Yo. Stw. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with | Painted upon a pole; and underwrit, 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 e 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 ghost will haunt me still. [arms I cannot strike at wretched kernes, whose Or else my sword, with an unba 'ter'd edge, be; By this great clatter, one of greatest note Seems bruited:† Let me find him, fortune! And more I beg not. [Exit. Alarum. Enter MALCOLM and SIWARD. Siw. This way, my lord ;-The castle's gently render'd: The tyrant's people on both sides do fight; 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, 343 [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 Iset: 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. So great a day as this is cheaply bought. [see, Siw. Then he is dead? Rosse. Ay, and brought off the field: your 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! [Exeunt. Alarum. Had I as many sons as I have hairs, Re-enter MACBETH. and die Mucb. Why should I play the Roman fool, [gashes On mine own sword? whiles I see lives, the Do better upon them. 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 Than terms can give thee out! [They fight. Macb. Thou losest labour: 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. Macd. Than yield thee, coward, And live to be the show and gaze o'the time. * Soldiers. I would not wish them to a fairer death: And that I'll spend for him. Mul. He's worth more sorrow, 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 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 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 Of this dead butcher, and his fiend-like queen; 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. LEWIS, the Dauphin. CARDINAL PANDULPH, the Pope's legate. ELINOR, the Widow of King Henry II. and 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. 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, To enforce these rights so forcibly withheld. K. John. Here have we war for war, and blood for blood, [France. Controlment for controlment: SO answer Chat. Then take my king's defiance from my The furthest limit of my embassy. [mouth, In the manner I now da K. John. Bear mine to him, and ɛo departi, peace: Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France; 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 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 Sherif Our abbies, and our priories, shall pay * Conduct, administration, Re-enter Sheriff, with ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, Rob. The son and heir to that same Faulconbridge. K. John. Is that the elder, and art thou the heir? You came not of one mother then, it seems. king, Bast. Most certain of one mother, mighty 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 trickt 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 Upon his death-bed he by will bequeath'a 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 That marry wives. Tell me, how if my brother Who, as you say, took pains to get this son, Had of your father claim'd this son for his? In sooth, good friend, your father might have kept [world; In sooth, he might: then, if he were my broThis calf, bred from his cow, from all the ther'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 To dispossess that child which is not his? force, 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; 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. 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 was 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: 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 onspired 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:+ 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. thy father; By long and vehement suit I was seduc'd Need must you lay your heart at his dispose, hand. 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, ! And, for amends to his posterity, Of thy unnatural uncle, English John: Embrace him, love him, give him welcome hither. Arth. God shall forgive you Coeur-de-lion's death, The rather, that you give his offspring life, Shadowing their right under your wings of war: I give you welcome with a powerless hand, But with a heart full of unstained love: Welcome before the gates of Angiers, duke. Lew. A noble boy! Who would not do thee right? Aust. Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kiss, As seal to this indenture of my love; That to my home I will no more return, Till Angiers, and the right thou hast in France, Together with that pale, that white-fac'd shore, Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides, And coops from other lands her islanders, Even till that England, hedg'd in with the main, That water-walled bulwark, still secure In such a just and charitable war. K. Phi. Well then, to work; our cannon shall be bent Against the brows of this resisting town.- But we will make it subject to this boy. My lord Chatillon may from England bring war; And then we shall repent each drop of blood, That hot rash haste so indirectly shed. With her her niece, the lady Blanch of Spain; To make a hazard of new fortunes here. Cuts off more circumstance: they are at hand, Aust. By how much unexpected, by so much K. John. Peace be to France: if France in peace permit Our just and lineal entrance to our own! If not; bleed France, and peace ascend to heaven! Whiles we, God's wrathful agent, do correct Their proud contempt that beat his peace to heaven. K. Phi. Peace be to England; if that war return From France to England, there to live in peace! This little abstract doth contain that large, K. John. Alack, thou dost usurp authority. son. Eli. Out, insolent! thy bastard shall be king; [world! That thou may'st be a queen, and check the * Mischief. + Undermined. ↑ Succession. A short writing. Celestial. |