Macbeth Quotes

1. Macbeth Quotes Feraco Search for Human Potential 20 January 2009

2. Quotes! • You will be asked to translate quotations from Macbeth on your exam. • Each slide contains a quote, as well as information about: • A) The speaker • B) The speaker’s audience • C) The context of the scene at the time the quote appears • D) A translation of the quote

3. “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 his murderer shut the door,/Not bear the knife myself.” • A) The speaker is Macbeth. • B) He’s speaking to himself; this is during an aside. • C) At this point, Macbeth is grappling with his tentative decision to kill Duncan; the king has recently gone to bed. • D) “Duncan trusts me for two reasons tonight – not only am I his friend and subject, but I am also his host. The host should protect his guests from danger, not kill them.”

4. "Bring forth men-children only./For thy undaunted mettle should compose/Nothing but males." • A) The speaker is Macbeth. • B) He’s speaking to Lady Macbeth. • C) Lady Macbeth has convinced Macbeth that their plot cannot fail. • D) “Let’s hope you only have sons, for your masculine spirit will never fit a daughter!”

5. "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." • A) The speaker is Lady Macbeth. • B) She’s speaking to Macbeth. • C) Macbeth has arrived home, and Lady Macbeth is trying to convince him to kill Duncan. • D) “Look normal if you want to fool the others. Act friendly, say friendly things, and look innocent – but be cunning and ruthless underneath it all.”

6. “The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step/On which I must fall down or else o’erleap,/For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;/Let not light see my black and deep desires.” • A) The speaker is Macbeth. • B) He’s speaking to himself. • C) Duncan has announced that Malcolm (not Donalbain) will be his heir. • D) “I have to defeat/kill Malcolm if I ever want to be king, because he’s standing in my way. I hope no one can tell what I’m planning to do to Duncan…”

7. "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." • A) The speaker is Lady Macbeth. • B) She’s speaking to herself. • C) Lady Macbeth has recently received a letter from Macbeth about the witches’ prophecy. • D) “Come, gods, and rid me of all traces of feminine sweetness – fill my soul with enough evil to plan what must be done.”

8. "No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive/Our bosom interest. Go, pronounce his present death,/And with his former title greet Macbeth." • A) The speaker is Duncan. • B) He’s speaking to Ross. • C) The wounded officer has just given a report on Macbeth’s and Banquo’s victories over the rebel/Norwegian armies. • D) “The Thane of Cawdor will never trick us again. Go find Macbeth and tell him that the Thane will be executed – and that he can take his place.”

9. "Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be/What thou art promised. Yet I do fear thy nature;/It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness/To catch the nearest way." • A) The speaker is Lady Macbeth. • B) She’s speaking to herself. • C) She has just received the (previously mentioned) letter from Macbeth. • D) “My husband, you’ve already achieved what they said you would, and will become king if you want to do what is necessary. But I fear you won’t want to go that far; you’re too kind at heart to be so ruthless.”

10. “O, proper stuff!/This is the very painting of your fear./This is the air-drawn dagger which you said/Led you to Duncan.” • A) The speaker is Lady Macbeth. • B) She’s speaking to Macbeth. • C) Macbeth is terrified by the sight of Banquo’s ghost, which is invisible to everyone else. • D) “Your fears are imaginary! This is just like the dagger you swore you saw before you killed Duncan.”

11. "The time has been/That, when the brains were out, the man would die,/And there an end. But now they rise again/With twenty mortal murders on their crowns/And push us from our stools." • A) The speaker is Macbeth. • B) He’s actually speaking to himself, although Lady Macbeth is listening disgustedly. • C) Macbeth is panicking after seeing the aforementioned ghost. • D) “Men used to stay dead when you killed them. Now they rise up, wounds and all, to torment us while we live.”

12. “Thou hast it now – King, Cawdor, Glamis, all/As the Weïrd Women promised, and I fear/Thou played’st most foully for ‘t.” • A) The speaker is Banquo. • B) He’s speaking to himself. • C) Banquo is thinking about Macbeth’s recent rise to power. • D) “Everything the witches promised has come true, Macbeth – but I suspect you took matters into your own hands.”

13. “I am in blood/Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,/Returning were as tedious as go o’er.” • A) The speaker is Macbeth. • B) He’s speaking to Lady Macbeth. • C) The two are evaluating the threat Macduff potentially poses to their power. • D) “I’ve killed so many to get this far that I feel like I can’t stop; going back is just as hard as going forward.”

14. "To be thus is nothing,/But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo/Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature/Reigns that which would be feared." • A) The speaker is Macbeth. • B) He’s speaking to himself (his servant has just left the room). • C) Macbeth has recently arranged a meeting with convicted murderers – the men he wants to hire to kill Banquo and Fleance. • D) “None of this is worth having if I can’t enjoy having it. I’m deeply afraid of Banquo, and his king-like streak makes him dangerous.”

15. "Better be with the dead,/Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,/Than on the torture of the mind to lie/In restless ecstasy." • A) The speaker is Macbeth. • B) He’s speaking to Lady Macbeth. • C) Macbeth is bemoaning his increasing paranoia – he can’t enjoy ruling because he’s terrified and guilty. • D) “It’s better to rest in peace than live and be haunted by the things we’ve done.”