| “A heavy summons lies lead upon me/ And yet I would not sleep.” | BanquoHe has a bad feeling, like something isn’t right, so he couldn’t sleep. |
| “So I lose none/ In seeking to augment it, but still keep/ My bosom franchised an allegiance clear.” | Banquo(to Macbeth) He’ll have Macbeth’s back as long as he’s not asked to go against the king. |
| “For it is a knell/ That summons thee to heaven or to hell.” | MacbethLady Macbeth rings the bell that is the signal for Macbeth to go and kill the king, Duncan. |
| “That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold.” | Lady Macbeth(soliloquy) 1. The plan is in action; or2. She took a shot of “courage” herself. |
| “The attempt and not the deed/ Confounds us.” | Lady MacbethShe hears Macbeth and immediately assumes that she and Macbeth have been caught. |
| “One cried ‘God bless us!’ and ‘Amen’ the other/ As they had seen me with these hangman’s Hands/ List’ning their fear, I could not say ‘Amen’ When they did say ‘God bless us!'” | Macbeth(To Lady Macbeth) He heard Malcolm and Donalbain say God Bless but he was unable to respond in the normal way “Amen” because he would never be blessed again. |
| “Methought I heard a voice cry, ‘Sleep no more!/ Macbeth does murder sleep’/ Glamis hath murdered sleep and therefore Cawdor/ Shall sleep no more.” | Macbeth(to Lady Macbeth) He is too guilty to ever sleep in peace again. |
| “The sleeping and the dead are but as pictures.” | Lady MacbethShe is trying to convince Macbeth (and herself) that sleep and death are the same. |
| “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/ Clean from my hand?/ No this my hand will rather/ The multitudinous seas incarnadine/ Making the green one red.” | Macbeth(soliloquy) His guilty conscience won’t let the blood be washed off his hands. |
| “O horror, horror, horror! Tongue not heart/ Cannot conceive nor Macbeth name thee.” | MacduffReaction to finding the murdered Duncan. |
| “Had I but died an hour before this chance/ I had lived a blessed time.” | Macbeth1. (to everyone) He would of rather died before the king.2. (to himself) He would still be blessed if he would have died one hour earlier, and the king would still be alive. |
| “The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood/ Is stopped: the very source of it is stopped.” | Macbeth(to Malcolm and Donalbain) “You’re father is dead.” |
| “Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope/ The Lord’s annointed temple.” | MacduffThe murder of Duncan is considered war against God because of the belief of the divine right. |
| “There’s dagger’s in men’s smiles; the near in blood/ the nearer bloody.” | Donalbain(to Malcolm) “We can’t trust anyone. The closer related we are to Duncan, the closer we are to our own death.” |
Act II Macbeth Quotes
December 11, 2019