Macbeth Act 1 Scene 2 William Shakespeare

SCENE II. A camp near Forres.

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 damned 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.