1

for ever,

Macd. Humph! I guess at it.
Rosse. Your castle is surpriz'd: your wife,

and babes,

Savagely slaughter'd: to relate the manner, Were, on the quarry* of these murder'd deer, To add the death of you.

Mal. Merciful heaven![brows; What, man! ne'er pull your hat upon your Give sorrow words: the grief, that does not [break.

speak,

Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it Macd. My children too?

Rosse. Wife, children, servants, all

That could be found.

Macd. And I must be from thence!

My wife kill'd too?

Rosse. I have said.

Mal. Be comforted:

Mal. Be this the whetstone of your sword:

besides her walking, and other actual performances, what, at any time, have you heard her say?

Gent. That, Sir, which I will not report after her. Doct. You may, to me; and 'tis most meet you should.

Gent. Neither to you, nor any one; having no witness to confirm my speech.

Enter Lady MACBETH, with a Taper.

Lo you, here she comes! This is her very guise; and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand close.

Doct. How came she by that light?

Gent. Why, it stood by her: she has light by

her continually; 'tis her command. Doct. You see, her eyes are open.

Gent. Ay, but their sense is shut.

Doct. What is it she does now? Look, how

she rubs her hands.

Gent. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands; I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour. Lady M. Yet here's a spot.

Doct. Hark, she speaks: I will set down what comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.

Lady M. Out, damned spot! out, I say!One; Two; Why, then 'tis time to do't: Hell is murky!*-Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afear'd? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account! -Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?

Doct. Do you mark that?

let grief Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage Macd. O, I could play the woman with mine eyes, [heaven,

And braggart with my tongue! But, gentle Cut short all intermission;t front to front, Bring thou this fiend of Scotland, and myself; Within my sword's length set him; if he 'scape, Heaven forgive him too!

Mal. This tune goes manly. Come, go we to the king; our power is ready; Our lack is nothing but our leave: Macbeth Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer

Doct. Go to, go to; you have known what you should not.

Gent. She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that: Heaven knows what she has known.

Lady M. Here's the smell of the blood still : all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh! oh! oh!

Doct. What a sight is there! The heart is sorely charged.

Gent. I would not have such a heart in my bosom, for the dignity of the whole body. Doct. Well, well, well,

Gent. 'Pray God, it be, Sir.

Doct. This disease is beyond my practice: Yet I have known those which have walked in their sleep, who have died holily in their beds. Lady M. Wash your hands, put on your

TLEWOMAN.

again, Banquo's buried; cannot come out of his grave. Doct. Even so?

Lady M. To bed, to bed; there's knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come, give me your hand; What's done, cannot be undone : To bed, to bed, to bed. [Exit Lady MAСВЕТН. Doct. Will she go now to bed? Gent. Directly,

Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad: Unna

tural deeds

SCENE II.-The Country near Dunsinane. Enter, with Drum and Colours, MENTETH, CATHNESS, ANGUS, LENOX, and Soldiers.

Ment. The English power is near, led on by Malcolm,

His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff. Revenges burn in them: for their dear causes Would, to the bleeding, and the grim alarm, Excite the mortified man.t

Ang. Near Birnam wood [coming, Shall we well meet them; that way are they Cath. Who knows, if Donalbain be with his brother?

Len. For certain, Sir, he is not: I have a file Of all the gentry; there is Siward's son, And many unrought youths, that even now Protest their first of manhood.

Ment. What does the tyrant?

Cath. Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies: Some say, he's mad; others, that lesser hate Do call it valiant fury: but, for certain, [him, He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause Within the belt of rule.

Ang. Now does he feel

His secret murders sticking on his hands:
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach;
Those he commands, move oniy in command,
Nothing in love: now does he feel the title
Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.

Ment. Who then shall blame
His pester'd senses to recoil, and start,
When all that is within him does condemn
Itself, for being there?

Cath. Well, march we on,
To give obedience where 'tis truly ow'd:
Meet we the medecins of the sickly weal;
And with him pour we, in our country's purge,
Each drop of us.

Len. Or so much as it needs, [weeds. To dew the sovereign flower, and drown the Make we our march towards Birnam.

[Exeunt, marching.

Enter a SERVANT.

41

The devil damn thee black, thou cream-fac'd Where got'st thou that goose look? [loon!

Serv. There is ten thousandMacb. Geese, villain? Serv. Soldiers, Sir. Macb. Go, prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, Thou lily-liver'd boy. What soldiers, patch ?t Death of thy soul! those linen cheeks of thine Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, wheyface?

Serv. The English force, so please you. Macb. Take thy face hence. -Seyton!-I am

sick at heart,

When I behold-Seyton, I say !-This push
Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now.
I have liv'd long enough: my way of life
Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf:
And that which should accompany old age,
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have; but, in their stead,
Curses, not loud, but deep, mouth-honour,
breath,
[dare not.
Which the poor heart would fain deny, but
Seyton!

Enter SEYTΟΝ.

Sey. What is your gracious pleasure?
Macb. What news more?

Sey. All is confirm'd, my lord, which was reported.

Macb. I'll fight, till from my bones my flesh

be hack'd.

Give me my armour.

Sey. 'Tis not needed yet.
Mach. I'll put it on.

[armour.

Send out more horses, skirrs the country round;
Hang those that talk of fear.-Give me mine
How does your patient, doctor?
Doct. Not so sick, my lord,
As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies,
That keep her from her rest.

Macb. Cure her of that:

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd;
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow;
Raze out the written troubles of the brain;
And, with some swect oblivious antidote,
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff,
Which weighs upon the heart?
Doct. Therein the patient
Must minister to himself.

it.

me:

Macb. Throw physic to the dogs, I'll none of [staff:Come, put mine armour on; give me my Seyton, send out. -Doctor, the thanes fly from [cast Come, Sir, despatch:-If thou could'st, doctor, The water of my land, find her disease, And purge it to a sound and pristine health, I would applaud thee to the very echo, That should applaud again.-Pull't off, I say.What rhubarb, senna; or what purgative drug, Would scour these English hence!-Hearest thou of them? Doct. Ay, my good lord; your royal preparaMakes us hear something. [tion Mach. Bring it after me. I will not be afraid of death and bane, Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane. [Exit. Doct. Were I from Dunsinane away and

clear,

Profit again should hardly draw me here.

[Exit.

An appellation of contempt. Scour.

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,
But know not how to do it.
Macb. Well, say, Sir.

Mess. As I did stand my watch upon the

hill,

I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought, The wood began to move.

Macb. Liar, and slave!

[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.

Macb. If thou speak'st false,

Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive,

famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth,

I care not if thou dost for me as much.-
I pull in resolution; and begin
To doubt the equivocation of the fiend,
That lies like truth: Fear not, till Birnam wood
Do come to Dunsinane; -and now a wood

out!

Comes toward Dunsinane.-Arm, arm, and
If this, which he avouches, does appear,
There is nor flying hence, nor tarrying here.
I 'gin to be a-weary of the sun, [undone.-
And wish the estate o'the world were now
Ring the alarum bell:-Blow, wind! come,
wrack!
At least we'll die with harnesst on our back.
[Exeunt.

my sword

I'll prove the lie thou speak'st.

[They fight, and young SIWARD is slain. Macb. Thou wast born of woman.But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born.

Alarums. Enter MACDUFF.

[Exit.

By this great clatter, one of greatest note
Seems bruited: Let me find him, fortune!
And more I beg not.
[Exit. Alurum.

Enter MALCOLM and SIWARD.

Siw. This way; my lord; -The castle's gently
render'd:

The tyrant's people on both sides do fight;
The noble thanes do bravely in the war;
The day almost itself professes yours,
And little is to do.

Mal. We have met with foes
That strike beside us.

Siw. Enter, Sir, the castle.

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, LE-
NOX, ANGUS, CATHNESS, MENTETH, and Sol-
diers.

Mal. I would, the friends we miss were safe arriv'd.

Siw. Some must go off: and yet, by these I So great a day as this is cheaply bought. [see, 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.

bleed:

Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;

I bear a charmed life, which must not yield
To one of woman born.

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,

paltert 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.

Macd. Than yield thee, coward,

And live to be the show and gaze o'the time. We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,

I would not wish them to a fairer death:
And so his knell is knoll'd.

Mal. He's worth more sorrow,
And that I'll spend for him.

Siw. He's worth no more;

They say, he parted well, and paid his score: So, God be with him!-Here comes newer comfort.

Re-enter MACDUFF, with MACBETH'S Head on a Pole.

Macd. Hail, king! for so thou art: Behold, where stands

The usurper's cursed head: the time is free:
I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl,*
That speak my salutation in their minds;
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine,-
Hail, king of Scotland!

All. King of Scotland, hail! [Flourish.

Mal. We shall not spend a large expense of 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
In such an honour nam'd. What's more to do,
Which would be planted newly with the time, -
As calling home our exil'd friends abroad;
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny;
Producing forth the cruel ministers

Of this dead butcher, and his fiend-like queen;
Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands
Took off her life;-This, and what needful else
That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace,
We will perform in measure, time, and place:
So thanks to all at once, and to each one,
Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone.
[Flourish. Exount.

* The kingdom's wealth or ornament.

KING JOHN.

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. GEFFREY FITZ-PETER, Earl of Essex, Chief

Justiciary of England. WILLIAM LONGSWORD, Earl of Salisbury. ROBERT BIGOT, Earl of Norfolk. HUBERT DE BURGH, Chamberlain to the King. ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, Son of Sir Robert

Faulconbridge.

PHILIP FAULCONBRIDGE, his Half-brother, bastard Son to King Richard the First. JAMES GURNEY, Servant to Lady Faulcon

bridge. PETER of Pomfret, a Prophet. PHILIP, King of France.

LEWIS, the Dauphin.
ARCH-DUKE of Austria.
CARDINAL PANDULPH, the Pope's legate.
MELUN, a French Lord.
CHATILLON, Ambassador from France to Kin
John.

ELINOR, the Widow of King Henry II. and
Mother of King John.
CONSTANCE, Mother to Arthur.
BLANCH, Daughter to Alphonso, King of Cas-
tile, and Niece to King John.
LADY FAULCONBRIDGE, Mother to the Bastard
and Robert Faulconbridge.
Lords, Ladies, Citizens of Angiers, Sheriff,
Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Messengers,
and other Attendants.

SCENE, sometimes in England, and sometimes in France.

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,
The borrow'd majesty of England here.
Eli. A strange beginning;-borrow'd ma-
jesty!

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,

To enforce these rights so forcibly withheld. K. John. Here have we war for war, and [France.

blood for blood,

Controlment for controlment: so answer Chat. Then take my king's defiance

The furthest limit of my embassy.

In the manner I now do

from my 「mouth,

K. John. Bear mine to him, and so depart in
peace:

Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France;
For ere thou canst report I will be there,
The thunder of my canon shall be heard:
So, hence! Be thou the trumpet of our wrath,
And sullen presage of your own decay.--
An honourable conduct let him have
Pembroke, look to't: Farewell, Chatillon.

[Exeunt CHATILLON and PEMBROKE. Eli. What now, my son? have I not ever said,

How that ambitious Constance would not cease;
Till she had kindled France, and all the world,
Upon the right and party of her son?
This might have been prevented, and made
With very easy arguments of love;
[whole,
Which now the manage* of two kingdoms must
With fearful bloody issue arbitrate.

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 whispers ESSEX.

Essex. My liege, here is the strangest controversy,

Come from the country to be judg'd by you, That ere I heard: Shall I produce the men? K. John. Let them approach.

[Exit Sheriff.

Our abbies, and our priories, shall pay

* Conduct, administration.