SHAKESPEARE
QUESTION
Act 1 Act 2 Act 3 Act 4 Act 5
Macbeth
"So foul and fair a day I have not seen"
To the witches: "Stay, you imperfect
speakers. Tell me more"
To Ross, when he learns he has been
made Thane of Cawdor: "Why do you
dress me In borrowed robes?"
"Two truths are told As happy
prologues"
"Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see
my black and deep desires."
"my dearest partner of greatness"
"I am his kinsman and his subject"
"his virtues will plead Like angels,
trumpet-tongued"
"I dare do all that may become a man"
"Bring forth men-children only"
"False face must hide what the false
heart doth know".
"Is this a dagger I see before me"
"a false creation Proceeding from
the heat-oppressed brain"
"Tarquin's ravishing strides"
"I have done the deed."
"This is a sorry sight."
"I had most need of blessing, and
'Amen' Stuck in my throat."
"Methought I heard a voice cry
'Sleep no more! Macbeth does
murder sleep'"
Of sleep: "Balm of hurt minds"
"I am afraid to think what I have
done."
"Will all great Neptune's ocean
wash this blood clean from my
hand? No"
not killed it."
"full of scorpions is my mind"
"Be innocent of the knowledge,
dearest chuck"
"Never shake Thy gory locks at me."
"The time has been That, when the
brains were out, the man would die"
"We are yet but young in deed,"
To the witches: "How now, you
secret, black and midnight hags?"
To the witches: "answer me"
Threatening the witches: "Deny me
this, And an eternal curse fall on
you!"
Of the line of kings: "will the line
stretch out to the crack of doom?"
"the blood-boltered Banquo smiles
upon me And points at them for his."
To Lennox: "The very firstlings of my
heart shall be The firstlings of my
hand."
Of his plans to murder Macduff's
family: "This deed I'll do before this
purpose cool."
"What's the boy Malcolm?"
"fly, false Thanes"
"I'll fight till from my bones the flesh
be hacked"
"I have supped full with horrors"
Upon learning of his wife's death:
"She should have died hereafter"
"Life's but a walking shadow"
"[life is] A tale Told by an idiot, full of
sound and fury, signifying nothing"
To Macduff: "I bear a charmed life"
To Macduff: "I will not yield"
Lady Macbeth
"too full of the milk of human
kindness"
"Hie thee hither, that I may pour my
spirits in thine ear"
"unsex me here"
"take my milk for gall"
"Look like the innocent flower but be
the serpent under it"
"Leave all the rest to me"
"When you durst do it, then you were a
man"
"dashed the brains out"
"screw your courage to the sticking
place"
Of Duncan: "Had he not resembled
My father as he slept, I had done
it."
To Macbeth: "You do unbend your
noble strength to think So
brainsickly of things."
Of the blood: "wash this filthy
witness from your hand"
"Infirm of purpose! Give me the
daggers."
"The sleeping and the dead are but
as pictures."
"My hands are of your colour, but I
shame To wear a heart so white."
"A little water clears us of this
deed."
"'Tis safer to be that which we
destroy Than by destruction dwell in
doubtful joy."
To Macbeth: "What's done is done."
"Sleek o'er your rugged looks."
"Feed and regard him not."
"Are you a man?"
"This is the very painting of your fear."
"You lack the season of all natures,
sleep."
"Out, damned spot, out, I say!"
"What, will these hands ne'er be
clean?"
"All the perfumes of Arabia will not
sweeten this little hand."
Banquo
Of the witches: "look not like
inhabitants of the Earth"
Of Macbeth: "he seems rapt withal"
Of the witches: "oftentimes, to win us
to our harm, The instruments of
darkness tell us truths"
On the night of Duncan's murder:
"There's husbandry in heaven; their
candles are all out."
Of Macbeth: "I fear Thou played'st
most foully for [the crown]"
To Macbeth: "my duties Are with
a most indissoluble tie Forever knit."
"O treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly,
fly, fly!"
'MACBETH' KEY QUOTATIONS
