Macbeth Acts Flashcards
Act 1, Scene 1
3 key quotes
Prologue of evil- Witches arrange to meet Macbeth after the battle. Speak in trochaic tetrameter- unnatural rhythm.
“When shall we three meet again?”
“There to meet with Macbeth”
“Fair is foul and foul is fair”
Act 1, Scene 2
4 key quotes
Bleeding captain tells King Duncan about the battle and how valiant Macbeth was- first description of Macbeth we hear. Duncan pronounces him the new Thane of Cawdor
“Brave Macbeth- well he deserves that name”
“Like valour’s minion”
“Unseam’d him from the nave to th’chaps”
“What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.”
Act 1, Scene 3
5 key quotes
The witches chat about the people they’ve been torturing, then the witches give their prophecies to Macbeth and Banquo. Macbeth is intrigued, Banquo doesn’t take it too seriously.
Macbeth’s first words: “So foul and fair a day I have not seen”
“All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter.”
“Lesser than Macbeth, and greater”
“This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill, cannot be good.”
“If chance will have me king, why chance may crown me
Without my stir”
Act 1, Scene 4
3 key quotes
Duncan congratulates Macbeth+Banquo
Malcolm is gonna be king next
“There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.”
“That is a step on which I must fall down, or else o’erleap,”
“Stars, hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires”
Act 1, Scene 5
3 key quotes
Lady Macbeth gets her husband’s letter and plots to kill the king. She then greets her husband and they plot together.
“yet do i fear thy nature, it is too full o’th’milk of human kindness”
“the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements”
“come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, that my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, to cry ‘Hold, hold.’ “
“look like th’innocent flower, but be the serpent under ‘t”
Act 1, Scene 6
1 key quote
Lady Macbeth welcomes the King and followers to the castle (Inverness).
“his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him to his home before us”
(probably not that important but Duncan calls her ‘hostess’ three times)
Act 1, Scene 7
8 key quotes
SOLILOQUY
Macbeth steps out of the dinner to fret about the upcoming murder, but Lady Macbeth bullies him into agreeing to it again.
“if th’assassination could trammel up the consequence and catch with his surcease, success, but that this blow might be the be-all and the end-all”
“this even-handed justice commends th’ingredience of our poison’d chalice to our own lips”
“hes here in double trust”
“vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself and falls on th’other”
“ i dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none.”
“when you durst do it, then you were a man”
“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”
“ false face must hide what the false heart doth know”
Act 2, Scene 1
4 key quotes
Macbeth bumps into Banquo and Fleance just before he’s going to go off and murder Duncan in his sleep.
“give me my sword–”
“is this a dagger which i see before me, the handle toward my hand?”
“a dagger of the mind”
“thou sure and firm set earth, hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear thy very stones prate of my whereabout”
Act 2, Scene 2
11 key quotes (eek)
Duncan has been murdered. Macbeth is already regretting his action, Lady bullies him again and takes the daggers away from him.
“had he not resembled my father as he slept, i had done’t.”
“but wherefore could not i pronounce ‘Amen’?i had most need of blessing and ‘Amen’ stuck in my throat.”
“these deeds must not be thought after these ways; so, it will make us bad.”
“sleep no more: Macbeth does murder sleep”
“Macbeth shall sleep no more”
“ ill go no more. i am afraid to think what i have done; look on’t again, i dare not.”
“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.”
“my hands are of your colour, but i shame to wear a heart so white.”
“a little water clears us of this deed.”
“ to know my deed, ‘twere best not know my self”
“ wake Duncan with thy knocking: i would thou couldst.”
