| “Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Hover through the fog and filthy air.” | Witches say it. It is a reoccurring theme foreshadowing the whole play. |
| “No More that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive our bosom interest: go pronounce his present death, and with his former title greet Macbeth.””What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.” | King says it. Duncan is saying that the Thane of Cawdor is killed and now it is Macbeth’s title. |
| “So foul and fair a day I have not seen.” | Macbeth says it. Macbeth is saying that he has never seen foul and fair and it’s the reoccurring theme. |
| “By each at once her choppy finger laying upon her skinny lips. You should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so.” | Banquo says it. It is describing the witches. |
| “All hail Macbeth, Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!””All hail Macbeth, Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdow!””All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!” | The witches say it. Predictions of the title’s that Macbeth will receive. |
| “Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none. So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo.” | The third witch says it. Banquo will not be king but his son will be. |
| “By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis; By how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives.” | Macbeth says it. He doesn’t know how he is going to receive the title of Cawdor because he is living. |
| “The Thane of Cawdor lives: why do you dress me in borrowed clothes?” | Macbeth says it. Clothes imagery-Macbeth doesn’t understand how he is going to get that title. |
| “New honors come upon him, Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mold but with the aid of use.” | Banquo says it. He is telling Macbeth that he has to have earned the things he gets, not just gain them. |
| “We will establish our estate upon our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter the Prince of Cumberland: which honor must not unaccompanied invest him only” | King Duncan says it. Telling Banquo that his son Malcolm will be the heir to the throne. |
| “The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down, or else o’erlap, for in my way it lies.” | Macbeth says it. He realizes that Malcolm is in the way of his becoming king because he is the heir. |
| “Yet do I fear thy nature: It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it.” | … |
| “The Raven himself is a hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements. Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fil me from the crown to the toe”: raven is a bad, and she is asking to be less like a women so she can kill” | Lady Macbeth says it. She is asking to change her kindness into bitterness so she can kill them. |
| “May read strange matters. To beguile the time, look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tongue; LOOK LIKE TH’ INNOCENT FLOWER,” | Lady Macbeth says it. She is already planning to kill, Macbeth is not convinced. She is telling him to basically act nonchalant about it. |
| “First, I am his kinsman and his subject, strong both against the deed; then, as his host, who should against his murderer shut the door, not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been so clear in his great office, that his virtues will plead like angles trumpet tongued against the deep damnation of his taking-off” | Macbeth says it. Macbeth is starting to talk himself out of killing Duncan because he is loyal and he shouldn’t be doing this to someone who has been so nice to him. |
| “We will proceed no further in this business: he hath honored me of late, and I have bought golden opinons from all sorts of people.” | Macbeth says this. He is telling Lady Macbeth that they shouldn’t be killing him because it is not right when they have tried to help him. |
| “Away, and mock the time with the fairest show: false face must hide what the false heart doth know.” | Macbeth says this. Macbeth is talking about how he has to be good at acting innocent. |
| “Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand?” | Macbeth says this. He is holding the daggers wondering if he is actually going to do it. |
| “Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to sight, or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation…” | Macbeth says this. He is wondering if he is dreaming and making this all up. |
| “Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven, or to hell.” | Macbeth is saying this. A sign to go kill Duncan. |
| “‘Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more: Macbeth shall sleep no more.'” | Macbeth says this, repeating his thoughts. He thinks he doesn’t deserve to sleep because he killed King Duncan. |
| “Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope the Lord’s anointed temple, and stole thence the life o’ th’ building.” | Macduff says this. Stating that Duncan is dead and his body is a temple. |
| “What will you do? Let’s not consort with them. To show an unfelt sorrow is an office which the false man does easy. I’ll to England.””To Ireland, I; our separated fortune shall keep us both the safer. where we are there’s daggers in men’s smiles; the near in blood, the nearer bloody.” | Malcolm says the first and Donalbain says the second. The sons of King Duncan are talking about how they have to flee because they will be next if they don’t. |
| “Tis unnatural, even like the deed that’s done. On Tuesday last a falcon, tow’ring in her pride of place, was by a mousing own hawked at and killed.” | The Old Man says this. He is saying that its unnatural for the lower rank to kill the higher rank. |
| “To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus–our fears in Banquo stick deep, and in his royalty of nature reigns that which would be feared.” | Macbeth says this. Macbeth’s soliloquy. He is worried that someone will come after him like he went after Duncan. |
| “Most royal sir, Fleance is ‘scaped.” | The murderer says this. He is saying that Fleance escaped and they killed Banquo. |
| “I drink to th’ general joy o’ th’ whole table, and to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss; | Macbeth says this. He is toasting to Banquo cuz he was killed. |
| “Come, we’ll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse is the initiate fear that wants hard use. We are yet but young in deed.” | Macbeth says this. He is saying that he will try and stop thinking about the killing and act normal. |
| “Saucy and overbold? How did you dare to trade and traffic with Macbeth in riddles and affairs of death; and I, the mistress of your charms, the close contriver of all harms, was never called to bear my part, or show the glory of the art?” | Hecate says this. She is getting mad at the witches for telling Macbeth anything. |
| “Is gone to pray the holy King, upon his aid to wake Northumberland and warlike Siward that by the help of these, with him above to ratify the work…” | The Lord says this. He is telling Lennox that Macduff has gone to ask for help to take Macbeth to war. |
| “His message ere he come, that a swift blessing may soon return to this our suffering country under a hand accursed!” | Lennox says this. He is realizing that Macbeth is no loyal and becoming the king. |
| “Double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn and caldron bubble.” | All the witches say this. They are making the drink to give Macbeth. |
| “Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff! | First Apparition |
| “The pow’r of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth.” | Second Apparition |
| “Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him.” | Third Apparition |
| “The castle of Macduff I will surprise; Seize upon Fife; give to th’ edge o’ th’ sword his wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls.” | Macbeth says this. He is talking about how he is going to kill all of Macduff’s family. |
| “He had none: his flight was madness. When our actions do not, our fears do make us traitors.” | Lady Macduff says it. She is realizing that Macbeth has gotten really out of hand with the killing and now he really is a traitor. |
| “And would not make their part? Sinful Macduff, they were all struck for thee! Naught that I am, not for their own demerits but for mine fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now!” | Macduff says this. He is mad at Macbeth but also mad at himself because he thinks that the reason his family died was because of him. |
| “Out, damned spot! Out, I say! One: Two: why then ’tis time to do’t. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our pow’r to accompt? Yet, who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?” | Lady Macbeth says this while sleep walking. She is going mentally crazy from all the guilt that she can’t tell anyone about it. |
| “Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title hand loose about him, like a giant’s robe upon a dwarfish thief.” | Angus says this. Clothes imagery-talking about his title as king-dwarfish thief/talking about how Macbeth has stolen his title |
| “Bring me no more reports; let them fly all! Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane I cannot taint with fear. What’s the boy Malcolm?” | Macbeth says this. He is being overconfident because he thinks that there is no way that the Second Apparition will come true. |
| “Bring it after me, I will not be afraid of death and bane till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane.” | Macbeth says this. He is still not scared because of the apparition. |
| “Let every soldier hew him down a bough and bear’t before him. Thereby shall we shadow the number of our host, and make discovery err in report us.” | Malcolm says this. He is planning on dressing the soldiers up in Birnam wood and slowly moving them forward so that it will look like a lot less soldiers so Macbeth will think there is an error in the reports. |
| “And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.” | Macbeth says this. He is talking about how life has no meaning and means nothing. |
| “I pull in resolution, and begin to doubt th’ equivocation of the fiend that lies like truth: “Fear not, till Birnam Wood do come to Dunsinane!” And now a wood comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out!” | Macbeth says this. He realizes the witches tricked him and he has to get ready to fight. |
| “And let the angel whom thou still hast served tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb ultimely ripped.” | Macduff says this. He realizes that Macduff wasn’t born of woman so he can kill him. |
| “And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen, henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland in such an honor named, Whats more to do.” | Malcolm says this and gives them the name earl to prove that he is not like Macbeth. |
Macbeth Quotes
January 5, 2020