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No Fear Translations of Shakespeare’s plays (along with audio!) and other classic works
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Act 3, Scene 4
Sit, worthy friends. My lord is often thus
And hath been from his youth. Pray you, keep seat.
The fit is momentary; upon a thought
He will again be well. If much you note him,
You shall offend him and extend his passion.
Feed and regard him not.
When Macbeth’s bizarre behavior at the banquet is noticed and commented upon by the assembled lords in Act 3, Scene 4, Lady Macbeth handles the situation by addressing the lords directly. She dismisses Macbeth’s behavior, pretending that he has had fits of hallucination or outbursts all his life, to deflect suspicion and keep the lords seated at the dinner table.
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
(seeing the GHOST) Avaunt, and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee.
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold.
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
Which thou dost glare with!
Macbeth’s grip on reality continues to decline in Act 3, Scene 4, when he sees Banquo’s ghost at a banquet and then speaks these words to try to convince himself that the apparition cannot be real. The word speculation at the time the play was written meant the ability to observe and reason. In other words, Macbeth is saying the ghost has no real consciousness behind its eyes. Read more about this quote in Quotes by Theme: The Relentless of Guilt (the second quote).
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.
Macbeth’s fatalistic words to Lady Macbeth here in Act 3, Scene 4, demonstrate the toll that the Banquo’s ghost’s appearance to him at the banquet has taken on his psyche. Read more about the quote in Quotes by Character: Macbeth (the sixth quote).
I am in blood
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er.
At the end of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s conversation that closes Act 3, Scene 4, Macbeth issues dire predictions about the price they will pay for their murderous acts. It’s clear that Macbeth now believes there is no going back to who he was before he chose this path of violence. Read more about this quote and its emphasis on blood in Quotes by Symbol: Blood (the fourth quote).
Act 3, Scene 6
Some holy angel
Fly to the court of England and unfold
His message ere he come, that a swift blessing
May soon return to this our suffering country
Under a hand accursed!
In Act 3, Scene 6, after Lennox and other lords have turned against Macbeth and his disastrous reign, Lennox utters this plea that Duncan’s son and rightful heir, Malcolm, will return from where he has fled in England to depose Macbeth and take over the throne, thus restoring calm and order to Scotland.
