in Macbeth — Shakespeare, William; Middleton, Thomas, rev.
Metadata
Play
Macbeth
Author
Shakespeare, William; Middleton, Thomas, rev.
Year (catalogued)
1623
First performance
1606
Decade
1620s
Genre
Tragedy
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
King's Men
Speech prefix(es)
1. | 1
Words
416
Characters
2258
Typicality
0.42 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A11954.31
BritDrama no.
1496
Cluster
Cluster 9 — Boon companions & bluff banter
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
W Hen shall we three meet again? In Thunder, Lightning, or in Rain? Where the place? I come, Gray-Malkin. Where hast thou been, Sister? A Sailors Wife had Chestnuts in her Lap, And mouncht, & mouncht, and mouncht: Give me, quoth I. Aroynt thee, Witch, the rumpe-fed Ronyon cries. Her Husband's to Aleppo gone, Master of the Tiger: But in a Syue I'll thither sail, And Like a Rat without a tail, I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do. the art kind. I my self have all the other, And the very Ports they blow, All the Quarters that they know, In the Shipman's Carded. I'll dreyne him dry as Hay: Sleep shall neither Night nor Day Hang upon his Penthouse Lid: He shall live a man forbid: Weary Seu'nights, nine times nine, Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine: Though his Bark cannot be lost, Yet it shall be Tempest-tossed Look what I have. Here I have a Pilots Thumb, Wracked, as homeward he did come. All hail Macbeth, hail to thee Thane of Glamis. Hail. Lesser then Macbeth, and greater. Banquo, and Macbeth, all hail. But who did bid thee join with us? Then stand with us: The West yet glimmers with some streaks of Day. Now spurs the lated Traveller apace, To gain the timely Inn, end near approaches The subject of our Watch. His Horses go about. Stand too't. Let it come down. Was't not the way? Well, let's away, and say how much is done. Why how now Hecat, you look angrily? Come, let's make hast, shee'l soon be Back again. Thrice the brinded Cat hath mewed. Round about the Caldron go: In the poisoned Entrails throw Toad, that under cold stone, Days and Nights, ha thirty one: Sweltered Venom sleeping God, Boil thou first in the charmed pot. Speak. Say, if the hadst rather hear it from our mouths, Or from our Master's. Pour in Sows blood, that hath eaten Her nine Farrow: Greaze that's sweated From the Murderers Gibbet, throw Into the Flame. He knows thy thought: Hear his speech, but say thou nought. He will not be commanded: here's another More potent then the first. Show. I Sir, all this is so. But why Stands Macbeth thus amazedly? Come Sisters, cheer we up his sprights, And show the best of our delights. I'll Charm the Air to give a found, While you perform your Antique round: That this great King may kindly say, Our duties, did his welcome pay.
Plot summary
Plot — Macbeth
With the aid of some treacherous noblemen, the Norwegians have attacked Scotland. In the ensuing battle, Macbeth is instrumental in expelling the invaders, and is created Thane of Cawdor. Before he learns of this honour, he is greeted with the title by three witches who tell him he is to be King; they also tell Banquo that, though he will not be King himself, his descendants will. King Duncan names his son Malcolm the heir apparent, and invites himself to Macbeth’s castle, where Macbeth murders him, abetted by his wife. The night is troubled by unnatural, portentous events. When the assassination is discovered, Malcolm and Donalbain flee the country; suspicion falls on them, and the succession on Macbeth. Macbeth is troubled by the witches’ prophecy about Banquo. He has Banquo murdered, but Fleance escapes; Banquo’s ghost then appears when Macbeth wishes him present at a feast. Hecate rebukes the witches for failing to involve her in their dealings with Macbeth. Disgraced after his failure to attend Macbeth’s feast, Macduff goes to England to rally military support against Macbeth, who has become an egregious tyrant. The witches show Macbeth three apparitions which warn him to beware of Macduff, but also assure him that he cannot be harmed by anybody born of a woman, and that he shall never be defeated until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane; he is also shown a vision confirming that Banquo’s heirs will rule Scotland. Learning of Macduff's defection, Macbeth has his wife and family killed; grief steels Macduff's resolve. Lady Macbeth begins sleepwalking, disintegrates psychologically, and dies, possibly by suicide. When the English army enters Scotland with Malcolm at its head, the thanes join it, but Macbeth puts his trust in the witches’ prophecies. They prove to have been misleading: the English army disguise their numbers by carrying branches from Birnam Wood as they advance on Dunsinane, and Macduff proves not to have been born of woman but prematurely ripped from his mother’s womb. Macduff kills Macbeth, and Malcolm is established as King of Scotland; he awards his thanes the new style of earls.