Macbeth.(马克白-莎士比亚经典).doc

PAGE 43 PAGE 43 Macbeth by William Shakespeare Presented by Paul W. Collins ? Copyright 2005 by Paul W. Collins Macbeth By William Shakespeare Presented by Paul W. Collins All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Exceptas permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this work nay be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a databaseor retrieval system, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, audio or video recording, or other, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Note: Spoken lines from Shakespeare’s drama are in the public domain, as is the Globe (1864) edition of his plays, which provided the basic text of the speeches in this new version of Macbeth. But Macbeth, by William Shakespeare: Presented by Paul W. Collins, is a copyrighted work, and is made available for your personal use only, in reading and study. Student, beware: This is a presentation of Macbeth, not a scholarly work, so you should be sure your teacher, instructor or professor considers it acceptable as a reference before quoting characters’ comments or thoughts from it in your report or term paper. Chapter One Victory, and Prophecy S tartled by a lightning-strike close by atop the rocky hill, a black charger recoils and shudders, halting in the dirt road. Wild-eyed, the lathered beast rears and neighs fearfully, thrusting out front hooves as if to fend off the enveloping thunder. The rider, a cloaked soldier nearly flung from the saddle, curses, digs in his spurs, and lashes the steed forward, resuming an urgent mission. The dead oak’s shattered trunk smolders and smokes as man and horse career downhill at a gallop, disappearing into the gloomy mist in a frenzied rush to join in the clamor of war in the woods below. On the knoll, amid the skeletal tree’s splintered trunk and barren, blackened branches, strange, luminous vapors gather to rise, shimmering in the dim twilight; s