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Macd. Despair thy charm;

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

Macb. 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 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.
Macd. Than 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.

Macb. I'll 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.

Retreat. Flourish. Re-enter, with Drum and Colours, MALCOLM, old SIWARD, ROSSE, LENOX, ANGUS, CATHNESS, MENTETH, and Soldiers.

Mal. I would, the friends we miss were safe arrived.

Siw. Some must go off: and yet, by these I see,

So great a day as this is cheaply bought.

Mal. Macduff is missing, and your noble son.

Rosse. 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.

Siw. Then he is dead?

Rosse. Ay, and brought off the field: your cause of sorrow Must not be measured by his worth, for then

It hath no end.

Siw. Had he his hurts before?

Rosse. Ay, on the front.

Siw. 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.

Mal. He's worth more sorrow,

And that I'll spend for him.

Siw. He's worth no more;

They say, he parted well, and paid his score:

So, God be with him!-Here comes newer comfort.

Re-enter MACDUFF, with MACBETH's Head on a Pole.
Macd. 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. King of Scotland, hail!

Mal. 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 crown'd at Scone.

* Wealth, ornament.

Blub No 26

[Flourish.

[Flourish. Exeunt.

Feb 26

KING JOHN.

KING JOHN.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

PRINCE HENRY, his Son; after-
wards King Henry III.
ARTHUR, Duke of Bretagne, Son
of Geffrey, late Duke of Bretagne,
the elder Brother of King John.
WILLIAM MARESHALL, Earl of
Pembroke.

GEFFREY FITZ-PETER, Earl of
Essex, Chief Justiciary of England.
WILLIAM LONGSWORD, Earl of
Salisbury.

ROBERT BIGOT, Earl of Norfolk.
HUBERT DE BURGH, Chamber-
lain to the King.

ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, Son
of Sir Robert Faulconbridge.
PHILIP FAULCONBRIDGE, his
Half-brother, bastard Son to King
Richard the First.

JAMES GURNEY, Servant to Lady
Faulconbridge.

PETER of Pomfret, a Prophet.
PHILIP, King of France.

1

LEWIS, the Dauphin.
ARCH-DUKE of Austria.
CARDINAL PANDULPH, the Pope's
Legate.

MELUN, a French Lord.
CHATILLON,

Ambassador from
France to King John.

ELINOR, the Widow of King Henry
CONSTANCE, Mother to Arthur.
II. and Mother of King John.
BLANCH, Daughter to Alphonso,
King of Castile, and Niece to King
John.

LADY FAULCONBRIDGE, Mother
to the Bastard and Robert Faul-
conbridge.

LORDS, LADIES, CITIZENS of Angiers, SHERIFF, HERALDS, OFFICERS, SOLDIERS, MESSENGERS, and other ATTENDANTS.

SCENE.-Sometimes in England, and sometimes in France.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-Northampton. A Room of State in the Palace. Enter KING JOHN QUEEN ELINOR, PEMBROKE, ESSEX, SALISBRUY, and others, with CHATILLON.

K. John. Now, say, Chatillon, what would France with us? Chat. Thus, after greeting, speaks the king of France,

In my behaviour, to the majesty,

The borrow'd majesty of England here.

Eli. A strange beginning;-borrow'd majesty!

K. John. Silence, good mother; hear the embassy.

*I. e. person and manner.

Chat. Philip of France, in right and true behalf
Of thy deceased brother Geffrey's son,
Arthur Plantagenet, lays most lawful claim
To this fair island, and the territories;

To Ireland, Poictiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine:
Desiring thee to lay aside the sword,

Which sways usurpingly these several titles;
And put the same into young Arthur's hand,
Thy nephew, and right royal sovereign.

K. John. What follows, if we disallow of this?
Chat. The proud control of fierce and bloody war,

To enforce these rights so forcibly withheld.

K. John. Here have we war for war, and blood for blood, Controlment for controlment: so answer France.

Chat. Then take my king's defiance from my mouth,
The furthest limit of my embassy.

K. John. Bear mine to him, and so depart in peace :
Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France;
For ere thou canst report I will be there,
The thunder of my cannon shall be heard:
So, hence! Be thou the trumpet of our wrath,
And sullen presage of your own decay.-
An honourable conduct let him have.-
Pembroke, look to't: Farewell, Chatillon.

[Exeunt CHATILLON and PEMBROKE.
Eli. What now, my son? have I not ever said,
How that ambitious Constance would not cease,
Till she had kindled France, and all the world,
Upon the right and party of her son?

This might have been prevented, and made whole,
With very easy arguments of love;

Which now the manage* of two kingdoms must

With fearful bloody issue arbitrate.

K. John. Our strong possession, and our right, for us.
Eli. Your strong possession, much more than your right;

Or else it must go wrong with you, and me:

So much my conscience whispers in your ear;

Which none but heaven, and you, and I, shall hear.

Enter the SHERIFF of Northamptonshire, who whispers ESSEX.

Esser. My liege, here is the strangest controversy,

Come from the country to be judged by you,

That ere I heard: Shall I produce the men ?

K. John. Let them approach.

Our abbeys, and our priories, shall pay

[Exit SHERIFF.

Re-enter Sheriff, with ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, and PHILIP,

his bastard Brother.

This expedition's charge.-What men are you?

Bast. Your faithful subject I, a gentleman,

Born in Northamptonshire; and eldest son,

* Conduct.

As I suppose, to Robert Faulconbridge;
A soldier, by the honour-giving hand
Of Coeur-de-lion knighted in the field.
K. John. What art thou?

Rob. The son and heir to that same Faulconbridge.
K. John. Is that the elder, and art thou the heir?
You came not of one mother then, it seems.

Bast. Most certain of one mother, mighty king,
That is well known; and as I think, one father:
But, for the certain knowledge of that truth,
I put you o'er to heaven, and to my mother;
Of that I doubt, as all men's children may.

Eli. Out on thee, rude man! thou dost shame thy mother, And wound her honour with this diffidence.

Bast. I, Madam? no, I have no reason for it;
That is my brother's plea, and none of mine;
The which if he can prove, 'a pops me out
At least from fair five hundred pound a year:
Heaven guard my mother's honour, and my land!

K. John. A good blunt fellow:-Why, being younger born,

Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance?

Bast. I know not why, except to get the land.
But once he slander'd me with bastardy:

But whe'r I be as true-begot, or no,
That still I lay upon my mother's head;
But, that I am as well-begot, my liege,
(Fair fall the bones that took the pains for me!)
Compare our faces, and be judge yourself.
If old Sir Robert did beget us both,

And were our father, and this son like him ;

O old Sir Robert, father, on my knee

I give heaven thanks, I was not like to thee.

K. John. Why, what a mad-cap hath heaven lent us here!
Eli. He hath a trick of Coeur-de-lion's face,

The accent of his tongue affecteth him:
Do you not read some tokens of my son
In the large composition of this man?

K. John. Mine eye hath well examined his parts,
And finds them perfect Richard.-Sirrah, speak,
What doth move you to claim your brother's land?
Bast. Because he hath a half-face, like my father;
With that half-face would he have all my land:
A half-faced groat five hundred pound a year!
Rob. My gracious liege, when that my father lived,
Your brother did employ my father much;-

Bast. Well, Sir, by this you cannot get my land;
Your tale must be, how he employ'd my mother.
Rob. And once despatch'd him in an embassy
To Germany, there, with the emperor,
To treat of high affairs touching that time:
The advantage of his absence took the king,
And in the mean time sojourn'd at my father's;
Where how he did prevail, I shame to speak:

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