Macbeth Malcolm Quotes

Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter
The Prince of Cumberland; which honour must
Not unaccompanied invest him only,
But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
On all deservers.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 4. Duncan confers the title of Prince of Cumberland on his son Malcolm, making him first in line to the Scottish throne. Using a “stars” simile, he says that new noble titles will be conferred on other deserving people also. Duncan’s act of elevating his son to this position and not Macbeth costs the King his life in Act 1, Scene 5.

We hear, our bloody cousins are bestow’d
In England and in Ireland, not confessing
Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers
With strange invention.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 1. Macbeth, to divert suspicion from himself, accuses the “bloody cousins” Malcolm and Donalbain of patricide – the murder of their father King Duncan. Speaking to Banquo, he says that the brothers have been making up lies – “strange invention” – to deceive their hosts. However, the audience knows that it is Macbeth who is the deceiver, one of the play’s many examples of dramatic irony.

What you have spoke, it may be so perchance.
This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,
Was once thought honest: you have loved him well;
He hath not touch’d you yet. I am young; but something
You may deserve of him through me, and wisdom
To offer up a weak poor innocent lamb
To appease an angry god.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. Malcolm is not yet sure if he can trust Macduff or count on his loyalty. Here he tells him that he was once a Macbeth loyalist and he might sacrifice Malcolm to appease Macbeth. Using metaphors, Malcolm compares himself to an “innocent lamb,” and Macbeth to an “angry god.” At this point Malcolm and his brother Donalbain are in exile in England and Ireland, because they have been blamed on their father Duncan’s murder. In this passage Macbeth’s evil is emphasized, being described as a tyrant whose “name blisters our tongues.”
Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell - Malcolm in Macbeth

Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell;
Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace,
Yet grace must still look so.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. Malcolm isn’t yet ready to place his complete trust in Macduff. Macduff appears to be good, he concedes, but everything evil tries to wear the disguise of good. However, Malcolm says that looking good doesn’t mean you are evil, because good people also look good. The “brightest” is a metaphor for Lucifer, the once brightest angel who rebelled against God and became the Devil. Throughout this scene Malcolm test Macduff’s loyalty and intentions.

Why in that rawness left you wife and child,
Those precious motives, those strong knots of love,
Without leave-taking? I pray you,
Let not my jealousies be your dishonours,
But mine own safeties.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. Unlike his too trusting father King Duncan, Malcolm continues to be suspicious of Macduff. He questions him about his motives for leaving his family behind unprotected. Malcolm assures Macduff that his suspicion is not meant as an insult, but he is simply concerned for his own safety.

There’s no bottom, none,
In my voluptuousness: your wives, your daughters,
Your matrons and your maids, could not fill up
The cistern of my lust, and my desire
All continent impediments would o’erbear
That did oppose my will: better Macbeth
Than such an one to reign.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. Malcolm falsely describes himself to Macduff as an extremely lustful fellow. Using a metaphor, he says that all the women in the kingdom could not “fill up the cistern of my lust.” He suggests that Macbeth is a fitter person than him to reign. Malcolm is deliberately lying and describing himself as the worst possible candidate for the throne, in order to test if Macduff is still loyal to Macbeth.

But I have none: the king-becoming graces,
As justice, verity, temperance, stableness,
Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,
Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude,
I have no relish of them, but abound
In the division of each several crime,
Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should
Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell,
Uproar the universal peace, confound
All unity on earth.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. Malcolm pretends that he has none of the virtues that a good king should have, including courage. Listing out all the characteristics of an upright monarch, including justice and mercy, he is clearly not describing Macbeth. But Malcolm declares that he doesn’t have these virtues either. Using a metaphor, he declares that if he were on the throne, he would “pour the sweet milk of concord into hell” and replace it with disorder. This echoes Lady Macbeth when she refers to the “milk of human kindness” in Act 1. In this passage Malcolm is continuing his test of Macduff’s loyalty.

Macduff, this noble passion,
Child of integrity, hath from my soul
Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts
To thy good truth and honour.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. After Macduff’s outburst when Malcolm pretended to be the worst possible person to be King of Scotland, Malcolm accepts that Macduff has passed the loyalty test and is a true patriot. He is happy that Macduff is a “child of integrity” who rejected the tyrannical monarch that Malcolm purported himself to be, with so many “particulars of vice.” As far as Malcolm is concerned, Macduff is a man of honor and truthfulness and he can now trust him.

Unspeak mine own detraction, here abjure
The taints and blames I laid upon myself,
For strangers to my nature. I am yet
Unknown to woman, never was forsworn,
Scarcely have coveted what was mine own,
At no time broke my faith, would not betray
The devil to his fellow and delight
No less in truth than life.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. Earlier in the scene Malcolm listed out the numerous vices he claimed to have, in order to test Macduff’s loyalty. Here he reveals the truth, that he is none of the despicable and sinful things he said earlier. Instead of being a womanizer he is a virgin, he has never broken a vow, and far from coveting other people’s possessions he barely wants his own. Malcolm is an innocent compared to the evil Macbeth.

Come, go we to the king; our power is ready;
Our lack is nothing but our leave; Macbeth
Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above
Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may:
The night is long that never finds the day.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. Malcolm speaks the last lines of the play’s longest scene. The only scene outside Scotland, it takes place before the King’s palace, England. Malcolm tells Macduff that he wants to go back to Scotland and seize the crown from Macbeth. Backed by an army of ten thousand soldiers, Malcolm says that the time is right with God and right on their side – “the powers above put on their instruments.” In the last line, he expresses the hope that the light of day (goodness) will soon put an end to Macbeth’s reign of darkness (evil).

Revenges burn in them; for their dear causes
Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm
Excite the mortified man.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 2. Scottish nobles and their supporters, once loyal to Macbeth, are now on their way to Birnam Wood to join up with the rightful Scottish king Malcolm to fight Macbeth. In this passage Menteith uses a metaphor to compare Malcolm and Macduff’s rage for revenge against Macbeth to a burning fire. He says that their cause for revenge would inspire even dead men to rise and fight.

Let every soldier hew him down a bough
And bear ‘t before him: thereby shall we shadow
The numbers of our host and make discovery
Err in report of us.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 4. Malcolm orders his soldiers to cut down Birnam Wood tree branches and carry them in order to conceal the real size of the army about to attack Macbeth. By his trick Malcolm is unknowingly fulfilling the Witches’ prophecy that Macbeth will never be vanquished until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane. For as the soldiers march, it will appear as if the wood is moving to Dunsinane. This passage is foreshadowing of Macbeth’s immiment defeat.

What’s more to do,
Which would be planted newly with the time,
As calling home our exiled friends abroad
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny;
Producing forth the cruel ministers
Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen,
Who, as ’tis thought, by self and violent hands
Took off her life; this, and what needful else
That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace,
We will perform in measure, time and place.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 8. Malcolm in his final speech at the end of the play ushers in the beginning of a new era after the fall of Macbeth. The rightful heir to the throne promises to call home all those who fled Macbeth’s tyranny. He also commits to finding those cruel attendants who helped the “butcher” Macbeth and his “fiend-like” queen. Good has triumphed over evil. In “fled the snares of watchful tyranny” we see an example of metaphor (“snares”) and personification (“watchful tyranny”)
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