LADY MACDUFF, his wife

MACDUFF’S SON

SIWARD, Earl of Northumberland

YOUNG SIWARD, his son

An English DOCTOR

HECATE, Queen of the Witches

Six WITCHES

Three APPARITIONS, one an armed head, one a bloody child, one

a child crowned

A SPIRIT LIKE A CAT

Other SPIRITS

An OLD MAN

A MESSENGER

MURDERERS

SERVANTS

A show of eight kings; Lords and Thanes, attendants, soldiers, drummers

The Tragedy of Macbeth

1.1 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’s done,

When the battle’s lost and won.

THIRD WITCH

That will be ere 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, Grimalkin.

SECOND WITCH

Paddock calls.

THIRD WITCH

Anon.

ALL

Fair is foul, and foul is fair,

Hover through the fog and filthy air. Exeunt

1.2 Alarum within. Enter king Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with attendants, meeting a bleeding Captain

KING DUNCAN

What bloody man is that? He can report,

As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

The newest state.

MALCOLM

This is the sergeant

Who like a good and hardy soldier fought

’Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend.

Say to the King the knowledge of the broil

As thou didst leave it.

CAPTAIN

Doubtful it stood,

As two spent swimmers that do cling together

And choke their art. The merciless Macdonald—

Worthy to be a rebel, for to that

The multiplying villainies of nature

Do swarm upon him—from the Western Isles

Of kerns and galloglasses is supplied,

And fortune on his damned quarry smiling

Showed like a rebel’s whore. But all’s too weak,

For brave Macbeth—well he deserves that name!—

Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel

Which smoked with bloody execution,

Like valour’s minion

Carved out his passage till he faced the slave,

Which ne’er shook hands nor bade farewell to him

Till he unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops,

And fixed his head upon our battlements.

KING DUNCAN

O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman!

CAPTAIN

As whence the sun ’gins his reflection

Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break,

So from that spring whence comfort seemed to come

Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark.

No sooner justice had, with valour armed,

Compelled these skipping kerns to trust their heels

But the Norwegian lord, surveying vantage,

With furbished arms and new supplies of men

Began a fresh assault.

KING DUNCAN

Dismayed not this our captains, Macbeth and

Banquo?

CAPTAIN

Yes, as sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion!

If I say sooth I must report they were

As cannons overcharged with double cracks,

So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe.

Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds

Or memorize another Golgotha,

I cannot tell—

But I am faint. My gashes cry for help.

KING DUNCAN

So well thy words become thee as thy wounds:

They smack of honour both.—Go get him surgeons.

Exit Captain with attendants

Enter Ross and Angus

Who comes here?

MALCOLM

The worthy Thane of Ross.

LENNOX

What haste looks through his eyes! So should he look

That seems to speak things strange.

Ross

God save the King.

KING DUNCAN

Whence cam’st thou, worthy thane?

Ross

From Fife, great King,

Where the Norwegian banners flout the sky

And fan our people cold.

Norway himself, with terrible numbers,

Assisted by that most disloyal traitor

The Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict,

Till that Bellona’s bridegroom, lapped in proof,

Confronted him with self-comparisons,

Point against point, rebellious arm ’gainst arm,

Curbing his lavish spirit; and to conclude,

The victory fell on us—

KING DUNCAN

Great happiness.

Ross

That now

Sweno, the Norways’ king, craves composition;

Nor would we deign him burial of his men

Till he disbursed at Saint Colum’s inch

Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

KING DUNCAN

No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive

Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death,

And with his former title greet Macbeth.

Ross I’ll see it done.

KING DUNCAN

What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.

Exeunt severally

1.3 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 I.

‘Aroint thee, witch,’ the rump-fed runnion cries.