That were most precious to me.-Did heaven look|—Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afear'd? What eyes, And braggart with my tongue!-But, gentle heaven, Mal. The night is long, that never finds the day. ACT V. [Exe. 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 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 more o'that, my lord, no more o'that: you mar 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 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 have known those which have walked in their sleep, who have died holily in their beds. I 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? the gate. Come, come, come, come, give me your Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad: Unnatural gown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, Do breed unnatural troubles: Infected minds fold it, write upon it, read it, afterwards seal it, and To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. again return to bed; yet all this while in a most More needs she the divine, than the physician.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 I 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. God, God, forgive us all! Look after her; Gent. Good night, good doctor. Ment. The English power is near, led on by His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff. Doct. How came she by that light? Doct. You see, her eyes are open. 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! (1) All pause. (2) Dark. (3) Confounded. 12 L. Near Birnam wood Len. For certain, sir, he is not: I have a file Ment. (4) A religious; an ascetic. Now does he feel (5) Unbearded. His secret murders sticking on his hands; 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 medicin' 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 Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane, And mingle with the English epicures : As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, Macb. Doct. 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 me:Come, sir, despatch :-If thou could'st, 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? Doct. Ay, my good lord; your royal preparation Makes us hear something. I Macb. Bring it after me.▬▬ 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. [Erit. 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 Sol The devil damn thee black, thou cream-fac'd loon; diers, marching. Serv. There is ten thousand- Geese, villain? When I behold-Seyton, I say!-This push Enter Seyton. Mal. Cousins, I hope, the days are near at hand That chambers will be safe. Ment. The wood of Birnam. Sold. It shall be done. 7777 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 banner on the outward walls; The cry is still, They come: Our castle's strength Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord. The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Enter a Messenger. Macb. [They fight, and Young Siward is slain. 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. Well, say, sir. Macb. 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! If thou speak'st false, I pull in resolution; and begin That lies like truth: Fear not, till Birnam wood And wish the estate o'the world were now undone.Ring the alarum bell:-Blow, wind! come, wrack! At least we'll die with harness on our back. [Exeunt. Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born. [Ex. Alarums. Enter Macduff. Macd. That way the noise is:-Tyrant, show thy face: Macb. Why should I play the Roman fool, and die SCENE VI.-The same. A plain before the cas-On mine own sword? whiles I see lives, the gashes tle. Enter, with drums and colours, Malcolm. Do better upon them. 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, Sir. (1) Skin. Fare you well.— (2) Shrivel. [They fight. Thou loosest labour: (5) Reported with clamour. As easy may'st thou the entrenchant air1 Macd. Despair thy charm; Macb. Accursed be that tongue that tells me so, And live to be the show and gaze o'the time. Macb. I'll not yield, To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, Mal. I would, the friends we miss were safe ar- 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 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. Aye, on the front. He's worth more sorrow, Mal. Macd. Hail, king! for so thou art: Behold, King of Scotland, hail! And make us even with you. My thanes and kins men, In such an honour nam'd. What's more to do, This play is deservedly celebrated for the propriety of its fiction, and solemnity, grandeur, and variety of its action; but it has no nice discrimina tions of character; the events are too great to admit the influence of particular dispositions, and the course of the action necessarily determines the conduct of the agents. The danger of ambition is well described; and I know not whether it may not be said, in defence of some parts which now seem improbable, that in Shakspeare's time it was necessary to warn credulity against vain and illusive predictions. The passions are directed to their true end. Lady Why then, God's soldier be he! Macbeth is merely detested; and though the courage of Macbeth preserves some esteem, yet every reader rejoices at his fall. Had I as many sons as I have hairs, I would not wish them to a fairer death: (1) The air, which cannot be cut. (2) Shuffle. JOHNSON. (3) The kingdom's wealth or ornament. KING JOHN. King John. PERSONS REPRESENTED. Lewis, the dauphin. Prince Henry, his son; afterward King Henry III. Arch-duke of Austria. William Marshall, earl of Pembroke. William Longsword, earl of Salisbury. Hubert de Burgh, chamberlain to the king. Philip Faulconbridge, his half-brother, bastard son James Gurney, servant to Lady Faulconbridge. Philip, king of France. 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 Lady Faulconbridge, mother to the bastard, and Lords, ladies, citizens of Angiers, sheriff, heralds, ants. Scene, sometimes in England, and sometimes in ACT I. The thunder of my cannon shall be heard: So, hence! Be thou the trumpet of our wrath, SCENE I.-Northampton. A room of state in And sullen presage of your own decay.the palace. Enter King John, Queen Elinor, An honourable conduct let him have:Pembroke, Essex, Salisbury, and others, with Pembroke, look to't: Farewell, Chatillon. Chatillon. Chat. Thus, after greeting, speaks the king In my behaviour,' to the majesty, of Eli. A strange beginning;-borrow'd majesty! Chat. Philip of France, in right and true behalf To Ireland, Poictiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine: K. John. What follows, if we disallow of this? 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. [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, Which now the manage of two kingdoms must K. John. Our strong possession, and our right for us. Eli. Your strong possession, much more than Or else it must go wrong with you, and me: Essex. My liege, here is the strangest controversy, K. John. Let them approach.- [Exit Sheriff. This expedition's charge.-What men are you? K. John. Bear mine to him, and so depart in As I suppose, to Robert Faulconbridge; peace: Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France; For ere thou canst report I will be there, (1) In the manner I now do. A soldier, by the honour-giving hand (2) Conduct, administration, |