Georg Engel's Leistungskurs Englisch 2006/08 Foul is fair, and fair is foul. We hover through the fog and filthy air...


Act I, scenes i–iv


Act I, scene i






















Act I, scene ii



A Camp near Forres.


[Alarum within. Enter King Duncan, Malcolm,

Donalbain, Lennox, with Attendants, meeting

a bleeding Soldier.]


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.


SOLDIER.

Doubtful it stood;

As two spent swimmers that do cling together

And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald,--

Worthy to be a rebel,--for to that

The multiplying villainies of nature

Do swarm upon him,--from the Western isles

Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied;

And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,

Show'd like a rebel's whore. But all's too weak;

For brave Macbeth,--well he deserves that name,--

Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,

Which smok'd with bloody execution,

Like valor's minion,

Carv'd out his passag tTill he fac'd the slave;

And ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,

Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps,

And fix'd his head upon our battlements.


DUNCAN.

O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!


SOLDIER.

As whence the sun 'gins his reflection

Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break;

So from that spring, whence comfort seem'd to come

Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark:

No sooner justice had, with valor arm'd,

Compell'd these skipping kerns to trust their heels,

But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,

With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men,

Began a fresh assault.


DUNCAN.

Dismay'd not this

Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?


SOLDIER.

Yes;

As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.

If I say sooth, I must report they were

As cannons overcharg'd 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.


DUNCAN.

So well thy words become thee as thy wounds;

They smack of honor both.--Go, get him surgeons.


[Exit Soldier, attended.]


Who comes here?


MALCOLM.

The worthy Thane of Ross.


LENNOX.

What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look

That seems to speak things strange.


[Enter Ross.]


ROSS.

God save the King!


DUNCAN.

Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane?


ROSS.

From Fife, great king;

Where the Norweyan 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, lapp'd 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.


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 Colme's-inch,

Ten thousand dollars to our general use.


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.


DUNCAN.

What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.


[Exeunt]


Act I, scene iii


A heath.


[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:--"Give me," quoth I:

"Aroint thee, witch!" the rump-fed ronyon cries.

Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger:

But in a sieve I'll thither sail,

And, like a rat without a tail,

I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do.


SECOND WITCH.

I'll give thee a wind.


FIRST WITCH.

Thou art kind.


THIRD WITCH.

And I another.


FIRST WITCH.

I myself have all the other:

And the very ports they blow,

All the quarters that they know

I' the shipman's card.

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:

Weary seven-nights nine times nine

Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine:

Though his bark cannot be lost,

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.


[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,

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 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? You seem to understand me,

By each at once her chappy 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?


FIRST WITCH.

All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!


SECOND WITCH.

All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!


THIRD WITCH.

All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter!


BANQUO.

Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear

Things that do sound so fair?-- I' the name of truth,

Are ye fantastical, 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 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

Your favors nor your hate.


FIRST WITCH.

Hail!


SECOND WITCH.

Hail!


THIRD WITCH.

Hail!


FIRST WITCH.

Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.


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:

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

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?


MACBETH.

Into the air; and what seem'd corporal melted

As breath into the wind.--Would they had stay'd!


BANQUO.

Were such things here as we do speak about?

Or have we eaten on the insane root

That takes the reason prisoner?


MACBETH.

Your children shall be kings.


BANQUO.

You shall be king.


MACBETH.

And Thane of Cawdor too; went it not so?


BANQUO.

To the selfsame tune and words. Who's here?


[Enter Ross and Angus.]


ROSS.

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 hail

Came post with post; and every one did bear

Thy praises in his kingdom's great defense,

And pour'd them down before him.


ANGUS.

We are sent

To give thee, from our royal master, thanks;

Only to herald thee into his sight,

Not pay thee.


ROSS.

And, for an earnest of a greater honor,

He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor:

In which addition, hail, most worthy thane,

For it is thine.


BANQUO.

What, can the devil speak true?


MACBETH.

The Thane of Cawdor lives: why do you dress me

In borrow'd robes?


ANGUS.

Who was the Thane lives yet;

But under heavy judgement bears that life

Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combin'd

With those of 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 proved,

Have overthrown him.


MACBETH.

[Aside.] Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor:

The greatest is behind.--Thanks for your pains.--

Do you not hope your children shall be kings,

When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me

Promis'd no less to them?


BANQUO.

That, trusted 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's

In deepest consequence.--

Cousins, a word, I pray you.


MACBETH.

[Aside.] Two truths are told,

As happy prologues to the swelling act

Of the imperial theme.--I thank you, gentlemen.--

[Aside.] 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.


BANQUO.

Look, how our partner's rapt.


MACBETH.

[Aside.] If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me

Without my stir.


BANQUO.

New honors come upon him,

Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould

But with the aid of use.


MACBETH.

[Aside.] Come what come may,

Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.


BANQUO.

Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.


MACBETH.

Give me your favor:--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 chanc'd; and, at more time,

The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak

Our free hearts each to other.


BANQUO.

Very gladly.


MACBETH.

Till then, enough.--Come, friends.


[Exeunt.]

Act I, scene iv


Forres. A Room in the Palace.


[Flourish. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, and

Attendants.]


DUNCAN.

Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not

Those in commission yet return'd?


MALCOLM.

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.


DUNCAN.

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, Ross, and Angus.]


O worthiest cousin!

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.


MACBETH.

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 everything

Safe toward your love and honor.


DUNCAN.

Welcome hither:

I have begun to plant thee, and will labor

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.


BANQUO.

There if I grow,

The harvest is your own.


DUNCAN.

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 honor must

Not unaccompanied invest him only,

But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine

On all deservers.--From hence to Inverness,

And bind us further to you.


MACBETH.

The rest is labor, 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.


DUNCAN.

My worthy Cawdor!


MACBETH.

[Aside.] The Prince of Cumberland!--That is a step,

On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,

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.]


DUNCAN.

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.]



An open Place. Thunder and Lightning.

[Enter three Witches.]


FIRST WITCH.

When shall we three meet again?

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?


SECOND WITCH.

When the hurlyburly'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, Graymalkin!


ALL.

Paddock calls:--anon:--

Fair is foul, and foul is fair:

Hover through the fog and filthy air.


[Witches vanish.]