tyrant Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure Mal. 'Tis his main hope: For where there is advantage to be given, Both more and less have given him the revolt; And none serve with him, but constrained [things, Whose hearts are absent too. Macd. Let our just censures Siw. The time approaches, That will with due decision make us know What we shall say we have, and what we owe, Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate; But certain issue strokes must arbitrate:+ Towards which, advance the war. [Exeunt, marching. SCENE V.-Dunsinane. Within the Castle. Enter, with Drums and Colours, MACBETH, SEYTON, and Soldiers. Macb. Hang out our banners on the outward walls; [strength The cry is still, They come: Our castle's Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie, Till famine, and the ague, eat them up: Were they not forc'd with those that should be ours, [beard, We might have met them dareful, beard to And beat them backward home. What is that noise? [A cry within, of Women. Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord. Macb. I have almost forgot the taste of fears: The time has been, my senses would have cool'd To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair Direness, familiar to my slaught'rous thoughts, Cannot once start me.-Wherefore was that cry? Sey. The queen, my lord, is dead. Macb. She should have died hereafter; There would have been a time for such a word.To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player, * I. e. Greater and less † Petermine. Skin. Enter a MESSENGER. Thou com'st to use thy tongue; thy story quickly. Mess. Gracious my lord, I shall report that which I say I saw, Mess. As I did 'stand my watch upon the hill, I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought, [Striking him. Mess. Let me endure your wrath, if't be not Within this three mile may you see it coming; I say, a moving grove. so: Macb. If thou speak'st false, Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive, Till famine cling* thee: if thy speech be sooth, I care not if thou dost for me as much.I pull in resolution; and begin out! To doubt the equivocation of the fiend, [Exeunt. SCENE VI.-The same.-A plain before the Castle. Enter, with Drums and Colours, MALCOLM, old SIWARD, MACDUFF, &c. and their Army, with Boughs. Mal. Now near enough; your leavy screens throw down, [uncle, And show like those you are:-You, worthy Shall, with my cousin, your right-noble son. Lead our first battle: worthy Macduff, and we, Shall take upon us what else remains to do, According to our order. Siw. Fare you well. Do we but find the tyrant's power to-night, Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death. [Exeunt. Alarums continued. SCENE VII.-The same.-Another Part of the Plain. Yo. Sue. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with Painted upon a pole; and underwrit, my sword Re-enter MACDUFF. Macd. Turn, hell-hound, turn. Macb. Of all men else I have avoided thee: But get thee back, my soul is too much charg'd With blood of thine already. Macd. I have no words, My voice is in my sword; thou bloodier villain [They fight. As easy may'st thou the intrenchant airț Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests; Macd. Despair thy charm; And let the angel, whom thou still hast serv'd, Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb Untimely ripp'd. Macb. Accursed be that tongue that tells me For it hath cow'd my better part of man! [so, And be these juggling fiends no more believ'd, That paltert with us in a double sense; That keep the word of promise to our ear, And break it to our hope.-I'll not fight with thee. Maed. Than yield thee, coward, And live to be the show and gaze o'the time. * Soldiers. Here may you see the tyrant. Macb. I'll not yield, [feet, To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's And to be baited with the rabble's curse. Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane, And thou oppos'd, being of no woman born, Yet I will try the last: Before my body I throw my warlike shield: lay on, Macduff'; And damn'd be him that first cries, Hold, enough. [Exeunt, fighting. Retreat. Flourish. Re-enter, with Drum and Colours, MALCOLM, old SIWARD, ROSSE, LENOX, ANGUS, CATHNESS, MENTÉTH, and Soldiers. Mal. I would, the friends we miss were safe arriv'd. So great a day as this is cheaply bought. [see, Siw. Some must go off: and yet, by these I Mal. Macduff is missing, and your noble son. Rosse. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's He only liv'd but till he was a man ; [debt: The which no sooner had his prowess confirm'd In the unshrinking station where he fought, But like a man he died. Siw. Then he is dead? Rosse. Ay, and brought off the field: your cause of sorrow Must not be measur'd by his worth, for then Siw. Had he his hurts before? Rosse. Ay, on the front. Siw. Why then, God's soldier be he! And that I'll spend for him. Mul. He's worth more sorrow, They say, he parted well, and paid his score: Re-enter MACDUFF, with MACBETH'S Head on a Macd. Hail, king! for so thou art: Behold, where stands I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl,* The usurper's cursed head: the time is free: That speak my salutation in their minds; Whose yoices I desire aloud with mine,Hail, king of Scotland! [Flourish. All. King of Scotland, hail! time, Before we reckon with your several loves, And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen, Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland Of this dead butcher, and his fiend-like queen; * The kingdom's wealth or ornament. KING JOHN. KING JOHN. PERSONS REPRESENTED. PRINCE HENRY, his Son; afterwards King Henry III. ARTHUR, Duke of Bretagne, Son of Geffrey, late Duke of Bretagne, the elder Brother of King John. WILLIAM MARESHALL, Earl of Pembroke. WILLIAM LONGSWORD, Earl of Salisbury. HUBERT DE BURGH, Chamberlain to the King. PHILIP FAULCONBRIDGE, his Half-brother, bastard Son to King Richard the First. JAMES GURNEY, Servant to Lady Faulconbridge. PETER of Pomfret, a Prophet. ACT I. K. John. Bear mine to him, and so depart in peace: SCENE I-Northampton.-A Room of State Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France; in the Palace. For ere thou canst report I will be there, The thunder of my canon shall be heard: Enter King JOHN, Queen ELINOR, PEMPROZE, · LON. K. John. Now, say, Chatillon, what would France with us? Chat. Thus, after greeting, speaks the king of France, In my behaviour,* to the majesty, Eli. A strange beginning;-borrow'd majesty ! K. John. Silence, good mother; hear the embassy. Chat. Philip of France, in right and true beOf thy deceased brother Geffrey's son, [half Arthur Plantagenet, lays most lawful claim To this fair island, and the territories; To Ireland, Poictiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine: Desiring thee to lay aside the sword, Which sways usurpingly these several titles; And put the same into young Arthur's hand, Thy nephew, and right royal sovereign. K. John. What follows, if we disallow of this? Chat. The proud control of fierce and bloody war, And sullen presage of your own decay.-- How that ambitious Constance would not cease, K. John. Our strong possession, and our right, for us. Eli. Your strong possession, much more than your right; Or else it must go wrong with you, and me : So much my conscience whispers in your ear; Which none but heaven, and you, and 1, shall hear. Enter the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, who whis pers EssEx. Esser. My liege, here is the strangest con- To enforce these rights so forcibly withheld. Come from the country to be judg'd by you, * In the manner I now do. [Exit Sheriff. * Conduct, administration, Re-enter Sheriff, with ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, | Upon his death-bed he by will bequeath'd His lands to me; and took it, on his death, Rob. The son and heir to that same Faulconbridge. K. John. Is that the elder, and art thou the You came not of one mother then, it seems. heir? Bast. Most certain of one mother, mighty king, [father: That is well known; and, as I think, one But, for the certain knowledge of that truth, I put you o'er to heaven, and to my mother; Of that I doubt, as all men's children may. Eli. Out on thee, rude man! thou dost shame thy mother, And wound her honour with this diffidence. K. John. A good blunt fellow :-Why, being younger born, Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance? lent us here! Eli. He hath a trick+ of Coeur-de-lion's face, The accent of his tongue affecteth him: Do you not read some tokens of my son In the large composition of this man? K. John. Mine eye hath well examined his parts, [speak, And finds them perfect Richard.-Sirrah, What doth move you to claim your brother's land? Bust. Because he hath a half-face, like my father; With that half-face would he have all my land: A half-faced groat five hundred pounds a year! Rob. My gracious liege, when that my father liv'd, Your brother did employ my father much;-Bast. Well, Sir, by this you cannot get my land; Your tale must be, how he employ'd my mother. shores Between my father and my mother lay, (As I have heard my father speak himself,) When this same lusty gentleman was got. + Trace, outline. . Whether. K. John. Sirrah, your brother is legitimate; Your father's wife did after wedlock bear him: And, if she did play false, the fault was hers; Which fault lies on the hazards of all husbands Who, as you say, took pains to get this son, That marry wives. Tell me, how if my brother Had of your father claim'd this son for his? In sooth, good friend, your father might have kept [world; This calf, bred from his cow, from all the In sooth, he might: then, if he were my brother's, [father, My brother might not claim him; nor your Being none of his, refuse him: This concludes, My mother's son did get your father's heir; Your father's heir must have your father's land. Rob. Shall then my father's will be of no force, To dispossess that child which is not his? Bast. Of no more force to dispossess me, Sir, Than was his will to get me, as I think. Eli. Whether hadst thou rather,-be a Faulconbridge, And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land; Bast. Madam, an if my brother had my shape, Lest men should say, Look, where three-farThat in mine ear I durst not stick a rose, things goes! And, to his shape, were heir to all this land, Eli. I like thee well; Wilt thou forsake thy fortune, Bequeath thy land to him, and follow me? Eli. Nay, I would have you go before me thither. Bast. Our country manners give our betters way. K. John. What is thy name? Philip, good old Sir Robert's wife's eldest sou. Bast. Philip, my liege; so is my name begun; K. John. From henceforth bear his name whose form thou bear'st: Kneel thou down Philip, but arise more great: Arise Sir Richard and Plantagenet. Bast. Brother, by the mother's side, give me your hand; My father gave me honour, yours gave land:Now blessed be the hour, by night or day, When I was got, Sir Robert was away. Eli. The very spirit of Plantagenet!I am thy grandame, Richard; call me so. Bast. Madam, by chance, but not by truth: What though? Something about, a little from the right, K. John. Go, Faulconbridge; now hast thou thy desire, ['squire.A landless knight makes thee a landed Come, madam, and come, Richard; we must speed [need. For France, for France; for it is more than Bast. Brother, adieu; Good fortune come to For thou wast got i'the way of honesty. [thee! [Exeunt all but the BASTARD. A foot of honour better than I was; But many a foot of land the worse. Well, now can I make any Joan a lady :Good den, Sir Richard,-God-a-mercy, fellow; And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter: For new-made honour doth forget men's names; "Tis too respective, and too sociable, For your conversion. Now your traveller,- That will take pains to blow a horn before her? Enter Lady FAULCONBRIDGE and JAMES, O me! it is my mother :-How now, good lady! where is he? Bast. Philip?-sparrow!-James, There's toy's abroad;* anon I'll tell thee more. [Exit GURNEY. Madam, I was not old Sir Robert's son; Sir Robert might have eat his part in me Upon Good-friday, and ne'er broke his fast: Sir Robert could do well; Marry, (to confess!) Could he get me? Sir Robert could not do it; We know his handy-work:-Therefore, good mother, To whom am I beholden for these limbs ? Sir Robert never holp to make this leg. Lady F. Hast thou conspired with thy brother too, [honour? That for thine own gain should'st defend mine What means this scorn, thou most untoward knave? Bast. Knight, knight, good mother,—Basi liscolike:t What! I am dubb'd; I have it on my shoulder. Lady F. Hast thou denied thyself a Faulconbridge? Bast. As faithfully as I deny the devil. Lady F. King Richard Coeur-de-lion was thy father; By long and vehement suit I was seduc'd Need must you lay your heart at his dispose, He, that perforce robs lions of their hearts, When I was got, I'll send his soul to hell. And they shall say, when Richard me begot, If thou hadst said him nay, it had been sin: Who says it was, he lies; say, 'twas not. [Exeunt. + Bespectable. My travelled fop. |