I will not be afraid of death and bane,
'Till Birnam-forest come to Dunsinane.

[Exeunt.

The English forces, under the command of Siward, Earl of Northumberland, have joined the Scottish troops, headed by Malcolm, near Birnam Wood-when the Prince issues a strategic order: Mal. Let every soldier hew him down a 'bough,

And bear 't before him: thereby shall we 'shadow
The numbers of our host, and make discovery
Err in report of us.

Siw. We learn no other, but the confident tyrant
Keeps 'still in Dunsinane, and will endure

Our setting-down before 't. The time approaches,
That will, with due decision, make us know
What we shall say we 'have, and what we 'owe."
Thoughts 'speculative their unsure 'hopes relate,
But 'certain issue 'strokes must arbitrate:
Towards which advance the war!

[Exeunt.

Within Dunsinane Castle, Macbeth is making preparations to resist the expected attack.

Macb. Hang-out our banners! On the 'outward walls,

The cry is still, "They come!" Our castle's strength
Will laugh a siege to 'scorn: there let them lie,
Till famine, and the ague, eat them up!

Were they not 'forced with those that 'should be 'ours,
We might have met them 'dareful, beard to beard,
And beat them backward home. [] What is that
noise?

cry

ithin.

Sey. It is the cry of 'women, my good lord.

Macb. I have almost 'forgot the taste of fears.

The time 'has been, my senses would have cooled
To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair
Would, at a dismal 'treatise, rouse and stir

[Exit.

As life were in 't. I have supped 'full with horrors:
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,

Seyton

Cannot once start me. [to] 'Wherefore was that cry?

Sey. The Queen, my lord, is 'dead.

Macb. . . . She 'should have died 'hereafter:

There 'would 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,

a what we possess, and to whom we owe allegiance.
O. R. here. d strengthened, reinforced.

b determine.

• scalp, covering.

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!

Now the equivocations of the Weird Sisters first begin to startle the guilty King. A Sentinel, amazed at the sight of an apparent impossibility, hastily approaches Macbeth:

Thou com'st to use thy tongue; thy story-quickly! Mess. Gracious my lord,

I should report that which I say I 'saw,
But know not 'how to do it.

Mach.

Well, say, sir!
Mess. As I did stand my watch upon the hill,
I looked toward Birnam; and anon, methought,
The wood began to 'move!

Macb.
Liar and slave!
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.

. If thou speak'st 'false,

Upon the next tree shalt thou hang, alive,

Till famine cling" thee: if thy speech be 'sooth,
I care not if thou dost for 'me as much.-

I pall' in resolution; and begin

To doubt the 'equivocation of the fiend,

That 'lies, like 'truth: "Fear not, 'till Birnam-wood
Do come to Dunsirane;"-and now a wood

'Comes toward Dunsinane!-Arm, arm, and out!
If this, which he avouches, 'does appear,

There is nor flying hence, nor tarrying here.

I 'gin to be aweary of the sun,

And wish the estate o' the 'world were now undone.—
Ring the alarum-bell!-Blow, wind! come, wrack!
At least we 'll die with harness on our back. [Exeunt.

The Scene is now on a Plain before the Castle. Enter, with drum and colours, Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, and their soldiers carrying boughs of trees.

a shrivel thee up.

b fail (lose power), O. R. pull.

e armour.

Mal. Now, near enough: your leafy screens throw down,
And show like those you 'are.-You, worthy uncle,
Lead our 'first battle: worthy Macduff, and we,
Shall take upon us what 'remains to do,
According to our 'order.

Siw.

Fare you well.

Do we but find the tyrant's power 'to-night,
Let us be 'beaten, if we cannot fight.

Macd. Make all our 'trumpets speak; give them 'all breath,
Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death. [Exeunt.
Alarums continued. The confusion of the battle brings the
leaders before us in quick succession. Macbeth enters:

Macb. They have tied me to a 'stake; I cannot 'Ay,

But, bear-like, I must 'fight the course.-What 's he
That was 'not born of woman? 'Such a one
Am I to fear, or 'none.

[Exit.

In the midst of new alarums, Macduff wildly enters:
Macd. 'That way the noise is.-Tyrant, 'show thy face!
If thou be'st slain, and with no stroke of 'mine,
My wife's and children's ghosts will haunt me still.
I cannot strike at wretched 'kerns," whose arms
Are 'hired to bear their staves: either 'thou, Macbeth,
Or else my sword, with an 'unbattered edge,

I sheathe again undeeded.—Let me 'find him, fortune!
And more I beg not.

[Exit.

The Castle has surrendered. Macbeth returns: Macb. Why should 'I play the 'Roman fool," and die On mine 'own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes Do better upon 'them.

Macd.

Macduff rushes through the gateway.

Turn, hell-hound, turn!

Macb. Of all men else I have avoided 'thee:

But get thee back! My soul is too much charged
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!

They

The first fury of Macduff's attack is vain, and the confident tyrant reveals the secret of his strength:

Thou 'losest labour:

Macb.

a common soldiers.

b Brutus (who committed suicide).

As easy mayst thou the intrenchanta 'air

With thy keen sword impress, as make 'me bleed:
Let fall thy blade on 'vulnerable crests;

'I bear a 'charmed life,-which must not yield
To one of 'woman born.

Macd.

'Despair thy charm ;
And let the 'angel," whom thou still hast served,
Tell thee,-Macduff was from his mother's womb
Untimely 'ripped.

Macb. . . . Accurséd be that tongue that tells me so,
For it hath 'cowed 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. Then '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 damned be he that first cries, "Hold, enough!' With these frantic words the combat is renewed; and, after a fierce conflict, Macbeth is slain. Malcolm, Prince of Cumberland, the lineal heir, is then, amid the acclamations of the nobility and the soldiers, addressed by the conquering Macduff:

Macd. Hail, King! for so thou art. The time is 'free!
I see thee compassed with thy kingdom's pearl,"
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine,—

Hail, King of Scotland!

King of Scotland, hail! [Flourish. Mal. What 's 'more to do, by the blest 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 crowned at Scone. [

a not capable of being wounded. d excited to madness.

END OF MACBETH.

b the Evil Spirit,

Flourish.

Exeunt.

e subdued with fear,

e ornaments (the assembled nobility).

TIMON OF ATHENS.

The story of "Timon of Athens” is an old one; it is found in Lucian's "Dialogues "-in Plutarch's "Life of Marc Antony ”and in Paynter's "Palace of Pleasure." There is also a manuscript play (lately printed) which had been performed before 1600; having, however, a partial resemblance to the later work of the Stratford dramatist.

It is generally conceded that this drama was constructively founded on an older play; and that the poetic embellishments, and new developments of the character of the misanthrope, belong to Shakespeare. His Timon is not the Timon of Plutarch-an ordinary cynic, angry with all men and trusting none; nor like the Timon of Paynter-a beast_only,-"living a beastly and churlish life;" but rather like the Timon of Lucian (whose account Shakespeare must have heard, but he could not have read-for there was as yet no translation,)—a man of truth, probity, humanity, charity, and benevolent liberality; changed, by the ingratitude of those whom he had befriended, to become a bitter despiser of men and all their assemblies and conventionalities.

The dual representation of misanthropy is wonderful-in the contrasted" similarities" of Timon and Apemantus; the latter, a vile, ever-growling cynic, deformed in body and debased in mind; while Timon, even in his greatest calamities, retains, with his deep disgust for society, the unyielding dignity of a noble soul.

The Characters retained in this Condensation are:

TIMON, a noble Athenian.

LUCIUS,

LUCULLUS,

Lords, and flatSEMPRONIUS, terers of Timon. VENTIDIUS, one of Timon's false Friends.

APEMANTUS, a churlish Philosopher.

ALCIBIADES, an Athenian General.

FLAVIUS, Steward to Timon.
Poet, Painter, Jeweler, and Mer-
chant.
FLAMINIUS,)

LUCILIUS, Servants to Timon.
SERVILIUS,

Cupid and Amazons in the
Masque.

Lords, Senators, Thieves, Attend-
ants, etc.

Scene. Athens and the Woods near that city.

Lord Timon is a nobleman of great wealth, whose military bravery in early life had been conspicuous in Athens, but who is

a One line, in "Jack Drum's Entertainment, or Pasquil and Katherine," (1601,) alludes to this old play : "Come, I'll be as sociable as Timon of Athens."

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