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

The tyrant's people on both sides do fight;
The noble thanes do bravely in the war;
The day almost itself professes yours,
out!-And little is to do.

SCENE VI.-The same. A plain before the cas-On mine own sword? whiles I see lives, the gashes tle. Enter, with drums and colours, Malcolm. Do better upon them. Old Siward, Macduff, &c. and their army, with boughs.

As easy may'st thou the entrenchant 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 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;
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.
Flourish. Re-enter, with drum and
colours, Malcolm, Old Siward, Rosse, Lenox,
Angus, Cathness, Menteth, and soldiers.

Retreat.

Mal. I would, the friends we miss were safe arriv'd.

Siw. Some must go off: and yet, by these, I sec, 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 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.

Then he is dead?

Siw.
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. Aye, on the front.
Siw.

And that I'll spend for him.
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 kins-

men,

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,

This play is deservedly celebrated for the propriety of its fiction, and solemnity, grandeur, and variety of its action; but it has no nice discriminations of character; the events are too great to admit the influence of particular dispositions, and the course of the action necessarily determines the conduct of the agents.

The danger of ambition is well described; and I know not whether it may not be said, in defence of some parts which now seem improbable, that in Shakspeare's time it was necessary to warn credulity against vain and illusive predictions. The passions are directed to their true end. Lady

Why then, God's soldier be he! Macbeth is merely detested; and though the cou

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.

rage of Macbeth preserves some esteem, yet every reader rejoices at his fall.

JOHNSON.

(1) The air, which cannot be cut. (2) Shuffle.

(3) The kingdom's wealth or ornament.

KING JOHN.

King John.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

Lewis, the dauphin.

Prince Henry, his son; afterward King Henry III. Arch-duke of Austria.
Arthur, duke of Bretagne, son of Geffrey, late duke Cardinal Pandulph, the pope's legate.
of Bretagne, the elder brother of King Melun, a French lord.
John.

William Marshall, 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 Faulcon-
bridge.

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.

Philip Faulconbridge, his half-brother, bastard son Lords, ladies, citizens of Angiers, sheriff, heralds,

to King Richard the First.

James Gurney, servant to Lady Faulconbridge.
Peter of Pomfret, a prophet.

Philip, king of France.

АСТ. І.

officers, soldiers, messengers, and other attend

ants.

Scene, sometimes in England, and sometimes in
France.

The thunder of my cannon shall be heard:
So, hence! Be thou the trumpet of our wrath,
And sullen presage of your own decay.-

SCENE I-Northampton. A room of state in
the palace. Enter King John, Queen Elinor, An honourable conduct let him have:-
Pembroke, Essex, Salisbury, and others, with Pembroke, look to't: Farewell, Chatillon.
Chatillon.

King John.

Now, say, Chatillon, what would France

us?

with

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

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

of

Eli. A strange beginning ;-borrow'd majesty!
K. John. Silence, good mother; hear the em-
bassy.

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.

[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 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 whis-
pers Essex.

Essex. My liege, here is the strangest controversy,
Come from the country to be judg'd by you,
That ere I heard: Shall I produce the men?
Our abbies, and our priories, shall pay
K. John. Let them approach.- [Exit Sheriff.

Re-enter Sheriff, with Robert 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,

K. John. Bear mine to him, and so depart in As I suppose, to Robert Faulconbridge;

peace:

Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France;

For ere thou canst report I will be there,

(1) In the manner I now do.

A soldier, by the honour-giving hand
Of Coeur-de-lion knighted in the field.

K. John. What art thou?

(2) Conduct, administration.