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.

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.
SCENE IV. Country near Dunsinane: A Wood
in view. Enter, with Drum and Colours, MAL-
COLM, 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 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.

To hear a night shriek; and my felle 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.
Mach. 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,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
To the last syllable of recorded time; 10
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.

Thou com'st to use thy tongue; thy story quickly shall report that which I say I saw, Mess. Gracious my lord,

I

But know not how to do it.

Macb.

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.
Attend the true event, and put we on
Industrious soldiership.

Siw.

Let our just censures

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.

Liar and slave

Macb. Mess. Let me endure your wrath, if't be 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 cling12 thee: if thy speech be sooth, I care not if thou dost for me as much.I pall 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
Comes toward Dunsinane.-Arm, arm, and out!-
If this, which he avouches, does appear,
There is nor flying hence, nor tarrying here.
'gin to be a-weary of the sun,

Maco. 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.

What rhubarb, senna.' The old copy reads cyme. The emendation is Rowe's.

2 A similar incident is recorded by Olaus Magnus, in his Northern History, lib. vii. cap. xx. De Strategemate Hachonis per Frondes.

3 For where there is advantage to be given.' 'ohnson thought that we should read:

where there is a vantage to be gone.'

Dr.

e. where there is an opportunity to be gone, all ranks desert him. We might perhaps read :

where there is advantage to be gained;' and the sense would be nearly similar, with less violence to the text of the old copy.

4 i. e. Greater and less, or high and low, those of all lanks.

5 What we shall say we have, and what we owe.' I think, with Mason, that Siward only means to say, in more pompous language, that the time approached which was to decide their fate.

[Exeunt

SCENE VI. The same. A Plain before the Cas tle. Enter with Drums and Colours, MALCOLM, Old SIWARD, MACDUFF, &c. and their Army, with Boughs.

Mal. Now near enough; your leavy screens throw down,

stroy the effect, and defeat the supposed purpose of the antecedent couplets.

8- my fell of hair,' my hairy part, my capilititium. Fell is skin, properly a sheep's skin with the wool on it. 9 There would have been a time for such a word.' Macbeth might mean that there would have been a more convenient time for such a word, for such intelligence. By a word certainly more than a single one was meant. 10 The last syllable of recorded time' seems to sig nify the utmost period fixed in the decrees of heaven for the period of life. The record of futurity is indeed no accurate expression; but as we only know transactions, past or present, the language of men affords no term for the volumes of prescience in which future events may be supposed to be written.

11 Striking him'] says the stage direction in the margin of all the modern editions: but this stage direc tion is not in the old copies: it was first interpolated by Rowe; and is now omitted on the suggestion of the late Mr. Kemble. See his Essay on Macbeth and King Richard III. Lond. 1817, p. 111.

12 To cling, in the northern counties, signifies to shrivel, wither, or dry up. Clung-wood is wood of which the sap is entirely uried or spent. The same idea is well expressed by Pope in his version of the nineteenth Iliad, 166:

Clung with dry famine, and with toils declin'd' 13 Harness, armour.

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.

SCENE VII. The same. Another part of the

Plain. Enter MACBETH.

Macb. They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, But, bearlike, 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?
Macb.

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

ter name

No, nor more fearful.

Macb. Yo. 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, whose arms
Are hir'd to bear their staves; either thou, Macbeth,
Or else my sword, with an unbatter'd edge,

I sheathe again undaeded. There thou should'st 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 Old 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.

Do better upon them.

Re-enter MACDUFF

Macd.

Turn, hell-hound, turn. Mach. Of all men else I have avoided thee: But get thee back, my soul is too much charg'd With blood of thine already. I have no words,

Macd.

My voice is in my sword; thou bloodier villain
Than terms can give thee out! [They fight
Macb.
Thou losest labour:
As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air
With thy keen sword impress, as make me bleed.
Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;
bear a charmed life," which must not yield
To one of woman born.
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.

Macd.

Mach. 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 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. And live to be the show and gaze o' the time. Macd. Then yield thee, coward, We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are, Painted upon a pole; and underwrit, Here may you see the tyrant. Macb. I'll not yield 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;

The which no sooner had his prowess confirm'd
He only liv'd but till he was a man:
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 he!

1 The first folio reads upon's.

2 But, bearlike, I must fight the course.' This was a phrase at bear-baiting. Also you shall see two ten dog courses at the great bear.-Antipodes, by Brome. 3 Bruited is reported, noised abroad; from bruit, Fr. 4 Why should I play the Roman fool, and die.' 1ading probably to the suicide of Cato of Utica.

5 My voice is in my sword.' Thus Casca, in Julius Cæsar :

Mal.

And that I'll spend for him.
Siw.
He's worth no more;
They say, he parted well, and paid his score:
And so, God be with him!-Here comes newer

comfort.

Re-enter MACDUFF, with MACBETH's Head on a

Pole.1

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.

Hail, king of Scotland! [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,

I These words, on a pole,' Mr. Steevens added to the stage direction from the Chronicle. The stage directions of the players are often incorrect, and sometimes ludicrous.

2 Thy kingdom's pearl,' thy kingdom's wealth or ornament. Rowe altered this to peers, without authority. 3 To spend an expense of time is, it is true, an awkward expression, yet it is probably correct; for, in the Comedy of Errors, Act iii. Sc. 1, Antipholus of Ephesus says This jest shall cost me some expense.'

THIS play is deservedly celebrated for the propriety o its fictions, and solemnity, grandeur, and variety of its action; but it has no nice discriminations of character: the events are too great to admit the influence of par ticular dispositions, and the course of the action neces sarily determines the conduct of the agents.

The danger of ambition is well described; and 1 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 Macbeth is merely detested; and though the courage of Macbeth preserves some esteem, yet every reader rejoices at his fall. JOHNSON.

4 'Malcolm, immediately after his coronation, called a parliament at Forfair; in the which he rewarded them with lands and livings that had assisted him against Macbeth. Manie of them that were before thanes were at this time made earles; as Fife, Menteith, Atholl, Levenox, Murrey, Caithness, Rosse, and Angus.'-Holinshed's History of Scotland, p. 176

THIS historical play was founded on a former drama, entitled The Troublesome Raigne of John, King of England, with the Discoverie of King Richard Cordelion's base Son, vulgarly named the Bastard Fawconbridge: also the Death of King John at Swinstead Abbey. | As it was (sundry times) publikely acted by the Queenes Majesties Players in the honourable Cittie of London.' This piece, which was in two parts, was printed at London for Sampson Clarke, 1591,' without the author's name was again republished in 1611, with the letters W. Sh. in the title-page; and afterwards, in 1622, with the name of William Shakspeare at length. It may be found by the curious reader among the Six Old Plays on which Shakspeare founded,' &c. published by Mr. Steevens and Mr. Nichols some years since.

Shakspeare has followed the old play in the conduct of its plot, and has even adopted some of its lines. The number of quotations from Horace, and similar scraps of learning scattered over this motley piece, ascertain it to have been the work of a scholar. It contains likewise a quantity of rhyming Latin and ballad metre; and, in a scene where the Bastard is represented as plundering a monastery, there are strokes of humour which, from their particular turn, were most evidently produced by another hand than that of Shakspeare. Pope attributes the old play to Shakspeare and Rowley conjointly; but we know not on what foundation. Dr. Farmer thinks there is no doubt that Rowley wrote the old play; and when Shakspeare's play was called for, and could not be procured from the players, a piratical bookseller reprinted the old one under his name.

Though, as Johnson observes, King John is not written with the utmost power of Shakspeare,' yet it has parts of preeminent pathos and beauty, and characters highly interesting drawn with great force and truth. The scene between John and Hubert is perhaps one of the most masterly and striking which our poet ever penned. The secret workings of the dark and turbulent soul of the usurper, ever shrinking from the full developement of his own bloody purpose, the artful expressions of grateful attachment by which he w us Hubert to

do the deed, and the sententious brevity of the close, manifest that consummate skill and wonderful know. ledge of human character which are to be found in Shakspeare alone. But what shall we say of that heart-rending scene between Hubert and Arthur? a scene so deeply affecting the soul with terror and pity, that even the sternest bosom must melt into tears; it would perhaps be too overpowering for the feelings, were it not for the alleviating influence of the innocence and artless eloquence of the poor child. His death afterwards, when he throws himself from the prison walls, excites the deepest cominiseration for his hapless fate. The maternal grief of Constance, moving the haughty unbending soul of a proud queen and affection. ate mother to the very confines of the most hopeless despair, bordering on madness, is no less finely conceived, than sustained by language of the most impassioned and vehement eloquence. How exquisitely beautiful are the following lines:

'Grief fills the room up of my absent child; Lies in his bed; walks up and down with me; Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words, Remembers me of all his gracious parts, Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form; Then have I reason to be fond of grief.' Shakspeare has judiciously preserved the character of the Bastard Faulconbridge, which was furnished him by the old play, to alleviate by his comic humour the poignant grief excited by the too painful events of the tragic part of the play. Faulconbridge is a favourite with every one: he is not only a man of wit, but an heroic soldier; and we lean toward him from the first for the good humour he displays in his litigation with his brother respecting the succession to his supposed father :-

He hath a trick of Cœur de Lion's face, The very spirit of Plantagenet! This bespeaks our favour toward him: his courage. his wit, and his frankness secure it.

Schlegel has remarked that, in this play, the politi cal and warlike events are dressed out with solema