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 power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him. | Lady MacbethReferring to guilt |
The thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?—What, will these hands ne’er be clean?—No more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that. You mar all with this starting. | Lady Macbeth |
Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, Oh, Oh! | Lady Macbeth |
I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the dignity of the whole body. | GentlewomanSpeaking to Doctor, saying she does not want the heart of Lady Macbeth even if she could be quenn |
Wash your hands. Put on your nightgown. Look not so pale.—I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out on ‘s grave. | Lady MacbethSleepwalking, speaking to the audience, subconsciously speaking to Macbeth, telling him not to be so afraid and that Banquo is buried |
To bed, to bed. There’s knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come. Give me your hand. What’s done cannot be undone.—To bed, to bed, to bed! | Lady Macbeth Sleepwalking, speaking to the audience, subconsciously speaking to Macbeth, saying what’s done cannot be undone |
Foul whisp’rings are abroad. Unnatural deedsDo breed unnatural troubles. Infected mindsTo their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.More needs she the divine than the physician.God, God forgive us all! | DoctorSpeaking to Gentlewoman, says unnatural deeds cause mischievous troubles and that minds filled with grief will tell their pillows their secrets. Speaking of Lady Macbeth, he says that she needs more help by a priest than by a doctor |
Now does he feelHis secret murders sticking on his hands.Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach.Those he commands move only in command,Nothing in love. Now does he feel his titleHang loose about him, like a giant’s robeUpon a dwarfish thief. | AngusSpeaking to Menteith, Caithness, Angus, and Lennox. Talking about Macbeth saying he feels the blood of his victims sticking to his hands and rebels punish him for treachery. His soldiers do not love him and he is too small to be a great king . |
My way of lifeIs fall’n into the sere, the yellow leaf,And that which should accompany old age,As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,I must not look to have, but, in their stead,Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breathWhich the poor heart would fain deny and dare not. | MacbethCalling to Seyton, says that he has lived long enough and that all the things that should accompany a man in the end of his life he does not have. The heart would dare to end his life but he does not |
Cure her of that.Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,Raze out the written troubles of the brainAnd with some sweet oblivious antidoteCleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuffWhich weighs upon the heart? | MacbethSpeaking to the Doctor about Lady Macbeth’s condition, saying he should cure her of her mental ailments and take her memory away that is troubling him |
Therein the patientMust minister to himself. | DoctorSpeaking to Macbeth who requests that the Doctor fix his wife’s mental condition, doctor says the patient must do that for himself |
If thou couldst, doctor, castThe water of my land, find her disease,And purge it to a sound and pristine health,I would applaud thee to the very echo,That should applaud again. | MacbethSpeaking to the Doctor and asking if he can find a cure to free his country from the sickness and purge the country of England’s army |
Let every soldier hew him down a boughAnd bear ‘t before him. Thereby shall we shadowThe numbers of our host and make discoveryErr in report of us. | Malcom Speaking to all of the soldiers, telling them to break off a branch from the wood so Macbeth can not tell how many people are there |
I have almost forgot the taste of fears.The time has been my senses would have cooledTo hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hairWould at a dismal treatise rouse and stirAs life were in ‘t. I have supped full with horrors.Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughtsCannot once start me. | MacbethSpeaking to the audience, Macbeth says that he has forgotten what it is like to feel fear. There was a time he would have been terrified by a shriek in the night,but now he has been exposed to true horrors |
She should have died hereafter.There would have been a time for such a word.Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to dayTo the last syllable of recorded time,And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death. | MacbethSpeaking to Seyton of Lady Macbeth’s death, saying she would have died eventually, the days creep by slowly until the end of time, and every day that has happens takes fools that much closer to death. |
Out, out, brief candle!Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor playerThat struts and frets his hour upon the stageAnd then is heard no more. It is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing. | MacbethSpeaking to Seyton of Lady Macbeth’s death and the feasibility of life. Life is just being a stage for a little and then heard of no more. It has no meaning |
I pull in resolution and beginTo doubt th’ equivocation of the fiendThat lies like truth. “Fear not, till Birnam woodDo come to Dunsinane”; and now a woodComes toward Dunsinane. | MacbethSpeaking to himself (audience), after he hears that Birnam Wood moves towards Dunsinane, starts to realize that he is dead now and starts to doubt the things that the witches have told him |
They have tied me to a stake. I cannot fly,But, bearlike, I must fight the course. What’s heThat was not born of woman? Such a oneAm I to fear, or none. | MacbethSpeaking to the audience, he has no where to run but fears no one who is born of a woman |
That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy face!If thou beest slain, and with no stroke of mine,My wife and children’s ghosts will haunt me still.I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose armsAre hired to bear their staves. Either thou, Macbeth,Or else my sword with an unbattered edgeI sheathe again undeeded. | MacduffSpeaking to the audience, calling to Macbeth in battle and asking him to show his face and saying if he is killed by someone else then the ghosts of his children and wife will still haunt him. He can not fight these paid men and he will put his sword down unused if he does not get to Macbeth |
Thou wast born of woman.But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn,Brandished by man that’s of a woman born. | MacbethSpeaking to the dead Siward, does not fear woman born |
The devil himself could not pronounce a titleMore hateful to mine ear. | Young SiwardSpeaking to Macbeth, who tells him his name |
Why should I play the Roman fool and dieOn mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashesDo better upon them. | MacbethSpeaking to himself, saying why should he commit suicide, saying he would rather see his sword do damage to his enemies than himself |
Of all men else I have avoided thee.But get thee back. My soul is too much chargedWith blood of thine already. | MacbethSpeaking to Macduff, telling him he is the only man that he has avoided and he is already guilty of killing his entire family |
Thou losest labor.As easy mayst thou the intrenchant airWith thy keen sword impress as make me bleed.Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;I bear a charmèd life, which must not yieldTo one of woman born. | MacbethSpeaking to Macduff and saying that there is no use in Macduff trying to harm Macbeth since Macbeth can only be harmed by a man not born of a woman |
Despair thy charm,And let the angel whom thou still hast servedTell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s wombUntimely ripped. | MacduffSpeaking to Macbeth, saying that he was not born of a woman and that his charmed life is done |
Accursèd be that tongue that tells me so,For it hath cowed my better part of man!And be these juggling fiends no more believed,That palter with us in a double sense,That keep the word of promise to our ear,And break it to our hope. I’ll not fight with thee. | MacbethSpeaking to Macduff after he has told him that he was not born of a woman, saying that he has stolen the fear away from him and that he will not fight him. Also he says he does not believe the witches anymore |
Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier’s debt.He only lived but till he was a man,The which no sooner had his prowess confirmedIn the unshrinking station where he fought,But like a man he died. | RossSpeaking to King Siward, telling him the news that his son has died in battle. Once he proved he could fight like a man, his life ended |
Why then, God’s soldier be he!Had I as many sons as I have hairs,I would not wish them to a fairer death.And so, his knell is knolled. | King SiwardSpeaking to Ross, saying that if had as many sons as the hairs on his head than he couldn’t hope that any of them die more honorably since his wounds were found on the front, showing he died in battle |
Hail, king! For so thou art. Behold where standsThe usurper’s cursèd head. The time is free.I see thee compassed with thy kingdom’s pearl,That speak my salutation in their minds,Whose voices I desire aloud with mine.Hail, King of Scotland! | MacduffSpeaking to Malcom, has the head of Macbeth with him and that they are free of his tyranny, and hails him as king of scotland |
Henceforth be earls, the first that ever ScotlandIn such an honor named. What’s more to do,Which would be planted newly with the time,As calling home our exiled friends abroadThat fled the snares of watchful tyranny,Producing forth the cruel ministersOf this dead butcher and his fiendlike queen,Who, as ’tis thought, by self and violent handsTook off her life; | MalcomTo Macduff, Siward,Ross, Thanes, says that he will name them all earls and that they will call our their friends that have fled the country due to Macbeth (the butcher) and Lady Macbeth (the demon like queen who supposedly committed suicide by strangling herself) |
Macbeth Quotes- Act 5
July 16, 2019