The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, William Shakespeare [book recommendations based on other books txt] 📗

them forth quickly; we will do so.

ARMADO. Holla! approach.

 

Enter All

 

This side is Hiems, Winter; this Ver, the Spring-the one maintained by the Owl, th’ other by the Cuckoo. Ver, begin.

 

SPRING

When daisies pied and violets blue And lady-smocks all silver-white And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue

Do paint the meadows with delight, The cuckoo then on every tree

Mocks married men, for thus sings he: ‘Cuckoo;

Cuckoo, cuckoo’- O word of fear, Unpleasing to a married ear!

 

When shepherds pipe on oaten straws, And merry larks are ploughmen’s clocks; When turtles tread, and rooks and daws, And maidens bleach their summer smocks; The cuckoo then on every tree

Mocks married men, for thus sings he: ‘Cuckoo;

Cuckoo, cuckoo’- O word of fear, Unpleasing to a married ear!

 

WINTER

 

When icicles hang by the wall,

And Dick the shepherd blows his nail, And Tom bears logs into the hall, And milk comes frozen home in pail, When blood is nipp’d, and ways be foul, Then nightly sings the staring owl: ‘Tu-who;

Tu-whit, Tu-who’- A merry note,

While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

 

When all aloud the wind doth blow, And coughing drowns the parson’s saw, And birds sit brooding in the snow, And Marian’s nose looks red and raw, When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl, Then nightly sings the staring owl: ‘Tu-who;

Tu-whit, To-who’- A merry note,

While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

 

ARMADO. The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo.

You that way: we this way. Exeunt THE END

 

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1606

 

THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH

 

by William Shakespeare

 

Dramatis Personae

 

DUNCAN, King of Scotland

MACBETH, Thane of Glamis and Cawdor, a general in the King’s army LADY MACBETH, his wife

MACDUFF, Thane of Fife, a nobleman of Scotland LADY MACDUFF, his wife

MALCOLM, elder son of Duncan

DONALBAIN, younger son of Duncan

BANQUO, Thane of Lochaber, a general in the King’s army FLEANCE, his son

LENNOX, nobleman of Scotland

ROSS, nobleman of Scotland

MENTEITH nobleman of Scotland

ANGUS, nobleman of Scotland

CAITHNESS, nobleman of Scotland

SIWARD, Earl of Northumberland, general of the English forces YOUNG SIWARD, his son

SEYTON, attendant to Macbeth

HECATE, Queen of the Witches

The Three Witches

Boy, Son of Macduff

Gentlewoman attending on Lady Macbeth

An English Doctor

A Scottish Doctor

A Sergeant

A Porter

An Old Man

The Ghost of Banquo and other Apparitions Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murtherers, Attendants, and Messengers

 

<<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

SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>

 

SCENE: Scotland and England

 

ACT I. SCENE I.

A desert place. Thunder and lightning.

 

Enter three Witches.

 

FIRST WITCH. When shall we three meet again?

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

SECOND WITCH. When the hurlyburly’s done, When the battle’s lost and won.

THIRD WITCH. That will be ere the set of sun.

FIRST WITCH. Where the place?

SECOND WITCH. Upon the heath.

THIRD WITCH. There to meet with Macbeth.

FIRST WITCH. I come, Graymalkin.

ALL. Paddock calls. Anon!

Fair is foul, and foul is fair.

Hover through the fog and filthy air. Exeunt.

 

SCENE II.

A camp near Forres. Alarum within.

 

Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant.

 

DUNCAN. What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt The newest state.

MALCOLM. 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.

SERGEANT. Doubtful 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 villainies of nature

Do swarm upon him -from the Western Isles Of kerns 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 smoked with bloody execution,

Like Valor’s minion carved out his passage Till he faced the slave,

Which 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.

DUNCAN. O valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman!

SERGEANT. 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 valor arm’d, Compell’d these skipping kerns to trust their heels, But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage, With furbish’d arms and new supplies of men, Began a fresh assault.

DUNCAN. Dismay’d not this

Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo.?

SERGEANT. Yes,

As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.

If I say sooth, I must report they were As cannons overcharged with double cracks, So they

Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe.

Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, Or memorize another Golgotha,

I cannot tell—

But I am faint; my gashes cry for help.

DUNCAN. So well thy words become thee as thy wounds; They smack of honor both. Go get him surgeons.

Exit Sergeant, attended.

Who comes here?

 

Enter Ross.

 

MALCOLM The worthy Thane of Ross.

LENNOX. What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look That seems to speak things strange.

ROSS. God save the King!

DUNCAN. Whence camest thou, worthy Thane?

ROSS. From Fife, great King,

Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky And fan our people cold.

Norway himself, with terrible numbers, Assisted by that most disloyal traitor The Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict, Till that Bellona’s bridegroom, lapp’d in proof, Confronted him with self-comparisons, Point against point rebellious, arm ‘gainst arm, Curbing his lavish spirit; and, to conclude, The victory fell on us.

DUNCAN. Great happiness!

ROSS. That now

Sweno, the Norways’ king, craves composition; Nor would we deign him burial of his men Till he disbursed, at Saint Colme’s Inch, Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

DUNCAN. No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death, And with his former title greet Macbeth.

ROSS. I’ll see it done.

DUNCAN. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.

Exeunt.

 

SCENE III.

A heath. Thunder.

 

Enter the three Witches.

 

FIRST WITCH. Where hast thou been, sister?

SECOND WITCH. Killing swine.

THIRD WITCH. Sister, where thou?

FIRST WITCH. A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap, And mounch’d, and mounch’d, and mounch’d. “Give me,” quoth I.

“Aroint thee, witch!” the rump-fed ronyon cries.

Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master the Tiger; But in a sieve I’ll thither sail,

And, like a rat without a tail,

I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.

SECOND WITCH. I’ll give thee a wind.

FIRST WITCH. Thou’rt kind.

THIRD WITCH. And I another.

FIRST WITCH. I myself have all the other, And the very ports they blow,

All the quarters that they know

I’ the shipman’s card.

I will drain him dry as hay:

Sleep shall neither night nor day

Hang upon his penthouse lid;

He shall live a man forbid.

Weary se’nnights nine times nine

Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine;

Though his bark cannot be lost,

Yet it shall be tempest-toss’d.

Look what I have.

SECOND WITCH. Show me, show me.

FIRST WITCH. Here I have a pilot’s thumb, Wreck’d as homeward he did come. Drum within.

THIRD WITCH. A drum, a drum!

Macbeth doth come.

ALL. The weird sisters, hand in hand,

Posters of the sea and land,

Thus do go about, about,

Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine,

And thrice again, to make up nine.

Peace! The charm’s wound up.

 

Enter Macbeth and Banquo.

 

MACBETH. So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

BANQUO. How far is’t call’d to Forres? What are these So wither’d and so wild in their attire, That look not like the inhabitants o’ the earth, And yet are on’t? Live you? or are you aught That man may question? You seem to understand me, By each at once her choppy finger laying Upon her skinny lips. You should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so.

MACBETH. Speak, if you can. What are you?

FIRST WITCH. All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!

SECOND WITCH. All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!

THIRD WITCH. All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter!

BANQUO. Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair? I’ the name of truth, Are ye fantastical or that indeed

Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner You greet with present grace and great prediction Of noble having and of royal hope,

That he seems rapt withal. To me you speak not.

If you can look into the seeds of time, And say which grain will grow and which will not, Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear Your favors nor your hate.

FIRST WITCH. Hail!

SECOND WITCH. Hail!

THIRD WITCH. Hail!

FIRST WITCH. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.

SECOND WITCH. Not so happy, yet much happier.

THIRD WITCH. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.

So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!

FIRST WITCH. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!

MACBETH. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more.

By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis; But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives, A prosperous gentleman; and to be King Stands not within the prospect of belief, No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence You owe this strange intelligence, or why Upon this blasted heath you stop our way With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.

Witches vanish.

BANQUO. The earth hath bubbles as the water has, And these are of them. Whither are they vanish’d?

MACBETH. Into the air, and what seem’d corporal melted As breath into the wind. Would they had stay’d!

BANQUO. Were such things here as we do speak about?

Or have we eaten on the insane root

That takes the reason prisoner?

MACBETH. Your children shall be kings.

BANQUO. You shall be King.

MACBETH. And Thane of Cawdor too. Went it not so?

BANQUO. To the selfsame tune and words. Who’s here?

 

Enter Ross and Angus.

 

ROSS. The King hath happily received, Macbeth, The news of thy success; and when he reads Thy personal venture in the rebels’ fight, His wonders and his praises do contend Which should be thine or his. Silenced with that, In viewing o’er the rest o’ the selfsame day, He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks, Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make, Strange images of death. As thick as hail Came post with post, and every one did bear Thy praises in his kingdom’s great defense, And pour’d them down before him.

ANGUS. We are sent

To give thee, from our royal master, thanks; Only to herald thee into his sight,

Not pay