Mucb. Bring it after me. I will not be afraid of death and bane, Till Birnamn forest come to Dunsinane. [Erit. Doct. Were I from Dunsinane away and clear, Profit again should hardly draw me here. [Erit. SCENE IV.-Country near Dunsinane: ▲ Wood in view. Enter, with Drum and Colours, MALCOLM, old SIWARD and his SON, MACDUFF, MENTETH, CATHNESS, ANGUS, LENOX, RUSSÉ, and Soldiers, marching. Mal. Cousins, I hope, the days are near at hand That chambers will be safe. Ment. We doubt it nothing. Mal. Let every soldier hew him down a bough, And bear't before him; thereby shall we shadow The numbers of our host, and niake 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 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 Siw. The time approaches, That will with due decision make us know What we shall say we bave, and what we owe, Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate; But certain issue strokes must arbitrate: + Towards which, advance the war. 1 [Exeunt, marching." Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff,Till 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 We might have met them dareful, beard to beard, And beat then backward home. What is that noise ? [A cry within, of Women. Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord. Maco. 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 Thou coin'st to use thy tongue; thy story quickly. But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to so Mess- Gracions my lord, I shall report that which I say I saw, But know not how to do it. Mach. Well, say, Sir. Mess. As I did stand my watch upon the bill, 1 look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought, The wood began to move. Macb. Liar and slave! [Striking him. Mess. Let me endure your wrath, if't be not 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 bor And wish the estate o'the world were now un-That strike beside us. 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, Sball, 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. Site. Fare you well. Do we but find the tyraut's power to-night, 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, bear-like, I must fight the course.-What's he, That was not born of woman? Such a one Enter young SIWARD. Yo. Siw. What is thy name? Macb. Thou'lt be afraid to hear it. Macd. Then yield thee, coward, And live to be the show and gaze o't We'll have thee, as our rarer monster Painted upon a pole; and underwrit, Yo. Siw. No; though thou call'st thyself a Here may you see the tyrant. hotter name Than any is in hell. • Shrivel † Armour Macb. I'll not yield, Reported with clamour. †The air which cannot be cut. To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, 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: 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 Siw. Had he his hurts before? Siw. Why then, God's soldier be he! 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 ne more; They say, he parted well, and paid his score: So, God be with him!-Here comes newer comfort. Re-enter MACDUFF, with MACBETH'S Head on a Poles 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, hail! Mal. We shall not spend a large expense of time, Before we reckon with your several loves, Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland Took off her life;-This, and what needful else + 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 historians and chroniclers; but die 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 even the appearances of religion---and his habitual ridicule of the church, might favour such a supposition, it is certain that he wied 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 autortunate 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 vaig to procure his assassination. He was afterwards conducted to the castle of Rouen, where John 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. Johnson 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 lexity, which this author delighted to exhibit." The latter is, indeed, as odd a personage as any author ever drew; and his language is as peculiar as his ideas; but the scene in which John so darkly proposed to Hubert the murder of his inuoceat nephew, is beyond the commendation of eriticism. Art could add little to its perfection; no change in dramatic taste cau 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 ARTHUR, Duke of Bretagne, Son of Geffrey, ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, Son of Sir Robert 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. (half Chat. Philip of France, in right and true be- Enter King JOHN, Queen ELINOR, PEMBROKE, TILLON. K. John. Now, say, Chatillon, what would Chat. Thus, after greeting, speaks the king of In my behaviour, to the majesty, Desiring thee to lay aside the sword, K. John. What follows, if we disallow of this ? war, Eli. A strange beginning;-borrow'd 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 coutrolment so answer France. Chat Then take my king's defiance from my] (Fair fall the bones that took the pains for me!) mouth, The furthest limit of my embassy. Compare our faces, and be judge yourself. If old Sir Robert did beget us both, K. John. Bear mine to him and so depart in And were our father, and his son like him ; peace : Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France; [Exeunt CHATILLON and PEMBROKE. Eli. What now, my sen? have 1 not ever said, How that ambitious Constance would not cease, With very easy arguments of love; of two kingdoms must With fearful bloody issue arbitrate. K. John. Our strong possession, and our right for us. Eli. Your strong possession, much more than your right; Or else it must go wrong with you and me : Enter the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, who whispers ESSEX. Essex. My liege, here is the strangest controversy, Come from the country to be judg'd by yon, Rob. The son and heir to that same Faulcon. bridge. K. John. Is that the elder, and art thou the heir ? You came not of one mother then, it seems. Bast. 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, thy mother, And wound her honour with this diffidence. K. John. A good blunt fellow :-Why, being Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance? But once he slander'd me with bastardy 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 trick of Coeur-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, [speak, And finds them perfect Richard. Sirrab, What doth move you to claim your brother's land ? Bast. Because he hath a half-face, like my father; With that half-face would he have all my land: A half-faced groat five hundred pounds a year! Rob. My gracious liege, when that my father liv'd, Your brother did employ my father much ;Bast. Well, Sir, by this you cannot get my land; Your tale must be, how he employ'd my mother, Rob. And once despatch'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 : But truth is truth; large lengths of seas and Between my father and my mother lay, [shores (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 bis 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, My father's land, as was my father's will. K. John. Sirrah, your brother is legitimate; Your father's wife did after wedlock bear hiure And, if she did play false, the fault was her's; Which fault lies ou the hazards of all husbands That marry wives. Tell me, how if my brother Who, as you say, took palus to get this son, il 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, [father, My brother might not claim him nor your Being none of his, refuse him: This CORcludes,― 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 To dispossess that child which is not his? Than was his will to get me, as I think. |