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ACT V.

the gate. Come, come, come, come, give me your hand; What's done, cannot be undone : To

SCENE I.-Dunsinane.-A Room in the Cas- bed, to bed, to bed. [Exit Lady MACBETH.

tle.

Enter a DOCTOR of Physic, and a waiting GENTLEWOMAN.

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?

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 bands.

Gent. It is an accustomed action with ber, 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?

Lady M. The thane of Fife had a wife; Where is she now?―――What, will these hands ne'er be clean ?-No mor o'that, my lord, no more o'that you mat all with this starting.

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 night gown; look not so pale:-1 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

• Dark.

Doct. Will she go now to bed?
Gent. Directly.

Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad: Unnatural deeds

Do breed unnatural troubles: Infected minds
To their deaf pillows will discharge their se-
More needs she the divine, than the physi.

crets.

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[Exeunt.

Gent. Good night, good doctor.
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. +

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 youths, but 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 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 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 medecin 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,

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 Biruam wood remove to Dunsinane,

I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Mal-
colm !
(know
Was he not born of woman? The spirits that
All mortal consequents, pronounc'd me thus:
Fear not, Macbeth; no man, that's born of
woman,

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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,
Shall never sag · with doubt, nor shake with

fear.

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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 ber 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 sweet oblivions antidote,
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff,
Which weighs upon the heart?

Doct. Therein the patient
Must minister to himself.

Macb. Throw physic to the dogs, I'll none of

it.

Come, put mine armour on; give me my staff:

Seyton, send out.--Doctor, the thanes fly from

ine :

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[Exit.

Doct. Were I from Dunsinane away and clear, Profit again should hardly draw me here. [Exit.

SCENE IV.-Country near Dunsinane: A Wood in view.

Enter, with Drum and Colours, MALCOLM, old SIWARD and his SON, MACDUFF, MENTETH, CATHNESS, ANGUS, LENOX, ROSSE, and Soldiers, marching.

Mal. Cousins, I hope, the days are near at hand

That chambers will be safe.

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

Ment. The wood of Biruam.

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.

Siw. We learn no other, but the confident
tyrant

Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure
Our setting down befor't.

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 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; strength

The cry is still, They come :

Our castle's

Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie,
Till famine and the agne eat them up:
Were they not forc'd with those that should be
our's,

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. Much. I have almost forgot the taste of fears: The time has been, my senses would have

cool'd

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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,
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.-

Enter a MESSENGER.

Macb. My name's Macbeth.

Yo. Siw. The devil himself could not pro nounce a title

More hateful to mine ear.

Mucb. No, nor more fearful.

Yo. Siw. Thon 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.———

Thou com'st to use thy tongue; thy story quickly. But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, 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

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If this, which he avouches, does appear,
There is nor flying hence, nor tarrying here,

I 'gin to be a-weary of the sun,

Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born.

Alarums. Enter MACDUFF.

[Exit.

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By this great clatter, one of greatest note
Seems bruited: Let me find him, fortune!
[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;
The noble thanes do bravely in the war;
The day almost itself professes your's,
And little is to do.

Mal. We have met with foes

And wish the estate o'the world were now un-That strike beside us.

done.

[wrack!

Ring the alarum bell:-Blow, wind! come,
At least we'll die with harness + on our back.

[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,

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.

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Macb. They have tied me to a stake: I cannot fly:

But, bear-like, I must fight the course.-What's
he,

That was not born of woman? Such a one
Am I to fear, or none.

Enter young SIWARD.

Yo. Siw. What is thy name?
Mach. Thou'lt be afraid to hear it.

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Macb. Thou losest labour:
As easy may'st thou the intrenchant air +
With thy keen sword impress, as make me
bleed:

Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;

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

Macd. Eespair 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

50,

For it hath cow'd my better part of inan!
And be these juggling fiends no more believ'd,
That palter 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. Then yield thee, coward,

And live to be the show and gaze o'the time.
We'll have thee, as our rarer inousters are,
Painted upon a pole; and underwrit,

Yo. Siw. No; though thou call'st thyself a Here may you see the tyrant.

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To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet,
And to be baited with the rabble's curse.
Though Birnain 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 he that first cries, Hold, enough.
[Exeunt, fighting.

Retreat. Flourish. Re-enter, with Drum
and Colours, MALCOLM, old SIWARD,ROSSE,
LENOX, ANGUS, CATHRESS, 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.

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
It hath no end.

Siw. Had he his hurts before?
Rosse. Ay, on the front.

Siw. Why then, God's soldier be be!
Had I as many sons as I have hairs,

I would not wish them to a fairer death:

And so his knelt is knoll'd.

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

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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!

[Flourish.

All. King of Scotland, bail! 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 perforin 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. Exeunt.

The kingdom's wealth or ornament.

KING JOHN.

LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE.

THIS play was probably written in the year 1596. The action comprehends some of the principal events which occurred from the 34th year of King John's life to the time of his demise; or, during his short reign of seventeen years. Shakspeare has in some respects closely adhered to the old historiaus and chroniclers; but the Duke of Austria was not accessary to the death of Richard Cœur-de-lion; neither was John himself poisoned by a monk. However the gross licentiousness of the latter---his utter disregard of eveu the appearances of religion---and his habitual ridicule of the church, might favour such a supposition, it is certain that he died partly of grief, and partly of chagrin, at Newark. These incongruities, with the outline of Faulconbridge's character, our poet very likely derived from some previous dramatic production. With respect to the unfortunate Arthur, when he first fell into the power of his uncle, he was confined in the castle of Falaise, and the perfidious monarch endeavoured in vain to procure his assassination. He was afterwards conducted to the castle of Rouen, where Johu resided, and never afterwards heard of. The manner of his death is uncertain; but it is generally believed that the barbarous tyrant stabbed him with his own hand. Dr. Johnsou says of this tragedy: "Though not written with the utmost power of Shakspeare, it is varied with a very pleasing interchange of incidents and characters: the lady's grief is very affecting; and the character of the Bastard contains that mixture of greatness and levity, which this author delighted to exhibit." The latter is, indeed, as odd a personage as any author ever drew; aud his language is as peculiar as his ideas; but the scene in which John so darkly proposed to Hubert the murder of his innocent nephew, is beyond the commendation of cris ticism. Art could add little to its perfection; no change in dramatic taste can injure it; and time itself can subtract nothing from its beauties,------Colly Cibber altered this drama, though not for the best.

KING JOHN.

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

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 Ẩustria.
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 Cas-
tile, and Niece to King John.
LADY FAULCON BRIDGE, Mother to the Bastard,
and Robert Faulconbridge.

Lords, Ladics, Citizens of Angiers, Sheriff,
Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Messengers,
and other Attendants.

SCENE, sometimes in England, and sometimes in France.

ACT I.

SCENE 1.-Northampton.-A Room of State in the Palace.

K. John. Silence, good mother; hear the em-
bassy.

Chat. Philip of France, in right and true be-
Of thy deceased brother Geffrey's son, [half
Arthur Plantagenet, lays most lawful claim
To this fair island, and the territories;

Enter King JOHN, Queen ELINOR, PEMBROKE,
ESSEX, SALISBURY, and others, with CHA-To Ireland, Poictiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine:

TILLON.

K. John. Now, say, Chatillon, what would
France with us?

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

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In my behaviour, to the majesty,

The borrow'd majesty of England here.

Desiring thee to lay aside the sword,
Which sways usurpingly these several titles ;
And put the same into young Arthur's band,
Thy nephew, and right royal sovereign.

K. John. What follows, if we disallow of this?
Chat. The proud control of fierce and bloody
war,

Eli. A strange beginning;-borrow' ma. To enforce these rights so forcibly withheld.

jesty !

In the manner I now do.

K. John. Here have we war for war, and blood for blood, Controlment for controlment: so answer France.

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