Identify the following:
A.
Act.scene.line
B.
Speaker
C.
Spoken to
D.
Context – surrounding circumstances
E.
Interpretation – meaning
1) Fair is foul, and foul is fair
A.
(I.i.10)
B.
The three witches/ the weird sisters
C.
Each other
D.
The witches have met at the very beginning of the play. This establishes the mood. They are planning to meet Macbeth after the battle with Norway is lost and won.
E.
Things are not what they seem to be. Good is bad, bad is good
2. Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his pent-house lid;
He shall live a man forbid:
Weary se'nnights nine times nine
Shall he dwindle, peak and pine:
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tost.
A.
(I.iii.19 – 24)
B.
The first witch / weird sister
C.
Each other
D.
They are planning to tell Macbeth about their prophecy and his fate

E.
The meaning of this is that both Macbeth and Banquo are going to have trouble sleeping. Sleep is a recurring motif in the play.
3.
you should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.
A.
(I.iii.45)
B.
Banquo
C.
The witches
D.
Banquo and Macbeth are meeting the witches for the first time
E.
I think you are women, but your beards make me think you are men. This emphasizes the witches as “not of this world”.
4. Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear
Things that do sound so fair?
A.
(I.iii.51-52)
B.
Banquo
C.
Macbeth
D.
The three witches are telling Macbeth and Banquo their prophecies
E.
He is questioning Macbeth about why he is so afraid when the prophecy seems to be good – Thane of Cawdor and then King of
Scotland.
5. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
Not so happy, yet much happier.
Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none:
A.
(I.iii.65)
B.
The witches
C.
Banquo
D.
The witches are telling Banquo his future - prophecy

E.
Your life will not be as successful as Macbeth’s, nor as much of a failure. Your children will become king, but you will not.
6. why do you dress me
In borrow'd robes?
A.
(I.iii.108-109)
B.
Macbeth
C.
This is being said to Angus and Ross
D.
Ross and Angus have come to Macbeth to tell him the king has crowned him Thane of Cawdor
E.
Macbeth is metaphorically asking why he is wearing the Thane of Cawdor’s clothes – robes - if he is not Thane of Cawdor
7. And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray's
In deepest consequence
A.
(I.iii.123-126)
B.
Banquo
C.
Macbeth
D.
They are discussing the witches’ prophecies
E.
Banquo is cautious about believing the witches – sometimes evil tells us truth in order to hurt us.
8. Come what come may,
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
A.
(I.iii.146-147)
B.
Macbeth
C.
He is telling this to himself
D.
He is talking to Banquo and is talking about the witches’ prophecy. This line is spoken in an aside. What will be, will be; time passes even in the most difficult moments.
E.
He is saying let whatever is going to come to me come to me.
Reference to theme of fate

9. nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it;
A.
(I.iv.7-8)
B.
Malcolm
C.
King
D.
Malcolm to the King- reporting details of the Thane of Cawdor’s execution.
E.
The son (Malcolm) is talking to the king about the Thane of
Cawdor dying in a repentant way. His death was better than his life.
10.
There's no art
To find the mind's construction in the face:
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.
A.
(I.iv.12-15)
B.
King
C.
Malcolm
D.
Talking about the old Thane of Cawdor committing treason just after he is executed.
E.
There is no way to know what someone is thinking by looking at them. I trusted the Thane and he betrayed me. Macbeth enters immediately after this line is spoken – foreshadowing.
11. Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires:
A.
(I.iv.50-51)
B.
Macbeth
C.
Himself

D.
He learns that Malcolm, the Prince of Cumberland, is next in line for the throne.
E.
Stars – fate – turn off the lights so my dark thoughts can’t be seen…reference to theme of fate. This is our first true glimpse at
Macbeth’s ambition.
12. yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way:
A.
(I.v.14-16)
B.
Lady Macbeth
C.
To herself
D.
She has just received Macbeth’s letter telling her the witches’ prophecies that he will be Thane of Cawdor and King.
E.
I feel you are to kind to figure out the quickest way to become king. Macbeth doesn’t have murder in him. She is saying you must kill the king to become king (the quickest way).
14. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it!
A.
(I.v.38-45)
B.
Lady Macbeth
C.
Herself / the “spirits” (speaking it to herself, but she is also invoking the spirits).
D.
Praying to the spirits for strength before she kills the king.

E.
She wants to become more like a man so that she doesn’t feel bad about killing the King because it is not ladylike.
15. Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under't.
A.
(I.iv.63-64)
B.
Lady Macbeth
C.
Macbeth
D.
She is preparing Macbeth for the King’s visit and their murder of him.
E.
Act like your normal self and like a great host, to hide the crime that we are about to commit. Look kind, but be cruel. Same idea of “fair is foul and foul is fair.”
16. Away, and mock the time with fairest show:
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
A.
(I.vii.81-82)
B.
Macbeth
C.
Lady Macbeth
D.
This is when they were talking about killing the king – awaiting his arrival at the castle
E.
Spend our time with a fake face on, hiding what the heart knows…we will kill King Duncan – theme of appearance vs. reality.