Macbeth Quotes Flashcards
Witches tell M & B that they’re in succession
First Witch Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. Second Witch Not so happy, yet much happier. Third Witch Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none: So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo! SCENE III ACT I
Macbeth sees THE dagger
Macbeth
…Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?…
SCENE I ACT II
Murderer informs he’s killed Banquo
Macbeth ...There's blood on thy face. First Murderer 'Tis Banquo's then. Macbeth 'Tis better thee without than he within. Is he dispatch'd? SCENE IV ACT III
Before when you killed a guy he’d STAY dead. Now they MOVE. Ugh. Modern age amIright?
Macbeth
…the times have 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: this is more strange
Than such a murder is.
SCENE IV ACT III
The evil apparitions trick Macbeth (no shit)
First Apparition
Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff…
…
Second Apparition
Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn
The power of man, for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth.
…
Third Apparition
…Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until
Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill
Shall come against him.
SCENE I ACT IV
Lady Macduff has done nothing
Lady Macduff Whither should I fly? I have done no harm. But I remember now I am in this earthly world; where to do harm Is often laudable, to do good sometime Accounted dangerous folly: why then, alas, Do I put up that womanly defence, To say I have done no harm? SCENE II ACT IV
Final description of Macdeth and his laydee
Malcolm
…Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen…
SCENE VIII ACT V
If the assassination of the king could work like a net, sweeping up everything and preventing any consequences, then the murder would be the be-all and end-all of the whole affair, and I would gladly put my soul and the afterlife at risk to do it. But for crimes like these there are still punishments in this world. By committing violent crimes we only teach other people to commit violence, and the violence of our students will come back to plague us teachers.
Macbeth
If the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease success - that but this blow
Might be the be-all and end-all! - here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We’s jump the life to come. But in these cases
We still have judgement here- that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague the inventor.
SCENE VII ACT I
Duncan’s really nice and trusts meee
Macbeth
…] 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. Besides, this Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels.
SCENE VII ACT I
And plus it’s only my ambition what leads me to’t
Macbeth
[…] I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself
And falls on th’ other.
SCENE VII ACT I
The message of the witches can’t good, so why’s it done me good? It makes me think of murder.
Macbeth (aside)
This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill,
Why hath it given me urnest of success
Commencing in the truth? I am Thane of Cawdor.
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,
And make my seated heart knock against my ribs
Against the use of nature? […]
My thought, whose murder is yet fantastical…
SCENE III ACT I
Lady Macbeth: you say you’re NOT going to do it?!?!?!?!
Lady Macbeth
What best was’t then
That made you break this enterprise to me? […]
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 plucked my nipple from his boneless gums
And dashed the brains out, had I sworn as you
Have done to this.
Macbeth
If we should fail?
Lady Macbeth
We fail!
SCENE VII ACT I
Banquo go away, you can’t pin nothing on me
Macbeth
Those canst not say I did it; never shake
Thy gory locks at me
SCENE IV ACT III
There’s an old saying: the dead will have their revenge. Gravestones have been known to move, and trees to speak, to bring guilty men to justice. The craftiest murderers have been exposed by the mystical signs made by crows and magpies.
Macbeth
It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood.
Stones have been known to move and trees to speak;
Augurs and understood relations have
By maggot-pies, and choughs, and rooks brought forth
The secret’st man of blood.
SCENE VI ACT III
First four lines
First Witch
When should we three meet again?
In thunder, lightening, or in rain?
SCENE I ACT I
Second Witch
When the hurly-burly’s done,
When the battles lost and won.
SCENE I ACT I
