The Dramatic Works of Shakspeare

of her.

You say, he dined at boine; the goldsmith here Denies that saying :-Sirrah, what say you? Dro. E. Sir, he dined with her there, at the Porcupine. [that ring. Cour. He did; and from my finger snatch'd Ant. E. 'Tis true, my liege, this ring I had [here? Duke. Saw'st thou him enter at the abbey Cour. As sure, my liege, as I do see your [abbess hither; Duke. Why, this is strange :-Go call the I think you are all mated, or stark mad. [Exit an Attendant. Ege. Most mighty duke, vouchsafe me speak a word;

grace.

me.

But he, I thank him, guaw'd in two my cords; Now am I Dromio, and his man, unbound. Ege. I am sure, you both of you remember [by you; Dro. E. Ourselves we do remember, sir, For lately we were bound as you are now. You are not Pinch's patient, are you, sir? Ege. Why look you strange on me? you know me well. [now. Ant. E. I never saw you in my life, till Ege. Oh! grief hath changed me, since you saw me last;

And careful hours, with Time's deformed hand Have written strange defeatures † in my face: But tell me yet, dost thou not know my voice? Ant. E. Neither.

Ege.

Dromio, nor thou?

Dro. E. No, trust me, sir, nor I. Age. I am sure, thou dost. Dro. E. Ay, sir? but I am sure, I do not; and whatsoever a man denies, you are now bound to believe him.

Ege. Not know my voice! O, time's extremity! [tongue, Hast thou so crack'd and splitted my poor In seven short years, that here my only son Knows not my feeble key of untuned cares? Though now this grained I face of mine be hid In sap-consuming winter's drizzled snow, And all the conduits of my blood froze up; Yet hath my sight of life some memory, My wasting lamp some fading glimmer left, My dull deaf ears a little use to hear: All these old witnesses (I cannot err,) Tell me, thou art my son Antipholus.

Ant. E. I never saw my father in my life. Æge. But seven years since, in Syracusa, boy, [son, Thon know'st, we parted: but, perhaps, my Thou shamest to acknowledge me in misery. Ant. E. The duke, and all that know me in the city,

Confounded.

Can witness with me that it is not so; I ne'er saw Syracusa in my life. Duke. I tell thee, Syracusan, twenty years Have I been patron to Antipholus, During which time he ne'er saw Syracusa : I see, thy age and dangers make thee dote. Enter the Abbess, with ANTIPHOLUS Syracusan, and DROMIO Syracusan. Abb. Most mighty duke, behold a man much wrong'd. [All gather to see him. Adr. I see two husbands, or mine eyes deceive me. [other;

Duke. One of these men is Genius to the And so of these: Which is the natural man, And which the spirit? Who deciphers them? Dro. S. I, sir, am Dromio; command him

away.

[stay.
Dro. E. I, sir, am Dromio; pray, let me
Ant. S. Egeon, art thou not? or else his
ghost?
[him here?
Dro. S. O, my old master! who hath bound
Abb. Whoever bound him, I will loose his
bonds,

And gain a husband by his liberty:-
Speak, old Egeon, if thou be'st the man
That hadst a wife once call'd Æmilia,
That bore thee at a burden two fair sons:
O, if thou be'st the same Ægeon, speak,
And speak unto the same Emilia!

Ege. If I dream not, thou art Æmilia;
If thou art she, tell me, where is that son
That floated with thee on the fatal raft?

Abb. By men of Epidamnum, he, and I, And the twin Dromio, all were taken up; But, by and by, rude fishermen of Corinth By force took Dromio and my son from them, And me they left with those of Epidamnum: What then became of them, I cannot tell; I, to this fortune that you see me in. [right);

Duke. Why, here begins his morning story These two Antipholus's, these two so like, And these two Dromio's, one in semblance,Besides her urging of her wreck at sea,These are the parents to these children, Which accidentally are met together. Antipholus, thou camest from Corinth first. Ant. S. No, sir, not I; I came from Syra[is which.

cuse.

Duke. Stay, stand apart; I know not which Ant. E. I came from Corinth, my most gracious lord,

Dro. E. And I with him. [famous warrior, Ant. E. Brought to this town with that most Duke Menaphon, your most renowned uncle. Adr. Which of you two did dine with me to Ant. S. I, gentle mistress.

Adr.

day?

And are not you my husband? Ant. E. No, I say nay to that.

Ant. S. And so do I, yet did she call me so; And this fair gentlewoman, her sister here, Did call me brother:-What I told you then, I hope, I shall have leisure to make good; If this be not a dream, I see, and hear. Ang. That is the chain, sir, which yon had of Ant, S. I think it be, sir; I deny it not.

+ Alteration of features.

Furrowed, lined.

The morning story is what Ægeon tells the Duke in the first scene of this play.

[me.

Ant. E. And you, sir, for this chain arrested Ang. I think I did, sir; I deny it not. [me. Adr. I sent you money, sir, to be your bail, By Dromio; but I think he brought it not. Dro. E. No, none by me.

Ant. S. This purse of ducats I received from And Dromio my man did bring them me: [you, I see, we still did meet each other's man, And I was ta'en for him, and he for me, And thereupon these errors are arose. Ant. E. These ducats pawn I for my father here.

[life.
Duke. It shall not need, thy father hath his
Cour. Sir, I must have that diamond from
you.
[my good cheer.
Ant. E. There, take it; and much thanks for
Abb. Renowned duke, vouchsafe to take the
To go with us into the abbey here, [pains
And hear at large discoursed all our fortunes:-
And all that are assembled in this place,
That by this sympathized one day's error
Have suffer'd wrong, go, keep us company,
And we shall make full satisfaction.-
Twenty-five years have I but gone in travail
Of you, my sons; nor, till this present hour,
My heavy burdens are delivered :-

The duke, my husband, and my children both,
And you, the calendars of their nativity,
Go to a gossip's feast, and go with me;
After so long grief, such nativity!

Duke. With all my heart, I'll gossip at this

feast.

[Exeunt Duke, Abbess, ÆGEON, Courtezan, Merchant, ANGELO, and At tendants. [shipboard? Dro. S. Master, shall I fetch your stuff from Ant. E. Dromio, what stuff of mine bast thou embark'd? [the Centaur. Dro. S. Your goods, that lay at host, sir, in Ant. S. He speaks to me; I am your master, Dromio:

Come, go with us; we'll look to that anon: Embrace thy brother, there, rejoice with him. [Exeunt ANTIPHOLUS S. and E.

ADR. and Luc. [house, Dro. S. There is a fat friend at your master's That kitchen'd me for you to-day at dinner; She now shall be my sister, not my wife.

Dro. E. Methinks, you are my glass, and not my brother:

I see by you, I am a sweet-faced youth.
Will you walk in to see their gossiping?

Dro. S. Not I, sir; you are my elder. [it? Dro. E. That's a question: how shall we try Dro. S. We will draw cuts for the senior : till then, lead thou first.

[brother:

Dro. E. Nay, then thus: We came into the world, like brother and And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another. [Exeunt.

On a careful revision of the foregoing scenes, I do not hesitate to pronounce them the composition of two very unequal writers. Shakspeare had undoubtedly a share in them; but that the entire play was no work of his, is an opinion which (as Benedick says) "fire cannot melt out of me; I will die in it at the stake." Thus, as we are informed by Aulus Gellius, Lib. III. Cap. 3., some plays were absolutely ascribed to Plautus, which in truth had only been (retractata et expolita) retouched and polished by him.

lu this comedy we find more intricacy of plot than distinction of character; and our atten. tion is less forcibly engaged, because we can guess in great measure how the denouement will be brought about. Yet the subject appears to have been reluctantly dismissed, even in this last and unnecessary scene, where the same mistakes are continued, till the power of affording entertainment is entirely lost.-STEEVENS.

Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants, and Messengers; the

Ghost of Banquo, and several other Apparitions.

Scene, in the end of the fourth act, lies in England; through the rest of the play, in Scotland; and, chiefly, ut Macbeth's castle.

ACT I.

SCENE I. An open Place. Thunder and | Do swarm upon him,) from the western isles

Lightning.

Enter three Witches.

1 Witch. When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

2 Witch. When the hurlyburly's

When the battle's lost and won:

done,

3 Witch. That will be ere set of sun. 1 Witch. Where the place?

2 Witch. Upon the heath: 3 Witch. There to meet with Macbeth. 1 Witch. I come, Graymalkin! All. Paddock calls :-Anon.

Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air. [Witches vanish.

SCENE II. A Camp near Fores. Alarum within. Enter King DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENOXx, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Soldier.

Dun. What bloody man is that? He can As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt [report, The newest state.

Mal. This is the serjeant, Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought 'Gainst my captivity-Hail, brave friend! Say to the king the knowledge of the broil, As thou didst leave it.

Sold Donbtfully it stood; As two spent swimmers, that do cling together, And choke their art. The merciless Macdon(Worthy to be a rebel; for, to that, [wald The multiplying villanies of nature

• Tumalt.

Of Kernes and Gallowglasses is supplied;
And fortune, on his damned quarrelt smiling,
Show'd like a rebel's whore: But all's too weak:
For brave Macbeth, (well he deserves that
name,)

Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like valour's minion,

Carved out his passage, till he faced the slave;
And ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to

him, [chaps, Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the And fix'd his head upon our battlements. Dun. O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman! Sold. As whence the sun 'gins his reflection Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break; [to come, So from that spring, whence comfort seem'd Discomfort ý swels. Mark, king of Scotland,

mark:

tie, Supplied with light and heavy armed troops.
The opposite to comfort.
Truik.

+ Canse.

Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe: Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, (r memorize another Golgotha*,

I cannot tell :

But I am faint, my gashes cry for help. Dun. So well thy words become thee, as thy wounds;

They smack of honour both :-Go, get him surgeons. [Exit Soldier attended. Enter RosSE.

Who comes here?

Mal.
The worthy thane of Rosse.
Len. What a haste looks through his eyes!
So should he look,

That seems to speak things strange.
Rosse.
God save the king!
Dun. Whence camest thou, worthy thane?
Rosse.
From Fife, great king,
Where the Norweyan banners floutt the sky,
And fan our people cold.

Norway himself, with terrible numbers,
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor
The thane of Cawdor, 'gan a dismal conflict:
Till that Bellona's bridegroomt,lapp'd in proofs,
Confronted him with self-comparisons,
Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm,
Curbing his lavish spirit: And, to conclude,
The victory fell on us :-
Dun.

Great happiness!

Rosse. That now Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition; Nor would we deign him burial of his men, Till he disbursed, at Saint Colmes' inch, Ten thousand dollars to our general use. Dun. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive [death,

Our bosom interest :-Go, pronounce his And with his former title greet Macbeth. Rosse. I'll see it done.

Dun. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won. [Exeunt.

SCENE III. A Heath. Thunder. Enter the three Witches. 1 Witch. Where hast thou been, sister? 2 Witch. Killing swine.

3 Witch. Sister, where thou? [her lap, 1 Witch. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in And mounch'd,and mounch'd,and mounch'd:Give me, quoth 1: [cries, Aroint thee, witch! the rump-fed ronyon¶ Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the But in a sieve I'll thither sail, And, like a rat without a tail,

I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do.

2 Witch. I'll give thee a wind.

1 Witch. Thou art kind.

3 Witch. And I another.

[Tiger :

1 Witch. I myself have all the other;

And the very ports they blow,

All the quarters that they know

'the shipman's card**.

I will drain him dry as hay:

All. The weird sisters, hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land, Thus do go about, about; Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, And thrice again, to make up nine: Peace-the charm's wound up.

seen.

Enter MACBETH and BANQUO. Macb. So foul and fair a day I have not [are these, Ban. How far is't call'd to Fores?-What So wither'd and so wild in their attire ; That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth, And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught That man may question? You seem to understand me,

By each at once her choppy finger laying Upon her skinny lips :-You should be women, And yet your beards forbid ine to interpret That you are so.

Macb. Speak, if you can ;-What are you? 1 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis! [thane of Cawdor! 2 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, 3 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter. [to fear

Ban. Good sir, why do you start; and seem Things that do sound so fair?-'the name of [troth, Are ye fantastical 3, or that indeed Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner You greet with present grace, and great preOf noble having||||, and of royal hope, [diction That he seems rapt¶¶ withal; to me you speak

not:

Make another Golgotha as memorable as the fir t. + Mock. Shakspeare means Mars.

Defended by armour of proof.

Sailor's chart.

** Accursed.

WEstate.

Avannt, begone.

A scurvy woman fed on offals. Prophetic sisters. e Supernatural, spiritual. 19 Rapturously affected.

A prosperous gentleman; and, to be king,
Stands not within the prospect of belief.
No more than to be Cawdor. Say, from whence
You owe this strange intelligence? or why
Upon this blasted heata you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting?-Speak, I
charge you.
[Witches vanish.
Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water
has,
[vanish'd?
And these are of them:-Whither are they
Macb. Into the air; and what seem'd corpo-
ral, melted
[staid!
As breath into the wind.-'Would they had
Ban. Were such things here, as we do speak
Or have we eaten of the insane root*, [about?
That takes the reason prisoner?

Mac. Your children shall be kings.
Ban.
You shall be king.
Mach. And thane of Cawdor too; went it
[Who's here?
Ban. To the self-same tune, and words.
Enter RossE and ANGUS.

not so?

Rosse. The king hath happily received, Mac-
beth,

The news of thy success: and when he reads
Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight,
His wonders and his praises do contend, [that,
Which should be thide, or his : Silenced with
In viewing o'er the rest o' the self-same day,
He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
Strange images of death. As thick as tale +,
Came post with post; and every one did bear
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence,
And pour'd them down before him.
Ang.
We are sent,
To give thee, from our royal master, thanks;
To herald thee into his sight, not pay thee.
Rosse. And, for an earnest of a greater ho-
nour,

Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange:
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths;
Win us with honest trifles, to betray us
In deepest consequence.-
Cousins, a word, I pray you.

Macb.

Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theine.-I thank you, gentle-
This supernatural soliciting ||
[men.-
Cannot be ill; cannot be good:-If ill,
Why bath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor:
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion¶
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,
And make my seated ** heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings: [tical,
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantas-
Shakes so my single state of man, that function
Is smother'd in surmise tt; and nothing is,
But what is not.

Ban.
Look, how our partner's rapt.
Much. If chance will have me king, why,
Without my stir. [chance may crown me,
Ban.
New honours come upon himn
Like our strange garments; cleave not to their
But with the aid of use.
[inonid,
Mach.
Come what come may;
Time and the hour runs through the roughest
day.
[leisure:

Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your Macb. Give me your favour :-my dull brain was wrought [pains With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your Are register'd where every day I turn The leaf to read them.-Let us toward the king.[time. Think upon what hath chanced: and, at more The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Caw-Our free hearts each to other. In which addition ‡, hail, most worthy thane! For it is thine. Ban.

dor:

What, can the devil speak true?
Macb. The thane of Cawdor lives; Why
In borrow'd robes?
[do you dress me
Ang. Who was the thane, lives yet;
But under heavy judgment bears that life
Which he deserves to lose. Ay nether he was
Combined with Norway; or did line the rebel
With hidden heip and vantage; or that with
both
[not;
He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know
But treasons capital, confess'd, and proved,
Have overthrown him.

Macb. Glamis, and thane of Cawdor:
The greatest is behind.-Thanks for your pains.
Do you not hope your chil iren shall be kings,
When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to
Promised no less to them?
Ime.
Ban.
That, trusted home,
Might yet enkindle § you unto the crown,

The root which makes insane.

|| Incitement.

Ban.
Very gladly.
Macb. Till then, enough-Come, friends.

[Exeunt.
SCENE IV. Fores. A Room in the Palace.
Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DO-
NALBAIN, LENOX, und Attendants.
Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not
Those in commission yet return'd?
Mal.
My liege,
They are not yet come back. But I have spoke
With one that saw him die: who did report,
That very frankly he confess'd his treasons;
Implored your highness' pardon; and set forth
A deep repentance: nothing in his life
Became him, like the leaving it; he died
As one that had been studied in his death,
[To throw away the dearest thing he owed
As 'twere a careless trifle.

Dun.
There's no art,
To find the mind's construction in the face ¶¶:

+ As fast as they could be counted.
Temptation. ** Firmly fixed.
Time and opportunity.

iTitle. § Stimulate. ++ The powers of action are oppressed by conjecture. $$ Pardon. POwned, possessed. ¶¶ We cannot construe the disposition of the mind by the linea.

ments of the face.

« Zurück Weiter »

Books