Famous Quotes from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Machiavelli’s The Prince, and Christopher Marlowe’s
Tragical History of Dr. Faustus
For each quotation below, give the title of the work, the author, and the period (Renaissance). Also identify who
is speaking, to whom he or she is speaking, and (in some cases) about whom he or she is speaking.
"There's daggers in men's smiles".
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Donalbain to Malcolm (Duncan’s sons): Act II, Sc. 3
This sentence means that there are ulterior motivations under
the surface of what-seems-to be. In other words, what
appears on one's face may not be the sentiment in one's
heart.
Donalbain, King Duncan’s son, is expressing to his brother
Malcolm that, since they don’t know who murdered their father,
there are clearly some people acting as friends but literally
stabbing them in the back.
This echoes Lady M’s suggestion to Macbeth, earlier in the
play, to “look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under
it.”
"What 's done is done".
Full Text:
How now, my lord, why do you keep alone,
Of sorriest fancies your companions making,
Using those thoughts which should indeed have died
With them they think on? Things without all remedy
Should be without regard: what's done, is done.
"I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do
more is none".
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Lady Macbeth to her husband, Macbeth:
Act III, Scene 2
Lady Macbeth's soothing words are odd, to say the least,
coming from a conspirator. She intends to calm her
husband, who's having more trouble than she forgetting that
he murdered King Duncan. She means by "what's done, is
done" exactly what we mean by it today—"there's no
changing the past, so forget about it."
When Lady Macbeth herself succumbs to guilty dreams, she
will sing the same tune, but in a different key. Sleepwalking,
as has become her wont, she mutters, as if to Macbeth,
"What's done cannot be undone" (Act 5, scene 1, 68).
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Macbeth to Lady Macbeth Act I Sc. 7
Macbeth says this after Lady Macbeth goads him to do what
he must to take the crown.
Translation:
Please, stop! I dare to do only what is proper for a man to do.
He who dares to do more is not a man at all.
He is fine-tuning her definition of manhood. He believes a true
gentleman is loyal, etc. But, she is trying to get him to see
something good (gentlemanliness) as something weak and to
see something bad (brutishness) as something good.
“Never too late, if Faustus will repent.”
The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus
by Christopher Marlowe
The good angel is speaking the truth to Faustus.
"Fair is foul, and foul is fair”
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
The Witches Act I Sc. 1
Chant the Weird Sisters as they go to wait for the battle to be over
so they can deliver their seductive prophesies to Macbeth. The
witches find what normal mortals find fair to be foul and vice
versa. They see things differently and embrace all that is dark,
mysterious, and evil. This is what Macbeth and Lady M will also
eventually do. They will believe their evil actions are good.
"I bear a charmed life".
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Macbeth to Macduff Act V Sc. 7
I have a charmed life, which must not yield
To one given birth to by a woman.
“Is it better to be loved than feared, or the reverse?…I
hold that it is much more secure to be feared than
loved.”
Machiavelli’s The Prince
"Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of
human kindness." (Act I, Scene V).
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Lady Macbeth to herself about Macbeth Act I Sc. 5
Lady Macbeth says this line immediately after reading a
letter she has just received from her husband. In that letter,
Macbeth informs his wife that the witches have prophesied
that he will be...
"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"
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Macbeth to self but Lady Macbeth hears Act II Sc. 2
Lady Macbeth at first tries to steady her husband, but she
becomes angry when she notices that he has forgotten to
leave the daggers with the sleeping chamberlains so as to
frame them for Duncan’s murder. He refuses to go back into
the room, so she takes the daggers into the room herself,
saying that she would be ashamed to be as cowardly as
Macbeth. As she leaves, Macbeth hears a mysterious
knocking. The portentous sound frightens him, and he asks
desperately, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood /
Clean from my hand?” (2.2.58–59). As Lady Macbeth reenters
the hall, the knocking comes again, and then a third time. She
leads her husband back to the bedchamber, where he can
wash off the blood. “A little water clears us of this deed,” she
tells him. “How easy it is then!” (2.2.65–66).
Lady Macbeth is lamenting the fact that she was not the one
that committed the murder of Duncan. When Macbeth returns
from performing the deed, they clasp hands, which gets the
blood from Macbeth to Lady Macbeth. She recognizes what
this symbolizes: that she is just as guilty in Duncan’s murder
as Macbeth.
"Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and
cauldron bubble."
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
The Witches to themselves Act IV, Scene I
Three Scottish witches are going about their business—tossing
poisoned entrails, eye of newt, toe of frog, and such, into a
cauldron—while awaiting a visit from the man they said would
be king: Macbeth. "Double, double toil and trouble" is part of
the refrain to their demonic incantation. The witches are
actually trying, with their spells, to pile up toil and trouble until
they "double"—yielding twice the toil and double the trouble for
Macbeth, presumably.
“Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed In one selfplace; for where we are is hell, And where hell is,
there must we ever be.”
The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus
by Christopher Marlowe
Mephistopholis to Faustus
This shows Mephistophilis warning Faustus about the horrors
of hell. Faustus doesn’t really understand what he is doing. He
is a secular Renaissance man, so disdainful of traditional
religion that he believes hell to be a “fable” even when he is
conversing with a devil.
Faustus, despite his pact with Lucifer, is not yet damned and
still has the possibility of repentance. He cannot yet
understand the torture against which Mephistophilis warns him,
and imagines, fatally, that he already knows the worst of what
hell will be. He shows incredible arrogance.
"Out, damned spot! out, I say!"
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Lady Macbeth to herself sleep walking: Act V Sc. 1
Lady Macbeth sleepwalks through the royal castle. As her
waiting-woman and her doctor listen in, she mutters fragments
of an imaginary conversation that recalls the night she and her
husband conspired to murder King Duncan. The hour is two
o'clock; she upbraids her husband for his bad conscience; she
insists that there will be nothing to fear once they've grabbed
the crown; she marvels at how much blood Duncan had to
shed. As Lady Macbeth replays this scene for the
eavesdroppers, she not only incriminates herself, but also
reveals the pangs of conscience she had ridiculed in her
husband.
"All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little
hand."
One motif of Macbeth is how tough it is to wash, scrub, or soak
out nasty bloodstains. Macbeth had said that even the ocean
couldn't wash his hands clean of Duncan's blood; Lady
Macbeth, who scorned him then, now finds the blood dyed into
her conscience. The king and queen persist in imagining that
physical actions can root out psychological demons, but the
play is an exposition of how wrong they are.
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Lady Macbeth to herself sleep walking: Act V, Sc. I
Continued from the same sleepwalk as the one above.
"If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown
me"
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Macbeth to Banquo Act I Sc. 3
By "chance" (fortune), he's referring to the weird sisters'
prediction that he will be king. He figures that if being king is
his destiny, he doesn't have to do anything ("without my
stir") to make it happen.
Macbeth doesn't want to kill King Duncan, but Lady Macbeth
would have him murder all of Scotland to get his crown!
"Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it; he
died as one that had been studied in his death to throw
away the dearest thing he owed, as 't were a careless
trifle”
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Malcolm to King Duncan regarding Cawdor’s death Act I
Sc. 4
Macbeth inherits the former thane of Cawdor’s title due to his
death as a traitor, as the three witches had predicted.
Malcolm, one of the king's two sons, pictures the Cawdor's
histrionic repentance at the gallows. Nothing in Cawdor’s
life(reflected as well on his character as did his pious loyalty on
the verge of execution. Duncan sometimes rewarded the
groveler with his life.
"Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under
't."
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Lady Macbeth to Macbeth Act I Sc. 5
Translation of larger passage:In order to deceive them,
you must appear the way they expect you to look. Greet the
king with a welcoming expression in your eyes, your hands,
and your words. You should look like an innocent flower, but
be like the snake that hides underneath the flower. The king
is coming, and he’s got to be taken care of.
"How am I glutted with conceit of this!
Shall I make
spirits fetch me what I please,
Resolve me of all
ambiguities,
Perform what desperate enterprise I will?"
The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus
by Christopher Marlowe
Act 1, Scene 1, Lines 77-80
Faustus to himself
Faustus wants to have all mysteries dissolved. This is
something only God can have, and he never receives it,
even after making the pact with Satan.
"I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only
vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself, and falls on the
other."
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Macbeth in a monologue Act I Sc. 7
Translation:
I can’t spur myself to action. The only thing motivating me is
ambition, which makes people rush ahead of themselves
toward disaster.
"Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle
toward my hand?"
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Macbeth Act II Sc. 1
Macbeth has made his decision to kill the King and take the
crown as his own. Inspired in part by his own ambition, the
decision to murder Duncan is aided by the prophecies of the
Witches as well as the insistent urging of his wife. Still,
Macbeth is wracked with guilt over what he is about to do,
and his mind races with thoughts of such evil action. He
begins to hallucinate and sees a bloody dagger in the air,
which will be his instrument of murder. He goes on to
comment on the wickedness of the world, thoughts which
are interrupted by the ringing of the bell, a signal from Lady
Macbeth that Duncan's guards are drugged and sleeping.
He goes off to complete the dire deed. Shakespeare's
Macbeth is notable for hallucinations, terrifying dreams,
witches, prophecies and all of the combining forces of
nature which lead to chaos and murder in the gloomy
countryside of Scotland.
"Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a
poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage
and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot,
full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Macbeth Act V Sc. 5
After hearing that his wife has died, Macbeth takes stock of his
own indifference to the event. Death—our return to dust—
seems to him merely the last act of a very bad play, an idiot's
tale full of "sound and fury", but without meaning, "signifying
nothing". Murdering King Duncan and seizing his throne in
retrospect seem like scenes of a script Macbeth was never
suited to play. The idea that "all the world's a stage" is
occasionally very depressing to Shakespeare's heroes.
If life is like a bad play, it is thus an illusion, a mere shadow
cast by a "brief candle." The candle is perhaps the soul, and
the prospects for Macbeth's are grim.
“A little water clears us of this deed:
How easy it is then!”
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Lady Macbeth to Macbeth Act II Sc. 2
For now, Lady Macbeth remains the voice of calculating
reason, as she tells him that the blood can be washed away
with a little water. But, as Lady Macbeth eventually realizes,
the guilt that the blood symbolizes needs more than water to
be cleansed away. Her hallucinations later in the play, in
which she washes her hands obsessively, lend irony to her
insistence here that “[a] little water clears us of this deed”
(2.2.65).
My hands are of your colour; but I shame
To wear a heart so white. (Knock.) I hear a knocking
At the south entry: retire we to our chamber; A little
water clears us of this deed:
How easy is it, then! Your constancy
Hath left you unattended. (Knock.) Hark! more
knocking.
Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us,
And show us to be watchers. Be not lost
So poorly in your thoughts.
“Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it.”
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
LADY MACBETH to Macbeth Act II Sc. 2
Lady Macbeth is lamenting the fact that she was not the one
that committed the murder of Duncan. When Macbeth returns
from performing the deed, they clasp hands, which gets the
blood from Macbeth to Lady Macbeth
The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus
by Christopher Marlowe
Mephistophilis to Faustus
This exchange shows Faustus at his most willfully blind, as he
listens to Mephistophilis describe how awful hell is for him
even as a devil, and as he then proceeds to dismiss
Mephistophilis’s words blithely, urging him to have “manly
fortitude.”
Strangely, even though he’s committed to getting Faustus’ soul
for Satan, Mephistophilis seems to be urging Faustus against
selling his soul, telling him to “leave these frivolous demands, /
Which strike a terror to my fainting soul.” He knows all too well
the terrible reality, and this knowledge drives him, in spite of
himself, to warn Faustus away from his terrible course.
I will not yield,
To kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet,
And to be baited with the rabble’s curse.
Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane,
And thou opposed, being of no woman born,
Yet I will try the last. Before my body
I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,
And damned be him that first cries, “Hold, enough!”
MACBETH to Macduff Act V Sc.7
Translation:
I’m not going to surrender and have to kiss the ground in front
of Malcolm, or be taunted by the common people. Even though
Birnam Wood really did come to Dunsinane, and I’m fighting a
man not of woman born, I’ll fight to the end. I’ll put up my
shield and battle you. Come on, let’s go at it, Macduff, and
damn the first man who cries, 'Stop! Enough!'
Macbeth is speaking to Macduff just before he kills him. He
has recognized that the witches’ prophecy has started to come
true. Like Faustus, he softens and has less desire to harm
another at the end of his life. He doesn’t want to fight Macduff,
but is forced to because Macduff won’t back down.
…—What are these
So withered and so wild in their attire,
That look not like th' inhabitants o' th' Earth,
And yet are on ’t?—Live you? Or are you aught
That man may question? …
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
BANQUO to Macbeth Act I Sc. 3
Translation:
How far is it supposed to be to Forres? (he sees the WITCHES)
What are these creatures? They’re so withered-looking and
crazily dressed. They don’t look like they belong on this planet,
but I see them standing here on Earth. (to the WITCHES) Are
you alive? Can you answer questions? ...
“I have almost forgot the taste of fears;
The time has been, my senses would have cool'd
To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
As life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrors…”
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Macbeth to Seyton or to himself (Act V Sc. 5)
Translation:
I have almost forgotten the taste of fears.
There was a time when my senses would have cooled
To hear a night-shriek, and my head of hair
Would rouse and stir, at a dismal treatise,
As if it were alive. I have had dinner with horrors;
Horror, familiar to my murderous thoughts,
Cannot once startle me.
When Macbeth hears Lady Macbeth’s attendants scream at the
end of the play, he marvels at his inability to feel anything. He
is already dead emotionally and psychologically.
"Cut is the branch that might have grown full
straight,
And burned is Apollo's laurel bough,
That
sometime grew within this learned man.
Faustus is
gone. Regard his hellish fall,
Whose fiendful fortune
may exhort the wise
Only to wonder at unlawful
things,
Whose deepness doth entice such forward
wits,
To practise more than heavenly power permits."
The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus
by Christopher Marlowe
Act 5, Scene 3, Lines 20-28
Chorus to audience
Includes the moral of the story: Do not expect to be or have
more than is your right, or you will pay!