Read the excerpt from act 3, scene 5 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Hecate is speaking to the three witches about Macbeth.[Hecate.] He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bearHis hopes ’bove wisdom, grace, and fear;And you all know securityIs mortals’ chiefest enemy.
Excerpt 1: Read the excerpt from act 1, scene 7 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth is speaking to himself and listing the reasons he should not kill Duncan.[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 DuncanHath borne his faculties so meek, hath beenSo clear in his great office, that his virtuesWill plead like angels trumpet-tongu’d againstThe deep damnation of his taking-off;And pity, like a naked new-born babe,Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin, hors’dUpon the sightless couriers of the airExcerpt 2: Read the excerpt from act 2, scene 3 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth, who has murdered Duncan, is describing why he has just killed the sleeping guards who were supposed to be protecting Duncan.Macbeth. Who can be wise, amaz’d, temperate and furious,Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:The expedition of my violent loveOutran the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,His silver skin lac’d with his golden blood;And his gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in natureFor ruin’s wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,Steep’d in the colours of their trade, their daggersUnmannerly breech’d with gore: who could refrain,That had a heart to love, and in that heartCourage to make ’s love known?
What is the difference between a theme and a universal theme?
Read the excerpt from act 1, scene 5 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth has just finished reading Macbeth’s letter about the witches’ prophecies.Lady Macbeth. Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt beWhat thou art promis’d. Yet do I fear thy nature;It is too full o’ the milk of human kindnessTo catch the nearest way; thou wouldst be great,Art not without ambition, but withoutThe illness should attend it; what thou wouldst highly,That [wouldst] thou holily; wouldst not play false,And yet wouldst wrongly win; thou’dst have, great Glamis,That which cries, "Thus thou must do, if thou have it”;And that which rather thou dost fear to doThan wishest should be undone.
Excerpt 1: Read the excerpt from act 4, scene 2 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. A messenger arrives at Macduff’s castle. He warns Lady Macduff to leave the castle with her children and implies that Macbeth intends to harm them.Messenger. Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known,Though in your state of honour I am perfect.I doubt some danger does approach you nearly:If you will take a homely man’s advice,Be not found here; hence, with your little ones.To fright you thus, methinks, I am too savage;To do worse to you were fell cruelty,Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you!I dare abide no longer.Excerpt 2: Read the excerpt from act 4, scene 2 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Lady Macduff responds to the messenger’s warning to flee the castle or be harmed.Lady Macduff. Whither should I fly?I have done no harm. But I remember nowI am in this earthly world; where to do harmIs often laudable, to do good sometimeAccounted dangerous folly: why then, alas,Do I put up that womanly defence,To say I have done no harm?
Read the excerpt from act 3, scene 2 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth is talking to Lady Macbeth about being tortured by nightmares.[Macbeth.] Better be with the dead,Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,Than on the torture of the mind to lieIn restless ecstasy.
Excerpt 1: Read the excerpt from act 1, scene 5 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth has just read Macbeth’s letter about the witches’ prophecy and his promotion to thane of Cawdor.[Lady Macbeth.] Come, you spiritsThat tend on mortal thoughts! unsex me here,And fill me from the crown to the toe top fullOf direst cruelty; make thick my blood,Stop up the access and passage to remorse,That no compunctious visitings of natureShake my fell purpose, nor keep peace betweenThe effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts,And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,Wherever in your sightless substancesYou 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!”Excerpt 2: Read the excerpt from act 3, scene 2 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth has killed Duncan, but he warns Lady Macbeth that they are still in danger.Macbeth. We have scotch’d the snake, not kill’d it:She’ll close and be herself, whilst our poor maliceRemains 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 sleepIn the affliction of these terrible dreamsThat shake us nightly. Better be with the dead,Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,Than on the torture of the mind to lieIn 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, nothingCan touch him further.
Excerpt 1: Read the excerpt from act 1, scene 3 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Banquo says that Macbeth should be careful with the information he has received from the witches.Banquo. That, trusted home,Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,Besides the Thane of Cawdor. But ’tis strange:And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,The instruments of darkness tell us truths,Win us with honest trifles, to betray’sIn deepest consequence.Excerpt 2: Read the excerpt from act 3, scene 5 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Hecate is telling the three witches about her plan for Macbeth.[Hecate.] I am for the air; this night I’ll spendUnto a dismal and a fatal end:Great business must be wrought ere noon:Upon the corner of the moonThere hangs a vaporous drop profound;I’ll catch it ere it come to ground:And that distill’d by magic sleightshall raise such artificial spritesAs by the strength of their illusionShall draw him on to his confusion:He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bearHis hopes ’bove wisdom, grace, and fear;And you all know securityIs mortals’ chiefest enemy.
Read the excerpt from act 5, scene 1 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking and rubbing her hands together as if she were trying to remove a spot from them. A doctor and a gentlewoman are observing her.Lady Macbeth. 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.Doctor. Do you mark that?Lady Macbeth. The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now?—What, will these hands ne’er be clean?—No more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that: you mar all with this starting.Doctor. Go to, go to; you have known what you should not.Gentlewoman. She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that: heaven knows what she has known.Lady Macbeth. Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!
Read the excerpt from act 1, scene 5 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that Duncan is coming to their castle tonight. Lady Macbeth hints at her plot to kill the king.Lady Macbeth. O! neverShall sun that morrow see.Your face, my thane, is as a book where menMay read strange matters. To beguile the time,Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,But be the serpent under ’t. He that’s comingMust be provided for; and you shall putThis night’s great business into my dispatch;Which shall to all our nights and days to comeGive solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
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