Puslapio vaizdai
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Dro. S. There is a fat friend at your master's house, That kitchen'd me for you to-day at dinner; She now shall be my sister, not my wife.

Dro. E. Methinks, you are my glass, and not my

brother:

I see by you, I am a sweet-faced youth.
Will you walk in to see their gossiping?
Dro. S. Not I, sir; you are my elder.

Dro. E. That's a question: how shall we try it? Dro. S. We will draw cuts for the senior: till then, lead thou first.

Dro. E. Nay, then thus:

We came into the world, like brother and brother; And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another. [Exeunt.

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On a careful revision of the foregoing scenes, I do not hesitate to pronounce them the composition of two very unequal writers. Shakspeare had undoubtedly a share in them; but that the entire play was no work of his, is an opinion which (as Benedict says) fire cannot melt out of me; I will die in it at the stake.' Thus, as we are informed by Aulus Gellius, lib. iii. cap. 3, some plays were absolutely ascribed to Plautus, which in truth had only been (retractate et expolita) retouched and polished by him.

In this comedy we find more intricacy of plot than distinction of character; and our attention is less forcibly engaged, because we can guess in great measure how the denouement will be brought about. Yet the subject appears to have been reluctantly dismissed, even in this last and unnecessary scene; where the same mistakes are continued, till the power of affording entertainment is entirely lost.

STEEVENS.

C. Whittingham, Printer, Chiswick.

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Siward, Earl of Northumberland, General of the

English Forces.

Young Siward, his Son.

Seyton, an Officer attending on Macbeth.
Son to Macduff.

An English Doctor. A Scotch Doctor.
A Soldier. A Porter. An old Man.

Lady Macbeth.

Lady Macduff.

Gentlewoman attending on Lady Macbeth.
Hecate, and three Witches.

Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers,
Attendants, and Messengers.

The Ghost of Banquo, and several other Apparitions.

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.

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Thunder and Lightning. Enter three Witches. 1 Witch. WHEN shall we three meet again, In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

2 Witch. When the hurlyburly's done, When the battle's lost and won.

3 Witch. That will be ere set of sun. 1 Witch. Where the place?

2 Witch.

Upon the heath:

3 Witch. There to meet with Macbeth.

1 Witch. I come, Graymalkin!

All. Paddock calls:-Anon

Fair is foul, and foul is fair:

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

Witches vanish.

SCENE II. A Camp near FORES.

Alarum within.

Enter KING DUNCAN, MALCOLM,

DONALBAIN, LENOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Soldier:

Dun. What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

The newest state.

Mal.

This is the sergeant,

Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought
'Gainst my captivity: Hail, brave friend!
Say to the king the knowledge of the broil,
As thou didst leave it.

Sol.

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
Of kernes and gallowglasses is supplied;
And fortune on his damned quarrel smiling,
Show'd like a rebel's whore: But all's too weak:
For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name,)
Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,
Which smok'd with bloody execution,

Like valour's minion,

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!
Sol. 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:
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,
With furbish'd arms, and new supplies of men,
Began a fresh assault.

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