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,9

As happy prologues to the swelling act

Of the imperial theme. I thank you, gentlemen.
This supernatural soliciting1

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 2 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,
Shakes so my single state of man3, that function
Is smother'd in surmise; and nothing is,

But what is not. 4

9 Two truths are told, &c.] How the former of these truths has been fulfilled, we are yet to learn. Macbeth could not become thane of Glamis, till after his father's decease, of which there is no mention throughout the play. If the hag only announced what Macbeth already understood to have happened, her words could scarcely claim rank as a prediction.

1 This supernatural soliciting-] Soliciting for information.

WARBURTON.

Soliciting is rather, in my opinion, incitement, than information.

2

3

seated—] i. e. fixed, firmly placed.

JOHNSON.

single state of man,] Dr. Johnson says, that the single state of man seems to be used by Shakspeare for an individual, in opposition to a commonwealth, or conjunct body. But Mr. Steevens thinks that the single state of Macbeth may signify his weak and debile state of mind.

Is smother'd in surmise; and nothing is,

But what is not.] All powers of action are oppressed and crushed

Ban.

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

crown me,

Without my stir.

Ban.

New honours come upon him

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

Macb. Come what come may; Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. 5 Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. Macb. Give me your favour:— my dull brain was wrought

With things forgotten.' Kind gentlemen, your pains Are register'd where every day I turn

The leaf to read them. Let us toward the king. -
Think upon what hath chanc'd; and, at more time,
The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak

Our free hearts each to other.

Ban.

Macb. Till then, enough.

-

Very gladly.
Come, friends.

[Exeunt.

by one overwhelming image in the mind, and nothing is present to me but that which is really future. Of things now about me I have no perception, being intent wholly on that which has yet no existence.

JOHNSON.

5 Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.] i. e. time and occasion will carry the thing through, and bring it to some determined point and end, let its nature be what it will.

7

Mrs. MONTAGUE.

my dull brain was wrought-] My head was worked, agitated, put into commotion.

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 return'd?

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 confess'd his treasons;
Implor'd 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,
To throw away the dearest thing he ow'd,
As 'twere a careless trifle.

Dun.

There's no art,

To find the mind's construction in the face:

He was a gentleman on whom I built

An absolute trust. O worthiest cousin!

8

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 deserv'd;
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.

s To find the mind's construction in the face:] Dr. Johnson seems to have understood the word construction in this place in the sense of frame or structure; but the school-term was, I believe, intended by Shakspeare. The meaning is - We cannot construe or discover the disposition of the mind by the lineaments of the face. MALONE..

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 honour.

Dun.

Welcome hither:

I have begun to plant thee, and will labour

To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo,
That hast no less deserv'd, 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: 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.

1

Macb. The rest is labour, which is not us'd for you: I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful

The hearing of my wife with your approach;

So, humbly take my leave.

Dun.
My worthy Cawdor!
Macb. The prince of Cumberland! - That is a step,

9 full of growing.] Is, exuberant, perfect, complete in thy growth.

1

hence to Inverness,] Dr. Johnson observes, in his Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, that the walls of the castle of Macbeth, at Inverness, are yet standing. STEEVENS.

2 The prince of Cumberland!] The crown of Scotland was origiginally not hereditary. When a successor was declared in the life

On which I must fall down, or else o'er-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.

[Aside.

[Exit.

Dun. True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant;

And in his commendations I am fed ;

It is a banquet to me. Let us after him,

Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome:
It is a peerless kinsman.

[Flourish. Exeunt.

SCENE V.

Inverness. A Room in Macbeth's Castle.

Enter Lady MACBETH, reading a letter.

Lady M. 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 vanish'd. Whiles I stood rapt 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 mightest not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell.

time of a king (as was often the case,) the title of Prince of Cumberland was immediately bestowed on him as the mark of his designation. Cumberland was at that time held by Scotland of the crown of England, as a fief.

3

missives from the king,] i. e. messengers.