Speak then to me, who neither beg, nor fear, 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. No more than to be Cawdor. Say, from whence As breath into the wind.-'Would they had staid! That takes the reason prisoner? Macb. Your children shall be kings. 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 Rosse. And, for an earnest of a greater honor, 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 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! Win us with honest trifles, to betray us 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, 3 My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, 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. 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 Mal. 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. To overtake thee. 'Would thou hadst less deserved; Are to your throne and state, children and servants; Dun. Welcome hither; I have begun to plant thee, and will labor And hold thee to my heart. Ban. The harvest is your own. Dun. There if I grow, My plenteous joys, Our eldest, Malcolm; whom we name, hereafter, 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 |