Lear. You must bear with me: Pray now, forget, and forgive: I am old, and foolish. ACT V. LEAR TO CORDELIA WHEN TAKEN PRISONERS No, no, no, no! Come, lets away to prison: Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too,- • As if we were God's spies: And we'll wear out, Edin. Take them away. Lear. Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia, The gods themselves throw incense. THE JUSTICE OF THE GODS. The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices Made instruments to scourge us. EDGAR'S ACCOUNT OF HIS DISCOVERING TO HIS FATHER. List* a brief tale; HIMSELF And, when 'tis told, O, that my heart would burst!-- That follow'd me so near, (O our lives' sweetness! • Hear. I ask'd his blessing, and from first to last Edm. This speech of your's hath mov'd me, And shall, perchance, do good; but speak you on⚫ You look as you had something more to say. Alb. If there be more, more woful, hold it in; For I am almost ready to dissolve, Hearing of this. Edg. Whilst I was big in clamour, came there a man, Shunn'd my abhorr'd society; but then, finding LEAR ON THE DEATH OF CORDELIA. Howl, howl, howl, howl;-0, you are men of stones; Had I your tongues and eyes, I'd use them so I know when one is dead, and when one lives; * This feather stirs; she lives! if it be so, It is a chance that does redeem all sorrows That ever I have felt. Kent. O my good master! [Kneeling. A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all! I might have sav'd her; now she's gone for ever!- What is't thou say'st?-Her voice was ever soft, LEAR DYING. And my poor fool* is hang'd! No, no, no, life: Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, And thou no breath at all? O, thou wilt come no more, Never, never, never, never, never! MACBETH. ACT I. WITCHES DESCRIBED. WHAT are these, So wither'd, and so wild in their attire; That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth, And yet are o'nt? Live you? or are you aught That man may question? you seem to understand me, By each at once her choppy finger laying MACBETH'S TEMPER. Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness, To catch the nearest way: Thou would'st be great Art not without ambition; but without The illness should attend it. What thou would'st highly, That would'st thou holily; would'st not play false, And yet would'st wrongly win. *Poor Fool, in the time of Shakespeare, was an ex pression of endearment. LADY MACBETH'S SOLILOQUY ON THE NEWS OF The raven himself is hoarse, That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between You wait on Nature's mischief! Come, thick night; MACBETH'S IRRESOLUTION. If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly: If the assassination Could trammel upon the consequence, and catch, With his surcease, success; that but this blow Might be the be-all and the end-all here, But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,We'd jump the life to come.-But, in these cases, We still have judgment here; that we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague the inventor: This even-handed justice Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice To our own lips. He's here in double trust: First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, Who should against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against * Murderous. + Pity. Wrap, as in a mantle. § Knife anciently meant a sword or dagger The deep damnation of his taking-off: TRUE FORTITUDE. I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more is none. ACT II. THE MURDERING SCENE. Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee: I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. To feeling, as to sight? or art thou but As this which now I draw. Thou marshal'st me the way that I was going; Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, Thus to mine eyes.-Now o'er the one half world *Winds; sightless is invisible. + Drops. |