[A military camp near Forres. Trumpets sound. Enter King Duncan, his sons Malcolm and Donalbain, Lord Lennox and Attendants. Enter from the other direction a bleeding soldier.]
Duncan
What bloody man is that? He can report —
As seemeth by his plight — of the revolt
Malcolm
Who like a good and hardy soldier fought
'Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend.
Say to the king the knowledge of the broil
Sergeant
As two spent swimmers that do cling together
And choke their art. The merciless Macdonald —
Worthy to be a rebel, for to that,
The multiplying villainies of nature
Do swarm upon him — from the Western Isles,
Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied.
And Fortune, on his damnèd quarry smiling,
Showed like a rebel's whore. But all's too weak,
For brave Macbeth — well he deserves that name
Disdaining fortune with his brandished steel
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like Valor's minion carved out his passage
Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseamed him from the nave to the chaps,
And fixed 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 seemed to come,
Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark.
No sooner justice had, with valor armed,
Compelled these skipping kerns to trust their heels,
But the Norwegian lord, surveying vantage,
With furbished arms and new supplies of men,
Duncan
Dismayed 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 memorize another Golgotha,
I cannot tell — but I am faint,
Duncan
So well thy words become thee as thy wounds.
They smack of honor both. Go get him surgeons.
[The Sergeant is helped off stage.]
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
Duncan
Whence camest thou, worthy thane?
Ross
Where the Norwegian banners flout the sky
Norway himself, with terrible numbers,
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor,
The Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict,
Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapped in proof,
Confronted him with self-comparisons,
Point against point, rebellious arm 'gainst arm,
Curbing his lavish spirit; and, to conclude,
Duncan
Ross
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
Duncan
What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.
[Exit]
