Mach. Come, we'll to fleep: My strange and self-abuse Is the initiate fear, that wants hard use :-
We are yet but young in deed.
Thunder. Enter HECATE, meeting the three Witches.
1. Witch. Why, how now, Hecate? you look angerly. Hec. Have I not reafon, beldams, as you are,
Saucy, and overbold? How did you
To trade and traffick with Macbeth,
In riddles, and affairs of death;
And I, the mistress of your charms,
The close contriver of all harms,
Was never call'd to bear my part,
Or fhow the glory of our art?
And, which is worse, all you have done
Hath been but for a wayward fon,
Spiteful, and wrathful; who, as others do,
Loves for his own ends, not for you.
But make amends now: Get you gone,
And at the pit of Acheron
Meet me i' the morning; thither he
Will come to know his destiny.
Your veffels, and your fpells, provide,
Your charms, and every thing befide :
I am for the air; this night I'll spend
Unto a.difmal-fatal end.
Great business must be wrought ere noon :
Upon the corner of the moon
There hangs a vaporous drop profound;
I'll catch it ere it come to ground:
And that, diftill'd by magick flights,
Shall raife fuch artificial sprights,
As, by the ftrength of their illufion,
Shall draw him on to his confufion :
He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear
His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and fear:
And you all know, security
Is mortals' chiefeft enemy.
SONG. [within.] Come away, come away, &c.
Hark, I am call'd; my little fpirit, see,
1. Witch. Come, let's make hafte; fhe'll foon be back
Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me.
Fores. A Room in the Palace.
Enter LENOx, and another Lord.
Len. My former fpeeches have but hit your thoughts, Which can interpret further: only, I fay,
Things have been strangely borne: The gracious Duncan
Was pitied of Macbeth :-marry, he was dead
And the right-valiant Banquo walk'd too late;
Whom, you may say, if it please you, Fleance kill'd,
For Fleance fled. Men must not walk too late.
Who cannot want the thought, how monftrous
It was for Malcolm, and for Donalbain,
To kill their gracious father? damned fact !
How it did grieve Macbeth! did he not straight,
In pious rage, the two delinquents tear,
That were the flaves of drink, and thralls of sleep?
Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wifely too;
For 'twould have anger'd any heart alive,
To hear the men deny it. So that, I fay,
He has borne all things well: and I do think,
That, had he Duncan's fons under his key,
(As, an't please heaven, he shall not,) they should find What 'twere to kill a father; so should Fleance.
But, peace!-for from broad words, and 'cause he fail'd
His presence at the tyrant's feaft, I hear,
Macduff lives in difgrace: Sir, can you tell
Where he bestows himself?
Lord.
From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth,
Lives in the English court; and is receiv'd
Of the most pious Edward with such grace,
That the malevolence of fortune nothing
Takes from his high respect: Thither Macduff
Is gone to pray the holy king, on his aid
To wake Northumberland, and warlike Siward :
That, by the help of these, (with him above
To ratify the work,) we may again
Give to our tables meat, fleep to our nights;
Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives;
Do faithful homage, and receive free honours
All which we pine for now: And this report
Hath so exasperate the king, that he
Prepares for fome attempt of war.
Lord. He did: and with an abfolute, Sir, not I,
The cloudy messenger turns me his back,
And hums; as who should say, You'll rue the time
That clogs me with this answer.
Advife him to a caution, to hold what distance
His wifdom can provide. Some holy angel
Fly to the court of England, and unfold
His message ere he come; that a fwift bleffing
May foon return to this our fuffering country
Under a hand accurs'd!
My prayers with him! [Exeunt.
A dark Cave. In the middle, a Cauldron boiling.
Thunder. Enter the three Witches.
Witch. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
2. Witch. Thrice; and once the hedge-pig whin'd.
3. Witch. Harper cries :-'Tis time, 'tis time.
1. Witch. Round about the cauldron go;
In the poifon'd entrails throw.-
Toad, that under coldest stone,
Days and nights haft thirty one
Swelter'd venom fleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot!
All. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire, burn; and, cauldron, bubble.
2. Witch. Fillet of a fenny fnake,
In the cauldron boil and bake:
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's fting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
All. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire, burn; and, cauldron, bubble.
3. Witch. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf;
Witches' mummy; maw, and gulf,
Of the ravin'd falt-fea fhark;
Root of hemlock, digg'd i' the dark;
Liver of blafpheming Jew;
Gall of goat, and flips of yew,
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