Thunder. Enter the three Witches. 1 Witch. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd. 2 Witch. Thrice; and once the hedge-pig whin'd. 1 Witch. Round about the cauldron go ; 8 Witch. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf, All. Double, double toil and trouble; 2 Witch. Cool it with a baboon's blood, Then the charm is firm and good. Enter HECATE, and the other three Witches. Hec. O, well done! I commend your pains; And every one shall share i'the gains. And now about the cauldron sing, Like elves and fairies in a ring, Enchanting all, that you put in! SONG. Black spirits and white, You that mingle may! 2 Witch. By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes: Open, locks, whoever knocks! Enter MACBeth. 8 Witch. We'll answer. 1 Witch. Say, if thou'dst rather hear it from our mouths, [Descends. Macb. Then live, Macduff! What need I fear of thee? But yet I'll make assurance double sure, And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live; That I may tell pale-hearted Fear, it lies, And sleep in spite of thunder.- What is this, Thunder. An Apparition of a child crowned, with a tree in his hand, rises. That rises, like the issue of a king, And wears upon his baby brow the round And top of sovereignty? All. Listen, but speak not! App. Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are: Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be, until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill Shall come against him. Macb. That will never be; Who can impress the forest, bid the tree [Descends. Unfix his earth-bound root? Sweet bodements! good! Of Birnam rise, and our high-plac'd Macbeth Macb. How now, you secret, black, and midnight Can tell so much,) shall Banquo's issue ever hags? What is't you do? All. A deed without a name. Macb. Iconjure you, by that which you profess, (Howe'er you come to know it,) answer me! Though you untie the winds, and let them fight Reign in this kingdom? All. Seek to know no more! Macb. I will be satisfied: deny me this, And an eternal curse fall on you! Let me know! Why sinks that cauldron ? and what noise is this? [Hautboys. 1 Witch. Show! 2 Witch. Show! 8 Witch. Show! Her young ones in her nest, against the owl. Eight Kings appear, and pass over the stage in order; [Music. The Witches dance, and vanish. Macb.Where are they? Gone?-Let this pernicious hour Stand aye accursed in the calendar! Come in, without there! Enter LENOX. Len. What's your grace's will? Macb. Saw you the weird sisters? Len. No, my lord. Macb. Came they not by you? Len. No, indeed, my lord. Macb. Infected be the air, whereon they ride, And damn'd all those, that trust them!-I did hear Len. 'Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word, Macb. Fled to England? Macb. Time, thou anticipat'st my dread exploits. Unless the deed go with it. From this moment To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and The castle of Macduff I will surprise, [Exeunt. SCENE II.-Fife. Aroom in Macduff's castle. Enter Lady MACDUFF, her Son, and Rosse. L.Macd.What had he done,to make him fly the land? Rosse. You must have patience, madam. L. Macd. He had none; His flight was madness. When our actions do not, Rosse. You know not, Whether it was his wisdom, or his fear. All is the fear, and nothing is the love; I pray you, school yourself! But, for your husband, Each way, and move. I take my leave of you: L. Macd. Father'd he is, and yet he's fatherless. L Macd. Sirrah, your father's dead; [Exit Rosse. you live? Son. Why should I, mother? Poor birds they are not set for. My father is not dead, for all your saying. L. Macd. Yes, he is dead; how wilt thou do for a father? Son. Nay, how will you do for a husband? L. Macd. Why, I can buy me twenty at any market. L. Macd. Thou speak'st with all thy wit; and yet With wit enough for thee. Son. Was my father a traitor, mother? Son. What is a traitor? L. Macd. Why, one that swears and lies. L. Macd. Every one, that does so, is a traitor, and must be hanged. Son. And must they all be hanged, that swear and lie? Son. Who must hang them? L. Macd. Why, the honest men. Son. Then the liars and swearers are fools; for there are liars and swearers enough to beat the honest men, and hang up them. L. Macd. Now God help thee, poor monkey! Son. If he were dead, you'd weep for him: if you would not, it were a good sign, that I should quickly have a new father. L. Macd. Poor prattler! how thou talk'st! Mess. Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known, I doubt, some danger does approach you nearly. If you will take a homely man's advice, Be not found here! hence, with your little ones! L. Macd. Wisdom! to leave his wife, to leave his To do worse to you, were fell cruelty, His mansion, and his titles, in a place, From whence himself doth fly? He loves us not, Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you! L. Macd. Whither should I fly? [Exit Messenger. I have done no harm. But I remember now, I am in this earthly world, where, to do harm, [Stabbing him. Of horrid hell can come a devil more damn'd [Exit Lady Macduff, crying murder, and pursued by the Murderers. SCENE III.-England. A room in the King's palace. Enter MALCOLM and MACDUFF. Mal. Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there Weep our sad bosoms empty! Macd. Let us rather Hold fast the mortal sword, and, like good men, Mal. What I believe, I'll wail; What know, believe; and, what I can redress, You may deserve of him through me; and wisdom, To appease an angry god. Macd. I am not treacherous. Mal. But Macbeth is. A good and virtuous nature may recoil In an imperial charge. But 'crave your pardon; Macd. I have lost my hopes. Mal.Perchance, even there, where I did find my doubts. Whatever I shall think. Macd. Bleed, bleed, poor country! Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure! Mal. I grant him bloody, Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, Macd. Boundless intemperance Mal. With this, there grows, In my most ill-compos'd affection, such Macd. This avarice Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root, Mal. But I have none. The king-becoming graces, In the division of each several crime, For goodness dares not check thee. Wear thou thy Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, Thy title is affeer'd. - Fare thee well, lord! Mal. Be not offended! I speak not as in absolute fear of you. I think, our country sinks beneath the yoke, Uproar the universal peace, confound Mard. O Scotland! Scotland! Mal. If such a one be fit to govern, speak! I am, as I have spoken. Macd. Fit to govern! No, not to live. - O nation miserable, With an untitled tyrant bloody-scepter'd, When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again? Since that the truest issue of thy throne By his own interdiction stands accurs'd, Died every day, she liv'd. Fare thee well! Have banish'd me from Scotland. - O, my breast, Mal. Macduff, this noble passion, Wip'd the black scruples, reconcil'd my thoughts No less in truth, than life: my first false speaking Is thine, and my poor country's, to command: Now we'll together: and the chance, of goodness, Macd. Be not a niggard of your speech! How goes it? Of many worthy fellows, that were out; Mal. Be it their comfort, We are coming thither: gracious England hath Rosse. 'Would I could answer This comfort with the like! But I have words, Macd. What concern they? The general cause? or is it a fee-grief, Rosse. No mind, that's honest, But in it shares some woe; though the main part Macd. If it be mine, Keep it not from me, quickly let me have it! Rosse. Let not your ears despise my tongue for ever, [Exit Doctor. Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound, That ever yet they heard. A most miraculous work in this good king, I have seen him do! How he solicits Heaven, The healing benediction. With this strange virtue, And sundry blessings hang about his throne, Enter Rosse. Macd. See, who comes here? Mal. My countryman; but yet I know him not, Mal. I know him now. Good God, betimes remove Macd. Stands Scotland where it did? Be call'd our mother, but our grave: where nothing, Is there scarce ask'd, for who; and good men's lives Macd. O, relation Too nice, and yet too true! Mal. What is the newest grief? Macd. Humph! I guess at it. Rosse. Your castle is surpriz'd, your wife, and babes Savagely slaughter'd: to relate the manner, Were, on the quarry of these murder'd deer, To add the death of you. Mal. Merciful Heaven! What, man! ne'er pull your hat u, on your brows! Give sorrow words! the grief, that does not speak, Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break. Macd. My children too? Rosse. Wife, children, servants, all That could be found. Macd. And I must be from thence! My wife kill'd too? Rosse. I have said. Mal. Be comforted: Let's make us med'cines of our great revenge, To cure this deadly grief! Macd. He has no children. All my pretty ones? Mal. Dispute it like a man! But I must also feel it as a man. f cannot but remember such things were, Fell slaughter on their souls: Heaven rest them now! Doct. I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walked? Gent. Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon it, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep. Doct. A great perturbation in nature! to receive at once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching! In this slumbry agitation, besides her walking, and other actual performances, what, at any time, have you heard her say? Gent. That, sir, which I will not report after her. Doct. You may, to me: and 'tis most meet, you should. Gent. Neither to you, nor any one; having no ness to confirm my speech. Lady M. To bed, to bed; there's knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come, give me your hand! What's done, cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to, bed! [Exit Lady Macbeth. Doct. Will she go now to bed? Gent. Directly. Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad. Unnatural deeds Do breed unnatural troubles, infected minds I [Exeunt. SCENE II. The country near Dunsinane. Ment. The English power is near, led on by Malcolm, Enter Lady MACBETH, with a taper. Lo you, here she comes! This is her very guise; and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her! stand close! Doct. How came she by that light? Ang. Near Birnam wood Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming. Gent. Why, it stood by her. She has light by her Of all the gentry; there is Siward's son, Doct. You see, her eyes are open. Doct. What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands! Gent. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands: I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour. Lady M. Yet here's a spot. Doct. Hark, she speaks! I will set down what comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly. Lady M. Out, damned spot! out, I say! - One; Two; Why, then 'tis time to do't:- Hell is murky! - Fye, my lord, fye! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear, who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? Doct. Do you mark that? Lady. M. The thane of Fife had a wife; where is she now? What, will these hands ne'er be clean? No more o'that, my lord, no more o'that! you mar all with this starting. Doct. Go to, go to! you have known, what you should not. Gent. She has spoke, what she should not, I am sure of that. Heaven knows what she has known. Lady M. Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh! oh! oh! Doct. What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged. And many unrough youths, that even now Cath. Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies. His secret murders sticking on his hands; Ment. Who then shall blame Cath. Well, march we on, To give obedience, where 'tis truly ow'd! Len. Or so much as it needs, To dew the sovereign flower, and drown the weeds. Make we our march towards Birnam! [Exeunt, marching. SCENE III. - Dunsinane. A room in the castle. Enter MACBETH, Doctor, and Attendants. Macb. Bring me no more reports! let them fly all! 'Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane, |