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I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou mightest not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell.'

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promised.-Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness,
To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great;
Art not without ambition, but without

The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst

highly,

That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou 'dst have, great

Glamis,

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That which cries, Thus thou must do, if thou

have it;

And that which rather thou dost fear to do,

Than wishest should be undone.' Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;
And chastise with the valor of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round,1
Which fate and metaphysical2 aid doth seem

To have thee crown'd withal. What is your tidings?

Enter an ATTENDANT.

Att. The king comes here to-night.

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Is not thy master with him? who, were 't so,
Would have inform'd for preparation.

Att. So please you, it is true; our thane is coming:

One of my fellows had the speed of him ;

Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
Than would make up his message.

L. Macb.

Give him tending ;

He brings great news. The raven himself is hoarse,

[Exit Attendant.

2

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, come, you spirits
That tend on mortal1 thoughts, unsex me here ;
And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;
Stop up the access and passage to remorse;
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances

You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night,
And pall 3 thee in the dunnest smoke of hell;
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor Heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry, Hold, hold!'-Great Glamis! worthy
Cawdor!

3 Wrap.

Murderous.

2 Pity.

Enter MACBETH.

Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!
Thy letters have transported me beyond

This ignorant present, and I feel now
The future in the instant.

Macb.

Duncan comes here to-night.

L. Macb.

My dearest love,

And when goes hence?

O, never

Macb. To morrow, ‚—as he purposes.

L. Macb.

Shall sun that morrow see!

Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent
flower,

But be the serpent under it.

He that's coming
Must be provided for; and you shall put

This night's great business into my despatch;
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.

Macb. We will speak farther.

L. Macb.

To alter favor 1 ever is to fear.

Leave all the rest to me.

Only look up clear;

[Exeunt.

Look, countenance.

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