macbeath
She should have died hereafter.There would have been time for such a word.Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrowCreeps 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. Out, out, brief candle.Life's but a walking shadow, a poor playerThat struts and frets his hour upon the stage,And then is heard no more. It is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.
After Macbeth learns of his wife's death, he utters these words in Act 5, Scene 5. These lines form one of the most famous speeches in the play, revealing Macbeth's grief as well as his pessimism and despair. He says that life is pointless, meaningless, and that it's over too quickly. Macbeth's realization of the great evil he has done, which has brought about his wife's death, influences this speech as well. He is beginning to realize that the Witches' second prediction will come true: Banquo's line will become kings, not his.
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt beWhat thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature;It is to full o' th' milk of human kindnessTo catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great,Art not without ambition, but withoutThe illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highlyThat wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou'ld'st have, great Glamis,That which cries "Thus thou must do," if thou have it,And that which rather thou dost fear to do,Than wishes should be undone. Hie thee hither,That I may pour my spirits in thine earAnd chastise with the valor of my tongueAll that impedes thee from the golden round,Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seemTo have thee crowned withal.
After reading her husband's letter bringing news of his new title and the Witches' prophecy, Lady Macbeth delivers this soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 5. She's overjoyed that her husband will become king, but worried that Macbeth will prove to be too weak to murder Duncan himself. She urges him to hurry home so she can persuade him to do so, since fate seems to want him to become king.
It will have blood, they say. Blood will have blood.Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak.Augurs and understood relations haveBy maggot pies and choughs and rooks brought forthThe secret'st man of blood.
By the time Macbeth says these lines, in Act 3, Scene 4, Banquo has been murdered at Macbeth's command. Macbeth has been haunted by Banquo's ghost at what was supposed to be a celebratory dinner. The full horror of what he has done in order to achieve his ambition is now clear to Macbeth, and he warns his wife that the dead will have their revenge.
That, trusted home,Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,Besides the thane of Cawdor. 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.
In Act 1, scene 3, Banquo muses on the events of the last few minutes: just as the Witches predicted, Macbeth has been named Thane of Cawdor. Banquo notes that just because the Witches told the truth doesn't mean that they're not evil. Banquo understands far earlier than Macbeth that the Witches don't necessarily have Macbeth's best interests in mind, and their prophecies may turn out to be less positive than Macbeth believes.
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep -Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journeySoundly invite him - his two chamberlainsWill I with wine and wassail so convinceThat memory, the warder of the brain,Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reasonA limbeck only: when in swinish sleepTheir drenchèd natures lied as in a death,What cannot you and I perform uponThe unguarded Duncan? What not put uponHis spongy officers, who shall bear the guiltOf our great quell?
In Act 1, scene 7, Lady Macbeth dismisses her husband's decision to let Duncan live, and promises him that if he can act with courage, their plan can't fail. She tells Macbeth that once Duncan is asleep, she'll get his servants so drunk that they pass out. Then she and Macbeth can kill Duncan and blame his servants for the killing. Lady Macbeth's plan is good enough to convince Macbeth to change his mind and agree to kill Duncan.
Thou has it no 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,But that myself should be the root and fatherOf many kings. If there come truth from them -As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine -Why, by the verities on thee made good,May they not be my oracles as well,And set me up in hope? But hush, no more.
In Act 3, scene 1, Banquo's soliloquy reveals that he is suspicious of Macbeth, who, in becoming king, has achieved all that the Witches promised for him. Banquo senses that Macbeth engaged in foul play in order to make the Witches' prophecy come true. While the idea that Macbeth may have murdered Duncan fills Banquo with fear, the thought also gives Banquo hope that what the Witches predicted for him will come true. He doesn't realize that in order for his sons to become king, he will have to die.
Bring me no more reports. Let them fly all.Til Birnam Wood remove to DunsinaneI cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm?Was he not born of woman? The spirits that knowAll mortal consequences have pronounced me thus:"Fear not, Macbeth. No man that's born of womanShall e'er have power upon thee." Then fly, false thanes,And mingle with the English epicures.The mind I sway by and the heart I bearShall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.
In Act 5, Scene 3, Macbeth boldly tells his servants that he's not worried about the approach of Malcom and Macduff to battle him because of the Witches' prophecies: first, that he can't lose until Birnam Wood moves, and second, that he can't be killed except by a man not born of a woman. He brags that his mind and courage will never falter. However, his boast will soon prove hollo Birnam Wood will move, and he will be killed by Macduff, who was born via Caesarian section.
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.
In Act 5, scene 1, Lady Macbeth sleepwalks through Macbeth's castle on the eve of his battle against Macduff and Malcolm. She is completely undone by guilt and has lost her mind. Similar to her husband's guilt-induced hallucinations, Lady Macbeth has started seeing things that aren't there - namely, blood on her hands, a physical manifestation of her guilt over her part in Duncan's murder.
O, neverShall sun that morrow see!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. Look like th' innocent flower,But be the serpent under 't. He that's comingMust be provide for: and you shall putThis night's great business into my dispatch,Which shall to all our nights and days to comeGive solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
In these lines, in Act 1, scene 5, Lady Macbeth tells her husband to leave everything to her: she'll set up Duncan's murder that evening. In the meantime, she tells Macbeth, he should try to look as innocent as possible. The lines show Lady Macbeth pushing her husband to kill Duncan. We can't know if Macbeth would have decided to murder his king if his wife hadn't encouraged him so strongly.
If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere wellIt were done quickly. If th' assassinationCould trammel up the consequence, and catchWith his surcease success; that but this blowMight be the be-all and the end-all here,But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,We'd jump the life to come. But in these casesWe still have judgement here, that we but teachBloody instructions, which, being taught, returnTo plague th'inventor: this even-handed justiceCommends the ingredients of our poisoned chaliceTo our own lips. He's here in double trust:First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,Who should against murderer shut the door,Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this DuncanHath borne his faculties so meek, hath beenSo clear in his great office, that his virtuesWill plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, againstThe deep damnation of his taking-off;And pity, like a naked newborn babe,Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsedUpon the sightless couriers of the air,Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spurTo prick the sides of my intent, but onlyVaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itselfAnd falls on th' other.
In this soliloquy, found in Act 1, Scene 7, Macbeth struggles with whether he should murder Duncan. He knows that Duncan has been a good and wise king. Macbeth also acknowledges that his role as Duncan's host and subject is to protect his king, not murder him in his sleep. Macbeth senses that the murder will change his life, by making him king, but also by unleashing his dark ambition on the world. By the end of the speech, he seems to have decided against the murder, but his wife will soon talk him back into it.
The raven himself is hoarseThat croaks the fatal entrance of DuncanUnder my battlements. 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,Stop up th'access and passage to remorse,That no compunctious vistings of natureShake my fell purpose, nor keep peace betweenTh'effect and it. Come to my woman's breasts,And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers,Whatever in your sightless substancesYou wait on nature's mischief. Come, thick night,And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,To cry, 'Hold, hold!'
Lady Macbeth gives this soliloquy in Act 1, scene 5, while waiting for King Duncan to arrive at her castle. She's determined that Duncan must be murdered, and asks for help from the spirits to give her the courage she needs to kill him. The references she makes to being female reveal that she feels her natural womanhood may keep her from acting cruelly, so she demands that they be removed.
Despair thy charm,And let the angel whom thou still hast servedTell thee, Macduff was from his mother's wombUntimely ripped.
Macbeth has already learned that Birnam Wood did move, as the Witches predicted. Here, he learns from Macduff that the Witches' last prediction has come true as well. As Macduff tells him in Act 5, Scene 8, Macduff was taken from his mother's womb in a Caesarian section and thus was not "born." Macbeth is doomed.
Who can be wise, amazed, temp'rate, and furious,Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man.Th'expedition of my violent loveOutrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,His silver skin laced with his golden blood,And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in natureFor ruin's wasteful entrance; there, the murderers,Steeped in the colors of their trade, their daggersUnmannerly breeched with gore. Who could refrain,That had a heart to love, and in that heartCourage to make's love known?
Macbeth has killed Duncan's servants after re-entering Duncan's room. In this speech in Act 2, Scene 3, he explains to Macduff and the others that he couldn't be both calm and furious at once, and that his emotions overtook him. Macbeth is lying, having killed Duncan himself, so these lines show his ability to think quickly and his growing capacity for evil.
Whence is that knocking? -How is't with me, when every noise appalls me?What hands are here! Ha, they pluck out mine eyes.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.
Macbeth says these lines in Act 2, Scene 2, immediately after murdering Duncan. He hears a knocking at the gate to the castle, and thinks it must be his doom coming to claim him. This moment, now that the dreadful deed is done, shows Macbeth what the rest of his life will be like: he will become king, but he also will be wracked with guilt and sure that supernatural elements are warning him of his imminent death.
Is this a dagger which I see before me,This handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.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-oppressèd brain?
Macbeth's soliloquy in Act 2, Scene 1 is important as it marks the first time he hallucinates. We can assume the Witches he saw earlier were real, because Banquo saw them too. In these lines, however, Macbeth is aware that the floating knife he sees is not really there. The fact that he is troubled enough to hallucinate, yet still sane enough to understand that he is hallucinating, can be contrasted with his later mental state, when he fully believes he sees Banquo's ghost, even though Lady Macbeth tells him no one is there.
This supernatural solicitingCannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill,Why hath it given me earnest of success,Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor.If good, why do I yield to that suggestionWhose horrid image doth unfix my hairAnd make my seated heart knock at my ribs,Against the use of nature? Present fearsAre less than horrible imaginings.My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,Shakes so my single state of manThat function is smothered in surmise,And nothing is but what is not.
Macbeth's soliloquy in Act I, Scene 3 shows him trying to puzzle out the implications of the Witches' prophecy. He reasons that since what the Witches predicted turned out to be correct, it cannot be evil (he's wrong). But Macbeth also admits that because of their prediction, he's already begun to fantasize about killing King Duncan and taking the throne.
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. There thou shouldst be;By this great clatter, one of the greatest noteSeems bruited. Let me find him, Fortune,And more I beg not.
Macduff is determined to kill Macbeth and revenge the brutal murder of his family, as this short speech from Act 5, scene 7 makes clear. Macduff calls on Fortune to help him find Macbeth and kill him, echoing the role of fate and the supernatural in the play, as represented elsewhere by the Witches.
Bleed, bleed, poor country! Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure, For goodness dare not check thee.
Macduff says these lines in Act 4 scene 3, after having abandoned his wife and children and fled for his life. Beyond the danger Macbeth poses to Macduff personally, Macduff worries about what effect Macbeth's tyranny will have on Scotland. Here, Macduff is angry at himself and others who will not stand up to Macbeth. He will soon learn of Macbeth's murder of his entire family, and resolves to help lead the revolt against him.
O horror, horror, horror!Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee!...Confusion now hath made his masterpiece.Most sacrilegious murder hath broke opeThe Lord's anointed temple, and stole thenceThe life o' th' building!
Part of Macduff's work is to wake the king every morning. He discovers Duncan's murder in Act 2, 3cene 3, and announces it to the rest of the people at Macbeth's castle. The heartbroken way he announces it spells trouble for Macbeth: Duncan was a beloved king. Macduff's lines of genuine horror and remorse at the death of king contrast with the suspicion and distrust Macbeth's subjects will feel for him once he takes Duncan's place.
O treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!Thou may'st revenge - O slave!
These lines are Banquo's dying words, as he is slaughtered by the murderers Macbeth has hired in Act 3, scene 3. In his dying breaths, Banquo urges his son, Fleance, to flee to safety, and charges him to someday revenge his father's death. This sets the stage how the play will end, when Macbeth realizes that the Witches' prophecy will come true, and Banquo's children will rule Scotland.
I laid their daggers ready;He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembledMy father as he slept, I had done't.
This short speech from Lady Macbeth in Act 2, scene 2 reveals two important facts: first, that Lady Macbeth has not helped kill Duncan after all, and second, that Duncan's resemblance to her father prevented her from killing him. Lady Macbeth will have a complex reaction to the murder throughout the rest of the play, at times appearing to feel more genuine remorse than her husband for their actions. Her remorse will eventually lead to her suicide. These lines are an early suggestion that Lady Macbeth might not be as coldblooded as she claims to be.
