Macbeth Quotes

When the hurly-burly’s done, When the battle’s lost and won.

FIRST WITCH: When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
SECOND WITCH: When the hurly-burly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 1. The Witches meet at the beginning of the play to discuss their future meeting with Macbeth. Here Shakespeare uses the motif of weather to foreshadow future events. The thunder and lightning suggest that there will an upset in the order when they meet with Macbeth. The “hurly-burly” is also suggestive of revolt and chaos that Scotland will soon face.
Fair is foul, and foul is fair

Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 1. This couplet is chanted by the three Witches when they get together during a storm to talk about their future meeting with Macbeth. The incantation “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” is synonymous with the Macbeth drama. It sets the scene and tone for everything that follows in the play. It means that appearances can be deceiving and it foreshadows what will happen in the course of the play. What seems good will be evil, and what appears evil will be good. The words “fair” and “foul” are each a metaphor for the other. The “fog and filthy air” bad weather that accompanies the Witches suggests the moral uncertainty in Scotland and how characters are unable to distinguish between what is “fair” and “foul.”

The merciless Macdonwald –
Worthy to be a rebel, for to that
The multiplying villanies of nature
Do swarm upon him…
For brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name!
Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like valour’s minion carved out his passage
Till he faced the slave;
Which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam’d him from the nave to th’ chops,
And fix’d his head upon our battlements.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 2. The Captain tells King Duncan how the brave Macbeth led the Scots to victory against the King of Norway and executed the traitorous rebel Macdonwald. We see how Macbeth had the ability to defy fate and fortune with his sword. The quote shows that he is loyal to the King. We also witness his ruthlessness and propensity for gruesome violence. The battle “hero” is introduced as a bloodthirsty killer, who slices his opponent open from naval to jaw. This foreshadows Macbeth being a killer during the rest of the play. The passage uses metaphorical language to emphasize Macbeth’s heroic and bloody role in the battle – his sword “smoked with bloody execution.” We see simile and personification when Macbeth is likened to “valour’s minion” – the servant of courage. Macbeth is initially presented as a patriot in the play.

Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-toss’d.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3. The witch plotting revenge on a sailor knows that she cannot destroy his ship, but she can call up storms to disrupt his voyage. This shows that while the Witches can use their powers to influence events, they are not all-powerful and cannot completely control a person’s fate. Foreshadowed here is how the Witches will influence Macbeth through their prophecies, but cannot force him to act. Macbeth by exercising his free will and through his own actions will end up dooming himself.
So foul and fair a day I have not seen

So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3. Macbeth’s line echoes the incantation spoken by the Witches and which is synonymous with the play: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” Macbeth’s first words in the drama are significant. They may refer to the good outcome of the battle that brought victory to Scotland, also the foul weather on the heath. They also link Macbeth to the Witches, foreshadowing how he will come be easily led and manipulated by them.
All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter

FIRST WITCH: All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis!
SECOND WITCH: All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!
THIRD WITCH: All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3. When Macbeth invites the Witches to speak, their words are prophetic and foreshadowing of things to come. They hail him as Thane of Cawdor, an example of dramatic irony since the audience already knows that but Macbeth does not. They also prophesy that he will be later become King of Scotland.
Witches prophecy to Banquo

FIRST WITCH: Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
SECOND WITCH: Not so happy, yet much happier.
THIRD WITCH: Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3. When Banquo asks the Witches to tell him his future, they make cryptic prophecies. The final one predicts that his descendants will be kings, but he will not. In saying how he will be lesser and greater than Macbeth, this may be suggesting that he won’t rise to the rank of Macbeth, but will enjoy greater honor and reputation. The Witches’ statement about Banquo being not as happy but happier than Macbeth is equally ambiguous. But it too can be explained by Banquo suffering a violent death yet not going through the mental torment of Macbeth before dying. There is a great deal of subtle foreshadowing here.

Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:
By Sinel’s death I know I am thane of Glamis;
But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives,
A prosperous gentleman; and to be king
Stands not within the prospect of belief,
No more than to be Cawdor.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3. After hearing the Witches’ prophecies that he will be thane of Cawdor and later king, Macbeth orders them to stay. The Witches have sparked his curiosity and he wants to know more. This reflects the theme of Macbeth’s hunger for power. We also have dramatic irony, since the audience is already aware that King Duncan ordered the execution of the thane of Cawdor for treachery and bestowed the title on Macbeth.

Say, from whence
You owe this strange intelligence? or why
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3. The theme of appearance vs reality, or things not being what they seem, is found in this passage. A questioning and frustrated Macbeth demands to know where the Witches got their information that he will be Thane of Cawdor and more importantly King of Scotland. He doesn’t understand how he can be Thane of Cawdor when the person in that position is still alive. Macbeth’s use of the aggressive adjective “blasted” shows how more interested he is the Witches’ predictions than his friend Banquo who has an entirely indifferent reaction. The Witches vanish just as Macbeth speaks these words.
have we eaten on the insane root That takes the reason prisoner - Banquo to Macbeth

Or have we eaten on the insane root
That takes the reason prisoner?

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3. When the Witches appear amid claps of thunder to make their prophecies and then suddenly vanish, Banquo questions his sanity. He wonders if he and Macbeth have ingested the root of a poisonous plant that brought on madness. This could be a reference to hemlock or henbane, plants that can induce a state of madness. In this passage Shakespeare personifies the word “root” by giving it human characteristics. Foreshadowed here are Macbeth’s later hallucinations about a dagger, Banquo’s ghost and apparitions while visiting the Witches.

Why do you dress me
In borrowed robes?

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3. When Ross hails Macbeth Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth’s reaction comes in the form of a clothing metaphor. He tries to conceal his ambition to be king by making light of the news, and jokes about being dressed in borrowed robes. He doesn’t understand how he can have that position while the Thane of Cawdor still lives. He learns from Angus that the former Thane has been stripped of his title and sentenced to death for treason.

And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray ‘s
In deepest consequence.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3. Banquo shows himself to be much more cautious than Macbeth in reacting to the Witches’ prophecies. He calls attention to the danger of acting on the predictions of the evil “instruments of darkness,” as he metaphorically describes the Witches. They may be telling a little truth in order to gain their confidence, so that they can deceive and betray them into causing harm, he warns. This is foreshadowing of Macbeth’s fatal decision to kill King Duncan. This passage raises the question: do the Witches control people’s fate, or do people have free will to decide their own fate, regardless of what the Witches prophesy.

Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3. Macbeth uses a metaphor to compare the Witches’ statements about his thaneships of Glamis and Cawdor to the prologue of a play. He speaks these lines on realizing that their prophecy about him being Thane of Cawdor has come true. The final act of the drama he sees as having a royal theme, when he becomes King of Scotland – the Witches’ second prophecy. The passage tells us of Macbeth’s ambition and desire for power and is foreshadowing of his later ruthless actions to acquire that power.

Cannot be ill, cannot be good: if ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor:
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings:
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man that function
Is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is
But what is not.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3. In Macbeth’s first soliloquy he tries to work out the implications of the Witches’ prophecy that he will be king. We get an insight into his state of mind as his ambition for power is triggered by the prophecy. For the first time he gives voice to the thought of murdering King Duncan. The thought terrifies him and leaves him confused. If what the Witches told him is good, he wonders why he is entertaining horrible thoughts of murder. But he reasons that it cannot be evil, since the Witches’ forecast that he would be Thane of Cawdor turned out to be right. Macbeth is so consumed with his own ambitious fantasizing, that he becomes detached from reality. He struggles with his conscience over whether to commit murder. But he can only think of “what is not” – his fantasy of being king. The final sentence suggests too that what seems to be real is actually not, ironically like Macbeth’s supposed loyalty to King Duncan, whom he kills. The murder of Duncan is foreshadowed in the passage.
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