the tragedy of macbeth by william shakespeare act i scene i a desert place thunder and lightning enter three witches when shall we three meet again in thunder lightning or in rain when the hurly-burly's done when the battle's lost and won that will be ere set of sun where the place upon the heath there to meet with Macbeth. I come, Grey Malkin. Paddock calls. Anon. Fair is foul, and foul is fair.
Hover through the fog and fill the air. Act I, Scene II. A camp near Forest. Alarm within.
Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with attendants, meeting a bleeding sergeant. What bloody man is that? He can report.
I am the captain of the ship. as seemeth by his plight of the revolt the newest state doth 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 doubtful it stood as two spent swimmers that do cling together and choke their art the merciless macdonald worthy to be a rebel for to that the multiplying villainies of nature do swarm upon him from the western isles of kerns and gallow-glasses is supplied and fortune on his damned quarrel smiling showed like a rebel's whore but all's too weak for brave macbeth well he deserves that name disdaining fortune with his brangish steel which spoke with bloody execution like valor's minion carved out his passage till he faced the slave which ne'er shook hands nor bade farewell to him till he unseamed him from the knave to the chaps and fixed his head upon our battlements o valiant cousin worthy gentleman 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 valour armed compelled these skipping to trust their heels but the norwegian lord surveying vantage with furnished arms and new supplies of men began a fresh assault dismayed not this our captains macbeth and banquo 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 or memorize another golgotha i cannot tell but i am faked my gashes cry for help so we la wards become thee as thy wounds the smack of honour of both go get him sergeant exit sergeant attended who comes here enter ross the worthy thing of ross what a hest looks through his eyes So should he look that seems to speak things strange. God save the king!
Whence camest thou, worthy thane? From Fife, great king, where the Norwegian 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 Bologna's bridegroom, lapped in proof, confronted him with self-comparisons. Point against point rebellious, arm against arm curbing his lavish spirit, and, to conclude, the victory fell on us.
Great happiness! That now Sueno, the Norway's king, craves composition. Nor would we deign him burial of his men, till he disbursed at St. Colmay's inch ten thousand dollars to our general use. No more that deign of corridor shall deceive our bosom interest.
go pronounce his present death and with his former title greet macbeth i'll see it done what he hath lost no one macbeth hath won act one scene three a heath near forest thunder enter the three witches where hast thou been sister killing swine sister where thou a sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap and munched give me quoth i aright thee witch the rumfed ronin cries her husband's to aleppo gone master of 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 that kind and i another and i myself have all the other and the very ports they blow all the quarters that they know ere the shipman's card i will drain him dry as hay sleep shall neither night nor day hang upon his pent-house lid he shall live a man forbid weary said night nine times nine shall he dwindle peak and pine though his back cannot be lost yet it shall be tempest-tost look what i have show me show me here i have a pilot's thumb wreck'd as homeward he did come drum within a drum a drum macbeth doth come the weird sisters hand in hand posters of the sea and land thus do go about about about thrice to thine and thrice to mine and thrice again to make up nine peace the charms wound up enter macbeth and banquo so foul and fair a day i have not seen how far is't called to phares what are these so withered and so wild in their attire that look not like the inhabitants of the 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 choppy finger laying upon her skinny lips you should be women and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so speak if you can what are you all hail macbeth hail thee thane of glams all hail macbeth hail to thee thane of cawdor all hail macbeth thou shalt be king hereafter good sir why do you start and seem to fear things that do sound so fair in the name of truth are ye fantastical or that indeed which outwardly ye show my noble partner 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 speak then to me who neither beg nor fear your favours nor your hate hail m'beth hail m'beth hail m'beth lesser than macbeth and greater m'beth not so happy yet much happier m'beth thou shalt get kings though thou be none so all hail macbeth and banquo Banquo and Macbeth all hail. 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 prospects 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 prophetic greeting? speak i charge you which is vanish the earth hath bubbles as the water has and these are of them whither are they vanished into the air and what seem'd corporal melted as breath into the wind would they had stayed were such things here as we do speak about or have we eaten of the insane root that takes the reason prisoner Your children shall be kings. You shall be king.
And Thane of Cawdor too, went it not so? To the selfsame tune and words. Who's here?
Hither Ross and Angus. The king hath happily received, Macbeth, the news of thy success, and when he reads thy personal venture in the rebel's fight, his wonders and his praises do contend which should be thine or his. silenc'd with that, in viewing o'er the rest of the selfsame day, he finds thee in the stout Norweian ranks, nothing afeard of what thyself didst make, strange images of death, as thick as tail came post with post, and every one did bear thy praises in his kingdom's great defence, and pour'd them down before him.
We are sent to give thee from our royal master thanks, only to herald thee into his sight, not pay thee. 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 what can the devil speak true the thane of cawdor lives why do you dress me in borrowed robes who was the thane lives yet but under a heavy judgment bears that life which he deserves to lose whether he was combined with those of norway or did lionel rebel with hidden help and vantage or that with both he laboured in his country's rack i know not but treason's capital confessed and proved have overthrown him aside glance anthane of cawdor the greatest is behind to ross and angus thanks for your pains to benquo do you not hope your children shall be kings when those that gave the thane of cawdor to me promised no less to them 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 us in deepest consequence Cousins, a word I pray you. Aside.
Two truths are told, as happy prologues to the swelling act 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.
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 my thought whose murder yet is but fantastical shake so my single state of man that function is smothered in surmise and nothing is but what is not look how our partner's wrapt if chance will have me king why chance may crown me without my stir new honours come upon him like our strange garments cleave not to their mould but with the aid of use aside come what come may time and the hour runs through the roughest day worthy macbeth we stay upon your leisure king give me your favour my dull brain was wrought with things forgotten kind gentlemen your pains are registered where every day i turn the leaf to read them let us toward the king think upon what hath chanced and at more time the interim having weighed it let us speak our free hearts each to other king very gladly king till then enough come friends act one scene for forrest the palace flourish enter duncan malcolm donal bain lennox and attendants is execution done on corder are not those in commission yet returned my liege they're 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's pardon and set forth a deep repentance nothing in his life became him like the leave in it he died as one that had been studied in his death to throw away the dearest thing he owed as twere a careless trifle 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 oh worthiest cousin the sin of mine gratitude even now was heavy on me thou art so far before that swiftest wing of recompense is slow to overtake thee wouldst thou hadst less deserved that the proportion both of thanks and payment might have been mine only i have left to say more is thy due than more than all can pay the service and the loyalty i owe in doing it pays itself your highness's 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 safe toward your love and honour. Welcome hither. i have begun to plant thee and will labour to make thee full of growing noble banquo thou hast no less desert 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 by plenteous joys wanton enfold us seek to hide themselves in drops of sorrow sons kinsmen thence anew whose places are the nearest know we will establish our estate upon our eldest malcolm whom we name hereafter the prince of cumberland which honour must 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 the rest is labour 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 my worthy codor aside prince of cumberland that is a step on which i must fall down or else or leap 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 true wily 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 act i scene v Inverness, Macbeth's castle. Enter Lady Macbeth reading a letter. They met me in the day of success, and I have learned by the perfectest report they have more in them than mortal knowledge.
When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves air into which they vanished, while I stood wrapped in the wonder of it, came missives from the king who all hailed me Thane of Cawdor, by which 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 mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee, lay it to thy heart and farewell. Glamis thou art and cordor, and shalt be what thou art promised.
Yet do I fear thy nature. It is too full of 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 and yet wouldst wrongly win thou'lt have great glamis that which cries thus thou must do if thou have it and that which rather thou dost fear to do Then wish'st should be undone. Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear, and chastise with the valour 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 messenger. What is your tidings? The king comes here to-night.
Thou'rt mad to say it. Is not thy master with him? who were't so would have inform'd for preparation so please you it is true our thane is coming one of my fellows had the speed of him who almost dead for breath had scarcely more than would make up his message give him tending he brings great news exit messenger the raven himself his horse that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements.
Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe-top full of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood. Stop up the access and passage to remorse that no compunctious visitings of nature shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between the 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 pfft! Haul thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, 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 this ignorant present. And I feel now the future in the instant.
My dearest love, Duncan comes here tonight. And when goes hence? Tomorrow, as he purposes. Oh, never shall sun that morrow see.
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 the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't.
He that's coming 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. We will speak further. Only look up clear.
to alter favour ever is to fear leave all the rest to me act one scene six before macbeth's castle haught boys and torches enter duncan malcolm donalbane banquo lennox macduff ross angus and attendants this castle hath a pleasant seat the air nimbly and sweetly recommends itself unto our gentle senses this guest of summer the temple haunting marklet does approve 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 pendant bed and procreant cradle where they most breed and haunt i have observed the air is delicate enter lady macbeth see see our honoured hostess the love that follows us sometime is our trouble which we still thank as love herein i teach you how you shall bid god illus for your pains and thank us for your trouble all our service in every point twice done and then done double were poor and single business to contend against those honours 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 where's the thane of cawdor we cursed him at the heels and had a purpose to be his purveyor but he rides well and his great love sharp as his spear hath helped him to his home before us fair and noble hostess we are your guests to-night your servants ever have theirs themselves And what is theirs, in count, to make their audit at your highness'pleasure, still to return your own? Give me your hand, conduct me to mine host, we love him highly, and shall continue our graces toward him by your leave, hostess. Exeunt. Act 1. Scene 7. The same.
A room in Macbeth's castle. haught boys and tortures enter a sewer and divers servants with dishes and service and pass over the stage then enter macbeth if it were done when tis done then twill well it were done quickly if the assassination could trammel up the consequence and catch with his surcease success that but this blow might be the be-all and end-all here but here upon this bank and shoal of time we jump the life to come but in these cases we still have judgment here that we but teach bloody instructions which being taught return to plague the inventor this even-handed justice commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice to our own lips he is here in double trust first as i am his kinsman and his subject strong both against the deed then as his host 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 the deep damnation of his taking off and pity like a naked new-born babe striding the blast or heaven's cherubim horsed on the sightless couriers of the air shall blow the horrid deed in every eye that tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which all eaps itself and falls on further. Enter Lady Macbeth. How now?
What news? He has almost supped. Why have you left the chamber? Hath he asked for me?
Know you not he has? We will proceed no further in this business. he hath honoured me of late and i have bought golden opinions from all sorts of people which would be worn now in their newest gloss not cast aside so soon 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 such i account thy love Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour as thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that which thou esteemest the ornament of life, and live a coward in thine own esteem, letting I dare not wait upon I would, like the poor cat the adage? Prithee, peace!
I dare do all that may become a man. Who dares do more is none. What beast was't then that made you break this enterprise to me? 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 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 have done to this.
If we should fail? We fail, but screw your courage to the sticking place and will not fail. When Duncan is asleep, where to the rather shall his day's hard journey soundly invite him, his two chamberlains will I with wine and wassel, 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 drenched natures lie as in a death.
what cannot you and i perform upon the unguarded duncan what not put upon his spongy officers who shall bear the guilt of our great quell bring forth men children only for thy undaunted mettle should compose 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 who dares receive it other as we shall make our griefs and clamour roar upon his death 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 end of act one