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ACT V.

Lear to Cordelia when taken Prisoners.

Come, let's away to prison:

We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage :
When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down,
And ask of thee forgiveness: so we'll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies and hear poor rogues

Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too,-
Who loses, and who wins; who's in, who's out;
And take upon us the mystery of things,

As if we were God's spies: and we'll wear out,
In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones,
That ebb and flow by the moon.

Edgar's defiance of Edmund.

Draw thy sword;

That if my speech offend a noble heart,
Thy arm may do thee justice: here is mine.
Behold, it is the privilege of mine honours,
My oath, and my profession: I protest,-
Maugre thy strength, youth, place, and eminence,
Despite thy victor sword, and fire-new fortune,
Thy valour, and thy heart,-thou art a traitor :
False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father
Conspirant 'gainst this high illustrious prince;
And from the extremest upward of thy head,
To the descent and dust beneath thy feet,
A most toad-spotted traitor. Say thou, No,
This sword, this arm, and my best spirits, are bent
To prove upon thy heart, whereto I speak,

Thou liest.

;

Lear on the Death of Cordelia.

Howl, howl, howl, howl!-O you are men of stones; Had I your tongues and eyes, I'd use them so That heaven's vault should crack :-O, she is

ever!

gone for

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.

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This feather stirs she lives! if it be so,

:

It is a chance that does redeem all sorrows
That ever I have felt.

*

-000

MACBETH.

Macbeth and Banquo, generals in the army of Duncan, king of Scotland, returning from a victorious campaign, encounter, on a blighted heath, three witches, who hail Macbeth as the future king of Scotland. Inspired thus with a craving for royalty, Macbeth, in a letter, informs his wife, an ambitious and unscrupulous woman, of the greatness that is predicted for him, and in order to obtain the sovereignty he resolves to murder the good king Duncan. The virtues of the king cause him to hesitate, but his scruples are overcome by Lady Macbeth, and he assassinates Duncan whilst a guest in Inverness Castle. With the connivance of his wife, Macbeth endeavours to cast suspicion of the murder on the guards who sleep at the entrance to the king's chamber; he is, however, himself suspected of the crime, especially by Banquo, who has heard the prediction of the witches; and Macbeth, remembering this, causes Banquo to be slain. Malcolm and Donalbain, sons

of the deceased monarch, fly from Scotland; the former escapes to England, where he is joined by Macduff, a nobleman of Scotland. They obtain assistance from England, and, with an army commanded by Siward, Earl of Northumberland, besiege Macbeth's castle, where the tyrant is slain by Macduff. Lady Macbeth, a prey to remorse, and "troubled with thick-coming fancies," dies, and Malcolm is proclaimed King.

Аст I.

Description of the Witches.

WHAT are these,

So wither'd, and so wild in their attire ;

That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,
And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught
That man may question? You seem to understand me,
By each at once her choppy finger laying

Upon her skinny lips :-You should be women,

And yet your beards forbid me to interpret

That you are so.

Macbeth's Disposition.

Yet do I fear thy nature;

It is too full o' the milk of human kindness,

To catch the nearest way: Thou would'st be great;

Art not without ambition; but without

The illness should attend it.

highly,

What thou would'st

That would'st thou holily: would'st not play false,
And yet would'st wrongly win.

Macbeth's Irresolution.

If it were done, when 'tis done, then 't were well

It were done quickly: if the assassination

Could trammel up the consequence, and catch,

With his surcease, success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here;
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,—
We'd jump the life to come.-But, in these cases,
We still have judgment here; that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice.
Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
To our own lips. He's here in double trust :
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking off:
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,

That tears shall drown the wind.-I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on the other.

Courage.

I dare do all that may become a man ;

Who dares do more is none.

* An allusion to the winds; sightless is used for invisible.

ACT II.

The Visionary Dagger Scene.

Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch

thee:

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible

To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind; a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain ?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable

As this which now I draw.

Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going,
And such an instrument I was to use.

Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still;

And on thy blade, and dudgeon,* gouts of blood,
Which was not so before.-There's no such thing:
It is the bloody business, which informs.

Thus to mine eyes.

ACT III.

Macbeth's Remorse.

We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it;

She'll close, and be herself; whilst our poor malice

Remains in danger of her former tooth.

But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds

suffer,

Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep

In the affliction of these terrible dreams,

That shake us nightly better be with the dead,

:

* The handle of the dagger.

+ Spots of blood.

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