ANGUS:

CAITHNESS

FLEANCE: SON TO BANQUO.

SIWARD: EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND, GENERAL OF

THE ENGLISH FORCES.

YOUNG SIWARD: HIS SON.

SEYTON: AN OFFICER ATTENDING ON MACBETH.

Boy: SON TO MACDUFF.

AN ENGLISH DOCTOR.

A SCOTCH DOCTOR.

A SOLDIER.

A PORTER.

AN OLD Man.

LADY MACBETH.

LADY MACDUFF.

GENTLEWOMAN ATTENDING ON LADY MACBETH.

HECATE.

THREE WITCHES.

APPARITIONS.

LORDS, GENTLEMEN, OFFICERS, SOLDIERS, MURDERERS,

ATTENDANTS, MESSENGERS.

SCENE-Scotland; England.

1717

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.

ΤΟ

[exeunt.

SCENE II. A Camp near Forres.

Alarum within. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN,
LENNOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant.
DUN. What bloody man is that? He can report,
As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

The newest state.
MAL.

1 The Witches answer the calls of their familiar spirits, a cat, a toad, and a third unnamed, later called Harpier. 79

2 = news.

ACT I
Sc. II

SERG.

Doubtful 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 kerns and gallowglasses1 is supplied;

And Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,
Shew'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;
Nor ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam'd him from the nave2 to the chops,
And fix'd his head upon our battlements.
DUN. O valiant Cousin! worthy Gentleman!
SERG. As whence the Sun 'gins his reflection

Shipwracking 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 kerns to trust their heels,
But the Norweyan Lord, surveying vantage,
With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men,
Began a fresh assault.

DUN.

Dismay'd not this
Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?
SERG.

Yes;

As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.
If I say sooth, I must report they were
As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks;3
So they

Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe:
Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,

Or memorize* another Golgotha,

They smack of honour both. Go get him surgeons.
[Exit Sergeant, attended.

Who comes here?

Enter Ross.

MAL.

The worthy Thane of Ross.

LEN. What a haste looks through his eyes! So should

he look

That seems to speak things strange.
Ross.

God save the King!
DUN. Whence cam'st thou, worthy Thane?
Ross.

From Fife, great King;

Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death,
And with his former title greet Macbeth.

Ross. I'll see it done.

DUN. What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won. [exeunt.

SCENE III. A Heath near Forres.

Thunder. Enter the three Witches.

FIRST WITCH. Where hast thou been, Sister?

SEC. WITCH. Killing swine.

THIRD WITCH. Sister, where thou?

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

1 =comparisons between Bellona's bridegroom and the Thane of Cawdor. 2 i.c. Inchcolm.

ACT I
Sc. II

And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd. Give me,
quoth I:

Aroint thee,' Witch! the rump-fed ronyon3 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,*
I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do."
I'll give thee a wind.
FIRST WITCH. Thou 'rt kind.
THIRD WITCH. And I another.
FIRST WITCH.

SEC. WITCH.

SEC. WITCH.
FIRST WITCH.

THIRD WITCH. A drum, a drum!

Macbeth doth come.

ALL.

;

I myself have all the other
And the very points 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 :"
Weary se'nnights nine times nine
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine:
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tost.
Look what I have.
Shew me, shew me.
Here I have a pilot's thumb,
Wrack'd as homeward he did come.
[Drum within.

The Weird Sisters, hand in hand,
Posters" of the Sea and Land,
Thus do go about, about:
Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine,
And thrice again to make up nine.
Peace the charm's wound up.

ΤΟ

5 i.e. as a rat does: gnaw through timbers.
7 travellers, familiars.

20

Enter MACBETH and BANQUO.

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

1 avoid. • 'Can rump-fed mean nut-fed? The sailor's wife was eating chestnuts. In Kilian's Dict. is Rompe=Nux myristioa vilior, cassa, inanis.'-Harold Littledale.

4

3 a scabby wretch (Fr. rogneux).
be tailless.

a witch might take any shape, but it must ever
banned by the Church.

82

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