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To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, ont, 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.

Macb. My name's Macbeth.

Yo. Siw. The devil himself could not p.o nounce a title

More hateful to mine ear.

Macb. No, nor more fearful.

Yo. Siw. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with my sword

I'll prove the lie thou speak'st.

(They fight, and young SiWARD is slain. Macb. Thou wast born of woman.-———

Thon com'st to use thy tongue; thy story quickly. But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, Mess. 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

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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,
I 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 wood

Do come to Dunsinane-and now a wood
Comes toward Dunsinane.-Arm, arın, 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.

[wrack !
Ring the alarum bell:-Blow, wind! come,
At least we'll die with harness on our back.
[Exeunt.

SCENE VI.-The same.-A Plain before the
Castle.

Enter, with Drums end 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.

Site. Fare you well.

Do we but find the tyraut'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 can. not fly:

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

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

Enter young SIWARD.

Yo. Siw. What is thy name?

Macb. Thou'lt be afraid to hear it.

Brandish'd by man that's of a woinan born.

Alarums. Enter MACDUFF.

[Exit.

Macd. That way the noise is:-Tyrant, show thy face:

If thou be'st slain, and with no stroke of nine, My wife and children's ghost will haunt me still.

I 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 SIWARD.
Siw. This way, my lord ;-The castle's gently

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80,

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,

Yo. Siw. No; though thou call'st thyself a Here may you see the tyrant.

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Sir. 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.

Site. Had he his hurts before?

Rosse. Ay, on the front.

Sio. Why then, God's soldier be he! 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.

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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!

[Flourish.

All. King of Scotland, hail! 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 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.

+ 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 the 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 died 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 unfor tunate 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 vain to procure his assassination. He was afterwards conducted to the castle of Rouen, where Johu 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 con tains that mixture of greatness and levity, 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 innocent nephew, is beyond the commendation of criticism. Art could add little to its perfection; no change in dramatic taste can 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
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-brother,
bastard Son to King Richard the
First.
JAMES GURNEY, Servant to Lady Faulcon-
bridge.

PETER of Pomfret, a Prophct.
PHILIP, King of France.
LEWIS, the Dauphin.
ARCH-DUKE of Áustria.

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 Cas-
tile, and Niece to King John.
LADY FAULCON BRIDGE, Mother to the Bastard,
and Robert Faulconbridge.

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

SCENE, Sometimes in England, and sometimes in France.

ACT I.

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

Enter King JOHN, Queen ELINOR, PEMBROKE,
ESSEX, SALISBURY, and others, with CBA-

TILLON.

K. John. Now, say, Chatillon, what would
France with us?

Chat. Thus, after greeting, speaks the king of
France,

In my behaviour, to the majesty,
The borrow'd majesty of England here.

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war,

Eli. A stratige 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 controlineut: so answer France.

Chat. Then take my king's defiance from my mouth,

The furthest limit of my embassy.

(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,

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;
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 ambitions 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,
whole,

and made

With very easy arguments of love;
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

bear.

Enter the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, who whispers ESSEX.

Esser. My liege, here is the strangest controversy,

Come from the country to be judg'd by yon,
That ere 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 ROBERT FAULCON-
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 Coeur-de-lion knighted in the field.
K. John. What art thou?

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:

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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. - Sirrah, 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 ino

ther,

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 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, [father, My brother might not claim him nor your 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

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That in my 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.

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!

Eli. I like thee well; Wilt thou forsake thy What woman-post is this? hath she no hus

fortune,

Bequeath thy land to him, and follow me ?

I am a soldier and now bound to France. Bast. Brother, take you my land, I'll take my chance:

Your face hath got five hundred pounds a year;
Yet sell your face for firepence, 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 henceforth bear his name whose form thou bear'st:

Kneel thou down Philip, but arise more great: Arise Sir Richard and Plantagenet !—

Bast. Brother, by the mother's side, give me
your band;

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 uignt; 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.

K. John. Go, Faulconbridge; now hast thou thy desire,

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 thee !

For thou wast got i'the way of honesty.
[Exeunt all but the BASTARD.
A foot of honour better than I was;
But many a foot of land the worse.
Well, now can I 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 conversion. Now, your traveller,-
He and his tooth-pick at my worship's mess;
And when my knightly stoniach is suffic'd,
Why then I suck my teeth, and catechise
My picked man of countries: -My dear Sir,
(Thus leaning on mine elbows, 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 your's:
And so, ere answer knows what question would,
(Saving in dialogue of compliment;
And talking of the Alps and Appenines,
The Pyrenean, and the river Po,)

It draws toward 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 sinack of observation;
(And so am 1, whether I snack, or no ;)
And not alone in habit aud device,

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band,

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! What brings you here to court so hastily ?

Lady F. Where is that slave, thy brother! where is he?

That holds in chase mine honour up and down t Bast. 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 Aye, thou unre-
verend boy,
Robert!

Sir Robert's son: Why scorn'st thou at Sur
He is Sir Robert's son; and so art thou.

Bast. James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave a while ?

Gur. Good leave, good Philip.

Bast. Philip - sparrow!-James,
There's toy's 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
mother,

To whom am I beholden for these limbs?
Sir Robert never holp to make this leg.

too,

Lady F. Hast thou conspired with thy brother [houour! That for thine own gain should'st defend mine What means this scorn, thou most untoward huave ?

Bast. Knight, knight, good mother,— Basiliscolike: +

What! 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, mo-
ther?

Lady F. Hast thou denied thyself to Fanl conbridge?

Bast. As faithfully as I deny the devil.
Lady F. King Richard Coeur-de-lion was ty
father;

By long and vehement snit I was seduc'd
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 urg'd, 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 your's; your fault was not your
folly:

Need 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 tight,
Nor keep his princely heart from Richard's

band.

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