We might have met them dareful, beard to beard, Macb. I have almost forgot the taste of fears. As life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrors; Macb. She should have died hereafter; Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. Enter a MESSENGER. Thou com'st to use thy tongue; thy story quickly. 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 hill, I look'd toward Birnam, and anon methought The wood began to move. Macb. Liar, and slave! Mess. Let me endure your wrath, if't be not so: Macb. If thou speak'st false, 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, That lies like truth: Fear not, till Birnam wood Do come to Dunsinane;—and now a wood Comes towards Dunsinane! Arm, arm, and out!— If this, which he avouches, does appear, There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here. And wish the estate o' the world were now undone. [Striking. [Exeunt. NORFOLK'S REPLY TO BOLINGBROKE'S LET not my cold words here accuse my zeal : The bitter clamour of two eager tongues, SHAKSPERE. First, the fair reverence of your highness curbs me I do defy him, and I spit at him; Call him a slanderous coward and a villain; SCENE IN THE FOREST OF ARDEN. Duke. Now, my co-mates, and brothers in exile, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything. Amiens. I would not change it. Happy is your grace That can translate the stubbornness of fortune Into so quiet and so sweet a style! Duke. Come, shall we go and kill us venison? 1st Lord. Indeed, my lord, Duke. But what said Jaques ? Did he not moralise this spectacle? 1st Lord. Oh yes, into a thousand similes : First, for his weeping in the needless stream: "Poor deer," quoth he, "thou mak'st a testament, As worldlings do, giving thy sum of more To that which had too much." Then, being alone, 66 And never stays to greet him. Ay," quoth Jaques, 66 Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens; 'Tis just the fashion. Wherefore do you look Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there?" The body of the country, city, court, Yea, and of this our life; swearing that we To fright the animals, and to kill them up, In their assign'd and native dwelling-place. Duke. And did you leave him in this contemplation? 2d Lord. We did, my lord-weeping and commenting Upon the sobbing deer. Duke. Show me the place; FLATTERY AND FRIENDSHIP. SHAKSPERE. EVERY one that flatters thee GRIFFITH'S CHARACTER OF CARDINAL WOLSEY. SHAKSPERE. Thomas Wolsey, a celebrated English statesman, born at Ipswich, in Suffolk, in 1471, was the son of a butcher. He entered the Church, and rose to be a Royal Chaplain and Dean of Lincoln under Henry VII. Henry VIII., with whom he became a favourite, called him to the Privy Council, gave him several high preferments, and at last made him Archbishop of York, Chancellor of the Kingdom, and was governed by him in all things. He made a great number of enemies by his rapacity; his revenues were almost equal to those of the Crown; he was, moreover, unjust and cruel in the exercise of his functions as legate, and created an ecclesiastical court which was a second Inquisition. Wolsey attained to the height of power, and fell into the depths of disgrace. He was appointed Commissioner for the divorce of Henry VIII., and did not hasten the affair in accordance with the wishes of the monarch. He was accused before the Court of King's Bench of having exceeded his authority, was deprived of the seals and nearly all his revenues, and dismissed from the court. Being sent for to London again to answer new charges, he died on his road, at Leicester, in 1530. Wolsey founded Christ Church College, Oxford. Enter Katherine, Dowager. sick; led between Griffith and Patience. Kath. O, Griffith, sick to death: My legs, like loaden branches, bow to the earth, Didst thou not tell me, Griffith, as thou ledd'st me, Grif. Yes, madam: but I think your grace, Out of the pain you suffer'd, gave no ear to 't. Kath. Prithee, good Griffith, tell me how he died: For my example. Grif. Well, the voice goes, madam: For after the stout earl Northumberland Arrested him at York, and brought him forward He fell sick suddenly, and grew so ill, He could not sit his mule. Kath. Alas, poor man! Grif. At last, with easy roads, he came to Leicester. So went to bed: where eagerly his sickness Kath. So may he rest; his faults lie gently on him! Of an unbounded stomach, ever ranking His promises were, as he then was, mighty; The clergy ill example. Grif. Noble madam, Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues Kath. I were malicious else. Grif. Yes, good Griffith. This cardinal, Though from an humble stock undoubtedly Tied. There is a great controversy amongst the commentators whether this word means limited-infringed the liberties-or tithed. We have no doubt that the allusiou is to the acquisition of wealth by the Cardinal. |