Macbeth Key Quotations

Define perfunctory

(of an action) carried out without any real interest, feeling, or effort

Define Machiavellian

Using clever but often dishonest methods of deceit to win power and control

Define usurper

Someone who takes a position of importance or power illegally or by force

Define pathos

A quality that evokes pity or sadness

Define vacillating

Wavering between different opinions or actions

"Till he unseam'd him

from the nave to th'chaps" (W1.2)

Zoomorphic imagery in 1.2 about Banquo and Macbeth

"Yes, as sparrows, eagles, or the hare, the lion"

Macbeth's opening line in 1.3

"So foul and fair a day I have not seen."

"The Thane of Cawdor lives.

Why do you dress me in borrow'd robes?" (M1.3)

"If chance will have me king,

why chance may crown me without my stir" (M1.3)

A second quote in 1.3 relating to imagery of Macbeth wearing clothes that are not designed for him

"New honours come upon him / Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould, / But with the aid of use" (B1.3)

"Stars, hide your fires

Let not light see my black and deep desires" (M1.4)

"It is too full

o'th'milk of human kindness" (LM1.5)

"Come, you spirits

that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here / And fill me from the crown to the toe topfull / Of direst cruelty" (LM1.5)

"Come to my woman's breasts

and take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers" (LM1.5)

"Come, thick night / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell

that my knife see not the wound it makes / Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark / To cry 'Hold, hold'." (LM1.5)

LM1.5 ending quote from soliloquy about juxtaposition

"look like th'innocent flower, / But be the serpent under't"

"Vaulting ambition

which o'erleap's itself and falls on th'other" (M1.7)

LM1.7 quote referencing the cardinal sin of infanticide (long quote)

"How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, / Have pluck'd my nipple from its bonless gums and dash'd the brains out"

Banquo to Fleance in 2.1 referencing Macbeth in 1.5 ("stars, hide your fires")

"There's husbandry in heaven, / Their candles are all out"

Macbeth before killing Duncan in 2.1

"Is this a dagger which I see before me ... come, let me clutch thee"

"Nature seems dead,

and the wicked dreams abuse / The curtain'd sleep" (M2.1)

LM 2.2 on intoxication with power

"That which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold"

"Go get some water

and wash this filthy witness from your hand / Why did you bring these daggers from the place?" (LM2.2)

"Will all great Neptune's ocean

wash this blood / clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather / the multitudinous seas incarnadine / Making the green one red" (M2.2)

"A falcon tow'ring

in her pride of place / was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd" (Old Man 2.4)

"o horror, horror, horror

Tongue nor heart cannot conceive, nor name thee" (Md2.3)

"His silver skin

lac'd with his golden blood / And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature" (M2.3)

"Our fears in Banquo

stick deep, and in his royalty of nature" (M3.1)

Macbeth in 3.1 about his fears of his lineage ending with him

"Upon my head they plac'd a fruitless crown / And put a barren sceptre in my gripe"

Macbeth in 3.2 admitting his anguish to LM

"O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!"

"But now I am

cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd, bound in" (M3.4)

"Thou canst not say

I did it; never shake / Thy gory locks at me!" (M3.4)

"Thy bones are

marrowless, thy blood is cold; / Thou has no speculation in those eyes" (M3.4)

Key quote from the witches in 4.1

"Something wicked this way comes"

What is the first apparition from the witches in 4.1?

an armed Head

What is the second apparition from the witches in 4.1?

a bloody Child

What is the third apparition from the witches in 4.1?

a Child crowned with a tree in his hand

"The very firstlings

of my heart shall be / The firstlings of my hand" (M4.1)

"His wife, his babes,

and all unfortunate souls / that trace him in his line" (M4.1)

"The poor wren

the most diminutive of birds, will fight / Her young ones in her nest, against the owl" (LMd4.2)

"From what we fear,

yet know not what we fear, / But float upon a wild and violent sea" (R4.2)

"Poor bird, thoud'st

never fear the net, nor lime, the pitfall, nor the gin" (LMd4.2)

"Each new morn

New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows / Strike heaven on the face" (Md4.3)

"This tyrant

whose sole name blisters our tongues, / was once thought honest" (Ml4.3)

Macduff in 4.3 about mortality and patriotism

"Bleed, bleed, poor country"

Malcolm in 4.3 about the fate of Scotland

"It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash / Is added to her wounds"

"Black Macbeth

Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state / Esteem him as a lamb" (Ml4.3)

"This avarice

Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root / Than summer-seeming lust" (Md4.3)

Malcom in 4.3 in reference to both the supernatural and maternal nature

"Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell"

Three quotes from Malcolm to Macduff in 4.3 about how he should be grieving

"Let's make us med'cines of our great revenge / To cure this deadly grief"

"Dispute it like a man"

"Let grief / Convert to anger"

5.1 stage direction on Lady Macbeth in her sleepwalking state

"Enter Lady Macbeth, with a taper"

Gentlewoman in 5.1 about LM's light

"She has light by her continually"

"all the perfumes

of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. O, O, O" (LM5.1)

"Now does he feel his title

Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe / Upon a dwarfish thief" (A5.2)

Macbeth to Seyton in 5.3

"I'll fight till from my bones my flesh by hack'd"

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow

Creeps in this petty place from day to day / To the last syllable of recorded time" (M5.5)

"Out, out, brief candle,

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player / that struts and frets his hour upon the stage" (M5.5)