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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 combined

With those of Norway, or did line the rebel

With hidden help and vantage, or that with both

He labor'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. [To Ross and Angus] Thanks for your pains.

[Aside to Banquo] Do you not hope your children shall be kings,

When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me

Promised no less to them?

BANQUO.

[Aside to Macbeth.] 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 murther 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 chanced, 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.

SCENE IV. Forres. 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,

Implored 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 owed

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 deserved,

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 lowe,

In doing it, pays itself.