Macbeth: The Timeline of a Tragic Hero’s Descent ‘Thunder and lightning’ – S.D. 1 ‘You see her eyes are open.’ – Doctor ‘Ay but their sense is shut.’- Gentlewoman Macbeth: The Timeline of a Tragic Hero’s Descent ‘Fair is foul, and foul is fair’ – the witches ‘Look how she rubs her hands.’ - Doctor ‘brave Macbeth’ - Captain ‘’Thunder’ – S.D. ‘Yet here’s a spot.’ – Lady Macbeth ‘O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman!’ – King Duncan ‘I fear thou play’dst most foully for’t’– Banquo ‘Finger of birth-strangled babe’ – 3rd witch ‘The Thane of Fife had a wife; where is she now? What, will these hands ne’er be clean? – Lady Macbeth ‘What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won.’ – King Duncan ‘I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters’– Banquo ‘Fail not our feast’– Macbeth to Banquo 2 ‘Something wicked this way comes’ – 2nd witch ‘To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo stick deep’ / ‘He hath a wisdom which doth guide his valour to act in safety’ / ‘fruitless crown’ / ‘barren sceptre’ / ‘For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind’ – Macbeth’s soliloquy ‘all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!’ – Lady Macbeth ‘That look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ earth’ – Banquo about the witches ‘I think not of them’ Macbeth The witches’ second set of prophecies: ‘beware Macduff’ ‘none of woman born shall harm Macbeth’ ‘Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come against him’ ‘This will never be’ - Macbeth ‘All hail Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter!’ – the witches ‘Is this a dagger which I see before me/The handle toward my hand?’ / ‘and on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood’/ ’Whiles I threat, he lives’ – Macbeth’s soliloquy before King Duncan’s murder ‘This disease is beyond my practice.’ - Doctor ‘Lesser than Macbeth, and greater’ – the witches about Banquo ‘What’s done cannot be undone’ – Lady Macbeth ‘Both of you know Banquo was your enemy’ – Macbeth to the murderers 1 1 ‘What, can the devil speak true? [ASIDE]’ – Banquo 1 ‘some say he’s mad’ - Caithness 2 3 ‘Nought’s had, all’s spent / where our desire is got without content’ - Lady Macbeth ‘Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t’ – Lady Macbeth ‘Horrible sight!’ – Macbeth of the image of Banquo’s descendants ‘the mind I sway by, and the heart I bear, shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.’ – Macbeth ‘O worthiest cousin.’ – King Duncan 4 ‘My dearest partner of greatness’ – Macbeth ‘Consider it not so deeply’ – Lady Macbeth ‘We have scorched the snake, not killed it’ / ‘Ere we eat our meal in fear, and sleep in the affliction of these terrible dreams which shake us nightly. Better be with the dead’ – Macbeth’s monologue ‘The castle of Macduff I will surprise’ - Macbeth ‘I fear thy nature. It is too full of the milk of human kindness’ – Lady Macbeth ‘Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep’ - Macbeth ‘thou lily-livered boy.’ – Macbeth 1 ‘I have lived long enough. My way of life is fallen in to the sear, the yellow leaf.’ / ‘honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have’ – Macbeth’s soliloquy ‘The raven himself is hoarse’ / ‘Come you spirits’ / ‘unsex me here’ / ‘take my milk for gall’ / ‘Make thick my blood’ – Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy ‘I’m afraid to think what I have done’ - Macbeth ‘What had he done, to make him fly the land?’ – Lady Macduff of husband ‘You must leave this.’ Lady Macbeth ‘Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?’ - Macbeth ‘O full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife.’ Macbeth ‘He has killed me, mother’ – Macduff’s son 3 ‘Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t’ – Lady Macbeth 2 ‘Cure her of that.’ – Macbeth (of wife) 5 ‘My hands are of your colour but I shame to wear a heart so white’- Lady Macbeth ‘there shall be done a deed of dreadful note.’ - Macbeth of Banquo’s murder ‘This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues’ – Malcolm ‘The Queen, my lord, is dead.’ - Seyton 2 2 ‘We still have judgement here’ / ‘He’s here in double trust’ / Not bear the knife myself’ / ‘Vaulting ambition’ – Macbeth’s soliloquy ‘She should have died hereafter; there would have been time for such a word.’ / ‘Life’s but a walking shadow’ – Macbeth’s soliloquy ‘O horror, horror, horror!’ - Macduff ‘There’s but one down; the son is fled.’ – 3rd Murderer ‘I am not treacherous’ - Macduff 3 ‘Esteem him as a lamb, being compared with my confineless harms’ – Malcolm testing Macduff’s loyalty 5 ‘Your royal father’s murdered.’ - Macduff ‘We will proceed no further in this business’ – Macbeth ‘There the grown serpent lies.’ – Macbeth of Banquo being dead in a ditch ‘I did kill them.’ – Macbeth of the guards ‘They have tied me to a stake. I cannot fly, but bear like I must fight the course.’ - Macbeth ‘When you durst do it, then you were a man ’ – Lady Macbeth ‘I’ll to England.’- Malcolm ‘Which of you have done this?’ – Macbeth of Banquo’s ghost. 3 ‘O Scotland, Scotland!’ – Macduff’s despair ‘To Ireland I.’- Donalbain ‘tyrant’ – Macduff 7 ‘dashed the brains out’ – Lady Macbeth ‘he grows worse and worse’ - Lady Macbeth ‘Malcolm and Donalbain, the King’s two sons are stolen away and fled, which puts upon them suspicion of the deed.’ - Macduff ‘your wife and babes savagely slaughtered’ - Ross ‘coward’ – Macduff 8 ‘False face must hide what the false heart doth know’ – Macbeth ‘I am in blood stepped in so far’ - Macbeth 7 ‘dead butcher and his fiend-like queen’ – Malcolm 9 4 4 ‘Macbeth is ripe for shaking’ – Malcolm 3 Act 1 Act 2 Act 3 Act 4 Act 5