First Witch.
Where hast thou ^note been, sister?

Sec. Witch.
Killing swine.

Third Witch.
Sister ^note, where thou?

First Witch.
A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap,
And mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd. ‘Give me,’ quoth I: ^note
‘Aroint thee ^note, 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 ^note.

Sec. Witch.
I'll give thee a wind.

First Witch.
Thou'rt ^note kind.

Third Witch.
And I another.

First Witch.
I myself have all the other;
And the very ^note ports ^note they blow,
All the quarters that they know ^note
I' the shipman's card. ^note
I will ^note 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 ^note 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.

Sec. Witch.
Show me, show me.

First Witch.
Here I have a pilot's thumb,
Wreck'd as homeward he did come. [Drum within.

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

All.
The weird ^note sisters, hand in hand,
Posters of ^note the sea and land,
Thus do go about, about:
Thrice ^note to thine, and thrice to mine,
And thrice again, to make up nine.
Peace! the charm's wound up. Enter Macbeth and Banquo. ^{note note}

Macb.
So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

Ban.
How far is't call'd to Forres ^note? What are these
So wither'd, and so wild in their attire,
That look not like the inhabitants o' the ^note earth,
And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught
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?

First Witch.
All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis!

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

Third Witch.
All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!

Ban.
Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear ^note
Things that do sound so fair? I' the name of truth,
Are ye fantastical, or that indeed
Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner
You greet with present grace and great prediction
Of noble having and of royal hope,
That he seems rapt ^note withal: to me you speak not:
If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow and which will not ^note,
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favours nor your hate.

First Witch.
Hail!

Sec. Witch.
Hail!

Third Witch.
Hail!

First Witch.
Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.

Sec. Witch.
Not so happy, yet much happier.

Third Witch.
Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none:
So ^note all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!

First Witch. ^note
Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!

Macb.
Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:
By Sinel's ^note death I know I am ^note 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 you. ^note [Witches vanish.

Ban.
The earth hath bubbles as the water has,
And these are of them: whither are they vanish'd?

Macb.
Into the air, and what seem'd corporal melted
As breath into the wind. Would they had stay'd! ^note

Ban.
Were such things here as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten on ^note 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 selfsame tune and words. Who's ^note here? ^noteEnter Ross and Angus.

Ross.
The king hath happily received, Macbeth,
The news of thy success: and when he reads
Thy personal venture ^note in the rebels' fight,
His wonders and his praises do contend
Which should ^note be thine or his: silenced with that, ^note
In viewing o'er the rest o' the selfsame day,
He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,
Nothing afeard ^note of what thyself didst make,
Strange images of death. As ^note thick as hail
Came ^note post with ^note post ^note, and every one did bear
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence,
And pour'd them down before him.

Ang.
We are sent ^note

To give thee, from our royal master, thanks;
Only to herald ^note thee into his ^note sight,
Not pay thee. ^note

Ross.
And for an earnest of a greater honour,
He bade ^note me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor:
In which addition, hail, most worthy thane!
For it is thine.

Ban.
What, can the devil speak true?

Macb.
The thane of Cawdor lives: why do you dress me
In borrow'd ^note robes? ^note

Ang.
Who was the thane lives yet,
But under heavy judgement bears that life
Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined
With those of ^note Norway, or did ^note line the rebel
With hidden help and vantage, or that ^note with both
He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not ^note;
But treasons capital, confess'd and proved,
Have overthrown him.

Macb. [Aside ^note]
Glamis, and thane of Cawdor: ^note
The greatest is behind.—Thanks for your pains.— ^note
Do you not hope your children shall be kings,
When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me
Promised no less to them?

Ban.
That, trusted ^note home,
Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange:
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,

The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray's ^note
In deepest consequence. ^note
Cousins, a word, I pray you ^note.

Macb. [Aside ^note]
Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme.—I thank you, gentlemen. [Aside ^note]
This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill; cannot ^note be good ^note: if ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of success, ^note
Commencing in a truth? I am ^note thane of Cawdor:
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix ^note my hair ^note
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present fears ^note
Are less than horrible imaginings:
My thought, whose ^note murder yet is but fantastical ^note,
Shakes so my single state of man that function
Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is
But what is not. ^note

Ban.
Look, how our partner's ^note rapt.

Macb. [Aside ^note]
If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, ^note
Without my stir.

Ban.
New honours come upon him,
Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould
But with the aid of use.

Macb. [Aside ^note]
Come what come may,
Time and the hour ^note runs through the roughest day.

Ban.
Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.

Macb.
Give me your favour: my dull brain was wrought ^note
With things forgotten ^note. Kind gentlemen, your pains
Are register'd where every day I turn
The leaf to read them. Let us toward the king. ^note
Think upon what hath chanced, and at more time, ^note
The ^note interim having weigh'd it, let us speak
Our free hearts each to other.

Ban.
Very gladly.

Macb.
Till then, enough. Come, friends. ^note [Exeunt. ^note

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