall make our griefs and clamor roar

Upon his death?

80 MACBETH I am settled, and bend up

Each corporal agent^° to this terrible feat.

Away, and mock^° the time with fairest show.

False face must hide what the false heart doth know. Exeunt.

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