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ACT V.

SCENE I. Dunsinane. A Room in the Castle. Enter a Doctor of Physic, and a waiting Gentlewoman.

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 nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon it, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most 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 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.

Lo you,

Enter Lady MACBETH, with a taper.

here she comes! This is her very guise; and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her: stand close. Doct. How came she by that light? Gent. Why, it stood by her: she has light by her continually; 'tis her command.

Doct. You see, her eyes are open.
Gent. Ay, but their sense is shut. 2)

Doct. Even so? gate. Come, come, come, come, give me your hand; Lady M. To bed, to bed; there's knocking at the What's done, cannot be undone: To bed, to bed, to bed. [Exit Lady MACBETH. Doct. Will she go now to bed? Gent. Directly. Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad: Unnatural deeds Do breed unnatural troubles: Infected minds

To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.
More needs she the divine, than the physician.
God, God, forgive us all! Look after her;
Remove from her the means of all annoyance,
And still keep eyes upon her: So, good night:
My mind she has mated, 5) and amaz'd my sight:
I think, but dare not speak.
Gent.
Good night, good doctor. [Exeunt.

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His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff.
Revenges burn in them: for their dear causes
Would, to the bleeding, and the grim alarm,
Excite the mortified man. 6)

Ang.
Near Birnam wood
Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming.
Cath. Who knows, if Donalbain be with his brother?
Len. For certain, sir, he is not: I have a file

Doct. What is it she does now? Look, how she of all the gentry; there is Siward's son,

rubs her hands.

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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 I have known those which have walked in their sleep, who have died holily in their beds.

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.

And many unrough youths, 7) that even now
Protest their first of manhood.
Ment.
What does the tyrant?
Cath. Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies:
Do call it valiant fury: but, for certain,
Some say, he's mad, others, that lesser hate him,
He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause
Within the belt of rule.
Ang.
Now does he feel
His secret murders sticking on his hands;
Those he commands, move only in command,
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach;
Nothing in love: now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.
Ment.
Who then shall blame
When all that is within him does condemn
His pester'd senses to recoil, and start,
Itself for being there?")

Cath.

Well, march we on,
To give obedience where 'tis truly ow'd:
Meet we the medecin 9) of the sickly weal:
Each drop of us.
And with him pour we, in our country's purge,

Len.
Or so much as it needs,
To dew the sovereign flower, and drown the weeds.
Make we our march towards Birnam.

SCENE III.

[Exeunt, marching.

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,

I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm? Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know All mortal consequents, pronounc'd me thus: 10)

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sick at heart,

Seyton! I a

am

When I behold Seyton, I say! This push
Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now.
I have liv'd long enough: my way of life 4)
Is fall'n into the sear, 15) the yellow leaf:
And that which should accompany old age,
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have; but, in their stead,
Curses, not loud, but deep, mouth-honour, breath,
Which the poor heart would fain deny, but dare not.
Seyton!

Enter SEYTON.

Sey. What is your gracious pleasure?
Macb.
What news more?
Sey. All is confirm'd, my lord, which was reported.
Macb. I'll fight, till from my bones my flesh be
hack'd.

Give me my armour. Sey.

Macb. I'll put it on.

"Tis not needed yet.

Send out more horses, skirr the country round; 16)
Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armour.—
How does your patient, doctor?
Doct.
Not so sick, my lord,
As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies,
That keep her from her rest.
Macb.
Cure ber of that:
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd;
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow;
Raze out the written troubles of the brain:
And, with some sweet oblivious antidote,
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff,
Which weighs upon the heart?
Doct.

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Therein the patient

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, 17) 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.

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SCENE IV.

Country near Dunsinane. A Wood in view.
Enter, with Drum and Colours, MALCOLM, old SI-
WARD and his Son, MACDUFF, MENTETH, CATHNESS,
Angus, Lenox, Rossɛ, 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.

It shall be done.

Mal. Let every soldier hew him down a bough, The numbers of our host, and make discovery And bear't before him; thereby shall we shadow Err in report of us. Sold. Siw. We learn no other, but the confident tyrant 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 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.

The time approaches,

Siw. 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 issues strokes must arbitrate: 18) 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 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.

Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord. Macb. I have alinost 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 19) 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.

Macb. 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, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 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. Mess. Gracious my lord,

I shall report that which I say I saw, But know not how to do it. 2)

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! [Striking him. Mess. 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, Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive,

Till famine cling thee: 2) if thy speech be sooth, I care not if thou dost for me as much.

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Alarums. Enter MACDUff.

Macd. That way the noise is:

thy face:

Tyrant, show

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 undeeded. There thou should'st be;
By this great clatter, one of greatest note
Seems bruited. 22) Let me find him, fortune!
And more I beg not.
[Exit. Alarum.

Enter MALCOLM and old SIWARD.
Siw. This way, my lord;

render'd:

the castle's gently

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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; 24)
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 show and gaze o'the time.
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 ar-
riv'd.

Siw. Some must go off; and yet, by these I see,
So great 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
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.

Re-enter MACDUFF, with MACBETH's Head on a Pole.
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, 26)
That speak my salutation in their minds;
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine,
Hail, king of Scotland!

All.

King of Scotland, hail! 27) [Flourish.
Mal. We shall not spend a large expence 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,
Which would be planted newly with the time,
As calling home our exil'd friends abroad,

Why then, God's soldier be he! That fled the snares of watchful tyranny;

Had I as many sons as I have hairs,

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:
So, 25) God be with him! Here comes newer

comfort.

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
That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace,
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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PHILIP FAULCONBRIDGE, his Half-brother, Bastard
Son to King Richard the First.
JAMES GURNEY, Servant to Lady Faulconbridge.
PETER of Pomfret, a Prophet.

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ACT I.

PHILIP, King of France.
LEWIS, the Dauphin.
ARCHDUKE of Austria.

Cardinal PANDULPH, the Pope's Legate.
MELUN, a French Lord.

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 Niece to King John.

Lady FAULCONBRIDGE, Mother to the Bastard and

Robert Faulconbridge.

Lords, Ladies, Citizens of Angiers, Sheriff, Heralds,
Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other
Attendants.

sometimes in England, and sometimes in France.

SCENE I. Northampton. A Room of State in the Palace.

Enter King JOHN, Queen ELINOR, PEMBROKE, ESSEX, SALISBURY, and others, with CHATILLON. King John.

Now, say, Chatillon, what would France with us?
Chat. Thus, after greeting, speaks the king of
France,

In my behaviour, 2) 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 these several titles;
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 control of fierce and bloody war, To enforce these rights so forcibly withheld.

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.

K. John. Bear mine to him, and so depart in peace: Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France; For ere thou canst report I will be there, The thunder of my cannon shall be heard: 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 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,
With very easy arguments of love;
Which now the manage 3) 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:
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.

Essex. My liege, here is the strangest controversy,
Come from the country to be judged 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 ROBвrt Faulconbridge,
and PHILIP, his bastard Brother.

This expedition's charge. What men are you?
Bast. 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.

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