Macbeth. William Shakespeare
[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 mounch’d, and mounch’d, and mounch’d. 5
‘Give me’ quoth I.
‘Aroint thee, witch!’ the rump-fed ronyon cries.
Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master o’ th’ Tiger;
But in a sieve I’ll thither sail
And, like a rat without a tail, 10
I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.
Second Witch
I’ll give thee a wind,
First Witch
Th’art kind.
Third Witch
And I another.
First Witch
I myself have all the other; 15
And the very ports they blow,
All the quarters that they know
I’ th’ shipman’s card.
I’ll drain him dry as hay:
Sleep shall neither night nor day 20
Hang upon his pent-house lid;
He shall live a man forbid;
Weary sev’nights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.
Though his bark cannot be lost, 25
Yet it shall be tempest-tost.
Look what I have.
Second Witch
Show me, show me.
First Witch
Here I have a pilot’s thumb,
Wreck’d as homeward he did come. 30
[Drum within.]
Third Witch
A drum, a drum! Macbeth doth come.
All
The Weird Sisters, hand in hand,
Posters of the sea and land,
Thus do go about, about;
Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, 35
And thrice again, to make up nine.
Peace! The charm’s wound up.
[Enter MACBETH and BANQUO.]
Macbeth
So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
Banquo
How far is’t call’d to Forres? What are these,
So withered, and so wild in their attire, 40
That look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ 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, 45
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.
Macbeth
Speak, if you can. What are you?
First Witch
All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee. Thane of Glamis!
Second Witch
All hall, Macbeth! Hail to thee. Thane of Cawdor!
Third Witch
All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter! 50
Banquo
Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear
Things that do sound so fair? I’ th’ name of truth,
Are ye fantastical, or that indeed
Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner
You greet with present grace and great prediction 55
Of noble having and of royal hope,
That he seems rapt 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 60
Your favours nor your hate.
First Witch
Hail!
Second Witch
Hail!
Third Witch
Hail!
First Witch
Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 65
Second Witch
Not so happy, yet much happier.
Third Witch
Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.
So, all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!
First Witch
Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!
Macbeth
Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more. 70
By Sinel’s death 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 75
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.]
Banquo
The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
And these are of them. Whither are they vanish’d? 80
Macbeth
Into the air; and what seem’d corporal melted
As breath into the wind. Would they had stay’d!