| ACT I SCENE II | A camp near Forres. | |
| | Alarum within. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN,LENNOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant | |
| 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 | 5 |
| | 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. | |
| Sergeant | Doubtful it stood; | 10 |
| | 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 villanies of nature | |
| | Do swarm upon him -- from the Western Isles | 15 |
| | Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied; | |
| | And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, | |
| | Show'd like a rebel's whore: but all's too weak: | |
| | For brave Macbeth--well he deserves that name-- | |
| | Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel, | 20 |
| | Which smoked with bloody execution, | |
| | Like valour's minion carved out his passage | |
| | Till he faced the slave; | |
| | Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, | |
| | Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps, | 25 |
| | And fix'd 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 seem'd to come | 30 |
| | Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark: | |
| | No sooner justice had with valour arm'd | |
| | Compell'd these skipping kerns to trust their heels, | |
| | But the Norweyan lord surveying vantage, | |
| | With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men | 35 |
| | Began a fresh assault. | |
| DUNCAN | Dismay'd not this | |
| | Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo? | |
| Sergeant | Yes; | |
| | As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. | 40 |
| | 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, | 45 |
| | I cannot tell. | |
| | But I am faint, my gashes cry for help. | |
| DUNCAN | So well thy words become thee as thy wounds; | |
| | They smack of honour both. Go get him surgeons. | |
| | Exit Sergeant, attended | |
| | Who comes here? | 50 |
| | Enter ROSS | |
| 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 | God save the king! | |
| DUNCAN | Whence camest thou, worthy thane? | 55 |
| ROSS | From Fife, great king; | |
| | Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky | |
| | And fan our people cold. Norway himself, | |
| | With terrible numbers, | |
| | Assisted by that most disloyal traitor | 60 |
| | The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict; | |
| | Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof, | |
| | Confronted him with self-comparisons, | |
| | Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm. | |
| | Curbing his lavish spirit: and, to conclude, | 65 |
| | The victory fell on us. | |
| DUNCAN | Great happiness! | |
| ROSS | That now | |
| | Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition: | |
| | Nor would we deign him burial of his men | 70 |
| | 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. | 75 |
| ROSS | I'll see it done. | |
| DUNCAN | What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won. | |
| | Exeunt | |
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