english - Macbeth Quotes Flashcards
what is the famous thing that the witches say that relates to the main theme in Macbeth of not everything is as it seems/appears
‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’
what type of rhythm do the witches talk in and how does it change how they are perceived?
trochaic - stressed, then unstressed. represents them as different and unnatural and otherworldly
what does Macbeth say that relates to the witches?
‘So foul and fair a day i have not seen’
how does banquo perceive the witches?
‘You should be women and yet your beards forbid me to interpret so’
who replies initially to the witches once they have relayed their prophecies
Banquo - who seems offended that the witches don’t speak to him and responds for Macbeth - is more disbelieving in the witches. he also challenges them
what are the three prophecies
‘All hail Macbeth, Thane of Glamis/ All hail Macbeth, Thane of Cawdor/ All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king thereafter’
what does liminal mean and who is described as this?
between two worlds - not entirely one thing or another, the witches are as they are otherworldly and supernatural
what happens in end of act 1 scene 2 between banquo and Macbeth?
Macbeth keeps asking banquo to repeat the prophecy and is very focused on his children becoming kings. Macbeth wants the witches to stay and tell him more, whereas banquo is distrusting of the witches; thinks they’ve gone mad ‘have we eaten on the insane root?’
what does the king say (indirectly - from Ross) to Macbeth about his new position?
and for an earnest of a greater honour - basically saying the title is a foretaste to sometnjng even greater - macbeths hope being the offer of being king
what does Macbeth say when he is named thank of Cawdor? (and why is it important?)
‘Why do you dress me in borrowed robes,’ is important as clothes and images of clothing are very important throughout the play - and it is as if Macbeth is dressing and presenting himself in one way but is actually someone else entirely
comparison of banquos and macbeths responses to the witches
banquo is suspicious - ‘ win us with honest trickiest to betray us/ In deepest consequence’ whereas Macbeth only cares about the title and their prediction for banquo ‘so you not hope your children will be kings?’
What does Macbeth say about being king?
If chance shall have me king, why chance may crown me without my stir
What does Macbeth see in act 2 before he murders Duncan
Is this a dagger I see before me?
What does the image of murdering Duncan make Macbeth feel?
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs against the use of nature
What happened to Duncan’s horses the night of the murder?
Tis said they eat each other
What happened to the earth in the night of Duncan’s death?
Some say the earth was feverous and did shake
What does Macbeth say in Act 3 about taking fate into his own hands
Come Fate into the list and champion me to th’utterance
What does Duncan say to Macbeth when he gets back from war?
I have planted thee and labour to make thee full of growing
What does Macbeth say after Malcolm is named Prince of Cumberland
Prince of Cumberland, that is a step I must fall down or else o’erleap
How does Macbeth describe his ambition at the end of act 1
Vaulting ambition that o’erleaps itself
What does Macbeth say about how only being safely with the crown is important
To be thus is to be nothing, but to be safely thus
How does Macbeth say that he could murder banquo if he so wanted?
‘I could with barefaced power sweep him from my sight and bid my will not avouch it’
what does banquo say about his duties to Macbeth?
‘My duties are with an indissolvable tie forever knit’
Why does macbeth say the witches given him when he gains the crown?
Placed a fruitless crown and put a barren sceptre in my hand
how does Macbeth kill the leader in the battle?
‘Unseam’d him from the nave to th’chaps’
what does lady Macbeth say about the devils agents coming to her?
Come to my woman’s breasts and take my milk for gall you murd’ring ministers
what horrible image does lady Macbeth paint of her murdering her child
The babe that milks me I would, while it was smiling in my face, pluck its boneless gums from my breast and dash its brains out had I so sworn as you have done to this - act 1, scene 7
Meant to bathe in reeking wounds or..? Finish the quote and what scene is this
Memorise another Golgotha - scene 2 act 1
What does Macbeth think someone yelled when he murdered Duncan
Glamis hath murdered sleep
What did Macbeth say when he killed the kings guards
I do repent me of my fury that I did kill them - act 2 scene 3
What does Macbeth say about Duncan’s sons once they have fled
Our bloody cousins are bestow’d in England and Ireland not confessing to their parricle
What does Macbeth say about fleance when he tells the murderers to kill him?
‘Fleance, whose absence is no less material to me than his father’s’
What does Macbeth say his mind is full of?
O full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife
What 3 things is Macbeth likened to in act 1 scene 2?
Yet as sparrows, eagles , or the hare, the lion
Bellonas bridegroom
In Macbeth what indicate the end of the scene - give an example
Rhyming couplets - what he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won
What does banquo ask Macbeth after seeing and doubting the witches?
Have we eaten on the insane root that takes the reason prisoner
What does Duncan say about not being able to read someone’s thoughts from their face and how does it compare to lady macbeths later remark to Macbeth
‘There’s no art to find the minds construction in the face,’ in comparison to ‘your face, my thane, is a book where men may read strange matters’
What does lady Macbeth say that she fears about Macbeth
I do fear thy nature. It is too full o’th’milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way
Two ways lady Macbeth talks about the death of Duncan
(The raven that croaks) The fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements
O never shall sun that morrow see
What’s strange about LM’s last line at end of scene6
It is in iambic pentameter, leaves a cliffhanger and sense of foreboding ,’leave all the rest to me’
What two main reasons does Macbeth not want to kill Duncan
He’s here in double trust, first as I am his kinsman and his subject; then as his host
How does Macbeth avoid using the words murder at start of scene 7
If it were done when ‘tis done then ‘twere well it were done quickly
How does lady Macbeth manipulate Macbeth into murdering Duncan
Says she won’t love him ,’ from this time, such I account your love’
Reference to Adam and Eve
Look like th’innocent flower but be the serpent under’t
What device does Shakespeare use at the start of a2s2?
He uses stichomythia - where two characters exchange shirt sentences back and forth to show worry and build tension
Two quotes to show lady macbeths anger and panic a2 s2
‘Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must lie there’
‘Infirm of purpose’
Why does Macbeth say he cannot return to leave the daggers
I’ll go no more, I am afraid to think what I have done
Will all great Neptunes oceans wash this blood ..? Finish the quote
Clean from my hand. No: this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine
What two things does lady Macbeth say once returning from laying the daggers
My hands are of your colour but I shame to wear a heart so white
A little water clear us of this deed. How easy is it then!
What two things does Macduff say when he sees the murdered Duncan
O horror, horror, horror
‘Destroy your sight with a new Gorgon’ - the sight of Duncan’s body will turn them to stone
How does Macbeth describe Duncans body?
Here lay Duncan, his silver skin lac’d with his golden blood and his gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in nature
‘The repetition in a woman’s ear would murder as it fell’ what does it mean and why is it interesting
To repeat this would kill a woman’s as the words fell out of my mouth, dramatic irony as LM was the one who initiated and planned the murder
What does Macduff respond when Ross asks if he’ll go to scone (to macbeths coronation) and why is this interesting
‘No cousin, I’ll to fife’ a bit suspicious as it could’ve been on the way there, means he may not entirely trust Macbeth
What does banquo say that makes it sounds like he is distrusting of Macbeth before Macbeth and LM enter at start of act 3
‘Thou played’st most foully for it’
‘May they not be me oracles as well and set me up in hope? But hush, no more’
What two things does Macbeth say about banquo that are slightly strange
‘There is none but he, whose being I do fear’
‘Who wear our health but sickly in his life, which in his death were perfect’ - saying he will be unwell while banquo is still alive
How does Macbeth refer to Duncan in A3 s2
A snake - ‘we have scorched the snake, not kill’d it’
How does Shakespeare represent Macbeth almost jealous of Duncan
Duncan is in his grave. After life’s fitful fever, he sleeps well.
what does Macbeth say at the end of a3 s2, which means deeds that begin evil grow stronger with more evil
‘Things bad begun, make strong themselves by ill’
What does Banquo says when he is attacked?
O, treachery!
Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly,fly!
What two things does Macbeth say at the start of the banquet scene
‘You know your own degrees,’
‘Ourself with mingle with society and play the humble host’
What does Lady Macbeth say to welcome her visitors?
Pronounce it for me sir, for my heart speaks they are welcome
What does Macbeth say to the murderer about blood and cutthroats
‘There’s blood upon thy face’
‘Thou art the best o’th’cut- throats’
‘If thou didst it thou are the nonpareil’
Comparison of Macbeth being safe with cleanses murder and then being in danger as he’s alive
‘While as the marble, founded as the rock, as broad and general as the casing air’
In comparison to
‘Now I am cabin’s, crib’s, confin’d, bound in’
How does Macbeth describe fleance fleeing
‘The work thats fled, hath nature that in time will breed, no teeth for th’present’
Lady Macbeth reminding Macbeth of where he is (act3 scene 4) (3 examples)
‘you do not give the cheer my lord… meeting were bare without out’
‘my worthy lord your noble friends do lack you,’
‘you have displac’d the mirth, broke the good meeting, with most admir’d disorder’
what does Macbeth say to banquo that provokes him to plague Macbeth
‘Were Banquo present, who I may rather challenge for kindness than pity for mischance’
Macbeth description and accusation of Banquo (2 details)
‘Thou canst not say I did it : never shake thy gory locks at me’
‘Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold, thou hast no speculation in those eyes’
What do LM and M say about Macbeth’s ‘affliction’
‘Sit, worthy friends. My lord is often thus, and hath been from his youth’
‘I do forget, do not muse at me, my most worthy friends, I have a strange affliction which is nothing’
How does lady Macbeth chastise Macbeth in a3 s4 (3 Details)
‘Are you a man’
‘This is the very painting of your fear, this is the air drawn dagger which you said led you to Duncan’
‘What, quite unmann’d in folly?’
how does lady Macbeth embarrass Macbeth on page 28
‘Are but as pictures, tis the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil’
how does lady Macbeth embarrass Macbeth (by talking about a grandma) ?
These… imposters to true fear, would become a story at a winters fire authoriz’d by a grandam. Shame itself!’
Two references to death in act 3 scene 4
‘Blood hath been shed ere now i’th’olden time’
‘The time has been that when the brains were out the man would die, and there an end’
Macbeth being nonsensical act 3 scene 4
‘Prithee, see there! Behold, look, lo!’
‘Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, the arm’d rhinoceros, or th’Hyrcan tiger and my firm nerves shall never tremble’
Macbeths description of Banquos murder? (and what the murderer days in comparison)
‘With twenty mortal murders on their crowns’ in comparison to ‘twenty trenched gashes on his head!’
What does Macbeth say about banquo making him not recognize himself anymore
‘You make me strange, even to the disposition that I owe’
what does LM say first to get her guests to leave and secondly which is very rude?
‘At once good night’
‘Stand not upon the order of your going but go at once’
Macbeths horrid description of blood (2 details)
‘It will have blood they say, blood will have blood’
‘I am in blood steep’d so far, that should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er’
Two presentations of confusion in act 3 scene 4
‘I think you can behold such sights… What sights my lord?’
‘Almost at odds with morning, which is which’
Macbeth talking about his definitely develishnous and only caring for himself
‘In his house I keep a servant feed’
‘I am bent to know, by the worst means, the worst; for mine own good’
What does Macbeth say rhat is very foreboding about killing people
‘My strange and self abuse is the initiate fear that wants hard use; we are yet but young in deed,’ says he needs to practice killing more and there will be lots more bloodshed
What does Hecate say will happen to Macbeth?
‘Draw him on to confusion. He shall sound fate, scorn death, and bear his hopes ‘bove wisdom, grace and fear’
What has happened to nacduff since he didn’t go to macbeths feast?
Cause he fail’d his presence at the tyrants feast, Macduff lives in disgrace’
What does King Edward thjnk of Malcolm?
He regards him no differently due to his misfortune - ‘that the malevolence of fortune nothing takes from his high respect’
What has the report of Macduff and Malcolm gaining the kings, and the earl of northumberland’s trust and armies to raise against Macbeth provoke macbeth into doing?
‘Hath so exasperate their king that he prepares for some attempt of war’
Witches talking about entrails going into the pot
Round about the cauldron go;/ In the poisoned entrails throw
Famous quote of the witches
Bubble bubble toil and trouble ; /fire burn and cauldron bubble
how is Macbeth described by the witches a4, s1
‘Something wicked’
graphic description of animal parts being put into the pot a4 s1
‘eye of newt, toe of frog’
What do the witches say which make Macbeth feel confident
‘For none of woman born shall harm Macbeth’
What do the witches say which make Macbeth feel confident
‘For none of woman born shall harm Macbeth’
Why is Macbeth not safe from Macduff
Because Macduff was ,’from his mothers womb/untimely ripp’d’
What quote means Macbeth wants his answers, even if the whole world goes to hell.
‘though the treasure/ of all nature’s Germains (seeds of all nature) tumble all together/ Even till destruction sicken’
what does Macbeth say when he makes it clear that he will murder Macduff to ensure fate goes his way
‘yet ill make assurance double sure, / And take a bond of fate : thou shalt not live,’
how is Malcolm referred to? A4 S1
‘A child crowned with a tree in his hand’
how does Macbeth describe the line of kings
‘Stretch out to the crack of doom’ meaning that he is doomed
How do the witches in a4 s1 liken Macbeth to a mother pig eating all its babies
‘Pour in Sows blood that hath eaten/ Her nine farrows; grease that’s sweaten/ from the murderers gibbet (gallows) throw/ Into the flame’ talking about how like a sow Macbeth should nurture his people like she nurtured her young
How do the witches in a4 s1 liken Macbeth to a mother pig eating all its babies
‘Pour in Sows blood that hath eaten/ Her nine farrows; grease that’s sweaten/ from the murderers gibbet (gallows) throw/ Into the flame’ talking about how like a sow Macbeth should nurture his people like she nurtured her young
when is Macbeth onky to be vanquished?
‘Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until/ great Burnam Wood to Hugh Dunsinane Hill/ Shall come against him’
why should Macbeth fear Macduff?
‘Macbeth! Macbeth! macbeth! beware Macduff:/ Beware the thane of Fife,’
what does Macbeth say about Macduff’s family?
‘Seize upon Fife; give to th’edge o’th’sword/ His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls/ That trace him in his line,’
what does Macbeth say that means as soon as br thinks something, he will do it
‘From this moment,/ The very firstlings of my heart shall be/ The firstlings of my hand’
‘Be it thought and/ done’
what does lady Macduff say that is antithesis
‘All is the fear, and nothing is the love,’
what does Macbeth say will happen if the witches do not grant his wish
‘Deny me this,/ And an eternal curse call on you’
what does Macbeth say about his hand a4 s2
‘From this moment, / The very firstlings of my heart shall be/ The firstlings of my hand’
Lady Macbeths use of anaphora/repetiitiib at the start of a4 s2
‘Wisdom? To leave his wife, to leave his babes,/ His mansion and his titles in a place/ Fron whence himself does fly?’
first line/ question of a4 s2
‘What had he done, to make him fly the land?’ LM
What does LM say that you can be a traitor by running away
‘When are actions do not,/ Our fears do make us traitors’
Lady Macduff compassing Macduff to a bird
‘For the poor wren,/ The most diminutive of birds ,will fight,’
What does lady Macduff say about Macduff (again using antithesis)
‘Father’d he is, and yet he’s fatherless’
Malcolm’s distrust of Macduff
‘You have lov’d him well -/ He hath not touched you yet’
‘A good virtuous nature may recoil in an imperial charge’
Why is Malcolm suspicious of Macduff fleeing
As he left his wife and kids - ‘why in that rawness left you wife and child… those strong/knots if love’
what is Malcolm worried Macbeth may have some to Macduff
‘A good and virtuous nature may recoil/ In an imperial charge’
how does Malcolm describe himself, and Macduff trying to use him
‘You may discern of him through me,/ offer up a weak, poor innocent lamb’
Malcom talking about his lust / lechery
‘Your wives, your daughters, / (your matrons and your maids) could not fill up/ The cistern of my lust’
State of Scotland/ anaphora at the start of scene 3
‘Each new morn, / New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows / Strike heaven on the face’
What does Malcolm say about his greed
‘Grows/ in my most ill- compos’d affection such / A stanchless avarice that, we’re I king,/ I should cut off the nobles for their lands’
What does Macduff say about Malcolm’s avarice
This avarice/ Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root…/ yet di bit fear, / Scotland hath cousins to full up your will’
What does Malcolm say about if ‘had I power’
Hell ‘pour the sweet milk of concord into hell,/ uproar the universal peace, confound / All unity on earth’ example of an asyndetic list
What does Macduff say about Malcolm’s final quality
‘Fit to govern? / No not to live’
Ways Scotland is dexfribed as a sad country
‘O nation miserable’
‘Our country sinks beneath the yoke (joins cows and horses - burden) ;/ It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash/ Is added to her wounds’
‘Bleed, bleed poor country’
Who is Ross in relation to lady Macduff
Her cousin
Vices to be avoided in order to be a good king
‘I grant him booody/ luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful,/ sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin/ that has a name’
‘The king - becoming graces- / As justice, verity, temp’rance, stableness,/ bounty, perseverance, mercy, loveliness,/ Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude - I have no relish if them’ comparison of this when Malcolm says he is a good guy
‘I am yet/ Unknown to woman, never was forsworn’
Macduffs reaction of disbelief by repetition
‘My children too?’
‘My wife kill’d too?’
Macduff still in disbelief
‘All my pretty ones?/ Did you say all? O hell-kite! All? / What, all my pretty chickens and their dam?’
Whag does Macduff say about Macbeth when he learns of his family’s death and two ways this could be interpreted
‘He has no children’
Macbeth has no children, a man with children would have done that/ not do this
He wants to kill Macbeths children but can’t
What does Malcolm say about Macduff grappling with his feelings and what is macduffs response and meanings
‘Dispute it like a man’ (fight him)
‘I shall do so; / But i must also it as a man’
What does lady Macbeth say about the slit of blood
‘Yet here’s a spot.. Out damned spot! Out i say’
3 ways lady Macbeth inadvertently admits to the murders if Duncan, Macduffs family and banquo
(and which is she saying to herself or Macbeth)
‘Yet who would/ have thought the old man to have had so much blood in/ him?’ - herself
‘The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?’ - herself
‘Banquos buried; he cannot/ come out on’s grave’ - Macbeth
3 different senses that lady Macbeth thinks she experienced
heard a knocking ‘one two. Why then tis/ time to do’t’
sees the spot ‘out damned spot! Out i say!’
smells the blood ‘here’s the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of/ Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. O,o,o’
What do the doctor and gentlewoman say about what they know
‘Go to, go to; you have known what you should not’ (doctor)
‘She had spoke what she should not’
Lady Macbeth repeating herself
To bed, to bed… / To bed, to bed, to bed.’
‘Come, come, come, come’
Contrast of lady macbeths earlier quotes about washing hands to now
‘A little water clears us of this deed’
‘What’s done/cannot be undone’
what does macbe say after it is announced ‘the queen, my lord, is dead’
‘She should have died hereafter/ There would have been time for for such a word’
First part of macbeths speech
‘Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow/ Creeps in this petty pace from day to day/ To the last syllable of recorded time’
2bd part of Macbeths speech
‘And all our yesterdays have lighted fools, / The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle’
3rd part of Macbeths speech
‘Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player/ That struts and frets his hour upon the stage/ And then is heard no more,’
4th part of macbeths speech
It is a take,/ Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/ Signifying nothing’
quote about Macbeth forgetting what fear feels like (and comparing it to earlier when he says doth unfix my hair and make my seared heart knock against the use of nature’
‘U have almost forgot the taste of fears/ (The time has been, my senses would have cool’d/ To hear a night- shriek and ) my fell of hair/ Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir’
Analysis of Macbeths quote a5 s8 ‘I will not yield’
Monosyllabic, refusal to surrender maintains his sense of pride and kingship. Short and declarative
Macbeths last words
‘Before my body/ I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff/ And damned be him that first cries “Hold! Enough”’
Analysis of ‘Before my body/ I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff/ And damned be him that first cries “Hold! Enough”’
‘Damned’ turning to the idea of religion despite previously holding a nihilistic view
What is special about Macbeths last words?
He is speaking in full iambic pentameter, died a warriors death just like thane of cawdors death ‘nothing in his life became him like the leaving it’
what does Macbeth being slain mean?
Macbeth is beheaded symbolising removal of tyrant and restoration of order. Also recalls Macbeths killing of the other tyrant in act 1 showing the plays cyclical structure of violence
what does a5 s9 reinforce?
central message of play, ties up loose ends (denouement)
What does Malcolm say about people being slain a5 s9?
‘I would the friends we miss were safe arrived’
Analysis of ‘I would the friends we miss were safe arrived’
shows Malcolm expressing concern for those who have fallen in battle, leadership contrast to Macbeth, reinforces Malcolm’s theme of loyalty in comparison to Macbeth
What does siward and Ross say about young siward?
‘Had he his hurts before?/ Ay, on the front./ Why then, God’s soldier he be’
‘I would not wish them a fairer death’ analysis
Highlights Elizabethan and Jacobean value of courage and dying a soldiers honourable death
