Read the excerpt from act 1, scene 5 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth has just finished reading Macbeth’s letter about the witches’ prophecies.Lady Macbeth. Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt beWhat thou art promis’d. Yet do I fear thy nature;It is too full o’ the milk of human kindnessTo catch the nearest way; thou wouldst be great,Art not without ambition, but withoutThe illness should attend it; what thou wouldst highly,That [wouldst] thou holily; wouldst not play false,And yet wouldst wrongly win; thou’dst have, great Glamis,That which cries, "Thus thou must do, if thou have it”;And that which rather thou dost fear to doThan wishest should be undone.
Excerpt 1: Read the excerpt from act 1, scene 7 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth has just told Lady Macbeth that he no longer thinks it is right to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth is trying to convince Macbeth to move forward with the murder by accusing him of being a coward.Lady Macbeth. Was the hope drunk,Wherein you dress’d yourself? hath it slept since,And wakes it now, to look so green and paleAt what it did so freely? From this timeSuch I account thy love. Art thou afeardTo be the same in thine own act and valourAs thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have thatWhich thou esteem’st the ornament of life,And live a coward in thine own esteem,Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’Like the poor cat i’ the adage?Excerpt 2: Read the excerpt from act 5, scene 1 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking and rubbing her hands together as if she were trying to remove a spot from them. A doctor and a gentlewoman are observing her.Lady Macbeth. Out, damned spot! out, I say!—One: two: why, then, ’tis time to do’t.—Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.Doctor. Do you mark that?Lady Macbeth. The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now?—What, will these hands ne’er be clean?—No more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that: you mar all with this starting.
Read the excerpt from act 5, scene 1 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking and rubbing her hands together as if she were trying to remove a spot from them. A doctor and a gentlewoman are observing her.Lady Macbeth. Out, damned spot! out, I say!—One: two: why, then, ’tis time to do’t.—Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.Doctor. Do you mark that?Lady Macbeth. The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now?—What, will these hands ne’er be clean?—No more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that: you mar all with this starting.Doctor. Go to, go to; you have known what you should not.Gentlewoman. She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that: heaven knows what she has known.Lady Macbeth. Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!
Read the excerpt from act 3, scene 5 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Hecate is speaking to the three witches about Macbeth.[Hecate.] He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bearHis hopes ’bove wisdom, grace, and fear;And you all know securityIs mortals’ chiefest enemy.
Excerpt 1: Read the excerpt from act 1, scene 7 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth is speaking to himself and listing the reasons he should not kill Duncan.[Macbeth.] He’s here in double trust:First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,Who should against his murderer shut the door,Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this DuncanHath borne his faculties so meek, hath beenSo clear in his great office, that his virtuesWill plead like angels trumpet-tongu’d againstThe deep damnation of his taking-off;And pity, like a naked new-born babe,Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin, hors’dUpon the sightless couriers of the airExcerpt 2: Read the excerpt from act 2, scene 3 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth, who has murdered Duncan, is describing why he has just killed the sleeping guards who were supposed to be protecting Duncan.Macbeth. Who can be wise, amaz’d, temperate and furious,Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:The expedition of my violent loveOutran the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,His silver skin lac’d with his golden blood;And his gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in natureFor ruin’s wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,Steep’d in the colours of their trade, their daggersUnmannerly breech’d with gore: who could refrain,That had a heart to love, and in that heartCourage to make ’s love known?
Read the excerpt from act 3, scene 2 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth is talking to Lady Macbeth about being tortured by nightmares.[Macbeth.] Better be with the dead,Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,Than on the torture of the mind to lieIn restless ecstasy.
Read the excerpt from act 4, scene 1 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth goes to the witches to ask them about his future. They call up an apparition, or ghost, who tells Macbeth to beware of Macduff. They then call up a second apparition, who also speaks to Macbeth.Second Apparition. Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scornThe power of man, for none of woman bornShall harm Macbeth.[Second Apparition descends.]Macbeth. Then live, Macduff: what need I fear of thee?But yet I’ll make assurance double sure,And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live;That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies,And sleep in spite of thunder.
Excerpt 1: Read the excerpt from act 2, scene 1 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth, who is about to murder Duncan, imagines that he sees a dagger floating in front of him.[Macbeth.] Is this a dagger which I see before me,The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee:I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.Art thou not, fatal vision, sensibleTo feeling as to sight? or art thou butA dagger of the mind, a false creation,Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?I see thee yet, in form as palpableAs this which now I draw. [Pulls out his dagger.]Thou marshall’st me the way that I was going;And such an instrument I was to use.Excerpt 2: Read the excerpt from act 3, scene 4 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth has seen the ghost of Banquo sitting at the banquet table. Lady Macbeth is trying to get Macbeth to come to his senses.Lady Macbeth. O proper stuff!This is the very painting of your fear;This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said,Led you to Duncan. O! these flaws and starts—Impostors to true fear—would well becomeA woman’s story at a winter’s fire,Authoriz’d by her grandam. Shame itself!Why do you make such faces? When all’s doneYou look but on a stool.
Read the excerpt from act 1, scene 7 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth, who is alone in his castle, is contemplating whether to kill Duncan.Macbeth. If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere wellIt were done quickly; if the assassinationCould trammel up the consequence, and catchWith his surcease success; that but this blowMight be the be-all and the end-all here,But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,We’d jump the life to come. But in these casesWe still have judgment here; that we but teachBloody instructions, which, being taught, returnTo plague the inventor; this even-handed justiceCommends the ingredients of our poison’d chaliceTo our own lips.
Excerpt 1: Read the excerpt from act 3, scene 1 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth is hiring three men to murder Banquo.Macbeth. So is he mine [enemy]; and in such bloody distanceThat every minute of his being thrustsAgainst my near’st of life: and though I couldWith bare-fac’d power sweep him from my sightAnd bid my will avouch it, yet I must not,For certain friends that are both his and mine,Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fallWhom I myself struck down; and thence it isThat I to your assistance do make love,Masking the business from the common eyeFor sundry weighty reasons.Excerpt 2: Read the excerpt from act 5, scene 3 of The Tragedy of Macbeth. A servant has told Macbeth that the English army is coming to fight him. Macbeth curses the servant.Macbeth. Take thy face hence. [Exit Servant.] Seyton!—I am sick at heart,When I behold—Seyton, I say!—This pushWill cheer me ever, or disseat me now.I have lived long enough: my way of lifeIs fall’n into the sear, the yellow leaf;And that which should accompany old age,As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,I must not look to have; but, in their stead,Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath,Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.
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