The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare (moboreader .TXT) 📕

At least we’ll die with harness on our back. Exeunt.

SCENE VI.

Dunsinane. Before the castle.

Enter Malcolm, old Siward, Macduff, and their Army, with boughs.

Drum and colors.

MALCOLM. Now near enough; your leavy screens throw down, And show like those you are. 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.

SIWARD. Fare you well.

Do we but find the tyrant’s power tonight, 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.

SCENE VII.

Dunsinane. Before the castle. Alarums.

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.

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.

MACBETH. My name’s Macbeth.

YOUNG SIWARD. The devil himself could not pronounce a title More hateful to mine ear.

MACBETH. No, nor more fearful.

YOUNG SIWARD O Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with my sword I’ll prove the lie thou speak’st.

They fight, and young Seward is slain.

MACBETH. Thou wast born of woman.

But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, Brandish’d by man that’s of a woman born. Exit.

Alarums. Enter Macduff.

MACDUFF. That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy face!

If thou best 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, Or else my sword, with an unbatter’d 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 old Siward.

SIWARD. This way, my lord; the castle’s gently render’d.

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.

SCENE VIII.

Another part of the field.

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.

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.

MACDUFF. I have no words.

My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain Than terms can give thee out! They fight.

MACBETH. Thou losest labor.

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.

MACDUFF. Despair thy charm,

And let the angel whom thou still hast served Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb Untimely ripp’d.

MACBETH. Accursed be that tongue that tells me so, For it hath cow’d my better part of man!

And be these juggling fiends no more believed That patter 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’ the time.

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 damn’d be him that first cries, “Hold, enough!”

Exeunt fighting. Alarums.

SCENE IX.

Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colors, Malcolm, old Siward, Ross, the other 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.

MALCOLM. Macduff is missing, and your noble son.

ROSS. 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 confirm’d 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.

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 knoll’d.

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.

Re-enter Macduff, with Macbeth’s head.

MACDUFF. Hail, King, for so thou art. Behold where stands The usurper’s cursed head. The time is free.

I see thee compass’d with thy kingdom’s pearl That speak my salutation in their minds, Whose voices I desire aloud with mine-Hail, King of Scotland!

ALL. 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 honor 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 crown’d at Scone.

Flourish. Exeunt.

-THE END-

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1605

MEASURE FOR MEASURE

by William Shakespeare

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

VINCENTIO, the Duke

ANGELO, the Deputy

ESCALUS, an ancient Lord

CLAUDIO, a young gentleman

LUCIO, a fantastic

Two other like Gentlemen

VARRIUS, a gentleman, servant to the Duke PROVOST

THOMAS, friar

PETER, friar

A JUSTICE

ELBOW, a simple constable

FROTH, a foolish gentleman

POMPEY, a clown and servant to Mistress Overdone ABHORSON, an executioner

BARNARDINE, a dissolute prisoner

ISABELLA, sister to Claudio

MARIANA, betrothed to Angelo

JULIET, beloved of Claudio

FRANCISCA, a nun

MISTRESS OVERDONE, a bawd

Lords, Officers, Citizens, Boy, and Attendants

<<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM

SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS

PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE

WITH PERMISSION. ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE

DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS

PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED

COMMERCIALLY. PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY

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SCENE:

Vienna

ACT I. SCENE I.

The DUKE’S palace

Enter DUKE, ESCALUS, LORDS, and ATTENDANTS

DUKE. Escalus!

ESCALUS. My lord.

DUKE. Of government the properties to unfold Would seem in me t’ affect speech and discourse, Since I am put to know that your own science Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice My strength can give you; then no more remains But that to your sufficiency-as your worth is able-And let them work. The nature of our people, Our city’s institutions, and the terms For common justice, y’are as pregnant in As art and practice hath enriched any That we remember. There is our commission, From which we would not have you warp. Call hither, I say, bid come before us, Angelo. Exit an ATTENDANT

What figure of us think you he will bear?

For you must know we have with special soul Elected him our absence to supply;

Lent him our terror, dress’d him with our love, And given his deputation all the organs Of our own power. What think you of it?

ESCALUS. If any in Vienna be of worth

To undergo such ample grace and honour, It is Lord Angelo.

Enter ANGELO

DUKE. Look where he comes.

ANGELO. Always obedient to your Grace’s will, I come to know your pleasure.

DUKE. Angelo,

There is a kind of character in thy life That to th’ observer doth thy history Fully unfold. Thyself and thy belongings Are not thine own so proper as to waste Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee.

Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues Did not go forth of us, ‘twere all alike As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch’d But to fine issues; nor Nature never lends The smallest scruple of her excellence But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines Herself the glory of a creditor,

Both thanks and use. But I do bend my speech To one that can my part in him advertise.

Hold, therefore, Angelo—

In our remove be thou at full ourself; Mortality and mercy in Vienna

Live in thy tongue and heart. Old Escalus, Though first in question, is thy secondary.

Take thy commission.

ANGELO. Now, good my lord,

Let there be some more test made of my metal, Before so noble and so great a figure Be stamp’d upon it.

DUKE. No more evasion!

We have with a leaven’d and prepared choice Proceeded to you; therefore take your honours.

Our haste from hence is of so quick condition That it prefers itself, and leaves unquestion’d Matters of needful value. We shall write to you, As time and our concernings shall importune, How it goes with us, and do look to know What doth befall you here. So, fare you well.

To th’ hopeful execution do I leave you Of your commissions.

ANGELO. Yet give leave, my lord,

That we may bring you something on the way.

DUKE. My haste may not admit it;

Nor need you, on mine honour, have to do With any scruple: your scope is as mine own, So to enforce or qualify the laws

As to your soul seems good. Give me your hand; I’ll privily away. I love the people, But do not like to stage me to their eyes; Though it do well, I do not relish well Their loud applause and Aves vehement; Nor do I think the man of safe discretion That does affect it. Once more, fare you well.

ANGELO. The heavens give safety to your purposes!

ESCALUS. Lead forth and bring you back in happiness!

DUKE. I thank you. Fare you