“Let every man be master of his time till seven at night” | Macbeth says to the servant. Let everyone else be free to make our dinner more special. Banqo leaves. |
“Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown and put a barren sceptre in my gripe, thence to be wrench’d with an unlineal hand, no son of mine succeeding.” | Macbeth is speaking to himself. People put the crown on his head and then took it away instead of giving it to his son, the heir. |
“We are men, my liege.” “Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men.” | Macbeth speaking to first murderer. You are all listed as men, but it is more specific than that because you could be swift, slow, subtle, etc. just like dogs who are all different |
“So weary with disasters, tugg’d with fortune that I would set my life on any chance, to mend it, or be rid on ‘t” | First murderer talking to Macbeth and other murderers. He has had so many misfortunes that he will either improve his life or be rid of it. He would wager any venture. |
“I am one, my liege, whom the vile blows and buffets of the world have so incensed that I am reckless what I do to spite the world.” | Second murderer speaking to Macbeth and other murderer. He has been so maddened by all of life’s disasters that he doesn’t care what he does to revenge himself. |
“Better be with the dead, whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, than on the torture of the mind to lie in restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave; after life’s fitful fever he sleeps well: treason has done his worst” | Macbeth talking to Lady Macbeth about how it is better to be with the dead and be at peace than suffer with all the mental problems. Duncan is dead and he sleeps soundly. |
“But in them nature’s copy’s not eterne.” | Lady Macbeth says to Macbeth that Banquo and Fleance are not immortal. |
“But now I am cabin’d, cribb’d, confined, bound in to saucy doubts and fears.” | Macbeth speaks to first murderer about how his illness has come back and although he was free and liberated before, he has become the prisoner of his nagging doubts and fears. He feels confined and cramped with these thoughts. |
“Double double toil and trouble; fire burn, and cauldron bubble.” | All the witches together. They are in the middle of a boiling cauldron. |
“How now, you secret, black and midnight hags! What is’t you do?” | Macbeth talking to the witches and asking what they are up to now. |
“The flighty purpose never is o’ertook, unless the deed go with it.” | Macbeth talking to Lennox. He is saying how time is not helping him with his scheming. If he acts instantly then his plans with stay on pace. |
Macbeth Quotations
August 11, 2019