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The noble thanes do bravely in the war;
The day almost itself professes yours,

And little is to do.

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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.

Re-enter MACDUFF.

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;

Thou losest labor:

My voice is in my sword; thou bloodier villain
Than terms can give thee out!

Macb.

As easy may'st thou the intrenchant air

[They fight.

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. Accursed 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.

I'll not yield

Macb.
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 him that first cries, Hold, enough.
[Exeunt, fighting.

Retreat. Flourish. Re-enter, with drum and colors, MAL
COLM, Old SIWARD, ROSSE, LENOX, ANGUS, CATHNESS,
MENTETH, and Soldiers.

Mal. I would the friends we miss were safe arrived. 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 lived but till he was a man;

The which no sooner had his prowess confirmed

In the unshrinking station where he fought,

But like a man he died.

Siw.

Then he is dead?

Rosse. Ay, and brought off the field; your cause of

sorrow

Must not be measured by his worth, for then

It hath no end.

Siw.

Had he his hurts before?

Rosse. Ay, on the front.

Why, then, God's soldier be he!

Siw.
Had I as many sons as I have hairs,
I would not wish them to a fairer death.
And so his knell is knolled.

Mal.

He's worth more sorrow,

He's worth no more;

And that I'll spend for him.
Siw.
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 on a pole.
Macd. Hail, king! for so thou art. Behold, where

stands

The usurper's cursed head: the time is free:
I see thee compassed with thy kingdom's pearl,
That speak my salutation in their minds;
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine,-

Hail, king of Scotland!

All.

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Mal. We shall not spend a large expense of time, Before we reckon with your several loves,

And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen,
Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland

In such an honor named. What's more to do,
Which would be planted newly with the time,-
As calling home our exiled friends abroad,
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny;
Producing forth the cruel ministers

Of this dead butcher, and his fiendlike queen;
Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands
Took off her life;-this, and what needful else
That calls upon us, by the 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.

[Flourish. Exeunt.

VOL. 11.-1

KING JOHN

(259)

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