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 smother'd in surmise, and nothing is,

But what is not.

Ban.

Look, how our partner's rapt.

Mach. If chance will have me king, why, chance

Without my stir.

Ban.

may crown me,

New honours come upon him,

Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould,

But with the aid of use.

Come what come may,

Macb. Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. Mach. Give your favour: my dull brain wrought

was

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 chanc'd; and at more time,

The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak
Our free hearts each to other.

Ban.

Very gladly.

[Exeunt.

Mach. Till then, enough.-Come, friends.

SCENE IV.

Fores. A Room in the Palace.

Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENOX, and Attendants.

Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor; or not Those in commission yet return'd"?

Mal.

My liege,

They are not yet come back; but I have spoke
With one that saw him die, who did report,
That very frankly he confess'd his treasons,
Implor'd your highness' pardon, and set forth
A deep repentance. Nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it: he died
As one that had been studied in his death,
To throw away the dearest thing he ow'd,
As 'twere a careless trifle.

Dun.

There's no art,

To find the mind's construction in the face:

He was a gentleman on whom I built

An absolute trust.

Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSSE, and ANGUS.

O worthiest cousin!

or not

Those in commission yet returned ?] The folio of 1632 alters "or" into are, a change which all modern editors have adopted, but without sufficient reason. Duncan asks whether execution has been done on Cawdor, or whether the tidings had not yet been received by the return of those commissioned for the purpose? I owe this restoration to the Rev. Mr. Barry.

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 deserv'd,
That the proportion both of thanks and payment
Might have been mine! only I have left to say,
More is thy due than more than all can pay.

Mach. 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 honour.

Dun.

Welcome hither:

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

Ban.

The harvest is your own.

Dun.

There if I grow,

My plenteous joys,

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 honour must
Not, unaccompanied, invest him only,

But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
On all deservers. From hence to Inverness,

And bind us farther to you.

Mach. The rest is labour, which is not us'd for you:

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

Dun.

My worthy Cawdor!

[Aside.

Mach. The prince of Cumberland'!-That is a step, On which I must fall down, or else o'er-leap, For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires! Let not light see my black and deep desires; The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be, Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.

[Exit.

Dun. True, worthy Banquo: he is full so valiant,

And in his commendations I am fed;

It is a banquet to me. Let us after him,
Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome:
It is a peerless kinsman.

[Flourish. Exeunt.

SCENE V.

Inverness. A Room in MACBETH'S Castle.

Enter Lady MACBETH, reading a letter.

Lady M. "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 farther, they made themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who all-hailed 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 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."

7 The prince of Cumberland!] The crown of Scotland (as Steevens remarks) was originally not hereditary. When the successor was declared in the lifetime of a king, (as was often the case) the title of Prince of Cumberland was immediately bestowed on him as a mark of his designation. Cumberland was at that time held by Scotland of the crown of England as a fief. This incident is from Holinshed.

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be

What thou art promis'd.-Yet do I fear thy nature:
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: what thou wouldst highly,
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 valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round,
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
To have thee crown'd withal.-

Enter an Attendant.

What is your tidings?

Atten. The king comes here to-night.

Lady M.

Is not thy master with him? who, wer't so,

Would have inform'd for preparation.

Atten. So please you, it is true: our thane is coming.

One of my fellows had the speed of him ;

Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more

Than would make up his message.

Lady M.

Give him tending:

He brings great news. [Exit Attendant.] The raven

himself is hoarse,

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan

Under my battlements. Come, you spirits

8

The raven himself is hoarse,

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan

Under my battlements.] These lines have produced a good deal of comment, but the meaning seems to be, that Lady Macbeth considers the fate of