Mal. Be this the whetstone of your sword:
let grief

Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it.
Macd. O, I could play the woman with mine

eyes,

And braggart with my tongue !-But, gentle
heaven,

Cut short all intermission: front to front,
Bring thou this fiend of Scotland, and myself;
Within my sword's length set him; if he 'scape,
Heaven forgive him too!
Mal.
This tune goes manly.
Come, go we to the king: our power is ready:
Our lack is nothing but our leave: Macbeth
Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above
Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer
you may;

The night is long that never finds the day.

ACT V.

[Exeunt.

SCENE I. Dunsinane. A room in the Castle.
Enter a Doctor of Physick, 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.

Enter Lady Macbeth, with a Taper. Lo you, 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?

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.

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

Gent. Why, it stood by her; she has light by Of all the gentry; there is Siward's son,

her continually; 'tis her command.
Doct. You see her eyes are open.
Gent. Ay, but their sense is shut.
Doct. What is it she does now? Look, how
she rubs her hands.

Gent. It is an accustem'd action with her, to seem thus washing her hands; I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour.

Lady M. Yet here's a spot.

Doci. Hark, she speaks: I will set down what comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.

And many unrough youths, that even now
Protest their first of manhood.

Ment. What does the tyrant? Cath. Great' Dunsinane he strongly fortifies: Some say, he's mad; others, that lesser hate him, Do call it valiant fury: but, for certain, He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause" Within the belt of rule. Ang. Now does he feel His secret murders sticking on his hands; Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach; Those he commands, move only in command, Lady M. Out, damned spot! out, I say!-Nothing in love: Now does he feel his title One: Two: Why, then 'tis time to do't:- Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe Hell is murky!-Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, Upon a dwarfish thief." and afeard? What kneed we fear who knows it, Ment. when none can call our power to account 7-His pester'd senses to recoil, and start, Yet who would have thought the old man to When all that is within him does condemn Eave had so much blood in him? Itself for being there! Doct. Do you mark that? Cath. Well, march we on, To give obedience where 'tis truly ow'd: Meet we the medecin of the sickly weal; And with him pour we, in our country's purge, Each drop of us. Or so much as it needs, To dew the sovereign flower, and drown the

Lady M. The thane of Fife had a wife: Where is she now 7-What, will these hands ne'er be clean 7-No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that you mar all with this starting.

Doct. Go to, go to; you have known what you should not.

Gent. She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that: Heaven knows what she has known.

Len.

weeds.

Who then shall blame

Make we our march towards Birnam.
[Exeunt, marching.

Macb. Go, prick thy face, and over-red thy fear,

Country near Dunsinane: A Wood in view. Enter, with Drum and Colours, Malcolm, old Siward, and his Son, Macduff, Menteth, Cathness, Angus, Lenox, Rosse, and Soldiers, marching.

Mal. Cousins, 1 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.
Mal. Let every soldier hew him down a bough,
And bear't before him; thereby shall we shadow
The numbers of our host, and make discovery

Thou lily-liver'd boy. What soldiers, patch?
Death of thy soul! those linen cheeks of thine
Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey-Err in report of us.
face?

Serv. The English force, so please you.

Macb. Take thy face hence.-Seyton!-I am

sick at heart,

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
Is fall'n into the sear, 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
Seyton !-

not.

Enter Seyton.

Sey. What is your gracious pleasure ?
Macb.
What news more?
Sey. All is confirm'd, my lord, which was re-
ported.

Sold.

It shall be done.

Siw. We learn no other, but the confident
tyrant

Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure
Our setting down befor'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.

Siv.

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.

Macb. I'll fight, till from my bones my flesh be Enter, with Drums and Colours, Macbeth, Sey

hack'd.

Send out more horses, skir the country round;
Hang those that talk of fear.-Give me mine

ton, and Soldiers.

Mach. Hang out our banners on the outward walls;

The cry is still, They comé: 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 tha noise ? [A cry within, of women.

Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord.
Macb. I have almost forgot the taste of fears:
The time has been, my senses would have
cool'd

Therein the patient To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse, and stir

Macb. Throw physick to the dogs, I'll none of As life were in't: I have supp'd full with it :

horrors;

Come, put mine armour on; give me my staff:-Direness, familiar to my slaught'rous thoughts,
Seyton, send out.-Doctor, the thanes fly from 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.

me:

Come, sir, despatch :-If thou couldst, doctor,

cast

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.I
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: if thy speech be sooth,
1 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 vood
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-
done.-

Ring the alarum-bell:-Blow, wind! come,

wrack !

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,

Shall, 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.

Siro.
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.
SCENE VII.

The same. Another part of the Plain.
Enter Macbeth.

Macb. They have tied me to a stake; I cannot
fly,

But, bearlike, I must fight the course.-What's
he,

That was not born of woman 7 Such a one
Am I to fear, or none.

Enter young Siward.

Yo. Siw. What is thy name?

Macb.

Macd. That way the noise is:-Tyrant, show
If thou be'st slain, and with no stroke of mine,
thy face:
My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me stil
cannot strike at wretched kernes, whose arms
Are hir'd to bear their staves: either thou, Mac
beth,

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: 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.

Mal.

That strike beside us.
Siw.

We have met with foes

Enter, sir, the castle.
[Exeunt. Alarum.

Re-enter Macbeth.

Macb. Why should I play the Roman fool, and

die

On mine own sword? whiles I see lives, the
gashes
Do better upon them.

Macd.

Macd.

Re-enter Macduff.

Turn, hell-hound, turn.
Macb. Of all men else I have avoided thee:
But get thee back, my soul is too much charg'd
With blood of thine already.
I have no words,
My voice is in my sword; thon bloodier villain
Than terms can give thee out! [They fight.
Macb.
Thou losest labour:
As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air
With thy keen sword impress, as make me bleed:
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 sery'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 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.

To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, Thou'lt be afraid to hear it. And to be baited with the rabble's curse.

Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane,
And though 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
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 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 man he died.

Rosse. Ay, on the front.
Siw.

Siw.
He's worth no 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

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,
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,

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,
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny;
Producing forth the cruel ministers

Of this dead butcher, and his fiendlike queen;
Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands

Why then, God's soldier be he! Took off her life :-This, and what needful else 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.

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

KING JOHN.

KING JOHN.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

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 FAULCONBRIDGE, his Half-bro-
ther, Bastard Son to King Richard the First.
JAMES GURNEY, Servant to Lady Faulcon-
bridge.

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.
BLANCH, Daughter to Alphonso, King of Cas-
CONSTANCE, Mother to Arthur.

tile, and Niece to King John.

LADY FAULCONBRIDGE, Mother to the
Bastard and Robert Faulconbridge.

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

SCENE,-sometimes in England, and sometimes in 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 The accent of his tongue affecteth him: