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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 deserved, 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 fullness, 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 used 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's after him,

Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome.

It is a peerless kinsman. Flourish. Exeunt.

SCENE V. Inverness. Macbeth's castle.

Enter Lady Macbeth, reading a letter.

LADY MACBETH. "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

further, 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 mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being

ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart,

and farewell."

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be

What thou art promised. 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'ldst 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 valor 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 a Messenger.

What is your tidings?

MESSENGER.

The King comes here tonight.

LADY MACBETH.

Thou'rt mad to say it!

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

Would have inform'd for preparation.

MESSENGER.

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 MACBETH.

Give him tending;

He brings great news. Exit Messenger.

The raven himself is hoarse

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan

Under my battlements. Come, you spirits

That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here

And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full

Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood,

Stop up the access and passage to remorse,

That no compunctious visitings of nature

Shake my fell purpose nor keep peace between

The effect and it! Come to my woman's