Macbeth Quotes

Question 1

Kingship - Duncan

Answer 1

• brave Macbeth - well he deserves that name
• O, worthy gentleman, valiant cousin
• I have begun to plant thee, and will labour to make thee full of growing
• he was a gentleman in whom I built an absolute trust
• hath born his faculties so meek
• virtues will plead like angels

Question 2

Kingship - Macbeth

Answer 2

• Earth was feverous and did shake
• falcon […] was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed
• could not say Amen
• Macbeth shall sleep no more
• upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, and put a barren sceptre in my grip

Question 3

Kingship - Edward the Confessor / Malcolm

Answer 3

• my thanes and kinsmen, henceforth be earls
• by the grace of Grace
• how he solicits heaven, himself best knows
• he hath a heavenly gift of prophecy

Question 4

Ambition - Macbeth - Act 1

Answer 4

• if chance would have me king, why, chance may crown me without my stir
• 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
• we will proceed no further with this business

Question 5

Ambition - Lady Macbeth - Act 1

Answer 5

• not without ambition, but without the illness that should attend it
• unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe, top-full of direst cruelty
• pour my spirits in thine ear
• like the poor cat in the adage

Question 6

Ambition - Macbeth - post Act 1

Answer 6

• nought’s had, all’s spent, where our desire is got without content
• life’s but a walking shadow
• a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing