Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches.

First Witch. When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

Second Witch. When the hurly-burly 's done, When the battle 's lost and won.

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Third Witch. That will be ere the set of sun.

First Witch. Where the place?

Second Witch.

Upon the heath.

Alarum within. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant.

Duncan. What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

The newest state.

Malcolm.
This is the sergeant
Who like a good and hardy soldier fought
'Gainst my captivity.-Hail, brave friend!
Say to the king the knowledge of the broil
As thou didst leave it.

Sergeant.

Doubtful it stood;

As two spent swimmers, that do cling together

And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald

Worthy to be a rebel, for to that

The multiplying villanies of nature

Do swarm upon him-from the western isles
Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied;
And Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,
Show'd like a rebel's whore: but all 's too weak;
For brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name-
Disdaining Fortune, with his brandish'd steel,
Which smok'd with bloody execution,
Like valour's minion carv'd out his passage

ΤΟ

Till he fac'd the slave;

Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps,
And fix'd his head upon our battlements.

Duncan. O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!
Sergeant. As whence the sun gins his reflection
Shipwracking storms and direful thunders break,
So from that spring whence comfort seem'd to come
Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark:
No sooner justice had with valour arm'd

Compell'd these skipping kerns to trust their heels,
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,
With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men
Began a fresh assault.

Duncan.

Dismay'd not this

Yes;

Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?

Sergeant.

As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.

If I say sooth, I must report they were

As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks;

So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe:
Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,
Or memorize another Golgotha,

I cannot tell—

But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.

Duncan. So well thy words become thee as thy wounds ; They smack of honour both.—Go get him surgeons.

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[Exit Sergeant, attended.

Who comes here?

Enter Ross.

Malcolm.

The worthy thane of Ross.

Lennox. What a haste looks through his eyes! So should

he look

That seems to speak things strange.

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Ross.

God save the king!

Duncan. Whence cam'st 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.

Duncan.
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.

Duncan. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive Our bosom interest: go pronounce his present death,

And with his former title greet Macbeth.

Ross. I'll see it done.

Duncan. What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won.

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[Exeunt.

SCENE III. A Heath.

Thunder. Enter the three Witches.

First Witch. Where hast thou been, sister?

Second 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.

Second 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.

I'll 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.

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Second Witch. Show me, show me.

First Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb,

Wrack'd as homeward he did come.

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

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.

[Drum within.

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