Noblemen | rank of Macduff, Lennox, Ross, Mentieth, Angus, Caithness; synonym for peers |
England | country to which Malcolm flees after Duncan’s murder |
Scovielle | The songs in Act 3, Scene 5, and Act 4, Scene 1, were added to Macbeth from the play Witch written by Thomas___: scholar believed to have interpolated the scenes in which Hecate appears |
Forres | location of the palace of the King of Scotland |
scone | the traditional coronation site for the Scottish kings: Macbeth goes there to be invested |
Caithness | Scottish noblemen: one of the rebels against Macbeth’s rule: Says of Macbeth: “Some say he’s mad: others that lesser hate him, Do call it valiant fury: but, for certain He cannot buckle his distempered cause within the belt of rule” |
Heath | open tract of wasteland covered with heather and low shrubs: moor; setting for the witches appearances |
Second; Hurlyburly | ____ witch’s answer to the question of when they’ll meet again: “When the ____ done, when the battle’s lost and won.” |
Naught | poetic word for “nothing” or “worthless, useless” |
Sinel | Macbeth’s father |
Siward | Earl of Northumberland and general of the English forces |
Birnam | woods outside Macbeth’s castle: Scottish rebels holding tree branches in front of them approach the castle, thus fulfilling one of the witches for Macbeth’s defeat |
Witches | first three characters to appear in Macbeth |
Scotland | country ruled by Duncan |
McB | character whose ambition to be king leads him to commit murder |
Inverness | Macbeth’s castle |
bell | signal for Macbeth to go to Duncan’s chamber |
Duncan | – Duncan- good king under whom Scotland flourishes: his two sons flee the country after his murder |
Glamis | Macbeth’s title at the beginning of the play: Thane of ___ |
foul | “So___ and fair a day I have not seen: the use of the terms fair and ___represent the confusion of good and evil: “Fair is ___ and foul is fair.” |
Martlet | house martin; bird of the swallow family; usually builds its nest in churches; Duncan and Banquo note the presence of these birds outside Inverness as an indication of peace and harmony |
Mentieth | Scottish nobleman who reports the nearness of English forces (led by Malcolm, Siward, and Macduff) and their burning desire |
Nature | “Yet I do not fear thy ___. It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness…” thus Lady Macbeth tells her husband she feels he will be unable to carry out the murder plans |
father | Lady Macbeth’s relative whom Duncan resembles so much that Lady Macbeth is unable to murder Duncan |
Gallows glasses | heavily armed and well trained soldiers; more disciplined and more heavily armed than kerns |
five | number of acts in Shakespeare’s tragedies |
regicide | term for killing of a king |
James | English king who was the descendant of Banquo |
head | – At the end of the play Macbeth engages in a duel with Macduff who kills Macbeth and cuts off his ___; traditional punishment for a traitor |
Northumberland | England’s northernmost country; Siward is the earl of this country in Macbeth |
candle | – Macbeth indicates his utter disillusionment in the famous passage: “Out of brief ___! Life but a walking shadow, a poor player. That sins and frets his hour upon the stage. And then hears no more.” |
general | military rank of Macbeth and Banquo |
blood | – Lady Macbeth’s feelings of guilt take the form of sleepwalking and an attempt to wash invisible___from her hands. |
ghost | Apparition: seeing Duncan’s ___completely unnerves Macbeth and causes Lady Macbeth to end the banquet |
hereafter | – Macbeth has been so affected by the monstrous stream of events that his only reply to the news of his wife’s death is: “She should have died ___ at a more convenient time.” |
evil | – The central theme of Macbeth is the devastating effect when the protagonist confuses good and bad or ___; something morally bad |
Angus | Scottish nobleman and rebel against Macbeth; reports that they will meet the English forces near Birnam Wood and says that Macbeth no longer commands the devotion of his soldiers but that they “move only in command.” |
Seyton | officer who attends Macbeth |
horrors | – “I have almost forgot the taste of fears… I have supped full with ___/ Direness familiar to my slaughterous thoughts/ cannot once start me.” |
irony | dramatic device employed in speeches such as Duncan’s talk about the difficulty of knowing by a man’s face what is running through his mind and such as the discussion of the former Thane of Cawdor as a traitor when the present Thane of Cawdor is planning treason |
dunsinane | King Macbeth’s castle; fortified castle at which Macbeth takes his last stand against the rebels |
Holinshed | sixteen century author of Chronicles, the source of the major portion of the plot of Macbeth |
Ross | Scottish nobleman who announces the beginning of the rebellion against Macbeth and reports the fate of Macduff’s family |
Macduff | nobleman who discovers Duncan’s murder; character who decides not to attend Macbeth’s coronation and flees Scotland, returning later to avenge his family |
wife | relationship to Macbeth of the person he addresses in a letter as “dearest partner of greatness” |
Lennox | Scottish nobleman; accompanies Macduff to Macbeth’s castle the night of Duncan’s murder; Macduff tells him of his suspicions about Macbeth’s guilt |
Donalbain | one of Duncan’s sons; flees to Ireland after his father’s murder |
Malcolm | Duncan’s other son; flees to England after his father’s murder; while in England, he stays with Kind Edward and tries to raise and army to unseat Macbeth from the throne and place himself there |
Anon | archaic term meaning “coming soon” |
Banquo | general of the Scottish army; character who functions as Macbeth’s foil; the witches prophesy that he will be the father of kings though not himself |
suicide | manner of Lady Macbeth’s death |
Fleance | Banquo’s son; flees Scotland after his father’s murder |
Thane | clan chieftain, equal in rank to an earl’s son, who became a baron under the king; a person of rank who held land for the king |
Hecate | goddess of witchcraft and sorcery; appears in the scene not believed to have been written by Shakespeare |
Cawdor | thane executed for his disloyalty to King Duncan; Maceth is then invested with this thane’s title |
Marry | a mild oath, which originally meant “By the Virgin Mary:” used as an exclamation of surprise or as intensive |
weal | archaic term for a sound or prosperous state; the public good or welfare: another form of common wealth: common |
Macbeth 2
August 18, 2019