English Literature - Macbeth - The Witches - Quotes

?

Act 1, Scene 1 - The witches plan to meet Macbeth

  • "When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lighting, or in rain?" - The Witches
  • "When the hurly-burly's done, when the battle's lost and won. That will be ere the set of sun." - The Witches
  • "Fair is foul and foul is fair, hover through the fog and filthy air." - The Witches
1 of 14

Act 1, Scene 2 - Macbeth is a Hero

  • "What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won." - Duncan
2 of 14

Act 1, Scene 3 - Card 1 - Macbeth meets the witche

  • "I'll give thee a wind"
  • "Sleep shall neither night nor day hang upon his penthouse lid; He shall live a man forbid. Weary sennights nine times nine, shall he dwindle, peak, and pine." - The Witches - (translation - "He won’t catch a wink of sleep, either at night or during the day. He will live as a cursed man. For eighty-one weeks he will waste away in agony.") - Forshadows Macbeth's sleepless state later in the play. - Suggests they have manipulated Macbeth.
  • "So foul and fair a day I have not seen" - Macbeth
  • "What are these" - Banquo
  • "so withered an so wild in their attire" - Banquo
  • "look not like th'inhabitants o'th'earth, and yet are on't?" - Banquo
3 of 14

Act 1, Scene 3 - Card 2 - Macbeth meets the witche

  • "Live you, or are you aught that man may question?" - Banquo
  • "choppy finger" - Banquo
  • "skinny lips" - Banquo
  • "you should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so." - Banquo
  • "what are you?" - Macbeth
  • "All hail Macbeth! Hail to thee Thane of Glamis! All hail Macbeth! Hail to thee Thane of Cawdor! All hail Macbeth that shalt be king hereafter!" - The Witches
  • "Lesser than Macbeth and greater. Not so happy, yet much happier. Thou shalt get kings thou thou be none." - The Witches
4 of 14

Act 1, Scene 3 - Card 3 - Macbeth meets the witche

  • "imperfect speakers" - Macbeth
  • Banquo:"Wither are they vanished?" Macbeth: "Into the air, and what seemed corporal, melted, as breath into the wind." - (corporal = flesh and blood / real).
  • "Were such things here as we do speak about? Or have we eaten on the insane root, that takes the reason prisoner?" - Banquo - Numerous questions show their confusion.
  • "What, can the devil speak true?" - Banquo
  • "and oftentimes, to win us to our harm, the instruments of darkness tell truths to betrey's in deepest consequence." - Banquo
5 of 14

Act 1, Scene 4 - Duncan thanks Macbeth

  • "Stars, hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires; the eye wink at the hand. Yet let that be, which the eye fears, when it is done, to see." - Macbeth - Macbeth speaks in rhyming couplets showing how the witches have manipulated him to unearth these murderous thoughts of killing Duncan.
6 of 14

Act 1, Scene 5 - Lady Macbeth plots against Duncan

  • "they have more in them than mortal knowledge." - Macbeth (letter)
  • "weïrd sisters" - Macbeth (letter)
  • "metaphysical aid" - Lady Macbeth - (metaphysical aid = supernatural help)
  • "Great Glamis, worth Cawdor, greater than both by the all-hail hereafter" - Lady Macbeth - mimics the words of the witches, further showing their manipulation/control.
7 of 14

Act 1, Scene 7 - The Macbeths plan the murder

  • "Away, and mock the time with the fairest show: false face must hide what the false heart doth know." - Macbeth - The rhyming couplets succeeding Macbeth's statements show how the witches play a part in manipulating him into going through with Duncan's murder. 
8 of 14

Act 2, Scene 1 - Macbeth sees the dagger

  • "Merciful powers, restrain in me the cursèd thoughts that nature gives way to in repose!" - Banquo - The witches have cause Banquo to have nightmares.
  • "While I threat, he lives - words to the heat of deeds to cold breath gives. I go and it is done; the bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven or to hell." - Macbeth - (knell = funeral bell) - Macbeth speaks in rhyming couplets, mimicing the witches and once again showing their manipulation/control.
9 of 14

Act 2, Scene 2 - Macbeth has killed Duncan

  • "Methought I heard a voice cry, 'Sleep no more, Macbeth doth murder sleep'" - Macbeth - Links to the witches robbing the sailor of sleep in Act 1, Scene 3
10 of 14

Act 2, Scene 3 - Duncan's body is discovered

  • "The night has been unruly ... our chimneys were blown down ... some say the earth was feverous and did shake." - Lennox - Succeeding Duncan's death, strange weather occurs during the night, such as strong winds and earthquakes. - The witches are said to create bad weather ("i give thee a wind" / "When shall we three meet again...") - Shows the witches' manipulation/control.
11 of 14

Act 3, Scene 1 - Macbeth plots Banquo's murder

  • "I fear, thou play'dst most foully for't." - Banquo - Fricative sounds mimic the witches in Act 1, Scene 1 - "Fair is foul and foul is fair" - Suggest the witches manipulated him into killing Duncan.
  • "It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul's flight, if it find heaven, must find it out tonight." - Macbeth - Every time Macbeth speaks of a major murder that he will committ (Duncan, Banquo or the Macduffs (eventually only Lady Macduff and son)), there is evidence of rhyming couplets in his speech, which mimics the witches. This shows their manipulation/control.
12 of 14

Act 3, Scene 2 - Macbeth feels anxious

  • "scorpions" "bat" "beetle" "crow" - Macbeth/Lady Macbeth - The unpleasant animal imagery links to the Witches' spell in Act 4, Scene 1, showing how they have caused Macbeth's taste for murder and paranoia.
13 of 14

Act 4, Scene 1 - Macbeth visits the witches

  • "poisoned entrails" "adder's fork" "blind-worm's sting" - The Witches - Various poisoned ingredients that they throw into their cauldron remind the audience of their evil.
  • "secret, black, and midnight hags" - Macbeth 
  • "(Descends)" - Stage Direction - Suggests the apparitions (the witches' masters) are returning to hell.
  • "Let this pernicious hour, stand aye accursèd in the calendar." - Macbeth - (translation = Let this evil hour, stay cursed forever.) - Macbeth feels that time with the witches is evil and should be cursed.
  • "No baosting like a fool, this deed i'll do before this purpose cool" - Macbeth - This is said just before the last of the 3 major murders, the rhyming couplets continue to show how the witches have manipulated/controlled Macbeth's actions.
14 of 14

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar English Literature resources:

See all English Literature resources »See all Macbeth resources »