Forres. A Room in the Palace. | |
| |
Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, and Attendants. | |
| Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not | |
| Those in commission yet return’d? | 4 |
| Mal. 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, | 8 |
| 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 | 12 |
| To throw away the dearest thing he ow’d, | |
| As ’twere a careless trifle. | |
| Dun. There’s no art | |
| To find the mind’s construction in the face: | 16 |
| He was a gentleman on whom I built | |
| An absolute trust. | |
| |
Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSS and ANGUS. | |
| O worthiest cousin! | 20 |
| 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, | 24 |
| 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. | |
| Macb. The service and the loyalty I owe, | 28 |
| 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 | 32 |
| Safe toward your love and honour. | |
| Dun. Welcome hither: | |
| I have begun to plant thee, and will labour | |
| To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo, | 36 |
| 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. | |
| Ban. There if I grow, | 40 |
| The harvest is your own. | |
| Dun. My plenteous joys | |
| Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves | |
| In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes, | 44 |
| 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 honour must | 48 |
| 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. | 52 |
| Macb. The rest is labour, 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. | 56 |
| Dun. My worthy Cawdor! | |
| Macb. [Aside.] The Prince of Cumberland! that is a step | |
| On which I must fall down, or else o’er-leap, | |
| For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires! | 60 |
| 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. | |
| Dun. True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant, | 64 |
| 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. | 68 |
