Macb. I have almost forgot the taste of fears: The time has been, my senses would have cool'd To hear a night shriek; and my fell of hair Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir, As life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrors: Direness, familiar to my slaught'rous thoughts, Cannot once start me.-Wherefore was that cry? Sey. The queen, my lord is dead. Macb. She would have died hereafter; There should have been a time for such a word.To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle: Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. Enter a Messenger. Thou com'st to use thy tongue; thy story quickly. I should report that which I Macb say I saw, Well, say, sir. Mess. As I did stand my watch upon the hill, I look'd toward Birnam, and, anon, methought, The wood began to move. Macb. Liar, and slave ! [Striking him. Mess. Let me endure your wrath if't be not so; Within this three mile may you see it coming; I say, a moving grove. Macb. I If thou speak'st false, To doubt the equivocation of the fiend," Andwish the estate o' the world were now undone.. SCENE.-The same. A Plain before the Castle. Enter, with drums and colours, MALCOLM, old SIWARD, MACDUFF, &c., and their Army, with boughs. Mul. Now, near enough; your leavy screens throw down, And show like those you are:-You, worthy uncle, Siw. Macd. Make all our trumpets speak; give them all breath, Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death. [Exeunt. Alarums continued. Enter MACBETH. Siw. Had he his hurts before? Siw. Why, then, God's soldier be he. Had I as many sons as I have hairs, Macb. They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, I would not wish them to a fairer death: But, bear-like, I must fight the course. Enter MACDuff. Macd. Turn, hell-hound, turn. Macb. Of all men else I have avoided thee: But get thee back, my soul is too much charg'd With blood of thine already. Macd. I have no words, My voice is in my sword; thou bloodier villain Than terms can give thee out. Macb. I will not yield, To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, Mal. I would the friends we miss were safe arriv'd. 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 liv'd but till he was a man; Siw. Then he is dead? Rosse. Ay, and brought off the field: your cause of sorrow Must not be measur'd by his worth, for then And so his knell is toll'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: And so, God be with him!-Here comes newer comfort. Re-enter MACDUff, with Macbeth's head. The usurper's cursed head: the time is free; All. King of Scotland, hail! [Flourish. Mal. We shall not spend a large expense of time, Before we reckon with your several loves, Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland Of this dead butcher, and his fiend-like queen, [Flourish. Excunt. Enter the KING, QUEEN, HAMLET, POLONIUS, LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, and Lords Attendant. King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death The memory be green; and that it us befitted Your leave and favour to return to France; And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon. King. Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius ? Pol. He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave, By laboursome petition; and, at last, King. Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine, But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,And thy best graces spend it at thy will! Ham. A little more than kin, and less than kind. [Aside. King. How is it that the clouds still hang on you ? Ham. Not so, my lord, I am too much i' the sun. Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nightly colour off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not, for ever, with thy vailed lids Seek for thy noble father in the dust: Ham. Ay, madam, it is common. If it be, Why seems it so particular with thee? Ham. Seems, madam! nay, it is; I know not seems. 'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, To give these mourning duties to your father; To do obsequious sorrow: But to persevere A heart unfortified, a mind impatient, I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg. [Exeunt KING, QUEEN, Lords, &c., Ham. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon* 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God! How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seems to me all the uses of this world! Fye on't! O fye! 'tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature, Possess it merely. That it should come to this! A little month; or ere those shoes were old, My father's brother; but no more like my father, But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue. Enter HORATIO, BERNARDO, and MARCELLUS. Hor. Hail to your lordship! Ham. I am glad to see you well; Horatio,- -or I do forget myself. Hor. The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever. *Canon means law. Merely means entirely. Hyperion means Apollo. 2 Beteem means suffer. sir, But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg? Ham. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow student; I think it was to see my mother's wedding. Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio. Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight. Hor. My lord, the king, your father. Ham. Ham. Ham. Did you not speak to it? Hor. My lord, I did But answer made it none: yet once, methought, It lifted up its head, and did address Itself to motion, like as it would speak : But, even then, the morning cock crew loud; And at the sound it shrunk in haste away, And vanish'd from our sight. Hor. As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true, | No more. And we did think it writ down in our duty, To let you know of it. Oph. Laer. No more but so ? Think it no more. Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me. And keep within the rear of your affection, Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred. Mar., Ber. Longer, longer. Out of the shot and danger of desire. Oph. I shall the effect of this good lesson keep, Laer. A double blessing is a double grace; Pol. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame; The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail, His beard was grisly? no. And you are staid for. There, my blessing with Hor. It was as I have seen it in his life, A sable silver'd. Ham. I will watch to-night; Perchance 'twill walk again. Hor. I warrant it will. Ham. If it assume my noble father's person, I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape, And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all, If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight, Let it be treble in your silence still; And whatsoever else shall hap to-night; Give it an understanding, but no tongue; I will requite your loves. So fare ye well: Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve, I'll visit you. All. Our duty to your honour. Ham. Your love, as mine to you: Farewell. [Exeunt HOR., MAR., and BER. My father's spirit in arms! all is not well; I doubt some foul play: would the night were come! you ; [Laying his hand on LAERTES' head. But not express'd in fancy; rich, but not gaudy: Laer. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord. Pol. The time invites you; go, your servants tend. Laer. Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well What I have said to you. Oph. 'Tis in my memory lock'd, And you yourself shall keep the key of it. Laer. Farewell. [Exit LAERTES. Pol. What is't, Ophelia, he hath said to you? Oph. So please you, something touching the lord Hamlet. Chariest means most cautious. † Reeks not his own read, means reads not his own lessons. |