THE CHOLERIC PRINCE. CLOTEN TWO LORDS. Clo. Was there ever man had such luck! when I kissed the Jack upon an up-cast, to be hit away! I had a hundred pound on't: And then a jackanapes must take me up for swearing; as if I borrowed mine oaths of him, and might not spend them at my pleasure. 1 Lord. What got he by that? You have broke his pate with your bowl. 2. Lord. If his wit had been like him that broke it, it would have ran all out. (Aside.) Col. When a gentleman is disposed to swear, it is not for any standers-by to curtail his oaths; Ha? 2 Lord. No, my lord; nor (Aside.) crop the ears of them. Clo. Dog! I give him satisfaction? 'Would, he had been one of my rank : 2 Lord. To have smelled like a fool. (Aside.) Clo. I am not more vexed at any thing in the earth, — A pox on 't! I had rather not be so noble as I am; they dare not fight with me, because of the queen my mother: every jackslave hath his belly full of fighting, and I must go up and down like a cock that nobody can match. 2 Lord. You are a cock and capon too; and you crow, cock, with your comb on. (Aside.) Clo. Sayest thou? 1 Lord. It is not fit, your lordship should undertake every companion that you give offense to. Clo. No, I know that: but it is fit, I should commit offense to my inferiors. 2 Lord. Ay, it is fit for your lordship only. Clo. Why, so I say, 1 Lord. Did you hear of a stranger, that's come to court to night? Col. A stranger! and I know not on 't! 2 Lord. He's a strange fellow himself, and knows it not. (Aside.) 1 Lord. There's an Italian come; and, 't is thought one of Leonatus' friends. Clo. Leonatus! a banished rascal; and he 's another, whatsoever he be. Who told you of this stranger? 1 Lord. One of your lordship's pages. Clo. Is it fit I went to look upon him? Is there no deroga tion in 't ? 1 Lord. You cannot derogate, my lord. Clo. Not easily, I think. 2 Lord. You are a fool granted; therefore your issues being foolish, do not derogate. (Aside.) Col. Come, I'll go see this Italian: What I have lost to-day at bowls, I'll win to-night of him. Come, go. SHAKSPEARE. 2 Murd. What, shall we stab him as he sleeps ? 1 Murd. No; he'll say, 't was done cowardly, when he wakes. 2 Murd. When he wakes! why, fool, he shall never wake until the great judgment day. 1 Murd. Why, then he 'll say, we stabbed him sleeping. 2 Murd. The urging of that word, judgment, hath bred a kind of remorse in me. 1 Murd. What? art thou afraid? 2 Murd. Not to kill him, having a warrant for it; but to be damned for killing him, from the which no warrant can defend me. 1 Murd. I thought thou hadst been resolute. 2 Murd. So I am, to let him live. 1 Murd. I'll back to the duke of Gloster, and tell him so. 2 Murd. Nay, I pr'y thee, stay a little: I hope, this holy humor of mine will change; it was wont to hold me but while one would tell twenty. 1 Murd. How dost thou feel thyself now? 2 Murd. 'Faith, some certain dregs of conscience are yet within me. 1 Murd. Remember our reward, when the deed 's done. 2 Murd. Come, he dies; I had forgot the reward. 1 Murd. Where's thy conscience now? 2 Murd. In the duke of Gloster's purse. 1 Murd. So when he opens his purse to give us our reward. Shy conscience flies out. 2. Murd. 'Tis no matter; let it go; there's few, or none, will entertain it. 1 Murd. What, if it come to thee again? 2 Murd. I'll not meddle with it, it is a dangerous thing, t makes a man a coward; a man cannot steal, but it accnseth him; a man cannot swear, but it checks him; a man cannot lie with his neighbor's wife, but it detects him: 'Tis a blushing shame-faced spirit, that mutinies in a man's bosom; it fills one full of obstacles: it made me once restore a purse of gold, that by chance I found; it beggars any man that keeps it: it is turned out of all towns and cities for a dangerous thing; and every man, that means to live well, endeavors to trust himself, and live without it. 1 Murd. 'Zounds, it is even now at my elbow, persuading me not to kill the duke. 2 Murd. Take the devil in thy mind, and believe him not: he would insinuate with thee, but to make thee sigh. 1 Murd. I am strong-framed, he cannot prevail with me. 2 Murd. Spoke like a tall fellow, that respects his reputation. Come, shall we fall to work? 1 Murd. Take him over the costard with the hilts of thy sword, and then throw him into the malmsey-butt, in the next room. 2 Murd. O excellent device! and make a sop of him. 1 Murd. Soft! he wakes. 2 Murd. Strike. 1 Murd. No, we 'll reason with him. SHAKSPEARE THE GRIEF OF MACDUFF MALCOLM - MACDUFF - ROSSE. Macd. See, who comes here? Mal. My countryman; but yet I know him not. Rosse. Sir, Amen. Macd. Stands Scotland where it did? Rosse. Alas, poor country; Almost afraid to know itself! It cannot Be called our mother, but our grave: where nothing, Is there scarce asked, for who; and good men's lives Expire before the flowers in their caps, Dying, or ere they sicken. Macd. O, relation, Too nice, and yet too true! Mal. What is the newest grief? Rosse. That of an hour's age doth hiss the speaker; Each minute teems a new one. Macd. How does my wife? Rosse. Why, wel. Macd. And all my children? Rosse. Well, too. Macd. The tyrant has not battered at their peace? Rosse. No; they were well at peace, when I did leave them Macd. Be not a niggard of your speech: how goes it? Rosse. When I came hither to transport the tidings, Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumor Of many worthy fellows that were out; Mal. Be it their comfort, We are coming thither: gracious England hath That Christendon gives out. Rosse. Would I could answer This comfort with the like! But I have words, That would be howled out in the desert air, Where hearing should not latch them. Macd. What concern they? The general cause? or is it a free-grief, Rosse. No mind, that 's honest, But in it shares some woe; though the main part Pertains to you alone. Macd. If it be mine, Keep it not from me; quickly let me have it. Rosse. Let not your ears despise my tongue for ever, Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound That ever yet they heard. Macd. Humph! I guess at it. Rosse. Your castle is surprised; your wife and babes Savagely slaughtered: to relate the manner, Were, on the quarry of these murdered deer, Mal. Merciful heaven! What! man, ne'er pull your hat upon your brows; Rosse. Wife, children, servants, all That could be found. Macd. And I must be from thence ! My wife killed too! Rosse. I have said. Mal. Be comforted: Let's make us medicines of our great revenge, To cure this deadly grief. Macd. He has no children. - All my pretty ones? Did you say, all? - O, hell-kite! - All? What, all my pretty chickens, and their dam, Mal. Dispute it like a man. Macd. I shall do so; But I must also feel it as a man: Did heaven look on, Sinful Macduff, naught that I am, I cannot but remember such things were, Heaven rest them now Mal. Be this the whetstone of your sword: let grief Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it. Macd. O, I could play the woman with mine eyes, Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself; Mal. This tune goes manly. Come, go we to the king; our power is ready; Receive what cheer you may; SHAKSPEARE |