SCENE V.-The Heath. Thunder. Enter HECATE, meeting the three Witches. 1st Witch. Why, how now, Hecate? you angerly. look Hec. Have I not reason, beldams as you are, In riddles and affairs of death; And I, the mistress of your charms, The close contriver of all harms, And, which is worse, all you have done 1 Meet me i' the morning; thither he Your vessels and your spells provide, I am for the air; this night I'll spend Great business must be wrought ere noon: There hangs a vaporous drop profound; He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear Is mortals' chiefest enemy. SCENE VI.-Fores. A Room in the Palace. Enter LENOX and another Lord. Len. My former speeches have but hit your thoughts, Which can interpret further: only, I say, Things have been strangely borne. The gracious Duncan Was pitied of Macbeth :-marry, he was dead: For Fleance fled. Men must not walk too late. That were the slaves of drink, and thralls of sleep? Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely too; For 't would have angered any heart alive, To hear the men deny it. So that, I say, He has borne all things well: and I do think, That, had he Duncan's sons under his key (As, an't please heaven, he shall not), they should find What 't were to kill a father: so should Fleance. But peace!-for from broad words, and 'cause he failed His presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear The son of Duncan, Lord. From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth, Lives in the English court; and is received 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, upon his aid, To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward: Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights; Len. 1st Witch. Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed. 2nd Witch. Thrice; and once the hedge-pig whined. 3rd Witch. Harper cries:-'Tis time, 'tis time. 1st Witch. Round about the cauldron go; All. All. In the poisoned entrails throw.Toad, that under the cold stone, Days and nights hast thirty-one Sweltered venom sleeping got, Boil thou first i'the charmed pot! Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble. 2nd Witch. Fillet of a fenny snake, 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 sting, Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble. 3rd Witch. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf; Witch's mummy; maw and gulf Of the ravined salt-sea shark; Root of hemlock, digged i' the dark; Liver of blaspheming Jew; Gall of goat, and slips of yew Slivered in the moon's eclipse; Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips; Finger of birth-strangled babe, Ditch-delivered by a drab, Make the gruel thick and slab: Add thereto a tiger's chawdron, For the ingredients of our cauldron. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble. 2nd Witch. Cool it with a baboon's blood, Then the charm is firm and good. Macb. Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo; down! Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls :—and thy air, What! will the line stretch out to the crack of doom? Another yet?—A seventh ?—I'll see no more :— [Music. The Witches dance, and vanish. Maco. Where are they? Gone? Let this per Maco. Fled to England? Len. Ay, my good lord. Macb. Time, thou anticipat'st my dread exploits: The flighty purpose never is o'ertook, Unless the deed go with it: from this moment, The very firstlings of my heart shall be The firstlings of my hand. And even now, The castle of Macduff I will surprise; Whether it was his wisdom, or his fear. L. Macd. Wisdom! to leave his wife, to leave his babes, His mansion, and his titles, in a place But cruel are the times when we are traitors, To what they were before.-My pretty cousin, L. Macd. Fathered he is, and yet he's father |