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.

THE TRAGEDY OF

MACBETH

ACT I

SCENE I. A Desert Place.

Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches.
FIRST WITCH. When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
When the hurlyburly's done,
When the battle's lost and won.

SEC. WITCH.

THIRD WITCH. That will be ere the set of Sun.

FIRST WITCH. Where the place?

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.

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.

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

SERG.

Sc. II

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.

As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.

Yes;

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,

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.

ACT I

[Exit Sergeant, attended.

Sc. II

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;

Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky,
And fan our people cold. Norway himself,
With terrible numbers,

Assisted by that most disloyal traitor,

The Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict;
Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof,
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.

Ross.

Great happiness!

50

That now

60

Sweno, the Norways' King, craves composition;

Nor would we deign him burial of his men
Till he disbursed, at Saint Colme's Inch,2
Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

DUN. 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.

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.e. Inchcolm.

ACT I
Sc. III

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

Aroint thee, Witch! the rump-fed2 ronyon3 cries.
Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger:
But in a sieve I'll thither sail,

1 avoid.

• 'Can rump-fed mean nut-fed? The sailor's wife was eating chestnuts.

In Kilian's Dict. is Rompe-Nux myristica vilior, cassa, inanis.'-Harold Littledale.

4 a witch might take any shape, but it must ever

5 i.e. as a rat does: gnaw through timbers. 6 banned by the Church.

7 travellers, familiars.