Complete Plays, The (137 page)
Read Complete Plays, The Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
King Lear
Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones:
Had I your tongues and eyes, I’ld use them so
That heaven’s vault should crack. She’s gone for ever!
I know when one is dead, and when one lives;
She’s dead as earth. Lend me a looking-glass;
If that her breath will mist or stain the stone,
Why, then she lives.
Kent
Is this the promised end
Edgar
Or image of that horror?
Albany
Fall, and cease!
King Lear
This feather stirs; she lives! if it be so,
It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows
That ever I have felt.
Kent
[Kneeling]
O my good master!
King Lear
Prithee, away.
Edgar
’Tis noble Kent, your friend.
King Lear
A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all!
I might have saved her; now she’s gone for ever!
Cordelia, Cordelia! stay a little. Ha!
What is’t thou say’st? Her voice was ever soft,
Gentle, and low, an excellent thing in woman.
I kill’d the slave that was a-hanging thee.
Captain
’Tis true, my lords, he did.
King Lear
Did I not, fellow?
I have seen the day, with my good biting falchion
I would have made them skip: I am old now,
And these same crosses spoil me. Who are you?
Mine eyes are not o’ the best: I’ll tell you straight.
Kent
If fortune brag of two she loved and hated,
One of them we behold.
King Lear
This is a dull sight. Are you not Kent?
Kent
The same,
Your servant Kent: Where is your servant Caius?
King Lear
He’s a good fellow, I can tell you that;
He’ll strike, and quickly too: he’s dead and rotten.
Kent
No, my good lord; I am the very man,—
King Lear
I’ll see that straight.
Kent
That, from your first of difference and decay,
Have follow’d your sad steps.
King Lear
You are welcome hither.
Kent
Nor no man else: all’s cheerless, dark, and deadly.
Your eldest daughters have fordone them selves,
And desperately are dead.
King Lear
Ay, so I think.
Albany
He knows not what he says: and vain it is
That we present us to him.
Edgar
Very bootless.
Enter a Captain
Captain
Edmund is dead, my lord.
Albany
That’s but a trifle here.
You lords and noble friends, know our intent.
What comfort to this great decay may come
Shall be applied: for us we will resign,
During the life of this old majesty,
To him our absolute power:
To Edgar and Kent
you, to your rights:
With boot, and such addition as your honours
Have more than merited. All friends shall taste
The wages of their virtue, and all foes
The cup of their deservings. O, see, see!
King Lear
And my poor fool is hang’d! No, no, no life!
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
And thou no breath at all? Thou’lt come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never!
Pray you, undo this button: thank you, sir.
Do you see this? Look on her, look, her lips,
Look there, look there!
Dies
Edgar
He faints! My lord, my lord!
Kent
Break, heart; I prithee, break!
Edgar
Look up, my lord.
Kent
Vex not his ghost: O, let him pass! he hates him much
That would upon the rack of this tough world
Stretch him out longer.
Edgar
He is gone, indeed.
Kent
The wonder is, he hath endured so long:
He but usurp’d his life.
Albany
Bear them from hence. Our present business
Is general woe.
To Kent and Edgar
Friends of my soul, you twain
Rule in this realm, and the gored state sustain.
Kent
I have a journey, sir, shortly to go;
My master calls me, I must not say no.
Albany
The weight of this sad time we must obey;
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most: we that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.
Exeunt, with a dead march
The Tragedy of Macbeth
T
ABLE
OF
C
ONTENTS
S
CENE
V. I
NVERNESS
. M
ACBETH
’
S
CASTLE
.
S
CENE
VI. B
EFORE
M
ACBETH
’
S
CASTLE
.
S
CENE
I. C
OURT
OF
M
ACBETH
’
S
CASTLE
.
S
CENE
IV. O
UTSIDE
M
ACBETH
’
S
CASTLE
.
S
CENE
IV. T
HE
SAME
. H
ALL
IN
THE
PALACE
.
S
CENE
I. A
CAVERN
. I
N
THE
MIDDLE
,
A
BOILING
CAULDRON
.
S
CENE
II. F
IFE
. M
ACDUFF
’
S
CASTLE
.
S
CENE
III. E
NGLAND
. B
EFORE
THE
K
ING
’
S
PALACE
.
S
CENE
I. D
UNSINANE
. A
NTE
-
ROOM
IN
THE
CASTLE
.
S
CENE
II. T
HE
COUNTRY
NEAR
D
UNSINANE
.
S
CENE
III. D
UNSINANE
. A
ROOM
IN
THE
CASTLE
.
S
CENE
IV. C
OUNTRY
NEAR
B
IRNAM
WOOD
.
S
CENE
V. D
UNSINANE
. W
ITHIN
THE
CASTLE
.
S
CENE
VI. D
UNSINANE
. B
EFORE
THE
CASTLE
.
S
CENE
VII. A
NOTHER
PART
OF
THE
FIELD
.
S
CENE
VIII. A
NOTHER
PART
OF
THE
FIELD
.
C
HARACTERS
OF
THE
P
LAY
Duncan
, King of Scotland.
Macbeth
, Thane of Glamis and Cawdor, a general in the King's army.
Lady Macbeth
, his wife.
Macduff
, Thane of Fife, a nobleman of Scotland.
Lady Macduff
, his wife.
Malcolm
, elder son of Duncan.
Donalbain
, younger son of Duncan.
Banquo
, Thane of Lochaber, a general in the King's army.
Fleance
, his son.
Lennox
,
Ross
,
Menteith
,
Angus
,
Caithness
, noblemen of Scotland.
Siward
, Earl of Northumberland, general of the English forces.
Young Siward
, his son.
Seyton
, attendant to Macbeth.
Hecate
, Queen of the Witches.
Witches.
Boy, Son of Macduff.
Gentlewoman attending on Lady Macbeth.
An English Doctor.
A Scottish Doctor.
A Sergeant.
A Porter.
An Old Man.
The Ghost of Banquo and other Apparitions.
Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murtherers, Attendants, and Messengers.
Scene: Scotland and England.
ACT I
S
CENE
I. A
DESERT
PLACE
.
Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches
First Witch
When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
Second Witch
When the hurlyburly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won.
Third Witch
That will be ere the set of sun.
First Witch
Where the place?
Second Witch
Upon the heath.
Third Witch
There to meet with Macbeth.
First Witch
I come, Graymalkin!
Second Witch
Paddock calls.
Third Witch
Anon.
All
Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
Exeunt
S
CENE
II. A
CAMP
NEAR
F
ORRES
.
Alarum within. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant
Duncan
What bloody man is that? He can report,
As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt
The newest state.
Malcolm
This is the sergeant
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.
Sergeant
Doubtful it stood;
As two spent swimmers, that do cling together
And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald —
Worthy to be a rebel, for to that
The multiplying villanies of nature
Do swarm upon him — from the western isles
Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied;
And fortune, on his damned quarrel 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;
Which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam’d him from the nave to the chaps,
And fix’d his head upon our battlements.
