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No Fear Translations of Shakespeare’s plays (along with audio!) and other classic works
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Act 5, Scene 1
Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One, two. Why, then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?
This is Lady Macbeth’s most famous quote, and it comes in Act 5, Scene 1. It is a powerful and gripping passage in that it fully captures the debilitating effects of the guilt that has unraveled her mind. Read more about the symbolism, the foreshadowing, and the fact that Shakespeare chose to have it delivered in verse rather than iambic pentameter in Famous Quotes Explained. You can also read more about specific aspects of the quote in Quotes by Character: Lady Macbeth (the sixth quote) and Quotes by Symbol: Blood (the fifth quote).
Here’s the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, Oh, Oh!
Shortly after her famous “Out, damned spot!” speech in Act 5, Scene 1, Lady Macbeth continues her guilt-ridden ranting with this hyperbolic statement about the stench of the foul deeds she and Macbeth have committed. As with all of Lady Macbeth’s speeches in this scene, it is significant that she is no longer speaking in iambic pentameter, but rather in straight verse—another indication of her complete mental breakdown.
To bed, to bed. There’s knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come. Give me your hand. What’s done cannot be undone.—To bed, to bed, to bed!
These are the final, sad words spoken by Lady Macbeth in the play—delivered in Act 5, Scene 1. By this point she is a childlike shell of her former forceful self. Read more about the quote in Quotes by Theme: The Relentlessness of Guilt (the third quote).
Act 5, Scene 3
Bring me no more reports. Let them fly all.
Til Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane
I cannot taint with fear. What’s the boy Malcolm?
Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know
All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus:
“Fear not, Macbeth. No man that’s born of woman
Shall e’er have power upon thee.” Then fly, false thanes,
And mingle with the English epicures.
The mind I sway by and the heart I bear
Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.
In this speech from Scene 3 of the fifth and final act of the play, Macbeth is still fully confident that he will prevail and defeat the forces amassed to remove him from the throne. This confidence is based on his fatal misunderstand of two prophecies that came to him through the witches in Act 4, Scene 1, as he will soon find out. Read more about this quote in Quotes by Character: Macbeth (the seventh quote).
Act 5, Scene 5
She should have died hereafter.
There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time.
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle.
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
This speech made by Macbeth upon learning that Lady Macbeth is dead in Act 5, Scene 5, probably contains more memorable and quoted phrases than any other passage of similar length in Shakespeare’s writings. Three different parts of the speech stand out in particular: “Out, out, brief candle,” beautifully captures the transitory nature of life. “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more” deftly equates life to a play—the very thing being performed or read. Finally, “It [life] is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” is a devasting and succinct put down of the human condition, voiced by a bitter man who has wasted his own life as well as the lives of his beloved wife and countless innocent individuals in his selfish pursuit of unattainable glory beyond the enviable life he already had.
Read more about this memorable passage in Famous Quotes Explained and in Quotes by Character: Macbeth (the eighth quote).
As I did stand my watch upon the hill
I looked toward Birnam, and anon methought
The wood began to move
In Act 4, Scene 1, after learning about the death of his wife, Macbeth is stunned and angered when a messenger from the battle reports that he thinks he saw Birnam Wood move towards Macbeth’s castle. This bizarre report fits in with the prophecy given to Macbeth by the third apparition in Act 4, Scene 1, that he was invulnerable as long as Birnam Wood did not move against him. In fact, the opposition forces were using tree branches from Birnam Wood to disguise their movements, but by the letter of the prophecy Macbeth is now susceptible to defeat.
Act 5, Scene 7
Tyrant, show thy face!
If thou beest slain, and with no stroke of mine,
My wife and children’s ghosts will haunt me still.
I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms
Are hired to bear their staves. Either thou, Macbeth,
Or else my sword with an unbattered edge
I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be;
By this great clatter, one of the greatest note
Seems bruited. Let me find him, Fortune,
And more I beg not.
Here in Act 5, Scene 8, Macduff again vows to track down and kill Macbeth, who had earlier killed his beloved wife and children. Read more about this quote in Quotes by Characters: Macduff (the third quote).
Act 5, Scene 8
Despair thy charm,
And let the angel whom thou still hast served
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb
Untimely ripped.
In Act 4, Scene 8, near the end of the play, the final piece of information relating to the prophecies delivered to Macbeth in Act 4, Scene 1, falls into place when Macduff reveals that he technically was not “of woman born” since he was delivered through a cesarean section. Read more about this quote in Quotes by Character: Macduff (the fourth quote).
Had I as many sons as I have hairs
I would not wish them a fairer death
This quote is delivered near the end of the play in Act 5, Scene 8, by Siward, a lord who brought the English army to help dethrone Macbeth. When Siward learns his son, Young Siward, died in battle with wounds on his front, he expresses pride and acceptance of his son’s fate. The honor and decency displayed by the Siwards stands in sharp contrast to the moral rot shown throughout the play by Macbeth—whose severed head will soon be carried onto the stage by Macduff as the play concludes. Read more about this quote in Quotes by Theme: The Role of Children in Political Struggles (the fourth quote).
