| Banquo (to Macbeth) | “Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all,As the weird women promised, and I fearThou played’st most foully for ‘t. Yet it was saidIt should not stand in thy posterity” |
| Macbeth (about Banquo) | “There is none but heWhose being I do fear, and under himMy genius is rebuked, as it is saidMark Antony’s was by Caesar” |
| Lady Macbeth (to Macbeth) | “A little water will clear us of this deed” |
| Macbeth (; had he died an hour before, he wouldnt have witnessed the killing of his king, but really its because he wouldnt have commited a sin) | Had I but died an hour before this chance I had lived a blessed time; for, from this instant, There ‘s nothing serious in mortality: All is but toys: renown and grace is dead; |
| Lady Macduff | “But I remember nowI am in this earthly world, where to do harmIs often laudable, to do good sometimeAccounted dangerous folly” |
| Macbeth (sees the dagger before he kills Duncan; fear) | I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.Art thou not, fatal vision, sensibleTo feeling as to sight? Or art thou butA dagger of the mind, a false creation,Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? |
| Lady Macbeth (to Macbeth) | Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour As thou are in desire?” |
| Macbeth (when he decides that he is going to kill Duncan; Macbeth is waiting for the “signal” (the bell) from Lady Macbeth that the guards have been drugged) | “I go, and it is done; the bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell. That summons thee to heaven or to hell.” |
| Lady Macbeth (to Macbeth; shes telling him to look like he did nothing, but be sneaky about it) | “Look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under it.” |
| Duncan (; he says this is a nice castle and everything, but this is where Lady Macbeth and Macbeth plan to kill him) | This castle hath a pleasant seat. The air. Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself. Unto our gentle senses |
| Macbeth (this is the excuse he makes for killing the guards; hes lying and from now on, killing is much easier for him) | Who can be wise, amazed, temp’rate, and furious,. Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man. Th’ expedition of my violent love. Outrun the pauser, reason |
| Macbeth (after he killed Duncan, hes trying to clean his hands; Lady Macbeth said to be a man; here his guilt is represented) | Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this bloodClean from my hand? No; this my hand will ratherThe multitudinous seas incarnadine,Making the green one red. |
| Lady Macbeth (is explaining to Macbeth how to cover up killing Duncan; she is taking charge now, but later on in the play, he takes charge) | Your face, my Thane, is as a book where menMay read strange matters. To beguile the time,Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,Your hand, your tongue |
| Lady Macbeth (to Macbeth after the murder of Duncan) | “My hands are of your color, but I shame to wear a heart so white” |
| Macbeth (Malcolm is now the prince of Cumberland! To become king myself, I’m either going to have to step over him or give up, because he’s in my way) | “The prince of Cumbrland! That is a step on which I must fall down or else o’erlap, For in which my way it lies” |
| Lady Macbeth (give me the strength to kill Duncan) | Come, you spiritsThat tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,And fill me from the crown to the toe top-fullOf direst cruelty. Make thick my blood |
| Banquo | There’s husbandry in heaven,Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers,Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that natureGives way to in repose! |
| Banquo | But ’tis strange;And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,The instruments of darkness tell us truths,Win us with honest trifles, to betray’sIn deepest consequence |
| Banquo | If you can look into the seeds of time,And say which grain will grow and which will not,Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fearYour favors nor your hate. |
| Macbeth | I have no spur. To prick the sides of my intent, but only. Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself. And falls on th’ other. |
| First apparition (spirit rising up out of a cauldron) | Beware Macduff! Beware Thane of the Fife! |
| second apparition (a bloody child) | for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth |
| third apparition (child with a crown holding a tree) | Macbeth shall never be vanquished til Great Birnam wood to high dunsinane hill |
| Macbeth (sees a show of eight kings that all look like Banquo) | I’ll see no more. And yet the eight appears who bears a large glass which shows me many more, and some I see that twofold balls and treble scepters carry. Horrible sight! Now I see it is true for the blood-boltered Banquo smiles upon me and points at them for this |
| Lady Macduff (she is angry at Macduff for leaving and she says he is a coward; after this, Ross tells here that Macduff is only trying to help them) | Wisdom! To leave his wife, to leave his babes,His mansion and his titles in a placeFrom whence himself does fly? He loves us not;He wants the natural touch. For the poor wren,The most diminutive of birds, will fight,Her young ones in her nest, against the owl.All is the fear and nothing is the love,As little is the wisdom, where the flightSo runs against all reason. |
| Lady Macduff | Fathered he is, and yet he’s fatherless |
| Lady Macduff | Poor bird, thouds’t never fear the net nor lime, the pitfall nor the gin |
| Lady Macduff | Whither should I fly?I have done no harm. But I remember nowI am in this earthly world, where to do harmIs often laudable, to do good sometimeAccounted dangerous folly. Why then, alas,Do I put up that womanly defense,To say I have done no harm? |
| Malcolm | Let us seek out some desolate shade and there weep our sad bosoms cry |
| Macduff | Let us ratherHold fast the mortal sword and, like good men,Bestride our downfall’n birthdom. Each new mornNew widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrowsStrike heaven on the face, that it resoundsAs if it felt with Scotland and yelled outLike syllable of dolor. |
| Malcolm | What I believe I’ll wail;What know believe, and what I can redress,As I shall find the time to friend, I will.What you have spoke, it may be so perchance.This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,Was once thought honest. You have loved him well.He hath not touched you yet. I am young, but somethingYou may deserve of him through me, and wisdomTo offer up a weak, poor, innocent lambT’ appease an angry god. |
| Macduff | Bleed, bleed, poor country!Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure,For goodness dare not check thee. Wear thou thy wrongs;The title is affeered.—Fare thee well, lord.I would not be the villain that thou think’stFor the whole space that’s in the tyrant’s grasp,And the rich East to boot. |
| Malcolm | Be not offended.I speak not as in absolute fear of you.I think our country sinks beneath the yoke.It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gashIs added to her wounds. I think withalThere would be hands uplifted in my right;And here from gracious England have I offerOf goodly thousands. But, for all this,When I shall tread upon the tyrant’s head,Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor countryShall have more vices than it had before,More suffer, and more sundry ways than ever,By him that shall succeed. |
| Macduff | This avariceSticks deeper, grows with more pernicious rootThan summer-seeming lust, and it hath beenThe sword of our slain kings. Yet do not fear;Scotland hath foisons to fill up your will,Of your mere own. All these are portable,With other graces weighed. |
| Ross | Alas, poor country!Almost afraid to know itself. It cannotBe called our mother, but our grave, where nothing,But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile;Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the airAre made, not marked; where violent sorrow seemsA modern ecstasy. The dead man’s knellIs there scarce asked for who, and good men’s livesExpire before the flowers in their caps,Dying or ere they sicken. |
| Ross | Your castle is surprised, your wife and babes savagely slaughtered. To relate the manner were on the quarry of these murdered deer to add the death of you. |
| Malcolm | Merciful heaven!What, man! Ne’er pull your hat upon your brows.Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speakWhispers the o’erfraught heart and bids it break. |
| Banquo | Were such things here as we do speak about or have we eaten on the insane root that take the reason prisoner? |
| Duncan (about the Thane of Cawdor) | There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face. He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute truth. |
| Macbeth | The innocent sleep, sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care, the death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath, balm of hurt minds. |
| Lennox | The night has been unruly. Where we lay, our chimneys were blown down… The obscure bird clamored the livelong night. Some say the earth was feverous and did shake. |
| Ross | By the clock tis day, and yet dark night strangles the traveling lamp. Is ‘t night’s predominance or the day’s shame that darkness does the face of earth entomb when living life should kiss it? |
| Lady Macbeth | Naught’s had, all’s spent, where our desire is got with content. ‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy. |
| Caithness | Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies. 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. |
| Son of Macduff | Then the liars and swearers are fools, for there are liars and swearers enough to beat the honest men and hang up them. |
Macbeth: Important Quotes
July 24, 2019