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Act 1, Scene 5
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is to full o’ th’ milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great,
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,
And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou’ld’st have, great Glamis,
That which cries “Thus thou must do,” if thou have it,
And that which rather thou dost fear to do,
Than wishes should be undone. Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear
And chastise with the valor of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round,
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
To have thee crowned withal.
In this soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 5, delivered after she learns about the witches’ prophecy that Macbeth will become king, Lady Macbeth expresses her both delight and her fear that Macbeth won’t have the fortitude to carry out Duncan’s murder. Read more about this soliloquy in Quotes by Character: Lady Macbeth (the first quote) and in Quotes by Theme: The Corrupting Power of Unchecked Ambition (the second quote).
The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood,
Stop up th’access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
Th’ effect and it. Come to my woman’s breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature’s mischief. 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!’
In this key passage from Act 1, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth urges her conscience-stricken husband to kill King Duncan using language that implicitly ties the capacity to commit acts of violence to masculinity. You can read a much deeper explanation of this important passage in Famous Quotes Explained. There is also a briefer explanation of the quote in Quotes by Character: Lady Macbeth (the second quote).
O, never
Shall sun that morrow see!
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time. Bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue. Look like th’ innocent flower,
But be the serpent under ‘t. He that’s coming
Must be provide for: and you shall put
This night’s great business into my dispatch,
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
As Act 1, Scene 5 proceeds, Lady Macbeth continues to urge her husband to murder Duncan so he can become king. Read more about this passage in Quotes by Character: Lady Macbeth (the third quote).
Act 1, Section 6
This castle hath a pleasant seat. The air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses.
In Act 1, Scene 6, the symbolism of weather appears again as King Duncan comments about how pleasant the weather conditions are when he meets Macbeth. Read more about this in Quotes by Symbol: The Weather (the fourth quote).
Act 1, Scene 7
If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well
It were done quickly. If th’assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease success: that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all, here,
But here upon this bank and shoal of time,
We’d 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 th’inventor. This even-handed justice
Commends th’ingredience of our poisoned chalice
To our own lips. 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, trumpet-tongued against
The deep damnation of his taking-off,
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin, horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye
That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself
In this soliloquy at the start of Act 1, Scene 7, Macbeth struggles to decide if he should murder King Duncan, who is visiting Macbeth at his castle. He seemingly resolves not to kill his king and guest, at least partly because he fears that it will unleash even darker impulses that may lie within him. This important quote is further discussed in Famous Quotes Explained and in Quotes by Character: Macbeth (the second quote). The horse-riding metaphor that Macbeth uses at the end of the soliloquy (starting with “I have no spur”) is discussed in Quotes by Theme: The Corrupting Power of Unchecked Ambition (the third quote).
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
Lady Macbeth’s manipulation of her husband in Act 1, Scene 7, to convince him to kill kindhearted King Duncan includes this passage, in which she uses the astonishingly brutal argument that she would “dash the brains out” of her own child if necessary to achieve power. The passage is discussed further in Quotes by Theme: The Role of Children in Political Power Struggles (the first quote).
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep –
Whereto the rather shall his day’s hard journey
Soundly invite him – his two chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassail so convince
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbeck only: when in swinish sleep
Their drenchèd natures lied as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
The unguarded Duncan? What not put upon
His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell?
This passage is from Act 1, Scene 7, in which Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth to set aside his concerns and go through with the plan to kill King Duncan during his visit to Macbeth’s castle. The passage is explained further in Quotes by Character: Lady Macbeth (the fourth quote).
I am settled and bend up
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
Away, and mock the time with fairest show.
False face must hide what the false heart doth
know.
Macbeth speaks these lines at the end of Act 1, Scene 7, to Lady Macbeth after she has convinced him to follow through on their plan to kill King Duncan. These words convey Macbeth’s understanding that if they want to get away with an act that is morally wrong (done with a “false heart”), they will have to act virtuous (presenting a “false face”). Macbeth’s final words of Act 1 seem to suggest that, despite having recently expressed his reluctance, Macbeth is now committed to their horrific plan.
