For where there is advantage to be given,
Both more and less* have given him the revolt; Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive,
And none serve with him but constrained Till famine clings thee: if thy speech be sooth,
Whose hearts are absent too.
[things, I care not if thou dost for me as much.-
I pall in resolution; and begin
Macd. 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. Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate; But certain issue strokes must arbitrate +: 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; [strength The cry is still, They come: Our castle's Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie, Till famine, and the ague, eat them up: Were they not forced with those that should [beard, We might have met them dareful, beard to And beat them backward home. What is that noise? [A cry within, of Women. 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 supp'd full with hor-
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,
Cannot once start.-Wherefore was that cry?
Sey. The queen, my lord, is dead.
Macb. She should have died hereafter;
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.
I 'gin to be a-weary of the sun,
And wish the estate o'the world were now un-
Ring the alarum-bell:-Blow, wind! come,
wrack!
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.
There would have been a time for such a word. SCENE VII. The same. Another Part of
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.-
Thou comest to use thy tongue; thy story quickMess. Gracious my lord,
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 bill, 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
Within this three mile may you see it coming;
I say, a moving grove.
• i. e., Greater and less.
§ Shrivel.
the Plain. Enter MACBETH.
But, bear-like, I must fight the course.-What's That was not born of woman? Such a one [he, 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 Than any is in hell. [hotter name Macb. My name's Macbeth. Yo. Siw. The devil himself could not pro. More hateful to mine ear.
[nounce a title Macb. No, por more fearful. Yo. Siw. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with I'll prove the lie thou speak'st. [my sword [They fight, and young Siward is slain. Much. 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 ghost will haunt me still. I caunot strike at wretched kernes*, whose [Macbeth,
Are hired to bear their staves; either thou,
Or else my sword, with an unbatter'd edge,
1 sheathe again undeeded. There thon shouldst
By this great clatter, one of greatest note [be;
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.
That strike beside us. Siw.
Enter, sir, the castle.
[Exeunt. Alarum.
Re-enter MACBETH.
Macb. Why should I play the Roman fool, and die gashes On mine own sword? whiles I see lives, the Do better upon them.
Macd. Turn, hell-hound, turn. Macb. Of all men else I have avoided thee: But get thee back, my soul is too much charged With blood of thine already.
I have no words, My voice is in my sword; thou bloodier villain Than terms can give thee out! [They fight. Macb. Thou losest labour:
As easy may'st thou the intrenchant air t With thy keen sword impress, as make me Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests; [bleed: 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 served, Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb Untimely ripp'd.
[80, Macb. Accursed be that tongue that tells me For it hath cow'd my better part of man! And be these juggling fiends no more believed, That palterý 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 show and gaze o'the time. We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are, Painted upon a pole; and underwrit, Here muy you see the tyrant.
Mach. I'll not yield, [feet, To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's And to be baited with the rabble's curse. Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane, And thou opposed, 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 arrived. [see, Siw. Some must go off: and yet, by these I So great a day as this is cheaply bought. Mal. Macduffis missing, and your noble son. Rosse. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt:
He only lived 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 mau he died.
Siw.
Then he is dead? Rosse. Ay, and brought off the field: your
![[blocks in formation]](https://books.google.com.cy/books/content?id=b2c4AAAAYAAJ&output=html_text&pg=PA376&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&q=editions:OCLC13844922&cds=1&sig=ACfU3U10ezetZDAV6lYtpRUJUpc0Krck-A&edge=0&edge=stretch&ci=482,518,469,399)
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. King of Scotland, hail! [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,
[land
Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scot-
In such an honour named. What's more to do,
Which would be planted newly with the time,
As calling home our exiled friends abroad,
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
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
Prince HENRY, his son, afterwards King Henry III.
ARTHUR, Duke of Bretagne, son of Geffrey,
late Duke of Bretagne, the elder
brother of King John.
WILLIAM MARESHALL, Earl of Pembroke.
GEFFREY FITZ-PETER, Earl of Essex, chief
justiciary of England.
WILLIAM LONGSWORD, Earl of Salisbury.
ROBERT BIGOT, Earl of Norfolk.
HUBERT DE BURGH, chamberlain to the
King.
ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, Son of Sir Robert
Faulconbridge.
PHILIP FAULCON BRIDGE, his half-brother, bastard son to King Richard the First.
JAMES GURNEY, servant to Lady Faulconbridge.
PETER of Pomfret, a prophet.
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 bas-
tard, and Robert Faulconbridge.
Lords, Ladies, Citizens of Angiers, Sheriff, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants.
Scene,Sometimes in England, and sometimes in France.
Enter King JOHN, Queen ELINOR, PEMBROKE, ESSEX, SALISBURY, and others, with CHATILLON.
K. John. Now, say, Chatillon, what would France with us? [of France, Chat. Thus, after greeting, speaks the king In my behaviour, to the majesty, The borrow'd majesty of England here. Eli. A strange beginning;-borrow'd majesty! [embassy. K. John. Silence, good mother; hear the Chat. Philip of France, in rightand 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,
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
With very easy arguments of love! [whole,
Which now the manage † 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 con
To enforce these rights so forcibly withheld.
K. John. Here have we war for war, and
blood for blood,
[France.
Controlment for controlment: so answer
Chat. Then take my king's defiance from
my month,
The furthest limit of my embassy. [in peace:
K.John. Bear mine to him, and so depart! Our abbeys, and our priories, shall pay
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.
Re-enter Sheriff, with ROBERT FAULCON- | Between my father and my mother lay,
BRIDGE, 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 Cœur-de-lion knighted in the field.
K. John. What art thou?
Rob. The son and heir to that same Faulcon-
bridge.
{heir?
K.John. Is that the elder, and art thou the
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,
I put you o'er to heaven, and to my mother;
Of that I doubt, as all men's children may.
Et. Out on thee, rude man! thou dost shame
thy mother,
And wound her honour with this diffidence.
Bast. 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!
[younger born,
K. John. A good blunt fellow:-Why, being
Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance?
Bust. I know not why, except to get the land.
But once be 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 sou like him;
O, old sir Robert, father, on my knee
I give heaven thanks, I was not like to thee.
K. John. Why, what a madcap hath heaven
lent us here!
Eli. He hath a trick † 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? [parts,
K.John. Mine eye hath well examined his
And finds them perfect Richard.-Sirrah,speak,
What doth move you to claim your brother's
[father;
Bast. Because he hath a half-face, like my
With that half-face would he have all my land:
A half-faced groat five hundred pound a year!
Rob. My gracious liege, when that my father
lived,
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 truthis truth; large lengths of seas and shores
Trace, outline.
(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
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 him:
And, if she did play false, the fault was her's;
Which fault lies on the hazards of all husbands
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 that child which is not his?
Bast. 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;
Or the reputed son of Coeur-de-lion,
Lord of thy presence‡, and no land beside?
Bast. Madam, an if my brother had my shape,
And I had his, sir Robert his, like him;
And if my legs were two such riding-rods,
My arms such eel-skins stuff'd; my face so thin,
That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose,
Lest men should say, Look, where three-far-
things goes!
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.
Eli. I like thee well; Wilt thou forsake thy
fortune,
Bequeath thy land to him, and follow me?
I am a soldier, and now bound to France.
Bust. Brother, take you my land, I'll take
Your face hath got five hundred pounds a year;
Yet sell your face for five pence, and 'tis dear.-
Madam, I'll follow you unto the death.
Eli. Nay, I would have you go before me
thither.
[way.
Bast. Our country manners give our betters
K. John. What is thy name?
Bast. Philip, my liege; so is my name begun;
Philip, good old sir Robert's wife's eldest son.
K. John. From benceforth bear his name
whose form thou bear'st:
Kneel thou down Philip, but arise more greas:
Arise sir Richard, and Plantagenet.
Bast. Brother, by the mother's side, give | What brings you here to court so hastily?
My father gave me honour, your's 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. Bast. 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. [thy desire, K.John. Go, Faulconbridge; now hast thou 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.
Bast. Brother, adieu; Good fortune come to
For thou wast got i'the way of honesty. [thee!
[Exeunt all but the Bastard.
A foot of honour better than I was;
But many a foot of land the worse.
Well, now I can make any Joan a lady:-
Good den*, sir Richard,—God-a-mercy, fel-
low;-
And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter:
For new-made honour doth forget men's names;
'Tis too respective †, and too sociable,
For your conversiont. Now your traveller,
He and his tooth-pick at my worship's mess;
And when my knightly stomach is sufficed,
Why then I suck my teeth, and catechize
My picked man of countries:-My dear sir,
(Thus, leaning on mine 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;
At your employment; at your service, sir:—
No, sir, says question, I, sweet sir, at yours:
And, so, ere answer knows what question
(Saving in dialogue of compliment;
And talking of the Alps and Apennines,
The Pyrenean, and the river Po,)
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 doth 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
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;
For it shall strew the footsteps of my rising.
But who comes in such haste, in riding robes?
What woman-post is this? hath she no husband,
That will take pains to blow a horn before her?
Enter Lady FAULCONBRIDGE and JAMES
GURNEY.
O me! it is my mother:-How now,good lady?
Lady F. Where is that slave, thy brother?
That holds in chase mine honour up and down?
Bas.My brother Robert? old sir Robert's son?
Colbrand the giant, that same mighty man?
Is it sir Robert's son, that you seek so?
Lady F. Sir Robert's son! Ay, thou unreverend boy, [Robert? Sir Robert's son! Why scorn'st thou at sir He is sir Robert's son; and so art thou.
Bast. James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave
Gur. Good leave, good Philip. [awhile?
Bast.
Philip?-sparrow!-James,
There's toys abroad ¶; anon I'll tell thee more.
[Exit GURNEY.
Madam, I was not old sir Robert's son;
Sir Robert might have eat his part in me
Upon Good-Friday, and ne'er broke his fast:
Sir Robert could do well; marry, (to confess!)
Could he get me? Sir Robert could not do it;
We know his handy-work:-Therefore,good mo-
To whom am I beholden for these limbs? [ther,
Sir Robert never holp to make this leg.
Lady F. Hast thou conspired with thy brother too, [honour? That for thine own gain shouldst defend mine What means this scorn, thou most untoward knave? [lisco-like**:
Bast. Knight, knight, good mother,-BasiWhat! I am dubb'd; I have it on my shoulder. But, mother, I am not sir Robert's son;
I have disclaim'd sir Robert, and my land;
Legitimation, name, and all is gone:
Then, good my mother, let me know my father;
Some proper man, I hope; Who was it, mother?
Lady F. Hast thou denied thyself a Faulcon-
bridge?
Bast. As faithfully as I deny the devil.
Lady F. King Richard Coeur-de-lion was
By long and vehement suit I was seduced
To make room for him in my husband's bed :—
Heaven lay not my transgression to my charge!
Thou art the issue of my dear offence,
Which was so strongly urged, past my defence.
Bast. Now, by this light, were I to get again,
Madam, I would not wish a better father.
Some sins do bear their privilege on earth,
And so doth yours; your fanlt was not your folly:
Needs must you lay your heart at his dispose,
Subjected tribute to commanding love,-
Against whose fury and unmatched force,
The aweless lion could not wage the fight,[hand.
Nor keep his princely heart from Richard's
He, that perforce robs lions of their hearts,
May easily win a woman's. Ay, my mother,
With all my heart I thank thee for my father!
Who lives and dares but say, thou didst not well
When I was got, I'll send his soul to hell.
Come, lady, I will show thee to my kin;
And they shall say, when Richard me begot, If thou hadst said him nay, it had been sin: Who says it was, he lies; I say, 'twas not. [Exeunt.
* Good evening. + Respectable. Change of condition.
My travelled fop. Catechism. ** A character in an old Drama called Soliman and Perseda.
|