THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH

Act 1 Scene 3

(Thunder. Enter the three Witches)
l1l	First Witch	 Where hast thou been, sister?
l2l	Second Witch	Killing swine.
	Third Witch	Sister, where thou?
l3l	First Witch	A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap,
l4l		And munched, and munched, and munched. “Give me,” quoth I.
l5l		“Aroint thee, witch,” the rump-fed runnion cries.
l6l		Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master o’ th’ Tiger.
l7l		But in a sieve I’ll thither sail,
l8l		And like a rat without a tail
l9l		I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.
l10l	Second Witch	I’ll give thee a wind.
l11l	First Witch	Thou’rt kind.
l12l	Third Witch	And I another.
l13l	First Witch	I myself have all the other,
l14l		And the very ports they blow,
l15l		All the quarters that they know
l16l		I’ th’ shipman’s card.
l17l		I’ll drain him dry as hay.
l18l		Sleep shall neither night nor day
l19l		Hang upon his penthouse lid.
l20l		He shall live a man forbid.
l21l		Weary sennights nine times nine
l22l		Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.
l23l		Though his barque cannot be lost,
l24l		Yet it shall be tempest-tossed.
l25l		Look what I have.
	Second Witch	Show me, show me.
l26l	First Witch	Here I have a pilot’s thumb,
l27l		Wrecked as homeward he did come.
		(Drum within)
l28l	Third Witch	 A drum, a drum—
l29l		Macbeth doth come.
l30l	All	(dancing in a ring)
		 The weird sisters hand in hand,
l31l		Posters of the sea and land,
l32l		Thus do go about, about,
l33l		Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine,
l34l		And thrice again to make up nine.
l35l		Peace! The charm’s wound up.
		(Enter Macbeth and Banquo)
l36l	Macbeth	 So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
l37l	Banquo	How far is ’t called to Forres? Auncertain> —What are these,
l38l		So withered, and so wild in their attire,
l39l		That look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ earth
l40l		And yet are on ’t?—Live you, or are you aught
l41l		That man may question? You seem to understand me
l42l		By each at once her choppy finger laying
l43l		Upon her skinny lips. You should be women,
l44l		And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
l45l		That you are so. AShakespeare> 
	Macbeth	
		(to the Witches)
		 Speak, if you can. What are you?
l46l	First Witch	All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis.
l47l	Second Witch	All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor.
l48l	Third Witch	All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!
l49l	Banquo	Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear
l50l		Things that do sound so fair?
		(To the Witches)
		 I’ th’ name of truth,
l51l		Are ye fantastical or that indeed
l52l		Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner
l53l		You greet with present grace and great prediction
l54l		Of noble having and of royal hope,
l55l		That he seems rapt withal. To me you speak not.
l56l		If you can look into the seeds of time
l57l		And say which grain will grow and which will not,
l58l		Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
l59l		Your favours nor your hate.
l60l	First Witch	Hail!
l61l	Second Witch	Hail!
l62l	Third Witch	Hail!
l63l	First Witch	Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
l64l	Second Witch	Not so happy, yet much happier.
l65l	Third Witch	Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.
l66l		So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!
l67l	First Witch	Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!
l68l	Macbeth	Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more.
l69l		By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis,
l70l		But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives,
l71l		A prosperous gentleman, and to be king
l72l		Stands not within the prospect of belief,
l73l		No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence
l74l		You owe this strange intelligence, or why
l75l		Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
l76l		With such prophetic greeting. Speak, I charge you.
		(The Witches vanish)
l77l	Banquo	 The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
l78l		And these are of them. Whither are they vanished?
l79l	Macbeth	Into the air, and what seemed corporal
l80l		Melted as breath into the wind. Would they had stayed.
l81l	Banquo	Were such things here as we do speak about,
l82l		Or have we eaten on the insane root
l83l		That takes the reason prisoner?
l84l	Macbeth	Your children shall be kings.
	Banquo	You shall be king.
l85l	Macbeth	And Thane of Cawdor too. Went it not so?
l86l	Banquo	To th’ self-same tune and words. Who’s here?
		(Enter Ross and Angus)
l87l	Ross	 The King hath happily received, Macbeth,
l88l		The news of thy success, and when he reads
l89l		Thy personal venture in the rebels’ sight
l90l		His wonders and his praises do contend
l91l		Which should be thine or his# silenced with that,
l92l		In viewing o’er the rest o’ th’ self-same day
l93l		He finds thee in the stout Norwegian ranks,
l94l		Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
l95l		Strange images of death. As thick as hail
l96l		Came post with post, and every one did bear
l97l		Thy praises in his kingdom’s great defence,
l98l		And poured them down before him.
	Angus	
		(to Macbeth)
		 We are sent
l99l		To give thee from our royal master thanks#
l100l		Only to herald thee into his sight,
l101l		Not pay thee.
l102l	Ross	And, for an earnest of a greater honour,
l103l		He bade me from him call thee Thane of Cawdor,
l104l		In which addition, hail, most worthy thane,
l105l		For it is thine.
	Banquo	What, can the devil speak true?
l106l	Macbeth	The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me
l107l		In borrowed robes?
	Angus	Who was the thane lives yet,
l108l		But under heavy judgement bears that life
l109l		Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined
l110l		With those of Norway, or did line the rebel
l111l		With hidden help and vantage, or that with both
l112l		He laboured in his country’s wrack, I know not#
l113l		But treasons capital, confessed, and proved
l114l		Have overthrown him.
	Macbeth	
		(aside)
		 Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor.
l115l		The greatest is behind.
		(To Ross and Angus)
		 Thanks for your pains.
l116l		(To Banquo)
		 Do you not hope your children shall be kings
l117l		When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me
l118l		Promised no less to them?
	Banquo	That, trusted home,
l119l		Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
l120l		Besides the thane of Cawdor. But ’tis strange,
l121l		And oftentimes to win us to our harm
l122l		The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
l123l		Win us with honest trifles to betray ’s
l124l		In deepest consequence.
l125l		(To Ross and Angus)
		 Cousins, a word, I pray you.
l126l	Macbeth	(aside)
		 Two truths are told
l127l		As happy prologues to the swelling act
l128l		Of the imperial theme.
		(To Ross and Angus)
		 I thank you, gentlemen.
l129l		(Aside)
		 This supernatural soliciting
l130l		Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill,
l131l		Why hath it given me earnest of success
l132l		Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor.
l133l		If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
l134l		Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
l135l		And make my seated heart knock at my ribs
l136l		Against the use of nature? Present fears
l137l		Are less than horrible imaginings.
l138l		My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
l139l		Shakes so my single state of man that function
l140l		Is smothered in surmise, and nothing is
l141l		But what is not.
	Banquo	
		(to Ross and Angus)
		 Look how our partner’s rapt.
l142l	Macbeth	(aside)
		 If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me
l143l		Without my stir.
	Banquo	
		(to Ross and Angus)
		 New honours come upon him,
l144l		Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould
l145l		But with the aid of use.
	Macbeth	
		(aside)
		 Come what come may,
l146l		Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
l147l	Banquo	Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.
l148l	Macbeth	Give me your favour. My dull brain was wrought
l149l		With things forgotten.
		(To Ross and Angus)
		 Kind gentlemen, your pains
l150l		Are registered where every day I turn
l151l		The leaf to read them. Let us toward the King.
l152l		(Aside to Banquo)
		 Think upon what hath chanced, and at more time,
l153l		The interim having weighed it, let us speak
l154l		Our free hearts each to other.
l155l	Banquo	Very gladly.
l156l	Macbeth	Till then, enough.
		(To Ross and Angus)
		 Come, friends.
		(Exeunt)