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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 honour both.—Go, get him surgeons.
(Exit Captain, attended.)
Enter Ross and Angus.
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.
Ross:
God save the King!
Duncan:
Whence came’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.)
Scene Three. 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’ th’ 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:
Th’art kind.
Third Witch:
And I another.