Macbeth- Act 2 Key Quotes

'In heaven their candles are all out'

Banquo- Banquo says that all is bad due to the murder.

'still keep My bosom franchised and allegiance clear'

Banquo- Banquo says he will follow Macbeth as king as long as he gets there fairly.

'Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle towards my hand?'

Macbeth- The dagger soliloquy

'a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?'

Macbeth- Macbeth believes the dagger is just a hallucination.

'hear it not Duncan, for it is a knell, that summons thee to Heaven, or to Hell.

Macbeth- Macbeth's final words before killing Duncan.

'I have drugged their possets'

Lady Macbeth- Lady Macbeth says she has drugged the guard's drinks.

'Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done't.'

Lady Macbeth- Lady Macbeth gives an excuse for why she couldn't kill the king.

'these hangman's hands'

Macbeth- 'With my murdering hands'

'But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'? [...] Stuck in my throat.'

Macbeth- Macbeth feels so much guilt that he cannot say the words of God.

'Sleep no more! Macbeth does murther sleep!'

Macbeth- Macbeth thinks he will never sleep again.

'You do unbend your noble strength, to think So brainsickly of things.'

Lady Macbeth- Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to stop being cowardly.

'wash this filthy witness from your hand.'

Lady Macbeth- Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to wash the blood from his hands.

'Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand?'

Macbeth- 'Will even the great ocean remove my guilt (blood)?'

'My hands are of your colour, but I shame To wear a heart so white.'

Lady Macbeth- Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth that she would be ashamed to have so much regret.

'A little water clears us of this deed.'

Lady Macbeth- The murder can be easily disguised.

'Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!'

Macbeth- 'I wish this knocking would wake Duncan up'

'Enter MACBETH, in a dressing-gown.'

Stage Direction- Macbeth wears...

'The night has been unruly [...] Lamentings heard i'th'air, strange screams of death.'

Lennox- Lennox explains how it was a horrible night with screams and bad weather.

'Most sacrilegious murthur hath broke ope The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence The life o'th' building.'

Macduff- Macduff discovers the murder.

'O gentle lady, 'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak: The repetition, in a woman's ear, Would murther as it fell.'

Macduff- Macduff says that a woman could not hear what had happened as it was so awful.

'Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had lived a blessed time'

Macbeth- Macbeth wishes he could have died before he murdered Duncan.

'Who can be wise, amazed, temp'rate and furious, Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man'

Macbeth- Macbeth gives excuses for why he killed the guards.

'Here lay Duncan, His silver skin laced with his golden blood, And his gashed stabs'

Macbeth- Macbeth says that the dead Duncan looked like a break in nature.

'There's daggers in men's smiles'

Donaldbain- Donaldbain says that not everybody is how they first appear (hinting that he believed Macbeth did the deed).