Macbeth Quotes

From Act 1 Scene 1 to Act 2 Scene 2

Witches

“Fair is foul and foul is fair, Hover through the fog and filthy air”

“Killing swine”

“I’ll drain him dry as hay”

“Though his bark cannot be lost” (power is limited)

Witches (power + bg interference)

“So foul and fair a day I have not seen” - Macbeth

“Like Valour’s minion”

“What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won” - King

“Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse” - Macbeth

Duncan

“This castle hath a pleasant seat” (pity for him - cutie pie)

“virtues” “angels” “trumpet” “new-born babe” “cherubin” - (pity, he is innocent + accociated with heavenly imagery - divinely appointed)

“This diamond he greets your wife withal” - Banquo

Banquo

“Or have we eaten on the insane root that takes the reason prisoner” (skeptical)

“The instruments of darkness tell us truths… to betray’s in deepest consequence”

“And yet I would not sleep” (not giving into nighmares from witches)

“But still keep My bosom franchised and allegiance clear”

Lady Macbeth

“That I may pour my sprirts in thine ear”

“Come you spirits…unsex me here”

“Come to my woman’s breasts, and take my milk for gall”

“I would…have plucked the niplle from his boneless gums, and dashed the brains out”

Macbeth (others’ POV)

“For brave Macbeth…disdaining fortune”

“O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman”

“O worthiest cousin”

Macbeth according to L.M

“Thy nature is too full o’the’ milk of human kindness”

“Was the hope drunk Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?”

Lady Macbeth and Macbeth relationship

“My dearest partner of greatness” - Macbeth

“My dearest love” - Macbeth

“From this time Such I accound my love” - Lady Macbeth

Macbeth’s honourable vs dishonourable violence

Honourable:

“unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops, and fixed his head upon our battlements”

Dishonourable:

“What cannot you and I perform upon Th’ unguarded Duncan” - LM

Not looking on what he’s done (Macbeth)

“The eye wink at the hand”

“hangman’s hands”

“I’l go no more. I am afraid to think what I have done”

Macbeth attitude towards the murder

“If it were done, when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it were done quickly”

“We still have judgement here”

I have no spur… but only vaulting ambition, which o’er leaps itself, and falls on th’ other”

“Golden opinions from all sorts of people”

“That summons thee to heaven, or to hell” (end of 2.1, reminder where Macbeth is going, structurally just before murder)

“I’l go no more. I am afraid to think what I have done” - Macbeth

Lady Macbeth’s attitude towards the murder

“A foolish thought to say a sorry sight”

“The sleeping and the dead Are but as pictures”

Euphemisms for murder

“great business”

“terrible feat” “show”

“Bloody business”

Stars/heaven/earth watching

“But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine on all deservers” - King Duncan

“Stars, hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires” - Macbeth

“Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark” - Lady Macbeth

“Hear not my steps… for fear Thy very stones prate of my whereabout” - Macbeth

Appearance vs reality

“Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t” - LM

“False face must hide what the false heart doth know” - Macbeth

“Art thou not, fatal vison, sensible” (dagger scene)

“A dagger of the mind, a false creation”

“In form as palpable As this which now I draw” (turning point)

Fate vs Free Will

“Disdaining fortune”

Temporal Chaos

“The letters have transported me beyond, This ignorant present, and I feel now the future in the instant”

Lack of Clarity + Reason

“That memory…shal be a fume”

“The reciept of reason A limbeck only”

Guilt

“Blood” “Bloody business” (blood as a symbol of guilt)

“I could not say ‘Amen’” - Macbeth

“Wash this filthy witcness from your hand” - Lady Macbeth

His hand will turn “The multitudionous sea incarnadine” - Macbeth

“And make my seated heart knock at my ribs” - Macbeth

“I hear a knocking” “Hark, more knocking” (Knocking of concience)

“Wake Duncan with thy knocking. I would thou couldst.” - Macbeth

Fear

“Present fears are less than horrible imaginings” - Macbeth

“I’ll go no more. I am afraid to think what I have done” - Macbeth

Nature

“Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse” - Macbeth

Sleep

“Macbeth does muder sleep”

“inncoent” “care” “bath” “balm” “nourisher” “feast”

Clothes motif

“Why do you dress me in borrowed robes” - Macbeth