ACT 1
Scene 1
Thunder and Lightning. Enter three Witches.

FIRST WITCH 
When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
SECOND WITCH 
When the hurly-burly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won.
THIRD WITCH 
That will be ere the set of sun.
FIRST WITCH 
Where the place?
SECOND WITCH  Upon the heath.
THIRD WITCH 
There to meet with Macbeth.
FIRST WITCH  I come, Graymalkin.
SECOND WITCH  Paddock calls.
THIRD WITCH  Anon.
ALL 
Fair is foul, and foul is fair;
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
They exit.



Scene 2
Alarum within. Enter King Duncan, Malcolm,
Donalbain, Lennox, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding
Captain.

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.
CAPTAIN  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 villainies of nature
Do swarm upon him) from the Western Isles
Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied;
And Fortune, on his damnèd quarrel 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
Till he faced the slave;
Which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops,
And fixed his head upon our battlements.
DUNCAN 
O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman!