William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition (448 page)
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Authors: William Shakespeare
Tags: #Drama, #Literary Criticism, #Shakespeare
BOOK: William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition
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You, worthy uncle,
Shall with my cousin, your right noble son,
Lead our first battle. Worthy Macduff and we
Shall take upon’s what else remains to do
According to our order.
Lead our first battle. Worthy Macduff and we
Shall take upon’s what else remains to do
According to our order.
SIWARD
Fare you well.
Do we but find the tyrant’s power tonight,
Let us be beaten if we cannot fight.
Let us be beaten if we cannot fight.
MACDUFF
Make all our trumpets speak, give them all breath,
Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.
Exeunt. Alarums continued
5.7Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.
Exeunt. Alarums continued
Enter Macbeth
MACBETH
They have tied me to a stake. I cannot 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.
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
YOUNG SIWARD What is thy name?
MACBETH Thou’lt be afraid to hear it.
YOUNG SIWARD
No, though thou call’st thyself a hotter name
Than any is in hell.
Than any is in hell.
MACBETH
My name’s Macbeth.
YOUNG SIWARD
The devil himself could not pronounce a title
More hateful to mine ear.
More hateful to mine ear.
MACBETH
No, nor more fearful.
YOUNG SIWARD
Thou liest, abhorred tyrant. With my sword
I’ll prove the lie thou speak’st.
I’ll prove the lie thou speak’st.
They fight,
and
Young Siward is
slain
MACBETH
Thou wast born of woman,
But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn,
Brandished by man that’s of a woman born.
Brandished by man that’s of a woman born.
Exit ⌈with the body ⌉
Alarums. Enter Macduff
MACDUFF
That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy face!
If thou beest slain and with no stroke of mine,
My wife and children’s ghosts will haunt me still.
I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms
Are hired to bear their staves. Either thou, Macbeth, 5
Or else my sword with an unbattered edge
I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be;
By this great clatter one of greatest note
Seems bruited. Let me find him, fortune,
And more I beg not.
If thou beest slain and with no stroke of mine,
My wife and children’s ghosts will haunt me still.
I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms
Are hired to bear their staves. Either thou, Macbeth, 5
Or else my sword with an unbattered edge
I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be;
By this great clatter one of greatest note
Seems bruited. Let me find him, fortune,
And more I beg not.
Exit. Alarums
Enter Malcolm and Siward
SIWARD
This way, my lord. The castle’s gently rendered.
The tyrant’s people on both sides do fight.
The noble thanes do bravely in the war.
The day almost itself professes yours,
And little is to do.
The tyrant’s people on both sides do fight.
The noble thanes do bravely in the war.
The day almost itself professes yours,
And little is to do.
MALCOLM
We have met with foes
That strike beside us.
SIWARD
Enter, sir, the castle.
Exeunt. Alarum
Enter Macbeth
MACBETH
Why should I play the Roman fool, and die
On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes
Do better upon them.
On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes
Do better upon them.
Enter
Macduff
MACDUFF
Turn, hell-hound, turn.
MACBETH
Of all men else I have avoided thee.
But get thee back. My soul is too much charged
With blood of thine already.
But get thee back. My soul is too much charged
With blood of thine already.
MACDUFF
I have no words;
My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain
Than terms can give thee out.
They fight; alarum
Than terms can give thee out.
They fight; alarum
MACBETH
Thou losest labour.
As easy mayst thou the intrenchant 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.
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.
MACDUFF
Despair thy charm,
And let the angel whom thou still hast served
Tell thee Macduff was from his mother’s womb 15
Untimely ripped.
Tell thee Macduff was from his mother’s womb 15
Untimely ripped.
MACBETH
Accursèd be that tongue that tells me so,
For it hath cowed my better part of man;
And be these juggling fiends no more believed,
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.
For it hath cowed my better part of man;
And be these juggling fiends no more believed,
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.
MACDUFF
Then yield thee, coward,
And live to be the show and gaze o‘th’ time.
We’ll have thee as our rarer monsters are,
Painted upon a pole, and underwrit
‘Here may you see the tyrant.’
We’ll have thee as our rarer monsters are,
Painted upon a pole, and underwrit
‘Here may you see the tyrant.’
MACBETH
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 opposed being of no woman born,
Yet I will try the last. Before my body
I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,
And damned be him that first cries ‘Hold, enough!’
And to be baited with the rabble’s curse.
Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane,
And thou opposed being of no woman born,
Yet I will try the last. Before my body
I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,
And damned be him that first cries ‘Hold, enough!’
Exeunt fighting. Alarums
They
enter fighting
,
and
Macbeth is slain.Exit
Macduff
with Macbeth’s
body
Retreat and flourish. Enter with a drummer and colours Malcolm, Siward, Ross, thanes, and soldiers
MALCOLM
I would the friends we miss were safe arrived.
SIWARD
Some must go off; and yet by these I see
So great a day as this is cheaply bought.
So great a day as this is cheaply bought.
MALCOLM
Macduff is missing, and your noble son.
ROSS (to Siward)
Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier’s debt.
He only lived but till he was a man,
The which no sooner had his prowess confirmed
In the unshrinking station where he fought,
But like a man he died.
He only lived but till he was a man,
The which no sooner had his prowess confirmed
In the unshrinking station where he fought,
But like a man he died.
SIWARD
Then he is dead?
ROSS
Ay, and brought off the field. Your cause of sorrow
Must not be measured by his worth, for then
It hath no end.
Must not be measured by his worth, for then
It hath no end.
SIWARD
Had he his hurts before?
ROSS
Ay, on the front.
SIWARD
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 knolled.
I would not wish them to a fairer death;
And so his knell is knolled.
MALCOLM
He’s worth more sorrow,
And that I’ll spend for him.
SIWARD
He’s worth no more.
They say he parted well and paid his score,
And so God be with him. Here comes newer comfort.
Enter Macduff with Macbeth’s head
And so God be with him. Here comes newer comfort.
Enter Macduff with Macbeth’s head
MACDUFF (to
Malcolm)
Malcolm)
Hail, King, for so thou art. Behold where stands
Th’usurper’s cursed head. The time is free.
I see thee compassed with thy kingdom’s pearl,
That speak my salutation in their minds,
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine:
Hail, King of Scotland!
Th’usurper’s cursed head. The time is free.
I see thee compassed with thy kingdom’s pearl,
That speak my salutation in their minds,
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine:
Hail, King of Scotland!
ALL BUT MALCOLM
Hail, King of Scotland!
Flourish
MALCOLM
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 named. What’s more to do
Which would be planted newly with the time,
As calling home our exiled 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 crowned at Scone.
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 named. What’s more to do
Which would be planted newly with the time,
As calling home our exiled 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 crowned at Scone.
Flourish. Exeunt
Omnes
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
FIRST printed in the 1623 Folio,
Antony and Cleopatra
had been entered on the Stationers’ Register on 20 May 1608. Echoes of it in Barnabe Barnes’s tragedy
The Devil’s Charter,
acted by Shakespeare’s company in February 1607, suggest that Shakespeare wrote his play no later than 1606, and stylistic evidence supports that date.
Antony and Cleopatra
had been entered on the Stationers’ Register on 20 May 1608. Echoes of it in Barnabe Barnes’s tragedy
The Devil’s Charter,
acted by Shakespeare’s company in February 1607, suggest that Shakespeare wrote his play no later than 1606, and stylistic evidence supports that date.
The Life of Marcus Antonius in Sir Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch’s
Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans
(1579) was one of the sources for
Julius Caesar;
it also provided Shakespeare with most of his material for
Antony and Cleopatra,
in which he draws upon its language to a remarkable extent even in some of the play’s most poetic passages. For example, Enobarbus’ famous description of Cleopatra in her barge (2.2.197-225) incorporates phrase after phrase of North’s prose. And the play’s action stays close to North’s account, though with significant adjustments, particularly compressions of the time-scheme. It opens in 40 BC, two years after the end of
Julius Caesar,
and portrays events that took place over a period of ten years. Mark Antony has become an older man, though Octavius is still ‘scarce-bearded’. Plutarch, who was a connoisseur of human behaviour, also afforded many hints for the characterization; but some characters, particularly Antony’s comrade Domitius Enobarbus and Cleopatra’s women, Charmian and Iras, are largely created by Shakespeare.
Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans
(1579) was one of the sources for
Julius Caesar;
it also provided Shakespeare with most of his material for
Antony and Cleopatra,
in which he draws upon its language to a remarkable extent even in some of the play’s most poetic passages. For example, Enobarbus’ famous description of Cleopatra in her barge (2.2.197-225) incorporates phrase after phrase of North’s prose. And the play’s action stays close to North’s account, though with significant adjustments, particularly compressions of the time-scheme. It opens in 40 BC, two years after the end of
Julius Caesar,
and portrays events that took place over a period of ten years. Mark Antony has become an older man, though Octavius is still ‘scarce-bearded’. Plutarch, who was a connoisseur of human behaviour, also afforded many hints for the characterization; but some characters, particularly Antony’s comrade Domitius Enobarbus and Cleopatra’s women, Charmian and Iras, are largely created by Shakespeare.
In the earlier play, Mark Antony had formed a triumvirate with Octavius Caesar and Lepidus. In
Antony and Cleopatra
the triumvirate is in a state of disintegration, partly because Mark Antony—married at the play’s opening to Fulvia, who is rebelling against Octavius Caesar—is infatuated with Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt (and the former mistress of Julius Caesar). The play’s action swings between Rome and Alexandria as Antony is torn between the claims of Rome—strengthened for a while by his marriage, after Fulvia’s death, to Octavius Caesar’s sister Octavia—and the temptations of Egypt. Gradually opposition between Antony and Octavius increases, until they engage in a sea-fight near Actium (in Greece), in which Antony follows Cleopatra’s navy in ignominious retreat. The closing stages of the double tragedy portray Antony’s shame, humiliation, and suicide after Cleopatra falsely causes him to believe that she has killed herself; faced with the threat that Caesar will take her captive to Rome, Cleopatra too commits suicide. According to Plutarch, she was thirty-eight years old; as for Antony, ‘some say that he lived three-and-fifty years, and others say, six-and-fifty’.
Antony and Cleopatra
the triumvirate is in a state of disintegration, partly because Mark Antony—married at the play’s opening to Fulvia, who is rebelling against Octavius Caesar—is infatuated with Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt (and the former mistress of Julius Caesar). The play’s action swings between Rome and Alexandria as Antony is torn between the claims of Rome—strengthened for a while by his marriage, after Fulvia’s death, to Octavius Caesar’s sister Octavia—and the temptations of Egypt. Gradually opposition between Antony and Octavius increases, until they engage in a sea-fight near Actium (in Greece), in which Antony follows Cleopatra’s navy in ignominious retreat. The closing stages of the double tragedy portray Antony’s shame, humiliation, and suicide after Cleopatra falsely causes him to believe that she has killed herself; faced with the threat that Caesar will take her captive to Rome, Cleopatra too commits suicide. According to Plutarch, she was thirty-eight years old; as for Antony, ‘some say that he lived three-and-fifty years, and others say, six-and-fifty’.
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