| [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 '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 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; 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, 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. |
| 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: 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. |
| 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 As cannons overcharged with double cracks, so they Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe: Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, Or memorise 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 Sergeant, attended] | |
| Who comes here? | |
| [Enter ROSS] | |
| 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 camest 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] |