Direness, familiar to my slaught'rous thoughts, Mess. As I did stand my watch upon the hill, Liar, and slave! [Striking him. If thou speak'st false, I pull in resolution; and begin To doubt the equivocation of the fiend, That lies like truth: "Fear not, till Birnam wood [Exeunt. SCENE VI.-The same. A Plain before the Enter, with drums and colours, MALCOLM, old Mal. Now, near enough; your leavy screens And show like those you are:-You, worthy uncle, Siw. Macd. Make all our trumpets speak; give them Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death. SCENE VIL.-The same. Another part of the Enter MACBETH. Mach. They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, But, bear-like, I must fight the course.-What's he I'll prove the lie thou speak'st. [They fight, and young SIWARD is slain Macd. That way the noise is :-Tyrant, show If thou be'st slain, and with no stroke of mine, Macbeth, Turn, hell-hound, turn. Mach. Of all men else I have avoided thee: But get thee back, my soul is too much charg'd With blood of thine already. Macd. Much. I have no words, Macd. Mach. Accursed be that tongue that tells me so And be these juggling fiends no more believ'd, And break it to our hope.-I'll not fight with thee. And live to be the show and gaze o' the time. "Here may you see the tyrant." Macb. I will 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 he 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 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. Suo. 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. Siw. He's worth no more; They say, he parted well, and paid his score: And so, God be with him!-Here comes newer comfort. Re-enter MACDUFF, with MACBETH's head. Macd. Hail, king! for so thou art: Behold where stands The usurper's cursed head: the time is free: King of Scotland, hail! [Flourish. Mal. We shall not spend a large expense of time, Before we reckon with your several loves, Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland Of this dead butcher, and his fiend-like queen, ARTHUR, Duke of Bretagne, son of Geffrey, late Duke of Bretagne, the elder brother of King John. PETER OF POMFRET, a prophet. Cardinal PANDULPH, the Pope's legate. CHATILLON, ambassador from France to King John, GEFFREY FITZ-PETER, Earl of Essex, chief justiciary of ELINOR, the widow of King Henry II., and mother of King 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, half-brother to Robert Faulconbridge, bastard son to King Richard L. John. JAMES GURNEY, servant to Lady Faulconbridge. ACT I. SCENE I.-Northampton. A Room of State in This might have been prevented, and made whole, the Palace. Enter King JOHN, Queen ELINOR, PEMBROKE, ESSEX, SALISBURY, and others, with CHATILLON. King John. Now say, Chatillon, what would France with us? Chat. Thus, after greeting, speaks the King of In my behaviour, to the majesty, Eli. A strange beginning;-borrow'd majesty! To Ireland, Poictiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine: K. John. What follows if we disallow of this? Controlment for controlment: so answer France. Chat. Then take my king's defiance from my mouth, The farthest limit of my embassy. K. John. Bear mine to him, and so depart in 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 CHAT. and PEM. 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? With very easy arguments of love; 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: Essex. My liege, here is the strangest controversy, Rob. The son and heir to that same Faulconbridge. 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: 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. Eli. Out on thee, rude man! thou dost shame K. John. A good blunt fellow:-Why, being | My arms such eel-skins stuff'd; my face so thin. younger born, Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance? Bast. I know not why, except to get the land. But once he slandered me with bastardy: But wher 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 son, like him,— O old Sir Robert, father, on my knee, I give Heaven thanks I was not like to thee. Eli. He hath a trick of Cœur-de-Lion's face; K. John. Mine eye hath well examined his parts, And finds them perfect Richard. Sirrah, speak, 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-fac'd groat five hundred pound 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 mother. Rob. And once despatch'd him in an embassy To Germany, there, with the emperor, To treat of high affairs touching that time: Th' 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 shores Between my father and my mother lay,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 hers; 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 Faulconbridge, And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land; That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose, goes; And, to his shape, were heir to all this land, Eli. I like thee well: Wilt thou forsake thy fortune, Bequeath thy land to him, and follow me? Your face hath got five hundred pound a-year; Eli. Nay, I would have you go before me thither. Bast. Our country manners give our betters way. 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 bearest : Kneel thou down Philip, but arise more great; Bast. Brother, by the mother's side, give me your hand; My father gave me honour, yours gave land Eli. The very spirit of Plantagenet! I am thy grandame, Richard; call me so. 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 his 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.- A. foot of honour better than I was; shall beseech you-That is question now: It draws toward supper in conclusion so. But this is worshipful society, And fits the mounting spirit like myself: For it shall strew the footsteps of my rising.- where is he? That holds in chase mine honour up and down? Sir Robert's son: Why scorns't thou at Sir Robert? Gur. Good leave, good Philip. Madam, I was not old Sir Robert's son; To whom am I beholden for these limbs ? Sir Robert never holp to make this leg. Lady F. Hast thou conspired with thy brother too, That for thine own gain shouldst defend mine honour? What means this scorn, thou most untoward knave? Bast. Knight, knight, good mother,-Basiliscolike: What! I am dubb'd; I have it on my shoulder. By long and vehement suit I was seduc'd Bast. Now, by this light, were I to get again 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. ACT IL Lew. Before Angiers well met, brave Austria. By this brave duke came early to his grave: Of thy unnatural uncle, English John; Aust. Upon thy check lay I this zealous kiss, As son to this indenture of my love; That to my home I will no more return, Till your strong hand shall help to give him strength, To make a more requital to your love. Aust. The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords In such a just and charitable war. K. Phi. Well then, to work; our cannon shall be bent Against the brows of this resisting town. |