The Tragedy of Macbeth Shakespeare homepage | Macbeth | Entire play 1 http://shakespeare.mit.edu/macbeth/full.html 2 3 ACT I 4 SCENE I. A desert place. 5 Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches 6 First Witch 7 When shall we three meet again 8 In thunder, lightning, or in rain? 9 Second Witch 10 When the hurlyburly's done, 11 When the battle's lost and won. 12 Third Witch 13 That will be ere the set of sun. 14 First Witch 15 Where the place? 16 Second Witch 17 Upon the heath. 18 Third Witch 19 There to meet with Macbeth. 20 First Witch 21 I come, Graymalkin! 22 Second Witch 23 Paddock calls. 24 Third Witch 25 Anon. 26 ALL 27 Fair is foul, and foul is fair: 28 Hover through the fog and filthy air. 29 Exeunt 30 SCENE II. A camp near Forres. 31 Alarum within. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, with 32 Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant 33 34 35 DUNCAN 36 What bloody man is that? He can report, 37 As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt 38 The newest state. 39 MALCOLM 40 This is the sergeant 41 Who like a good and hardy soldier fought 42 'Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend! 43 Say to the king the knowledge of the broil 44 As thou didst leave it. 45 Sergeant 46 Doubtful it stood; 47 As two spent swimmers, that do cling together 48 And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald-- 49 Worthy to be a rebel, for to that 50 The multiplying villanies of nature 51 Do swarm upon him--from the western isles 52 Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied; 53 And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, 54 Show'd like a rebel's whore: but all's too weak: 55 For brave Macbeth--well he deserves that name-- 56 Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel, 57 Which smoked with bloody execution, 58 Like valour's minion carved out his passage 59 Till he faced the slave; 60 Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, 61 Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps, 62 And fix'd his head upon our battlements. 63 DUNCAN 64 O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman! 65 Sergeant 66 As whence the sun 'gins his reflection 67 Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break, 68 So from that spring whence comfort seem'd to come 69 Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark: 70 No sooner justice had with valour arm'd 71 Compell'd these skipping kerns to trust their heels, 72 But the Norweyan lord surveying vantage, 73 With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men 74 Began a fresh assault. 75 DUNCAN 76 Dismay'd not this 77 Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo? 78 Sergeant 79 Yes; 80 As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. 81 If I say sooth, I must report they were 82 As cannons overcharged with double cracks, so they 83 Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe: 84 Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, 85 Or memorise another Golgotha, 86 I cannot tell. 87 But I am faint, my gashes cry for help. 88 DUNCAN 89 So well thy words become thee as thy wounds; 90 They smack of honour both. Go get him surgeons. 91 Exit Sergeant, attended 92 Who comes here? 93 Enter ROSS 94 MALCOLM 95 The worthy thane of Ross. 96 LENNOX 97 What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look 98 That seems to speak things strange. 99 ROSS 100 God save the king! 101 DUNCAN 102 Whence camest thou, worthy thane? 103 ROSS 104 From Fife, great king; 105 Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky 106 And fan our people cold. Norway himself, 107 With terrible numbers, 108 Assisted by that most disloyal traitor 109 The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict; 110 Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof, 111 Confronted him with self-comparisons, 112 Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm. 113 Curbing his lavish spirit: and, to conclude, 114 The victory fell on us. 115 DUNCAN 116 Great happiness! 117 ROSS 118 That now 119 Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition: 120 Nor would we deign him burial of his men 121 Till he disbursed at Saint Colme's inch 122 Ten thousand dollars to our general use. 123 DUNCAN 124 No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive 125 Our bosom interest: go pronounce his present death, 126 And with his former title greet Macbeth. 127 ROSS 128 I'll see it done. 129 DUNCAN 130 What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won. 131 Exeunt 132 SCENE III. A heath near Forres. 133 Thunder. Enter the three Witches 134 First Witch 135 Where hast thou been, sister? 136 Second Witch 137 Killing swine. 138 Third Witch 139 Sister, where thou? 140 First Witch 141 A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap, 142 And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd:-- 143 'Give me,' quoth I: 144 'Aroint thee, witch!' the rump-fed ronyon cries. 145 Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger: 146 But in a sieve I'll thither sail, 147 And, like a rat without a tail, 148 I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do. 149 Second Witch 150 I'll give thee a wind. 151 152 First Witch 153 Thou'rt kind. 154 Third Witch 155 And I another. 156 First Witch 157 I myself have all the other, 158 And the very ports they blow, 159 All the quarters that they know 160 I' the shipman's card. 161 I will drain him dry as hay: 162 Sleep shall neither night nor day 163 Hang upon his pent-house lid; 164 He shall live a man forbid: 165 Weary se'nnights nine times nine 166 Shall he dwindle, peak and pine: 167 Though his bark cannot be lost, 168 Yet it shall be tempest-tost. 169 Look what I have. 170 Second Witch 171 Show me, show me. 172 First Witch 173 Here I have a pilot's thumb, 174 Wreck'd as homeward he did come. 175 Drum within 176 Third Witch 177 A drum, a drum! 178 Macbeth doth come. 179 ALL 180 The weird sisters, hand in hand, 181 Posters of the sea and land, 182 Thus do go about, about: 183 Thrice to thine and thrice to mine 184 And thrice again, to make up nine. 185 Peace! the charm's wound up. 186 Enter MACBETH and BANQUO 187 MACBETH 188 So foul and fair a day I have not seen. 189 BANQUO 190 How far is't call'd to Forres? What are these 191 So wither'd and so wild in their attire, 192 That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth, 193 And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught 194 That man may question? You seem to understand me, 195 By each at once her chappy finger laying 196 Upon her skinny lips: you should be women, 197 And yet your beards forbid me to interpret 198 That you are so. 199 MACBETH 200 Speak, if you can: what are you? 201 First Witch 202 All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis! 203 Second Witch 204 All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! 205 Third Witch 206 All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter! 207 BANQUO 208 Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear 209 Things that do sound so fair? I' the name of truth, 210 Are ye fantastical, or that indeed 211 Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner 212 You greet with present grace and great prediction 213 Of noble having and of royal hope, 214 That he seems rapt withal: to me you speak not. 215 If you can look into the seeds of time, 216 And say which grain will grow and which will not, 217 Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear 218 Your favours nor your hate. 219 First Witch 220 Hail! 221 Second Witch 222 Hail! 223 Third Witch 224 Hail! 225 First Witch 226 Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 227 Second Witch 228 Not so happy, yet much happier. 229 Third Witch 230 Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none: 231 So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo! 232 First Witch 233 Banquo and Macbeth, all hail! 234 MACBETH 235 Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more: 236 By Sinel's death I know I am thane of Glamis; 237 But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives, 238 A prosperous gentleman; and to be king 239 Stands not within the prospect of belief, 240 No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence 241 You owe this strange intelligence? or why 242 Upon this blasted heath you stop our way 243 With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you. 244 Witches vanish 245 BANQUO 246 The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, 247 And these are of them. Whither are they vanish'd? 248 MACBETH 249 Into the air; and what seem'd corporal melted 250 As breath into the wind. Would they had stay'd! 251 BANQUO 252 Were such things here as we do speak about? 253 Or have we eaten on the insane root 254 That takes the reason prisoner? 255 MACBETH 256 Your children shall be kings. 257 BANQUO 258 You shall be king. 259 MACBETH 260 And thane of Cawdor too: went it not so? 261 BANQUO 262 To the selfsame tune and words.