ACT I
SCENE IV Forres. 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,
 Implored 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 owed,
 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 deserved,
 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 every thing
 Safe toward your love and honour.

DUNCAN Welcome hither:
 I have begun to plant thee, and will labour
 To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo,
 That hast no less deserved, nor must be known
 No less to have done so, let me enfold 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 honour 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 labour, which is not used 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's after him,
 Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome:
 It is a peerless kinsman.

 [Flourish. Exeunt]




 MACBETH


ACT I