Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

That could be found.

Wife, children, servants, all

[blocks in formation]

I cannot but remember such things were,
That were most precious to me.-Did heaven look on,
And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff,
They were all struck for thee! naught that I am,
Not for their own demerits, but for mine,
Fell slaughter on their souls: Heaven rest them now!
Mal. Be this the whetstone of your sword: let grief
Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it.
Macd. O, I could play the woman with mine eyes,
And braggart with my tongue! But, gentle

heaven,

Cut short all intermission; front to front,
And I must be from thence! Bring thou this fiend of Scotland, and myself;
Within my sword's length set him; if he 'scape,
Heaven forgive him too!

Macd.

My wife kill'd too?

Rosse. Mal.

I have said.

Be comforted:

Let's make us med'cines of our great revenge, To cure this deadly grief.

Mal. This tune goes manly. Come, go we to the king; our power is ready; Our lack is nothing but our leave: Macbeth

Receive what cheer you

Macd. He has no children. - All my pretty ones? Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above
Did you say, all? O, hell-kite! — All?
Put on their instruments.
What, all my pretty chickens, and their dam,
At one fell swoop?

may;

The night is long that never finds the day. [Exeunt.

[blocks in formation]

ACT V.

Dunsinane. A Room in the Castle.

Enter a Doctor of Physick, and a waiting Gentle

woman.

Doct. I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it

she last walked?

Gent. Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her night-gown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon it, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed: yet all this while in a most fast sleep. Doct. A great perturbation in nature! to receive at once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching. In this slumbry agitation, besides her walking, and other actual performances, what, at any time, have you heard her say?

[ocr errors]

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.

The game after it is killed.

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! 2 Fye, my lord, fye! 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?

[blocks in formation]

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 sigh 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 nightgown; look not so pale: I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he cannot come out of his grave. Doct. Even so?

Lady M. To bed, to bed; there's knocking at

2 Dark.

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

Fear not, Macbeth; no man, that's born of woman, Shall e'er have power on thee. Then fly, false thanes,

And mingle with the English epicures:
The mind I sway by, and the heart I bear,

Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad; Unnatural Shall never sagg 7 with doubt, nor shake with fear.

deeds

Do breed unnatural troubles: Infected minds
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.
More needs she the divine, than the physician.
God, God, forgive us all! Look after her;
Remove from her the means of all annoyance,
And still keep eyes upon her:- - So, good night:
My mind she has mated 3, and amaz'd my sight:
I think, but dare not speak.
Gent.

Good night, good doctor. [Exeunt. SCENE II. The country near Dunsinane. Enter, with Drum and Colours, MENTETH, CATHNESS, ANGUS, LENOx, and Soldiers.

[blocks in formation]

When I behold

[ocr errors]

Seyton! I am

Seyton, I say! This push

Ment. The English power is near, led on by Mal- Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now.

colm,

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. +

Ang.
Near Birnam wood
Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming.
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 unrough 5 youths, that even now
Protest their first of manhood.

Ment.

What does the tyrant?
Cath. Great Dunsináne, he strongly fortifies:
Some say, he's mad; others, that lesser hate him,
Do call it valiant fury: but, for certain,
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 only in command,
Nothing in love: now does he feel his 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 medecin 6 of the sickly weal; And with him pour we, in our country's purge, Each drop of us.

Or so much as it needs,

Len. To dew the sovereign flower, and drown the weeds. Make we our march towards Birnam.

[Exeunt, marching. SCENE III. - Dunsinane. A Room in the Castle.

Enter MACBETH, Doctor, and Attendants. Macb. Bring me no more reports; let them fly all; Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane, I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm! Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know All mortal consequents, pronounc'd me thus: 4 A religious; an ascetic. The physician

3 Confounded. Unbearded.

[blocks in formation]

Come, put mine armour on; give me my staff : —
Seyton, send out.-Doctor, the thanes fly from me :—
Come, sir, despatch: - If thou couldst, doctor, cast
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?

7 Sink.

9 An appellation of contempt.

Base fellow. 1 Dry. 2 Scour.

Dcct. Ay, my good lord; your royal preparation | And all our yesterdays have lighted fools Makes us hear something.

Macb.

Bring it after me.

[blocks in formation]

We doubt it nothing.
Siw. What wood is this before us?
Ment.

The wood of Birnam.

Mal. Let every soldier hew him down a bough,
And bear't before him; thereby shall we shadow
The numbers of our host, and make discovery
Err in report of us.

Sold.

It shall be done.

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle
Life's but a walking shadow: a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Thou com'st to use thy tongue; thy story quickly.
Enter a Messenger.
Mess. Gracious my lord,
I shall report that which I say
But know not how to do it.

Macb.

I saw,

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 so:
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,
Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth,

Siw. We learn no other, but the confident tyrant I care not if thou dost for me as much.
Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure

Our setting down before't.

Mal.
'Tis his main hope:
For where there is advantage to be given,
Both more and less 3 have given him the revolt;
And none serve with him but constrained things,
Whose hearts are absent too.

Macd.
Let our just censures
Attend the true event, and put we on
Industrious soldiership.

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;

The cry is still, They come: Our castle's strength
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,
We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,
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
Would at a dismal treatise rouse, and stir

As life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrors;
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;

[blocks in formation]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

[Exeunt. SCENE VI. - 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,

And show like those you are: -You, worthy uncle,
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,
Let us be beaten, if we cannot fight.

Macd. Make all our trumpets speak; give them
all breath,

Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.
[Exeunt. Alarums continued.

[blocks in formation]

Macb.

Thou'lt be afraid to hear it. Yo. Siw. No; though thou call'st thyself a hotter

name

Than any is in hell.

5 Shrivel.

[blocks in formation]

Yc. Siw. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with 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. [Exit.

Alarums. Enter MACDuff.

Macd. That way the noise is: - Tyrant, show thy face:

If thou be'st slain, and with no stroke of mine,
My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still.
I cannot strike at wretched kernes 6, whose arms
Are hir'd to bear their staves; either thou, Macbeth,
Or else my sword, with an unbatter'd edge,
I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be;
By this great clatter, one of greatest note
Seems bruited 7: Let me find him, fortune!
And more I beg not.

[Exit.

Alarum.

[blocks in formation]

My voice is in my sword; thou bloodier villain Than terins can give thee out!

[They fight. Macb. Thou losest labour: As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air 8 With thy keen sword impress, as make me 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 so, For it hath cow'd my better part of man! And be these juggling fiends no more believ'd, That palter 9 with us in a double sense; That keep the word of promise to our ear,

I'll not yield,

Painted upon a pole; and underwrit,
Here may you see the tyrant.
Macb.
To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet,
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, MENTETH, and Soldiers.

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

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

Mal. Macduff is missing, and your noble son. Rosse. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt: He only liv'd but till he was a man;

The which no sooner had his prowess confirm'd
In the unshrinking station where he fought,
But like a man he died.

[blocks in formation]

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 kins

men,

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
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.

And break it to our hope. — I'll not fight with thee. Took off her life:

Macd. Then yield thee, coward,

And live to be the show and

gaze

o'the time.

We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are, 7 Reported with clamour. 9 Shuffle.

Foot-soldiers.

The air which cannot be cut.

[Flourish. Exeunt.

KING JOHN.

KING JOHN.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

PRINCE HENRY, his Son; afterwards K. 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 Jus-
ticiary 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 Faulconbridge.
PETER of Pomfret, a Prophet.
PHILIP, King of France.

LEWIS, the Dauphin.
ARCHDUKE OF AUSTRIA.
CARDINAL PANDULPH, the Pope's Legate.
MELUN, a French Lord.

CHATILLON, Ambassador from France to King John.

ELINOR, the Widow of King Henry II. and Mother of King John.

CONSTANCE, Mother to Arthur.
BLANCH, Daughter to Alphonso, King of Castile, 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.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

In

Chat. Thus, after greeting, speaks the king of France,

my behaviour, to the majesty, The borrow'd majesty of England here.

Eli. A strange beginning; - - borrow'd majesty! K. John. Silence, good mother; hear the embassy.

Chat. Philip of France, in right and true behalf
Of thy deceased brother Geffrey's son,
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?

In the manner I now do.

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 blood for blood,

Controlment for controlment: so answer France. Chat. Then take my king's defiance from my mouth,

The furthest limit of my embassy.

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 cannon 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 whole,
With very easy arguments of love;

« AnteriorContinuar »