| There’s husbandry in Heaven, There candles are all out | Banquo to fleance |
| A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, And yet I would not sleep | Banquo to Fleance |
| The King’s abed. He hath been in unusual pleasure, and sent forth great largess to your offices. This diamond he greets your wife withal By the name of the most kind hostess, and shut up in measureless content | Banquo to Macbeth |
| I dreamed last night of the three Weird Sisters; To you they have showed some truth. | Banquo to Macbeth |
| If you shall cleave to my consent, when ’tis, It shall make honour for you | Macbeth to Banquo |
| So I lose none In seeking to augment it, btu still keep My bosom franchised and allegiance clear, I shall be counselled. | Banquo to Macbeth |
| Is this a dagger which I see before me, The Handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee | Macbeth to himself |
| I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? | Macbeth to himself |
| I see thee yet, in form as palpable As this which now I draw. Thou marshall’st me the way that I was going, And such an instrument I was to use. | Macbeth to Himself |
| Mine eyes are made the fools o’th’ other senses, or else worth all the rest. | Macbeth to Himself |
| I see thee still; And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, Which was not so before. There’s no such thing, It is the bloody business which informs Thus to mind eyes. | Macbeth to Himself |
| Now o’er the one half world Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse The curtained sleep; | Macbeth to Himself |
| …withered murder, Alarmed by his sentinel, the wolf, Whose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, With Tarquin’s ravishing strides, towards his design Moves like a ghost. | Macbeth to Himself |
| Thou sure and firm-set earth, Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear Thy very stones prate of my whereabout, And take the present horror from the time Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives; Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. | Macbeth to Himself |
| 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 to Himself |
| That which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold; What hath quenched them, hath given me fire. | Lady Macbeth to herself |
| It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman Which gives the stern’st good night. He is about it, The doors are open and the surfeited grooms Do mock their charge with snores. I have drugged their possets, That death and nature do contend about them Whether they live or die. | Lady Macbeth to herself |
| Alack, I am afraid they have awaked, And ’tis not done: th’attempt, and not the deed, Confounds us.–Hark–I laid their daggers ready He could not miss em. | Lady Macbeth to herself |
| Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done’t. | Lady Macbeth to herself |
| I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Did you not speak? | Lady Macbeth to Macbeth |
| There’s one did laugh in’s sleep, And one cried “Murder”, that they did wake each other. I stood and heard them. But they did say their prayers, and Addressed them again to sleep. | Macbeth to Lady Macbeth |
| One cried ‘God bless us’, and ‘Amen’ the other, As they had seen me with these hangman’s hands; | Macbeth to Lady Macbeth |
| List’ning their fear, I could not say ‘Amen’, When they did say ‘God Bless us’ | Macbeth to Lady Macbeth |
| But wherefore could not I pronounce ‘Amen’? I had mos t need of blessing, and ‘Amen’ Stuck in my throat. | Macbeth to Lady Macbeth |
| These deeds must not be thought After these ways: So, it will make us mad. | Lady macbeth to Macbeth |
| Macbeth does murder sleep, the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care, The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, Chief nourisher of life’s feast. | Macbeth to Lady macbeth |
| Still it cried ‘sleep no more’ to all the house : ‘Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor Shall sleep no more–Macbeth shall sleep no more’ | Macbeth to Lady Macbeth |
| Why worthy thane, You do unbend your noble strength to think So brain-sickly of things–go get some water, and wash this filthy witness from your hand | Lady Macbeth to Macbeth |
| I’ll go no more: I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on’t again, I dare not. | Macbeth to Lady macbeth |
| Infirm of purpose ; GIve me the daggers ; the sleeping and the dead, Are but as pictures;…If he do bleed, I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal, For it must seem their guilt | Lady Macbeth to Macbeth |
| 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 to himself |
| My hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white. | Lady Macbeth to Macbeth |
| A little water clears us of this deed. How easy is it then! | Lady Macbeth to Macbeth |
| To know my deed, ’twere best not know myself. | Macbeth to Lady Macbeth |
| He did command me to call timely on him, I have almost slipped the hour. | Macduff to Macbeth |
| I know this is a joyful trouble to you: but yet ’tis one. | Macduff to Macbeth |
| The labour we delight in physics pain–this is the door. | Macbeth to Macduff |
| The night has been unruly: where we layOur chimmneys were blown down, and, as they say,Lamenting heard i’th’ air, strange screams of death, And prophesying with accents terribleOf dire combustion and confused eventsNew-hatched to th’ woeful time. | Lennox to Macbeth |
| The obscure bird Clamoured the livelong night. Some say the earth was feverous and did shake | Lennox to Macbeth |
| O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart cannot conceive, nor name thee | Macduff to Macbeth and Lennox |
| Confusion now hath made his masterpiece: Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord’s anointed temple, and stole thence The life o’th’ building. | Macduff to Macbeth and Lennox |
| Aprroach the chamber and destroy your sight With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak–See and then speak your selves… | Macduff to Macbeth and Lennox |
| Ring the alarum bell; murder and treason, Banquo and Donalbain–Malcolm awake…As from your graves rise up, and walk liek sprites, To countenance this horror. Ring the bell | Macduff to bellman |
| O gentle lady, ‘Tis not for you to hear what I can speak: The repetition in a woman’s ear Would murder as it fell. | Macduff to Lady Macbeth |
| Too cruel, anywhere. Dear Duff, I prithee contradict thyself, And say it is not so. | Banquo to Macduff |
| Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had lived a blessed time; for from this instant There’s nothing esrious in mortality–All is but toys: renown and grace is dead, The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees Is left this vault to brag of. | Macbeth to everyone |
| You are, and do not know’t: The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood is stopped, the very source of it is stopped | Macbeth to Donalbain |
| Those of his chamber, as it seemed, had done’t: Their hands and faces were all badged with blood, So were their daggers which, unwiped, we found Upon their pillows; they stared, and were distracted, No man’s life was to be trusted with them | Lennox to Malcolm |
| O yet I do repent me of my fury, That I did kill them | Macbeth to everyone |
| Who can be wise, amazed, temp’rate, and furious, Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No main: Th’ expedition of my violent love Outran the pauser, reason. | Macbeth to Everyone |
| is silver skin laced with his golden blood, And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature For ruin’s wasteful entrance; there the murderers Steeped in the colours of their trade…who could refrain, That had a heart to love and in that heart, Courage to make’s love known? | Macbeth to Everyone |
| Why do we hold our tongues, that most may claim This argument for ours? | Malcolm in aside to Donalbain |
| What should be spoken here, Where our fate, hid in an auger-hole, may rush and Seize us? Let’s away, our teras are not yet brewed. | Donalbain in aside to Malcolm |
| And when we have our naked frailties hid, That suffer in exposure, let us meet And question this most bloody piece of work, To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us : In the grat hand of God I stand, and thence Against the undivulged pretence I fight Of treasonous malice | Banquo to everyone |
| Nor our strong sorrow upon the foot of motion | Malcolm in aside to Donalbain |
| What will you do? Let’s not consort with them–To show an unfelt sorrow is an office Which the false man does easy | Malcolm to Donalbain |
| Our separated fortune Shall keep us both the safer; | Donalbain to Malcolm |
| where we are, There’s daggers in men’s smiles–the near in blood, The nearer bloody | Donalbain to Malcolm |
| This murderous shaft that’s shot hath not yet lighted, and our safest way is to avoid the aim | Malcolm to Donalbain |
| Therefore to horse, And let us not be dainty of leave-taking, But shift away : there’s warrant in that theft Which steals itself which there’s no mercy left. | Malcolm to Donalbain |
| Threescore and ten I can remember well, WIthin the volume of which time I have seen Hours dreadful and things strange; but this sore night Hath trifled former knowings | Old man to Ross |
| Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man’s act Threatens his bloody stage. | Ross to Old man |
| By th’ clock ’tis day, And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp; | Ross to Old man |
| Is’t night’s predominance, or the day’s shame, That darkness does the face of earth entomb When living light should kiss it? | Ross to Old man |
| tis unnatural, Even like the deed that’s done. On TUesday last, A falcon tow’ring in her pride of place Was by a mousingn owl hawked at, and killed. | Old man to Ross |
| And Duncan’s horses–a thing most strange and certain–Beateous and swift, the minions of their race, Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, Contending ‘gainst obedience, as they would Make war with mankind | Ross to Old man |
| ‘Tis said they ate each other | Old man to Ross |
| They did so, to th’amazement of mine eyes That looked upon’t | Ross to Old man |
| They were suborned; Malcolm and Donalbain, the King’s two sons, Are stol’n away and fled, which puts upon them Suspicion of the deed | Macduff to Ross |
| ‘Gainst nature still–Thriftless ambition, that will raven up Thine own life’s means. Then ’tis most like The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth | Ross to Macduff |
| He is already named, and gone to Scone To be invested | Macduff to Ross |
| Well, may you see things well done there–adieu, Lest our old rose sit easier than our new | Macduff to Ross |
| God’s benson go with you ,and with those That would make good of bad, and friends of foes | Old man to Ross |
| Wake Duncan with thy knocking : I would thou coulst. | Macbeth to knocking at the door |
Macbeth Act 2 Quotes
August 13, 2019