[edit] Forres. A Room in 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;
- Implor'd 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 ow'd
- 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 deserv'd;
- 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 everything
- Safe toward your love and honor.
DUNCAN.
- Welcome hither:
- I have begun to plant thee, and will labor
- To make thee full of growing.—Noble Banquo,
- That hast no less deserv'd, nor must be known
- No less to have done so,let me infold 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 honor 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 labor, which is not us'd 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 us after him,
- Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome:
- It is a peerless kinsman.
[Flourish. Exeunt.]
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