Aud, when 'tis 'told, O that my heart would | Speak, Edmund, where's the king? and where's. Durst! The bloody proclamation to escape, That follow'd me so near, (O our lives sweet You look as you had something more to say. For I am almost ready to dissolve, Edg. This would have seem'd a period [man, Whilst I was big in clamour, came there a Who having seen me in my worst estate, Shunn'd my abhorr'd society: but then, finding Who 'twas that so endur'd, with his strong arms He fasten'd on my neck, and bellow'd out Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him, And there I left him tranc'd. Alb. But who was this? Edg. Kent, Sir, the banish'd Kent: who in disguise Follow'd his enemy king, and did him service !mproper for a slave. Cordelia ? Thy token of reprieve. Edm. Well thought on; take my sword, Give it the captain. Alb. Haste thee, for thy life. [Exit EDGAR. Edm. He hath commission from thy wife and me To hang Cordelia in the prison, and Alb. The gods defend her! Bear him hence awhile. [EDMUND is borne off. Enter LEAR, with CORDELIA dead in his Arms; EDGAR, OFFICER, and others. Lear. Howl, howl, howl, howl!-O you are I might have sav'd her; now she's gone for Cordelia, Cordelia, stay a little. Ha! Enter a GENTLEMAN hastily, with a bloody What is't thou say'st?-Her voice was ever Knife. soft, [man:Gentle, and low; an excellent thing in woI kill'd the slave that was a hanging thee. Of. "Tis true, my lords, he did. Lear. Did I not, fellow? [chion I have seen the day, with my good biting faul I would have made them skip: I am old now, Lear. This is a dull sight: Are you not [Cains? Kent. Nor no man else; all's cheerless, dark, | And thou no breath at all? O thou wilt com and deadly. no more, Your eldest daughters have fore-doom'd them-Never, never, never, never, never!— may come, You lords, and noble friends, know our intent. The wages of their virtue, and all foes Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, Pray you, undo this button: Thank you, Sir.-Do you see this? Look on her,-look,-ber lips, Look there, look there! [He dies Edg. He faints !-My lord, my lord,- Kent. Vex not his ghost: O let him pass!⚫ be hates him, That would upon the rack of this tough world Edg. O he is gone, indeed. Kent. The wonder is, he hath endur'd so long: He but usurp'd his life. Alb. Bear them from hence. Our present business Is general woe. Friends of my soul, you twain [To KENT and EDGAR. Rule in this realm, and the gor'd state sustaja. Kent. I have a journey, Sir, shortly to go; My master calls, and I must not say, no. Alb. 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. • Die. " IN this matchless tragedy Shakspeare has closely adhered to historical fact, excepting that Banquo, out of com!! pliment to his descendant James I. is excluded from all participation in the murder of Duncan. In the reiga of Charles II. the songs of the witches were set to music by the celebrated Matthew Lock, and the play re garded as a semi-opera. The ghosts and witches, though admirably pourtrayed, have been censured as an insulti to common sense; and cautions have been held out to the young and uninformed against imbibing the absurd principles of fatalism which are seemingly countenanced in many parts of this piece. But in the time of Shakspeare, the doctrine of witchcraft was at once established by law and by fashion, and it became not only mopolite, but criminal, to doubt it.---King James himself in his dialogues of Damonologie, re-printed in Lon. den soon after his succession, has speculated deeply on the illusions of spirits, the compact of witches, &c.;. and our dramatist only turned to his advantage a system universally admitted. In representation, some uninteresting scenes are omitted; many of the witches' dialogues adapted to beautiful music, and a song or two, probably written by Sir W. Davenant, added to the parts. Betterton, amidst many bad alteratious, hit upon the plan of making the witches deliver all the prophecies, by which a deal of the trap-work is avoided, and Garrick substituted some excellent passages to be uttered by Macbeth, whilst expiring, in lieu of the disgust ing exposure of his head by Macduff. The neatest criticism upon the play, and the most concise record of its historical facts, are contained in the following extract from a standard publication: "Macbeth flourished in Scotland about the middle of the tenth century. At this period Duncan was king, a mild and humane prince, but not at all possessed of the genius requisite for governing a country so turbulent, and so infested by the in trigues and animosities of the great Macbeth, a powerful nobleman, and nearly allied to the crown. Not con tented with curbing the king's authority, carried still further his mad ambition; he murdered Duncan at Inverness, and then seized upon the throne. Fearing lest his ill-gotten power should be stripped from him, he chased Malcolm Kenmore, the son and heir, into England, and put to death Mac Gill and Banquo, the two most powerful men in his dominions. Macduff next becoming the object of his suspicion, he escaped into England; but the inhuman usurper wreaked his vengeance on his wife and children, whom he caused to be cruelly butchered. Siward, whose daughter was married to Duncan, embraced, by Edward's orders, the protection of his distressed family. He marched an army into Scotland, and having defeated and killed Macbeth in battle, he restored Malcolm to the throne of his ancestors. The tragedy founded upon the history of Macbeth, though contrary to the rules of the drama, contains an infinity of beauties with respect to language, character, passion, and incident; and is thought to be one of the very best pieces of the very best masters in this kind of writing that the world ever produced. The danger of ambition is well described, and the passions are directed to their true ends; so that it is not only admirable as a poem, but one of the most moral pieces existing." SCENE, in the end of the fourth act, lies in England; through the rest of the play, in Scotland; and, chiefly, at Macbeth's Castle. SCENE II-A Camp near Fores. Confronted him with self-comparisons, Point against point rebellious, arın 'gainst arm, Alarum within. Enter King DUNCAN, MAL- Curbing his lavish spirit: And, to conclude, COLM, DONALBAIN, LENOX, with ATTEND-The victory fell on us;-ANTS, meeting a bleeding SOLDIER. Dun. What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt Mal. This is the sergeant, Who, like a good and hardy 'soldier, fought Sold. Doubtfully 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, Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel, Carv'd out his passage, till he fac'd the slave; And 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. Dun. O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman! Sold. As whence the sun 'gins his reflection Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break; So from that spring, whence comfort seem'd to come, Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark: No sooner justice had, with valour arm'd, Compell'd these skipping kernes to trust their heels; Who comes here? Mal. The worthy thane of Rosse. Len. What a haste looks through his eyes! That seems to speak things strange. Dun. Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane? Where the Norweyan banners flout** the sky, Norway himself, with terrible numbers, The thane of Cawdor, 'gan a dismal conflict: Dun. Great happiness! Rosse. That now SCENE III-A Heath.-Thunder. Enter the three WITCHES. 1 Witch. Where hast thou been, sister? 2 Witch. Killing swine. 3 Witch. Sister, where thou? 1 Witch. A Sailor's wife had chesnuts in her lap, And mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd :Give me, quoth 1: cries. Aroint thee, witch! the rump-fed ronyon‡ 2 Witch. I'll give thee a wind. 3 Witch. And I another. 1 Witch. I myself have all the other; will drain him dry as hay: 2 Witch. Show me, show me. 1 Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wreck'd, as homeward he did come. 3 Witch. A drum, a drum ; Macbeth doth come. [Drum within. By each at once her choppy finger laying Macb. Speak, if you can ;-What are you? Prophetic sisters: the fates of the northern nations, the three hand-maids of Odin. 2 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!. 3 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter. Ban. Good Sir, why do you start, and seein to fear Things that do sound so fair ?-l'the name of trnth, Are ye fantastical or that indeed Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner Of noble having, + and of royal hope, [not: And say which grain will grow, and which will not; Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear 1 Witch. Hail! 2 Witch. Hail! 3 Witch. Hail! 1 Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. By Sinel's death & I know I am thane of Glamis; you. And these are of them :-Whither are they vaMacb. Into the air; and what seem'd corporal melted As breath into the wind.-'Would they staid ! had Ban. Were such things here, as we do speak about; Or have we eaten of the insane root, Macb. Your children shall be kings. Macb. And thane of Cawdor too; went it Enter ROSSE and ANGUS. Rosse. The king hath happily receiv'd, Mac- The news of thy success; and when he reads In viewing o'er the rest o'the self-same day, Ang. We are sent, To give thee, from our royal master, thanks; Rosse. And, for an earnest of a greater ho- He bade me, from him, call thee thane of In which addition, hail, most worthy thane! Ban. What, can the devil speak true? Macb. The thane of Cawdor lives: Why do you dress me In borrow'd robes ? Ang. Who was the thane, lives yet; He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not; Macb. Glamis and thane of Cawdor: Do you not hope your children shall be kings, Ban. That trusted home, Might yet enkindle + you unto the crown, Macb. Two truths are told, If good, why do I yield to that suggestion || Ban. Look, how our partner's rapt. Without my stir. Ban. New honours come upon him Macb. Come what come may; Time and the hour ++ runs through the roughest day. Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. Macb. Give me your favour: ‡‡-my dull brain [pains was wrought With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your Are register'd where every day I turn The leaf to read them.-Let us toward the [time, Think upon what hath chanc'd; and, at more The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak Our free hearts each to other. king; Ban. Very gladly. Macb. Till then, enough.-Come, friends. SCENE IV.-Fores.-A Room in the Palace. Åre 1 Encitement. Glamis is still standing, and is the magnificent resi dence of Earl Strathmore. Firmly fixed. oppressed by conjecture. tulity. tt Pardon. Temptation. The powers of action are 41 Time and oppor 2 T |