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They smack of honour both. Go get him surgeons.

[Exit Sergeant, attended.

Who comes here?

Enter Ross.

Mal.

The worthy thane of Ross.

Len. What a haste looks through his eyes! So

should he look

That seems to speak things strange.

God save the king!

Ross.
Dun. Whence camest thou, worthy thane?
Ross.
From Fife, great king;
Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky
And fan our people cold. Norway himself,
With terrible numbers,

Assisted by that most disloyal traitor

The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict;
Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof,
Confronted him with self-comparisons,

Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm,
Curbing his lavish spirit: and, to conclude,
The victory fell on us.

Dun.

Ross.

Great happiness!

That now

Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition;

Nor would we deign him burial of his men

Till he disbursed at Saint Colme's inch

Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

Dun. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive

54. Bellona, the Roman goddess of war. With whip, torch, and flying hair, she was seen on battlefields, urging the combatants on.

55. Confronted him with selfcomparisons, met him as his complete match. 'Self-com

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parisons' is literally 'comparisons (on equal terms) between their two selves.'

61. Saint Colme's inch; the island of Inchcolm off the coast of Fife, once occupied by St. Columba, the first teacher of Christianity to the Picts.

Our bosom interest: go pronounce his present death, And with his former title greet Macbeth.

Ross. I'll see it done.

Dun. What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath

won.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III. A heath near Forres.

Thunder. Enter the three Witches.

First Witch. Where hast thou been, sister?
Sec. Witch. Killing swine.

Third Witch. Sister, where thou?

First Witch. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in

her lap,

And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd:'Give me,' quoth I:

'Aroint thee, witch!' the rump-fed ronyon cries. Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger: But in a sieve I'll thither sail,

And, like a rat without a tail,

I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do.

Sec. Witch. I'll give thee a wind.

First Witch. Thou 'rt kind.

Third Witch. And I another.

First Witch. I myself have all the other,
And the very ports they blow,

All the quarters that they know
I' the shipman's card.

6. Aroint thee, 'begone!' Still in provincial use in the form 'rynt ye,' with the same

sense.

6. rump-fed, probably equiva. lent to 'pampered' rather than to 'offal-fed.'

6. ronyon, a term of abuse.

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9. A witch might assume any animal form, minus the tail.

10. I'll do; i.e. like a rat, gnaw a hole in the ship's bottom.

17. shipman's card, the circular card, marked with the points of the compass, for the steersman's use.

I will drain him dry as hay:
Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his pent-house lid;
He shall live a man forbid :
Weary se'nnights nine times nine.
Shall he dwindle, peak and pine:
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tost.
Look what I have.

Sec. Witch. Show me, show me.

First Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wreck'd as homeward he did come.

Third Witch. A drum, a drum! Macbeth doth come.

[Drum within.

All. The weird sisters, hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land,

Thus do go about, about:

Thrice to thine and thrice to mine

And thrice again, to make up nine.

Peace the charm's wound up.

Enter MACBETH and BANQUO.

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Mach. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. Ban. How far is 't call'd to Forres? What are

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these

So wither'd and so wild in their attire,

That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,
And yet are on 't? Live you? or are you aught

21. forbid, excommunicated. 33. Posters, messengers. 38. On one of those days when sunshine and storm struggle for the mastery,' Macbeth stands at the critical moment of his fortunes. His

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That man may question? You seem to under

stand me,

By each at once her choppy finger laying

Upon her skinny lips: you should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.

Macb.

Speak, if you can: what are you? First Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis !

Sec. Witch. All hail, Macbeth hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!

Third Witch. All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter !

Ban. Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear

Things that do sound so fair? I' the name of truth,

Are ye fantastical, or that indeed

Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner
You greet with present grace and great prediction
Of noble having and of royal hope,

That he seems rapt withal: to me you speak not.
If you can look into the seeds of time,

And say which grain will grow and which will not,
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favours nor your hate.

First Witch. Hail!

Sec. Witch. Hail!

Third Witch. Hail!

First Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. Sec. Witch. Not so happy, yet much happier. Third Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou

be none:

So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!

First Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!

53. fantastical, creations of fancy.

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Mach. 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
[Witches vanish.

you.

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Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, And these are of them. Whither are they vanish'd? 80 Macb. Into the air; and what seem'd corporal

melted

As breath into the wind.

Would they had stay'd!

Ban. Were such things here as we do speak

about?

Or have we eaten on the insane root

That takes the reason prisoner?

Macb. Your children shall be kings.

Ban.

You shall be king.

Mach. And thane of Cawdor too: went it not so? Ban. To the selfsame tune and words.

Who's

here?

Enter Ross and ANGUS.

Ross. 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

Which should be thine or his silenced with that,

:

In viewing o'er the rest o' the selfsame day,

He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,

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84. insane, producing insanity. Either hemlock or henbane is referred to.

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