Get this No Fear to go!
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Modern Text |
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Alarum within. Enter KING DUNCAN,
MALCOLM, DONALBAIN,
LENNOX, with attendants, meeting a bleeding
CAPTAIN
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Sounds of a trumpet and soldiers fighting offstage.
KING DUNCAN enters with his sons
MALCOLM and DONALBAIN,
LENNOX, and a number of attendants. They meet a wounded
and bloody CAPTAIN. |
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DUNCAN
What bloody man is that? He can report,
As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt
The newest state.
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DUNCAN
Who is this bloody man? Judging from his appearance, I bet he can
tell us the latest news about the revolt.
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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.
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MALCOLM
This is the brave sergeant who fought to keep me from being
captured. Hail, brave friend! Tell the king what was happening in
the battle when you left it.
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10 15 20 |
CAPTAIN
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 villanies of nature
Do swarm upon him—from the Western Isles
Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied,
And fortune, on his damnèd quarrel smiling,
Showed like a rebel’s whore. But all’s too weak,
For brave Macbeth—well he deserves that
name—
Disdaining fortune, with his brandished 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 unseamed him from the nave to th' chops,
And fixed his head upon our battlements.
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CAPTAIN
For a while you couldn’t tell who would win. The armies
were like two exhausted swimmers clinging to each other and
struggling in the water, unable to move. The villainous rebel
Macdonwald was supported by foot soldiers and horsemen from Ireland
and the Hebrides, and Lady Luck was with him, smiling cruelly at his
enemies as if she were his whore. But Luck and Macdonwald together
weren’t strong enough. Brave Macbeth, laughing at Luck,
chopped his way through to Macdonwald, who didn’t even have
time to say good-bye or shake hands before Macbeth split him open
from his navel to his jawbone and stuck his head on our castle
walls.
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DUNCAN
O valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman!
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DUNCAN
My brave relative! What a worthy man!
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