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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 less2 have given him the revolt;

And none serve with him but constrained things,
Whose hearts are absent too.

Maed. 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.
Thought speculative their unsure hopes relate;
But certain issue strokes must arbitrate':
Towards which advance the war. [Exe. marching.
SCENE

V.

Enter Macbeth, Seyton, and Soldiers, with drums and colours.

Mes. 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,

5 Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive, Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth,

I care not if thou dost for me as much.

I pull in resolution; and begin

To doubt the equivocation of the fiend,

10 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 no flying hence, nor tarrying here. 151 'gin to be a-weary of the sun, [done.And wish the estate o' the world were now unRing the alarum bell :-Blow, wind! come, wrack) At least we'll die with harness on our back. [Exe. SCENE VI.

|20|Drum and Colours. Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, and their Army, with boughs. Mal. Now near enough; your leavy screens throw down,

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, 25
We might have met them dareful beard to beard,
And beat them backward home. What is that noise?
[A cry within of women.

4

Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord. Mach. 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 supt 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 dy'd 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; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

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The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,

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That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more: it is a tale,

Told by an ideot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

Enter a Messenger.

Thou com'st to use thy tongue; thy story quickly.)
Mes. Gracious my lord,

1

I should report that which I say I saw,

But know not how to do't.

Mach. Well, say, sir.

Mes. As I did stand my watch upon the hill, I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought, The wood began to move.

Mucb. Liar, and slave!

6

[Striking him.

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Enter Young Siward.

Yo. Siw. What is thy name?

Macb. Thou'lt be afraid to hear it.

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55 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:thy face;

-Tyrant, shew

That is, opportunity to be gone. More and less is the same with greater and less. 3. e. determine. My hairy part, my capillitium. Fell is skin. Recorded is probably here used for recording, or recordable. Clung, in the northern counties, signifies any thing that is shrivelled or shrunk up. By famine, the intestines are, as it were, stuck together. To be clem'd is a Staffordshire expres sion signifying to be starv'd. To cling likewise siguifies to compress, to embrace.

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 sheath again undeeded. 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:

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Macd. I have no words,

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My voice is in my sword; thou bloodier villain
Than terms can give thee out! [Fight. Alarum.
Macb. Thou losest labour:

As easy may'st thou the intrenchant air2

I would not wish them to a fairer death;

And so his knell is knoll'd.

Mal. He's worth more sorrow,

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.

With thy keen sword impress, as make me bleed: 35 Macd. Hail, king! for so thou art: Behold,

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' 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 shew and gaze o' the time,
We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,
Painted upon a pole; and under-writ,
Here may you see the tyrant.

Mach. I will not yield,

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;

40 Whose voices I desire aloud with mine,-
Hail, king of Scotland!

[Fourish.

All. Hail, king of Scotland! Mal. We shall not spend a large expence of time, Before we reckon with your several loves, [men, 45 And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsHenceforth 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,A calling home our exil'd friends abroad, 50 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

To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, 55 That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace,

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

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.
[Flourish. Exeunt.

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Citizens of Angiers, Heralds, Executioners, Messengers, Soldiers, and other Attendants.
The SCENE, sometimes in England, and sometimes in France.

SCENE I.

Northampton.

A room of state in the palace.

ACT I.

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 controul' of fierce and bloody

Euter King John, Queen Elinor, Pembroke, Es- 5 To inforce these rights so forcibly withheld. [war,

sex, and Salisbury, with Chatillon.

K. John. NOW, say, Chatillon, what would

France with us?

[France,

Chat. Thus, after greeting, speaks the king of
In 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 those several titles;

10

K. John. Here have we war for war, and blood
for blood,
Controulment for controulment; so answer France.
Chat. Then take my king's defiance from my
The farthest limit of my embassy. [mouth,
K. John. Bear mine to him, and so depart in
Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France: [peace:
For ere thou canst report I will be there,
The thunder of my cannon shall be heard:
15 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 Chat. and Pem.
Eli. What now, my son? have I not ever said

(20

'Mr. Theobald remarks, that though this play had the title of The Life and Death of King John, yet the action of it begins at the thirty-fourth year of his life; and takes in only some transactions of his reign at the time of his demise, being an interval of about seventeen years. Mr. Steevens observes, that Hall, Hollinshed, Stowe, &c. are closely followed not only in the conduct, but sometimes in the expressions throughout the following historical dramas; viz. Macbeth, this play, Richard II. Henry IV. 2 parts, Henry V. Henry VI. 3 parts, Richard III. and Henry VIII. 2 William Mareshall Jeffrey Fitzpeter, Ch. J. of England. William Longsword, son to Henry II. by Rosamond Clifford. Roger, Earl of Norfolk and Suffolk. i. e. in my character. i. e. opposition. Cc 2 How

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K. John. Our strong possession, and our right for Eli.Yourstrong possession,much more than your Or else it must go wrong with you, and me: [right; So much my conscience whispers in your ear: Which none but heaven, and you, and I, shall hear. Enter the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, who whispers Essex.

5

10

Essex. My liege,here is the strangest controversy, 15
Come from the country to be judg'd by you,
That e'er I heard: Shall I produce the men?
K. John. Let them approach. [Exit Sheriff.
Our abbies, and our priories, shall pay
Re-enter Sheriff with Robert Faulconbridge; and
"Philip, his brother.

This expedition's charge.-What men are you?
Phil. Your faithful subject I, a gentleman,
Born in Northamptonshire; and eldest son,
As I suppose, to Robert Faulconbridge;
A soldier, by the honour-giving hand
Of Coeur-de-lion knighted in the field.

K. John. What art thou?

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.

Phil. Most certain of one mother, mighty king,
That is well known; and, as I think, one father:
But, for the certain knowledge of that truth,
I put you o'er to heaven, and to my mother;
Of that I doubt, as all men's children may.

Eli. Out on thee, rude man! thou dost shame
thy mother,

And wound her honour with this diffidence.

20

O old Sir Robert, father, on my knee

I give heaven thanks, I was not like to thee.
K. John. Why, what a mad-cap hath heaven
lent us here!

Eli. He hath a trick2 of Cœur-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,
And finds them perfect Richard.-Sirrah, speak,
What doth move you to claim your brother'sland ?
Phil. Because he hath a half-face, like my father;
With that half-face would he have all my land:
A half-fac'd groat' five hundred pound a year!
Rob. My gracious liege, when that my father liv'd,
Your brother did employ my father much;

Phil. Well, sir, by this you cannot get my land;
Your tale must be, how he employ'd my mother.
Rob. And once dispatch'd him in an embassy
To Germany, there, with the emperor,
To treat of high affairs touching that time:
The advantage of his absence took the king,
And in the mean time sojourn'd at my father's;
Where how he did prevail, I shame to speak;
25 But truth is truth; large lengths of seas and shores
Between my father and my mother lay,
(As I have heard my father speak himself)
When this same lusty gentleman was got.
Upon his death-bed he by will bequeath'd
His lands to me; and took it on his death,
That this, my mother's son, was none of his;
And, if he were, he came into the world
Full fourteen weeks before the course of time.
Then, good my liege, let me have what is mine,
35 My father's land, as was my father's will.

30

Phil. I, madam? no, I have no reason for it;
That is my brother's plea, and none of mine;
The which if he can prove, a' pops me out
At least from fair five hundred pounds a-year:
Heaven guard my mother's honour, and my land!
K. John. A good blunt fellow:-Why, being 45
younger born,

Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance?

Phil. I know not why, except to get the land.
But once he slander'd me with bastardy:
But whe'r I be as true begot, or no,
That still I lay upon my mother's head;
But that I am as well begot, my liege,
(Fair fall the bones that took the pains for me!)
Compare our faces, and be judge yourself.
If old Sir Robert did beget us both,

And were our father, and this son like him ;

2

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 hazard of all husbands
40 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
This calf, bred from his cow, from all the world;
In sooth, he might: then, if he were my brother's,
My brother might not claim him; nor your father,
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 force,
To dispossess the child that is not his?

50

55

Phil. 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 Faul

conbridge,

And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land;

That is, conduct, administration. Meaning, that peculiarity of face which may be sufficiently shewn by the slightest outline. Our author is here knowingly guilty of an anachronism, as he alludes to a coin not struck till the year 1504, in the reign of king Henry VII. viz. a groat, which, as well as the half groat, bare but half faces impressed. The groats of all our kings of England, and indeed all their other coins of silver, one or two only excepted, had a full face crown'd; till Henry VII. at the time above mentioned, coined groats and half groats, as also some shillings, with half faces, i. e. faces in profile, as all our coin has now. The first groats of king Henry VIII. were like those of his father; though afterwards he returned to the broad faces again. In the time of King John there were no groats at all, they being first, as far as appears, coined in the reign of king Edward III.

Or

Act 1. Scene 1.]

Or the reputed son of Cœur-de-lion,

KING JOHN.

Lord of thy presence', and no land beside?
Phil. Madam, an if my brother had my shape,
And I had his, sir Robert's his, like him2;
And if my legs were two such riding-rods,
My arms such eel-skins stuft; my face so thin,
That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose', [goes!
Lest men should say, Look, where three-farthings
And, to his shape, were heir to all this land,
'Would I might never stir from off this place,
I'd give it every foot to have this face;
I would not be Sir Nob in any case.

[tune,
Eli. I like thee well; wilt thou forsake thy for-
Bequeath thy land to him, and follow me?
I am a soldier, and now bound to France.
Phil. Brother, take you my land, I'll take my

chance:

Your face hath got five hundred pound a-year;
Yet sell your face for five pence, and 'tis dear.-
Madam, I'll follow you unto the death.

Eli. Nay, I wouldhave yougo before ine thither.
Phil. Our country manners give our betters way.
K. John. What is thy name?

Phil. Philip, my liege; so is my name begun;
Philip, good old Sir Robert's wife's eldest son.

K. John. From henceforth bear his name whose form thou bear'st:

Phil. Brother, adieu; Good fortune come to thee,
For thou wast got i' the way of honesty!

[Exeunt all but Philip.

A foot of honour better than I was;

5 But many a many 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:
For new-made honour doth forget men's names:
10Tis too respective, and too sociable,

For your conversing. Now your traveller,
He and his tooth-pick' at my worship's mess;
And when my knightly stomach is suffic'd,
Why then I suck my teeth, and catechise
-My dear sir,
15 My piked 10 man of countries :-
(Thus, leaning on my elbow, I begin)
I shall beseech you-That is question now;
And then comes answer like an ABC-book":-
O sir, says answer, at your best command:
20 At your employment; at your service, sir :-
No, sir, says question; I, sweet sir, at yours:
And so, ere answer knows what question would,
(Saving in dialogue of compliment;
And taking of the Alps, and Apennines,
25 The Pyrenean, and the river Po)

Kneel thou down Philip, but arise more great;
[hand:
Arise Sir Richard, and Plantagenet.
Phil. Brother by the mother's side, give me your 30
My father gave me honour, yours gave land:
Now blessed be the hour, by night or day,
When I was got, Sir Robert was away.

Eli. The very spirit of Plantagenet !—
I am thy grandame, Richard; call me so.
Phil. Madam, by chance, but not by truth:
What though?

Something about, a little from the right,

In at the window, or else o'er the hatch':
Who dares not stir by day, must walk by night;
And have is have, however men do catch:
Near or far off, well won is still well shot;
And I am I, howe'er i was begot.

K. John. Go, Faulconbridge; now hast thou
thy desire,

A landless knight makes thee a landed 'squire,—
Come, madam, and come, Richard; we must speed
For France, for France; for it is more than need.

It draws towards supper in conclusion so.
But this is worshipful society,
And fits the mounting spirit, like myself:
For he is but a bastard to the time,
That does not smack of observation:
(And so am I, whether I smack, or no)
And not alone in habit and device,
Exterior form, outward accoutrement;
But from the inward motion to deliver
35 Sweet, sweet, sweet poison for the age's tooth:
Which though I will not practise to deceive,
Yet, to avoid deceit, I mean to learn;

12

For it shall strew the footsteps of my rising.-
But who comes in such haste, in riding robes?
40 What woman-post is this? hath she no husband,
That will take pains to blow a horn before her11?
Enter Lady Faulconbridge and James Gurney.
O me! it is my mother:-How now, good lady?
What brings you here to court so hastily? [he,
45 Lady. Where is that slave, thy brother? where is
That holds in chase mine honour up and down?
Phil. My brother Robert? old Sir Robert's son?
Colbrand the giant, that same mighty man?

2

1i. e. master of thy majestic figure and dignified appearance. The meaning is, "If I had his shape-Sir Robert's--as he has." Sir Robert his, for Sir Robert's, is agreeable to the practice of that time, when the 's added to the nominative was believed, I think erroneously, to be a contraction of We must observe, his. Theobald says, that in this very obscure passage our poet is anticipating the date of another coin; humorously to rally a thin face, eclipsed, as it were, by a full-blown rose. to explain this allusion, that queen Elizabeth was the first, and indeed the only prince, who coined in England three-half-pence, and three-farthing pieces. She at one and the same time coined shillings, sixpences, groats, three-pences, two-pences, three-half-pence, pence, three-farthings, and half-pence; and these pieces all had her head, and were alternately with the rose behind, and without the rose. The But Dr. Warburton obshilling, groat, two-pence, penny, and half-penny, had it not: the other intermediate coins, viz. the "What then? These exsix-pence, three-pence, three-half-pence, and three-farthings had the rose. Faulconbridge here serves, that the sticking roses about them was then all the court-fashion. pressions mean, says Mr. Steevens, to be born out of wedlock, i. e. a step. entertains himself with the ideas of greatness.-Good den, Sir Richard, he supposes to be the salutation of a vassal. God-a-mercy, fellow, his own supercilious reply to it. i. e. respectful. To pick the teeth, and wear a piqued beard, were, in that time, marks of a traveller, or man affecting foreign fashions. 1° See note, p. 164. i. e. as they then spoke and wrote it, an absey-book, meaning à çatechism. 13 Dr. Johnson says, our author means, that a woman that travelled about like a 12 Which for this.

10

32

11

post, was likely to horn her husband,

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