Annotated Macbeth - Shakespeare's Text and Scholarly Annotations

Macbeth

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	5
	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	10
	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:	15
	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	20
	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.	25
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	30
	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	35
	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,	40
	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	45
	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.	50
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!	55
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.	60
	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.	65
	Flourish. Exeunt