Macbeth quotations for learning

You don't have to learn all these quotations, but it is a useful revision document anyway.
Focus on the character developments of Macbeth and his wife, and choose quotations that
show how they change. There may be quotations not here that you want to learn – refer to
the notes you made in class, and your own annotated copy of the text.

Fair is foul, and foul is fair – witches first scene – these reflect Macbeth’s first words on
stage, suggesting an evil connection/influence

For brave Macbeth--well he deserves that name—sargeant(soldier) to Duncan, when

explaining how heroic Macbeth has been in battle. King Duncan is so pleased that he gives
Macbeth the new title Thane of Cawdor

O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman! - Duncan speaking about Macbeth

So foul and fair a day I have not seen. - Macbeth's first words – see first quotation

But 'tis strange:

And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths, - Banquo warns Macbeth when he finds out the
king has made him Thane of Cawdor, so the witches were right. Banquet is saying that
Macbeth needs to remember that the witches are evil and they may have evil intentions.

Stars, hide your fires;

Let not light see my black and deep desires: - Macbeth's aside when he hears King Duncan
name his son as his heir. This is before he even speaks to his wife about anything, and he is
already having evil thoughts.

my dearest partner of greatness, - Macbeth in his letter to his wife. Interesting to question
whether they are ‘partners’ at any stage during the play. It seems that Lady Macbeth is
strong while Macbeth is weak at the start, and then Lady Macbeth weakens when Macbeth
is strong towards the end of the play. There is a point at which Macbeth shuts his wife out
of his plans (for more murder) suggesting they are not really partners at all.

yet do I fear thy nature;

It is too full o' the milk of human kindness - LM about M after reading his letter. His
character changes – we would not call him ‘full…of human kindness’ when he orders the
deaths of his friends and their families (Banquo and his son Fleance; Macduff’s wife and
children).

Come, you spirits

That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;
Stop up the access and passage to remorse, - LM before Macbeth arrives at the castle. One
of her most famous lines – she wants to be completely devoid of feminine compassion.
You 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, - as above. This relates to one of the key
themes of light and darkness. Macbeth has a similar line above. Darkness and secrecy are
needed to cover and hide evil deeds, and even evil thoughts and intentions.

look like the innocent flower,

But be the serpent under't. - LM advice to M. Similar to the light and darkness imagery –
this is about illusion and reality, and again, a way to cover up and conceal evil. Simile.

When you durst do it, then you were a man - LM to M when trying to persuade him not to
have second thoughts about their plan to kill Duncan.

I have given suck, and know

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 his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this. – another of Lady Macbeth’s most famous lines. As above, she is furious
that Macbeth has changed his mind about killing Duncan, and sees it as a weakness. Even
she, a woman who has nursed a baby, would rather kill her baby brutally than break a
promise as he has done. She is ruthless.

Is this a dagger which I see before me...? – Macbeth in soliloquy before Duncan’s murder.
This is one of the times the audience question his sanity as he hallucinates, seeing a dagger
that is drawing him towards Duncan’s bedroom. Or could it be the supernatural intervention
of the witches?

Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more!

Macbeth does murder sleep', the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast,-- - Macbeth says this after he has murdered Duncan and he is
traumatised by the experience. Sleep is a major theme – Shakespeare makes the point that
only those with a clear conscience can sleep soundly. This is especially significant because
Lady Macbeth’s sleep is ruined later in the play – a consequence of her ruthlessness. Lots of
lovely imagery here for sleep.

Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood

Clean from my hand? – Macbeth laments after murdering Duncan. He is traumatised and
Lady Macbeth takes over, replacing the daggers for him. Later in the play Lady Macbeth has
a very similar line, showing the interesting relationship between her and her husband (when
one is weak the other is strong).

To be thus is nothing;
But to be safely thus.-- before Macbeth commissions the murderers to kill Banquo and his
son Fleance. He realises that becoming king is not the end of the story, as he feels so
insecure in the position, threatened by Banquo and his heirs because of the witches’ original
prophecies.

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

Thou know'st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives. – as above. A good metaphor for
Macbeth’s mental state.

Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,

Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day – Macbeth to Lady Macbeth – he does not want her to
know about his plans to have Banquo and Fleance murdered until it is done. This is just
before the scene at the coronation banquet when Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost and cannot
handle himself in front of all their guests. Although she is being shut out a little by Macbeth
at this stage, Lady Macbeth is still able to behave in a dignified and controlled way at the
banquet, dismissing the guests early so that Macbeth does not reveal his crimes.

Thou canst not say I did it: never shake

Thy gory locks at me. – Macbeth shouts this at Banquo’s ghost in front of all of the lords at
his coronation banquet. No one else can see the ghost. ‘I did it’ means ordered his death.

O proper stuff!
This is the very painting of your fear: - Lady Macbeth says he is imagining the ghost because
of his fear of being found out (and his fear of judgment day – punishment for sin).

- Malcolm talking about Scotland under Macbeth's rule. Personification of the country of
Scotland suffering under Macbeth’s corrupt leadership.

Out, damned spot! out, I say!- LM when sleepwalking and trying to wash her hands clean

Here's the smell of the blood still: all the

perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little
hand. Oh, oh, oh! – as above. This is an echo of Macbeth’s earlier words about ‘Neptune’s
ocean’

Infected minds
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets:
More needs she the divine than the physician. - Doctor speaks to Lady Macbeth’s lady-in-
waiting about her poor mental health. She needs forgiveness from God, not a doctor. She
has confessed to her ‘deaf pillow’ but that does not grant her forgiveness in the way that
confession to a priest would.

I will not be afraid of death and bane,

Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane. - M thinks he is invincible since his visit to the
witches

As I did stand my watch upon the hill,

I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought,
The wood began to move. - messenger to Macbeth, who is terrified to hear that the
witches’ prophecy was falsely reassuring. If he was tricked into a feeling of security with
this, then what about ‘none of woman born can harm Macbeth’?

I bear a charmed life - M thinks Macduff cannot kill him because of the witches promise
that none of woman born can harm him. He then is told that Macduff was born by
Caesarean section (‘from his mother’s womb untimely ripped’). Game over for Macbeth!!