1st Witch.
Where hast thou been, sister?

2nd Witch.
Killing swine.

3rd Witch.
Sister, where thou?

1st Witch.
A sailor's wife had chesnuts in her lap,

And mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd:—
  ‘Give me,’ quoth I:
‘Aroint thee, witch!’^{1 note}the rump-fed ronyon^{2 note} cries.
Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger:
But in a sieve I'll thither sail,^{3 note}

2nd Witch.
I'll give thee a wind.

1st Witch.
Thou art kind.

3rd Witch.
And I another.

1st Witch.
I myself have all the other;
And the very ports they blow,
All the quarters that they know
I' the shipman's card^{5 note} “to show.”^{6 note}
I will drain him dry as hay:
Sleep shall, neither night nor day,
Hang upon his pent-house lid;
He shall live a man forbid:^{7 note}

Weary sev'n-nights nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine:^{8 note}

2nd Witch.
Show me, show me.

1st Witch.
Here I have a pilot's thumb,
Wreck'd as homeward he did come. (Drum within)

3rd Witch.
A drum, a drum;
Macbeth doth come.

All. (they join hands, and go round whilst speaking)
The weird sisters,^{9 note} 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.

Macbeth. (without)
Command they make a halt upon the heath.

Voices. (without)
Halt,—halt,—halt!

Enter Macbeth and Banquo, L. U. E.

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

Ban.
How far is't call'd to Fores?—What are these,
So wither'd and so wild in their attire;
That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,
And yet are on't?—Live you? or are you aught
That man may question? Yo 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.

Macbeth.
Speak, if you can;—What are you?

1st Witch.
All hail,^{10 note} 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,^{11 note} 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 wrapt 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;
Speak then to me, who neither beg, nor fear,
Your favours, 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.

Witches.
So, all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!
Banquo, and Macbeth, all hail!

Macbeth.
Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:
By Sinel's death,^{12 note} 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 you. [Witches vanish.(B)8Q0162

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

Macbeth.
Into the air; and what seem'd corporal, melted
As breath into the wind.—'Would they had staid!

Ban.
Were such things here, as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten of the insane root,^{13 note}
That takes the reason prisoner?

Macbeth.
Your children shall be kings.

Ban.
You shall be a king.

Macbeth.
And Thane of Cawdor too; went it not so?

Ban.
To the self-same tune, and words. Who's here? Enter Rosse and Angus, R.

Ros.
The king hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth,
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: Silenc'd with that,
In viewing o'er the rest o' the self-same day,

He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
Strange images of death. As thick as tale,^{14 note}
Came post with post; and every one did bear
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence,
And pour'd them down before him.

Ang.
We are sent,
To give thee, from our royal master, thanks;
To herald thee into his sight, not pay thee.

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

Ban. (aside, L.)
What, can the devil speak true?

Macbeth.
The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me
In borrow'd robes?

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

Macbeth.
Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor:
The greatest is behind. (aside) Thanks for your pains.—
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, thrusted 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 us
In deepest consequence.—
Cousins, a word, I pray you. [retiring with them.

Macbeth.
Two truths are told,

As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme. I thank you, gentlemen.—
This supernatural soliciting^{15 note}
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 smother'd in surmise; and nothing is,
But what is not.^{16 note}

Ban.
Look, how our partner's rapt.

Macbeth.
If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me,
Without my stir.

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

Macbeth.
Come what come may;
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.

Ban.
Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.

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

Ban.
Very gladly.

Macbeth.
Till then, enough. Come, friends. Exeunt, R.

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