"Ring the alarum bell! Murder and treason!
Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm! Awake!
Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit,
And look on death itself!"
What does "sleep, death's counterfeit" mean in this passage?
ACT 3, SCENE 2
Setting: The palace.
[Enter LADY MACBETH and a Servant]
| LADY MACBETH | Is Banquo gone from court? | |
| Servant | Ay, madam, but returns again to–night. | |
| LADY MACBETH | Say to the king, I would attend his leisure | |
| For a few words. | ||
| Servant | Madam, I will. | |
| [Exit] | ||
| LADY MACBETH | Nought's had, all's spent, | |
| Where our desire is got without content: | ||
| Tis safer to be that which we destroy | ||
| Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy. | ||
| [Enter MACBETH] | ||
| How now, my lord! why do you keep alone, | ||
| Of sorriest fancies your companions making, | ||
| Using those thoughts which should indeed have died | 10 | |
| With them they think on? Things without all remedy | ||
| Should be without regard: what's done is done. | ||
| MACBETH | We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it: | |
| She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice | ||
| Remains in danger of her former tooth. | ||
| But let the frame of things disjoint, both the | ||
| worlds suffer, | ||
| Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep | ||
| In the affliction of these terrible dreams | ||
| That shake us nightly: better be with the dead, | ||
| Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, | 20 | |
| Than on the torture of the mind to lie | ||
| In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave; | ||
| After life's fitful fever he sleeps well; | ||
| Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison, | ||
| Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing, | ||
| Can touch him further. | ||
| LADY MACBETH | Come on; | |
| Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks; | ||
| Be bright and jovial among your guests to–night. | ||
| MACBETH | So shall I, love; and so, I pray, be you: | |
| Let your remembrance apply to Banquo; | 30 | |
| Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue: | ||
| Unsafe the while, that we | ||
| Must lave our honours in these flattering streams, | ||
| And make our faces vizards to our hearts, | ||
| Disguising what they are. | ||
| LADY MACBETH | You must leave this. | |
| MACBETH | O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! | |
| Thou know'st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives. | ||
| LADY MACBETH | But in them nature's copy's not eterne. | |
| MACBETH | There's comfort yet; they are assailable; | |
| Then be thou jocund: ere the bat hath flown | 40 | |
| His cloister'd flight, ere to black Hecate's summons | ||
| The shard–borne beetle with his drowsy hums | ||
| Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done | ||
| A deed of dreadful note. | ||
| LADY MACBETH | What's to be done? | |
| MACBETH | Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, | |
| Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night, | ||
| Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day; | ||
| And with thy bloody and invisible hand | ||
| Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond | ||
| Which keeps me pale! Light thickens; and the crow | 50 | |
| Makes wing to the rooky wood: | ||
| Good things of day begin to droop and drowse; | ||
| While night's black agents to their preys do rouse. | ||
| Thou marvell'st at my words: but hold thee still; | ||
| Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill. | ||
| So, prithee, go with me. | ||
| [Exeunt] |
How does Lady Macbeth explain his behavior to the banquet guests?
"The castle of Macduff I will surprise,
Seize upon Fife, give to th'edge o'th' sword
His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls
That trace him in his line."
Act 4, Scene 1, Lines 150–154
What does "trace" mean in this passage?
ACT 5, SCENE 3
Setting: Dunsinane. A room in the castle.
[Enter MACBETH, Doctor, and Attendants]
| MACBETH | Bring me no more reports; let them fly all: | |
| Till 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. | 10 | |
| [Enter a Servant] | ||
| The devil damn thee black, thou cream–faced loon! | ||
| Where got'st thou that goose look? | ||
| Servant | There is ten thousand–– | |
| MACBETH | Geese, villain! | |
| Servant | Soldiers, sir. | |
| MACBETH | Go prick thy face, and over–red thy fear, | |
| Thou lily–liver'd boy. What soldiers, patch? | ||
| Death of thy soul! those linen cheeks of thine | ||
| Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey–face? | ||
| Servant | The English force, so please you. | |
| MACBETH | Take thy face hence. | |
| [Exit Servant] | ||
| Seyton!––I am sick at heart, | ||
| When I behold––Seyton, I say!––This push | 20 | |
| Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now. | ||
| I have lived long enough: my way of life | ||
| Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf, | ||
| And that which should accompany old age, | ||
| As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, | ||
| I must not look to have; but, in their stead, | ||
| Curses, not loud but deep, mouth–honour, breath, | ||
| Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not. Seyton! | ||
| [Enter SEYTON] | ||
| SEYTON | What is your gracious pleasure? | |
| MACBETH | What news more? | 30 |
| SEYTON | All is confirm'd, my lord, which was reported. | |
| MACBETH | I'll fight till from my bones my flesh be hack'd. | |
| Give me my armour. | ||
| SEYTON | Tis not needed yet. | |
| MACBETH | I'll put it on. | |
| Send out more horses; skirr the country round; | ||
| Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armour. | ||
| How does your patient, doctor? | ||
| Doctor | Not so sick, my lord, | |
| As she is troubled with thick coming fancies, | ||
| That keep her from her rest. | ||
| MACBETH | Cure her of that. | |
| Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, | 40 | |
| Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, | ||
| Raze out the written troubles of the brain | ||
| And with some sweet oblivious antidote | ||
| Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff | ||
| Which weighs upon the heart? | ||
| Doctor | Therein the patient | |
| Must minister to himself. | ||
| MACBETH | Throw physic to the dogs; I'll none of it. | |
| Come, put mine armour on; give me my staff. | ||
| Seyton, send out. Doctor, the thanes fly from me. | ||
| Come, sir, dispatch. If thou couldst, doctor, cast | ||
| The water of my land, find her disease, | 50 | |
| And purge it to a sound and pristine health, | ||
| I would applaud thee to the very echo, | ||
| That should applaud again.––Pull't off, I say.–– | ||
| What rhubarb, cyme, or what purgative drug, | ||
| Would scour these English hence? Hear'st thou of them? | ||
| Doctor | Ay, my good lord; your royal preparation | |
| Makes us hear something. | ||
| MACBETH | Bring it after me. | |
| I will not be afraid of death and bane, | ||
| Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane. | 60 | |
| Doctor | [Aside] Were I from Dunsinane away and clear, | |
| Profit again should hardly draw me here. | ||
| [Exeunt] |
"Here lay Duncan,
His silver skin laced with his golden blood,
And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature"
What does "breach" mean in this passage?
ACT 3, SCENE 3
Setting: A park near the palace.
[Enter Three Murderers]
| First Murderer | But who did bid thee join with us? | |
| Third Murderer | Macbeth. | |
| Second Murderer | He needs not our mistrust, since he delivers | |
| Our offices and what we have to do | ||
| To the direction just. | ||
| First Murderer | Then stand with us. | |
| The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day: | ||
| Now spurs the lated traveller apace | ||
| To gain the timely inn; and near approaches | ||
| The subject of our watch. | ||
| Third Murderer | Hark! I hear horses. | |
| BANQUO | [Within] Give us a light there, ho! | |
| Second Murderer | Then 'tis he: the rest | |
| That are within the note of expectation | 10 | |
| Already are i' the court. | ||
| First Murderer | His horses go about. | |
| Third Murderer | Almost a mile: but he does usually, | |
| So all men do, from hence to the palace gate | ||
| Make it their walk. | ||
| Second Murderer | A light, a light! | |
[Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE with a torch]
| Third Murderer | Tis he. | |
| First Murderer | Stand to't. | |
| BANQUO | It will be rain to–night. | |
| First Murderer | Let it come down. | |
| [They set upon BANQUO] | ||
| BANQUO | O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly! | |
| Thou mayst revenge. O slave! | ||
| [Dies. FLEANCE escapes] | ||
| Third Murderer | Who did strike out the light? | |
| First Murderer | Wast not the way? | |
| Third Murderer | There's but one down; the son is fled. | |
| Second Murderer | We have lost | |
| Best half of our affair. | 20 | |
| First Murderer | Well, let's away, and say how much is done. | |
| [Exeunt] |
"There's not a one of them but in his house
I keep a servant fee'd."
italOpened Act 3, Scene 4, Lines 131–132 italClosed
"Be this the whetstone of your sword; let grief
Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it."
Act 4, Scene 3, Lines 228–229
What does "blunt" mean in this passage?
