ACT I. | |
SCENE IV. Forres. A Room in 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; |
| 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, |
| To throw away the dearest thing he ow'd |
| 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 deserv'd; |
| 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 I owe, |
| 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 |
| 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 deserv'd, 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 fulness, 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 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. |
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 us after him, |
| Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome: |
| It is a peerless kinsman. |
| [Flourish. Exeunt.] |