Table of Contents
ACT 1, SCENE 2
Setting: A camp near Forres.
[ Alarum within. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant ]
| 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 | 5 | |
| Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend! | ||
| Say to the king the knowledge of the broil | ||
| As thou didst leave it. | ||
| Sergeant | Doubtful it stood; | |
| As two spent swimmers, that do cling together | 10 | |
| And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald–– | ||
| Worthy to be a rebel, for to that | ||
| The multiplying villanies of nature | ||
| Do swarm upon him––from the Western Isles | ||
| Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied; | 15 | |
| 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 smoked with bloody execution, | 20 | |
| Like valour's minion carved out his passage | ||
| Till he faced the slave; | ||
| Which 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. | 25 | |
| DUNCAN | O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman! | |
| Sergeant | 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: | 30 | |
| No sooner justice had with valour 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. | 35 | |
| DUNCAN | Dismay'd not this | |
| Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo? | ||
| Sergeant | Yes; | |
| As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. | ||
| If I say sooth, I must report they were | 40 | |
| As cannons overcharged 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. | 45 | |
| 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 Sergeant, attended] | ||
| Who comes here? | ||
| [Enter ROSS] | ||
| MALCOLM | The worthy thane of Ross. | 50 |
| 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 camest thou, worthy thane? | |
| ROSS | From Fife, great king; | 55 |
| 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; | 60 | |
| 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. | 65 | |
| 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 | 70 | |
| 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. | 75 |
| DUNCAN | What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won. | |
| [Exeunt] |