Speak then to me, who neither beg, nor fear,
Your favors, nor your hate.

1 Witch. Hail!

2 Witch. Hail!

3 Witch. Hail!

1 Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 2 Witch. Not so happy, yet much happier.

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 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,

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.
Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
And these are of them.-Whither are they vanished?
Macb. Into the air; and what seemed corporal,
melted

As breath into the wind.-'Would they had staid!
Ban. Were such things here, as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten of the insane root,2

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?

1 "Sinel." The late Dr. Beattie conjectured that the real name of this family was Sinane, and that Dunsinane, or the hill of Sinane, thence derived its name.

2 The insane root was probably henbane. In Batman's Commentary on Bartholome de Propriet. Rerum, a book with which Shakspeare was familiar, is the following passage:" Henbane is called insana, mad, for the use thereof is perillous; for if it be eate or dronke it breedeth madnesse, or slow lykenesse of sleepe. Therefore this hearb is called, commonly, mirilidium, for it taketh away wit and reason."

Enter ROSSE and ANGUS.

Rosse. The king hath happily received, Macbeth, The news of thy success; and when he reads Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight, His wonders and his praises do contend,

3

Which should be thine, or his: Silenced with that,1
In viewing o'er the rest o' the self-same day,
He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
Strange images of death.
As thick as tale,2
Came post with post; and every one did bear
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence,
And poured them down before him.
Ang.
We are sent,
To give thee, from our royal master, thanks;
Only to herald thee into his sight, not pay thee.

Rosse. And, for an earnest of a greater honor,
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 borrowed robes?

Ang.

Who was the thane, lives yet;

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 wreck, I know not;
But treasons capital, confessed, and proved,
Have overthrown him.

1 i. e. admiration of your deeds, and a desire to do them justice by public commendation, contend in his mind for preeminence: he is silenced with wonder.

2 i. e. posts arrived as fast as they could be counted. Dr. Johnson explains the passage thus:-"The news came as thick as a tale can travel with the post." Mr. Reeves reads "thick as hail."

3" Came post." The old copy reads can. Rowe made the emendation.

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, Promised no less to them?

Ban.

That, trusted home,1

Might yet enkindle 2 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.

Macb.

Two truths are told

As happy prologues to the swelling act

Of the imperial theme.-I thank you, gentlemen.— 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.

3

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.

Ban.

Look, how our partner's rapt. Macb. If chance will have me king, why, chance

New honors come upon him

Like our strange garments; cleave not to their mould, But with the aid of use.

1 i. e. entirely, thoroughly relied on.

2 "Encourage you to expect the crown."

3 By his single state of man, Macbeth means his simple condition of

human nature.

VOL. III.

24

Come what come may;

Macb.
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.

Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. Macb. Give me your favor;-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 times, The interim having weighed it, let us speak

Our free hearts each to other.

Ban.

Macb. Till then, enough.-Come, friends.

Very gladly.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV. Fores. A Room in the Palace.

Flourish.

Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENOX, and

Attendants.

Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not
Those in commission yet returned?

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 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,2
To throw away the dearest thing he owed,3
As 'twere a careless trifle.

Dun.

There's no art,

To find the mind's construction in the face.1

1 Favor is countenance, good will, and not pardon, as it has been here interpreted. Vide Hamlet, Act v. Sc. 2.

2 Studied in his death, is instructed in the art of dying.

3 Owed, owned, possessed.

4 We cannot construe the disposition of the mind by the lineaments of the face.

He was a gentleman on whom I built

An absolute trust.-O worthiest cousin!

Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSSE, and ANGUS.
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
Might have been mine! Only I have left to say,
More is thy due than more than all can pay.
Macb. The service and the loyalty I owe,
In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' 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 every thing
Safe toward your love and honor.

Dun. Welcome hither;

I have begun to plant thee, and will labor
To make thee full of growing.-Noble Banquo,
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.

Ban.

The harvest is

your own.

Dun.

There if I

grow,

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 establish our estate upon

Our eldest, Malcolm; whom we name, hereafter,
The prince of Cumberland; 1 which honor must

1 Holinshed says, "Duncan having two sons, &c. he made the elder of them, called Malcolm, prince of Cumberland, as it was thereby to appoint him his successor in his kingdome immediatelie after his decease. Macbeth sorely troubled herewith, for that he saw by this means his hope sore hindered (where, by the old laws of the realme the ordinance was, that if he that should succeed were not of able age to take the charge upon himself, he that was next of blood unto him should be admitted), he began to take counsel how he might usurpe the kingdome by force, having a just