ACT V. Lear to Cordelia when taken Prisoners. Come, let's away to prison: We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage : Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too,- As if we were God's spies: and we'll wear out, Edgar's defiance of Edmund. Draw thy sword; That if my speech offend a noble heart, 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; This feather stirs she lives! if it be so, : It is a chance that does redeem all sorrows * -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, 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, 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 That tears shall drown the wind.-I have no spur 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 As this which now I draw. Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going, Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, And on thy blade, and dudgeon,* gouts of blood, 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. |