| “A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once the benefit of sleep and do the effects of watching. In this sulumbry agitation, besides her walking and other actual performances, agat af any time have you heard her say?” | Spoken by the doctor to the gentlewoman about Lady Macbeth’s apparent illness |
| “She has light by her continually. ‘Tis her command.” | Spoken by the gentle woman to the doctor giving more insight into Lady Macbeth’s strange condition |
| “What, will these hands never be clean?” | Spoken by Lady Macbeth in her trance state, overcome with guilt for all the deaths she has caused/contributed to |
| “Foul whisperings are abroad. Unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles. Infected minds to their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. More needs she the divine than the physician.” | Spoken by the doctor about his final diagnosis of Lady Macbeth |
| “The English power is near, led on by Malcolm, his uncle Sicard, and the good Macduff. Revenges burn in them…” | Spoken by Menteith to Angus, Caithness, Lennox, and the other assembled lords about the incoming invasion against 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.” | Spoken by Caithness to the assembled lords regarding public opinion of Macbeth’s tyrannical rule |
| “Those he commands move only in command, nothing in love.” | Spoken by Angus to the assembled lords regarding the lack of true loyalty that the Scottish people feel for Macbeth |
| “That which should accompany old age, as honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have.” | Spoken by Macbeth while waiting for the appearance of his attendant Seyton (shows the disintegration of Macbeth’s way of life/how he basically has nothing left to lose) |
| “Not so sick, my lord, as she is troubled with thick conniving fancies that keep her from her rest.” | Spoken by the doctor to Macbeth and ABOUT Lady Macbeth |
| “I will not be afraid of death and bane till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane.” | Spoken by Macbeth to Seyton and the doctor, indicating his sole reliance on the witches’ prophecy |
| “Let every soldier hew him down a bout and bear it before him. Thereby we shall shadow the numbers of our host and make discovery err in report of us.” | Spoken by Malcolm to his troops, leading to a strategy which will both disguise their numbers and make it appear to Macbeth the trees of Birnam are literally marching up the hill of Dunsinane (witches prophecy!) |
| “The Queen, my lord, is dead.” | Spoken by Seyton to Macbeth after Lady Macbeth’s offstage suicide |
| “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time, 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.” | Spoken by Macbeth to Seyton after he hears of his wife’s death; this is one of the most important lines of the play (not just because it’s references in Hamilton…) where Macbeth discusses the futility and meaninglessness of life |
| “Let me endure your wrath if it not be so. Within this three mile may you see it coming. I say, a moving grove.” | Spoken by the messenger to Macbeth, claiming to have seen the woods of Birnam moving |
| “The have tied me to a stake. I cannot fly. But, bear life, I must fight the course.” | Spoken by Macbeth as he realizes he is trapped in the castle with only the witches’ final prophecy to give him courage |
| “The devil himself could not pronounce a title more hateful to mine ear.” | Spoken by Young Siward to Macbeth as they duel, having just heard Macbeth confess to his identity |
| “We have met with foes that strike beside us.” | Spoken by Malcolm to Siward about the phenomenon where Scottish soldiers are defecting to fight with the rebels |
| “We’ll have thee, as our rarer monsters are, painted upon a pole, and underwrit ‘Here may you see the tyrant’.” | Spoken by Macduff to Macbeth when he tries to surrender after realizing that Macduff is not “woman born” and can kill him |
| “Had he his hurts before?…Why then, God’s soldier be he!” | Spoken by Siward to Malcolm and Ross after hearing of his son’s death |
| “Hail, king! For so thou art. Behold where stands the usurper’s cursed head.” | Spoken by Macduff to Malcolm, holding Macbeth’s severed head and hailing him as the rightful king of Scotland |
| “Henceforth be earls, the first ever that Scotland in such an honor named.” | Spoken by Malcolm to the assembled thanes, promoting them to earl as a sign of gratitude |
Macbeth Quotes – Act Five
August 11, 2019