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That man may question? You seem to understand

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?
1st Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee,
thane of Glamis !

2nd Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!

3rd 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 shew? My noble partner

Ye greet with present grace, and great prediction
Of noble having and of royal hope,

Macb. Into the air; and what seemed corporal,

melted

As breath into the wind. 'Would they had stayed.
Ban. Were such things here as we do speak
about?

Or have we eaten of the insane root,
That takes the reason prisoner?

Macb. Your children shall be kings.
Ban. You shall be king.

Macb. And thane of Cawdor too; went it not so?
Ban. To the self-same tune, and words. Who's
here?

Enter ROSSE and ANGUS.

Rosse. The King hath happily received, Mac-
beth,

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 self-same day,

That he seems rapt withal: to me you speak not: He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,
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 favors nor your hate.

1st Witch. Hail!

2nd Witch. Hail!

3rd Witch. Hail!

1st Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 2nd Witch. Not so happy, yet much happier. 3rd Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none:

So, all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!

1st Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!
Macb. 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.
Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
And these are of them. Whither are they vanished?

you.

Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
Strange images of death. As thick as hail,
Came post with post; and every one did bear
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defense,
And poured them down before him.

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Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 't is strange :
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths;
Win us with honest trifles, to betray us
In deepest consequence.-

Cousins, a word, I pray you.

Macb.

Two truths are told,

As happy prologues to the swelling act

Of the imperial theme.-I thank you, gentlemen.-
This supernatural soliciting

Cannot be ill cannot be good. If ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor:
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings:

My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man, that function
Is smothered in surmise; and nothing is,
But what is not.

Ban.

Look how our partner's rapt.
Macb. If chance will have me king, why chance

may crown me,

Without my

Ban.

stir.

New honors come upon him

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The sin of my ingratitude even now

Was heavy on me: Thou art so far before,
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow

To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved;
That the proportion both of thanks and payment
Might have been mine! only I have left to say,

Like our strange garments; cleave not to their More is thy due than more than all can pay.

mould

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Macb. The service and the loyalty I owe,
In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part
Is to receive our duties: and our duties
Are, to your throne and state, children and
servants;

Which do but what they should, by doing every-
thing

Safe toward your love and honor.
Welcome hither:

Dun.

I have begun to plant thee, and will labor
To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo,
That hast no less deserved, nor must be known
No less to have done so, let me infold thee,
And hold thee to my heart.

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Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves
In drops of sorrow.-Sons, kinsmen, thanes,
And you whose places are the nearest, know,
We will establish our estate upon

Our eldest, Malcolm; whom we name hereafter,
The Prince of Cumberland: which honor must
Not, unaccompanied, invest him only,

But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
On all deservers.-From hence to Inverness,
And bind us further to you.

Macb. The rest is labor which is not used for you:

I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful
The hearing of my wife with your approach;
So, humbly take my leave.

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partner of greatness; that thou mightest not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell."

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy na-
ture;

It is too full o' the milk of human kindness,
To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great;
Art not without ambition; but without
The illness should attend it.
highly,

What thou wouldst

That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou 'dst have, great Glamis,

That which cries, "Thus thou must do, if thou have it ;

And that which rather thou dost fear to do,
Than wishest should be undone." Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;

And chastise with the valor of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
To have thee crowned withal. What is your
tidings?

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One of my fellows had the speed of him;
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more

SCENE V.-Inverness. A Room in MACBETH's Than would make up his message.

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Castle.

Enter LADY MACBETH, reading a letter.

They met me in the day of success; and I have learned, by the perfectest report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves—air, into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who allhailed me Thane of Cawdor;' by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on of time, with, Hail, king that shalt be!'This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest

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And take my milk for gall, you murdering min- By his loved mansionry, that the heaven's breath

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Shall sun that morrow see!

Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent
flower,

But be the serpent under it. He that's coming
Must be provided for: and you shall put
This night's great business into my despatch;
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
Mach. We will speak further.

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Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze,
Buttress, nor coigne of vantage, but this bird
Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle :
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed
The air is delicate.

Dun.

Enter LADY MACBETH.

See, see! our honored hostess ! The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you, How you shall bid God yield us for your pains, And thank us for your trouble. All our service

Lady M. In every point twice done, and then done double, Were poor and single business, to contend Against those honors deep and broad, wherewith Your majesty loads our house. For those of old, And the late dignities heaped up to them, We rest your hermits.

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[Exeunt. By your leave, hostess.

[Exeunt.

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-

shoal of time,-
But in these cases
that we but teach

But here, upon this bank and
We'd jump the life to come.
We still have judgment here;
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague the inventor: Thus even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice
To our own lips. He's here in double trust:
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed: then, as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off:
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,

Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsed

Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,

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That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur But screw your courage to the sticking-place,

To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on the other-How now, what news?

Enter LADY MACBETH.

And we 'll not fail! When Duncan is asleep
(Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey
Soundly invite him), his two chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassel so convince,
That memory, the warder of the brain,

Lady M. He has almost supped: Why have Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason

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Macb. We will proceed no further in this The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon

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