Quotes from work
Macbeth

Macbeth

Macbeth is a tragedy by William Shakespeare; it is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake. Of all the plays that Shakespeare wrote during the reign of James I, who was patron of Shakespeare's acting company, Macbeth most clearly reflects the playwright's relationship with his sovereign. It was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book, and is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy.A brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia. Forced to commit more and more murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion, he soon becomes a tyrannical ruler. The bloodbath and consequent civil war swiftly take Macbeth and Lady Macbeth into the realms of madness and death.


William Shakespeare photo

“O, full of scorpions is my mind!”

Source: Macbeth

William Shakespeare photo
William Shakespeare photo
William Shakespeare photo

“Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o-er wrought heart and bids it break.”

Variant: The grief that does not speak whispers the o'erfraught heart and bids it break.
Source: Macbeth

William Shakespeare photo

“I have supped full with horrors.”

Source: Macbeth

William Shakespeare photo

“Be bloody bold and resolute.”

Source: Macbeth

William Shakespeare photo
William Shakespeare photo

“Come what come may,
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.”

Source: Macbeth, Act I, scene iii.

William Shakespeare photo
William Shakespeare photo

“What's done cannot be undone.”

Variant: What's done, is done
Source: Macbeth