Macbeth (4 page)
Authors: William Shakespeare
MACBETH
LIST OF PARTS
running scene 1
Location: an open place
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
3
’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won.
THIRD WITCH
That will be
ere
5
the set of sun.
FIRST WITCH
Where the place?
SECOND WITCH
Upon the heath.
THIRD WITCH
There to meet with Macbeth.
FIRST WITCH
I come,
Grey Malkin
9
.
SECOND WITCH
Paddock
10
calls.
THIRD WITCH
Anon
11
.
ALL
Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
Exeunt
running scene 2
Location:
Scotland, outdoors, exact location unspecified
Alarum
within. Enter King
[
Duncan
]
, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Captain
DUNCAN
What bloody man is that? He can report,
As seemeth by his
plight
2
, of the revolt
The
newest state
3
.
MALCOLM
This is the sergeant
Who like a good and
hardy
5
soldier fought
Gainst my
captivity
6
.—Hail, brave friend;
To the Captain
Say to the king the knowledge of the
broil
7
As thou didst leave it.
CAPTAIN
Doubtful it stood,
As two
spent
10
swimmers that do cling together
And
choke their art
11
. The merciless Macdonald—
Worthy to be a rebel, for
to that
12
The
multiplying villainies of nature
13
Do swarm upon him—from the
Western Isles
14
Of kerns
15
and gallowglasses is supplied,
And Fortune on his damnèd
quarrel
16
smiling,
Showed
17
like a rebel’s whore. But all’s too weak,
For brave Macbeth—well he deserves that name—
Disdaining Fortune, with his
brandished
19
steel
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like valour’s
minion
21
carved out his passage
Till he faced the
slave
22
,
Which
23
ne’er shook hands nor bade farewell to him
Till he
unseamed him
24
from the nave to th’chops
And fixed his head upon our battlements.
DUNCAN
O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman!
CAPTAIN
As whence the sun ’gins his reflection,
Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders
27
,
So from that
spring
29
whence comfort seemed to come,
Discomfort
swells
30
. Mark, King of Scotland, mark:
No sooner justice had, with valour armed,
Compelled these
skipping
32
kerns to trust their heels,
But the
Norwegian lord
33
, surveying vantage,
With
furbished
34
arms and new supplies of men,
Began a fresh assault.
DUNCAN
Dismayed not this our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?
CAPTAIN
Yes, as sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion
37
.
If I say
sooth
38
, I must report they were
As cannons overcharged with double
cracks
39
,
So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe.
Except
41
they meant to bathe in reeking wounds
Or
memorize
42
another Golgotha,
I cannot tell.
But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.
DUNCAN
So well thy words
become
45
thee as thy wounds:
They
smack
46
of honour both.—Go get him surgeons.
[
Exit Captain, attended
]
Enter Ross and Angus
Who comes here?
MALCOLM
The worthy
Thane
48
of Ross.
LENNOX
What a haste
looks through
49
his eyes!
So should he look that
seems to
50
speak things strange.
ROSS
God save the king.
DUNCAN
Whence cam’st thou, worthy thane?
ROSS
From
Fife
53
, great king,
Where the Norwegian banners
flout
54
the sky
And fan our people cold.
Norway himself
56
, with terrible numbers,
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor,
The Thane of Cawdor, began a
dismal
58
conflict
Till that
Bellona’s bridegroom
59
, lapped in proof,
Confronted him with self-comparisons
60
,
Point
61
against point, rebellious arm gainst arm,
Curbing his
lavish
62
spirit: and to conclude,
The victory fell on us—
DUNCAN
Great happiness.
ROSS
That now Sweno, the
Norways’
65
king,
Craves composition
66
:
Nor would we
deign
67
him burial of his men
Till he
disbursèd
68
at Saint Colme’s inch
Ten thousand
dollars
69
to our general use.
DUNCAN
No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive
Our
bosom interest
71
: 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.
Exeunt
running scene 3
Location: 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 munched and munched and munched.
‘Give me’,
quoth
6
I.
‘
Aroint thee
7
, witch!’ the
rump-fed
runnion
cries.
Her husband’s to
Aleppo
8
gone,
master
o’th’
Tiger
:
But in a sieve I’ll thither sail,
And
like
10
a rat without a tail,
I’ll
do
11
, 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
15
,
And the very
ports they blow
16
,
All the
quarters
17
that they know
I’th’shipman’s card
18
.
I’ll
drain
19
him dry as hay:
Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his
penthouse lid
21
:
He shall live a man
forbid
22
:
Weary
sennights
23
nine times nine
Shall he dwindle,
peak and pine
24
.
Though his
bark
25
cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be
tempest-tossed
26
.
Look what I have.
SECOND WITCH
Show me, show me.
FIRST WITCH
Here I have a
pilot’s
29
thumb,
Wrecked as homeward he did come.
Drum within
THIRD WITCH
A drum, a drum:
Macbeth doth come.
ALL
The
weyard
33
sisters, hand in hand,
They dance in a circle
Posters
34
of the sea and land,
Thus do go about, about,
Thrice to thine and thrice to mine
And thrice again, to make up nine
35
.
Peace
38
, the
charm’s
wound up
.
Enter Macbeth and Banquo
MACBETH
So
foul and fair
39
a day I have not seen.
BANQUO
How far
is’t called
40
to
Forres
?—What are these,
So withered and so wild in their attire,
That look not like th’inhabitants o’th’earth
And yet are
on’t
43
?—Live you, or are you
aught
To Witches
That man may question? You seem to understand me
By each at once her
choppy
45
finger laying
Upon her skinny lips. You
should be
46
women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.
MACBETH
Speak if you can: what are you?
FIRST WITCH
All hail, Macbeth: hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!
SECOND WITCH
All hail, Macbeth: hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
THIRD WITCH
All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!
BANQUO
Good sir, why do you
start
53
and seem to fear
Things that do sound so fair?—I’th’name of truth,
To Witches
Are ye
fantastical
55
or that
indeed
Which outwardly ye
show
56
? My noble partner
You greet with
present grace
57
and great prediction
Of noble
having
58
and of royal hope,
That he seems
rapt withal
59
: 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
62
.
FIRST WITCH
Hail!
SECOND WITCH
Hail!
THIRD WITCH
Hail!
FIRST WITCH
Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
SECOND WITCH
Not so
happy
68
, yet much happier.
THIRD WITCH
Thou shalt
get
69
kings, though thou be none:
So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!
FIRST WITCH
Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!
MACBETH
Stay, you
imperfect
72
speakers: tell me more.
By
Sinel’s
73
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
76
of belief,
No more than to be Cawdor. Say from
whence
You owe this strange intelligence
77
or why
Upon this
blasted
79
heath you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I
charge
80
you.
Witches vanish