Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Act 1 - Scene 2
A camp near Forres.
Duncan : What bloody man is that? He can report,
[p]As seemeth by his plight,
of the revolt
[p]The newest state.
Malcolm : This is the sergeant
[p]Who like a good and hardy soldier
fought
[p]'Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend!
[p]Say to the king
the knowledge of the broil
[p]As thou didst leave it.
Sergeant : Doubtful it stood;
[p]As two spent swimmers, that do cling
together
[p]And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald--
[p]Worthy
to be a rebel, for to that
[p]The multiplying villanies of
nature
[p]Do swarm upon him--from the western isles
[p]Of kerns and
gallowglasses is supplied;
[p]And fortune, on his damned quarrel
smiling,
[p]Show'd like a rebel's whore: but all's too weak:
[p]For
brave Macbeth--well he deserves that name--
[p]Disdaining fortune,
with his brandish'd steel,
[p]Which smoked with bloody
execution,
[p]Like valour's minion carved out his passage
[p]Till he
faced the slave;
[p]Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to
him,
[p]Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps,
[p]And fix'd
his head upon our battlements.
Duncan : O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!
Sergeant : As whence the sun 'gins his reflection
[p]Shipwrecking storms and
direful thunders break,
[p]So from that spring whence comfort seem'd
to come
[p]Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark:
[p]No
sooner justice had with valour arm'd
[p]Compell'd these skipping kerns
to trust their heels,
[p]But the Norweyan lord surveying
vantage,
[p]With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men
[p]Began a
fresh assault.
Duncan : Dismay'd not this
[p]Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?
Sergeant : Yes;
[p]As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.
[p]If I say sooth, I
must report they were
[p]As cannons overcharged with double cracks, so
they
[p]Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe:
[p]Except they meant to
bathe in reeking wounds,
[p]Or memorise another Golgotha,
[p]I cannot
tell.
[p]But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.
Duncan : So well thy words become thee as thy wounds;
[p]They smack of honour
both. Go get him surgeons.
[p][Exit Sergeant, attended]
[p]Who comes
here?
Malcolm : The worthy thane of Ross.
Lennox : What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look
[p]That seems
to speak things strange.
Ross : God save the king!
Duncan : Whence camest thou, worthy thane?
Ross : From Fife, great king;
[p]Where the Norweyan banners flout the
sky
[p]And fan our people cold. Norway himself,
[p]With terrible
numbers,
[p]Assisted by that most disloyal traitor
[p]The thane of
Cawdor, began a dismal conflict;
[p]Till that Bellona's bridegroom,
lapp'd in proof,
[p]Confronted him with self-comparisons,
[p]Point
against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm.
[p]Curbing his lavish
spirit: and, to conclude,
[p]The victory fell on us.
Duncan : Great happiness!
Ross : That now
[p]Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition:
[p]Nor would
we deign him burial of his men
[p]Till he disbursed at Saint Colme's
inch
[p]Ten thousand dollars to our general use.
Duncan : No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive
[p]Our bosom interest: go
pronounce his present death,
[p]And with his former title greet
Macbeth.
Ross : I'll see it done.
Duncan : What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won.
Previous: Act 1 - Scene 1
Next: Act 1 - Scene 3
