Interested in Lady Macbeth quotes? Lady Macbeth is possibly Shakespeare’s most famous and vivid female character. She is generally depicted in the popular mind as the epitome of evil, and images of her appear over and over again in several cultures (read our Lady Macbeth character analysis).
She is usually depicted as a strong, tough woman and, in her drive to induce Macbeth to murder King Duncan, she appears to be that, but, having succeeded, it does not take long for her to crumble and break down, destroyed by guilt, and she ends up committing suicide. The journey that this character goes on through the play is fascinating, and Shakespeare does a masterful job of presenting her inner thoughts as the play progresses. As such, there are many wonderful Lady Macbeth quotes.
Here we pull together a selection of Lady Macbeth quotes that range from her early mocking of Macbeth for his apparent lack of strength to do her bidding, through to her regret and seeming empathy at the violent, murderous events that unfold:
“The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements”
“Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness.”
(Act 1, Scene 5)
“Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry, ‘Hold, hold!’”
(Act 1, Scene 5)
“Come you spirits, That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here.”
(Act 1, Scene 5)
“O, never
Shall sun that morrow see!
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time. Bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue. Look like th’ innocent flower,
But be the serpent under ‘t. He that’s coming
Must be provide for: and you shall put
This night’s great business into my dispatch,
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.”
(Act 1, Scene 5)
“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 th’ access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
Th’ effect and it. Come to my woman’s breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry “Hold, hold!””
(Act 1, Scene 5)
“Screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we’ll not fail.”
“Would’st thou have that
Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would,”
Like the poor cat i’ th’ adage?”
(Act 1, Scene 7)
“I have given suck, and know
How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me.
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums
And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.”
(Act 1, Scene 7)
“That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold,
What hath quenched them hath given me fire.”
“I laid their daggers ready;
He could not miss ‘em. Had he not resembled
My father as he slept, I had done’t.”
(Act 2, Scene 2)
“Tis the eye of childhood, That fears a painted devil.”
(Act 2, Scene 2)
“Out! damned spot! One, two, — why, then ‘tis time to do’t. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? – Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.”
“All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.”
(Act 5, Scene 1)
“What’s done cannot be undone.”
(Act 5, Scene 1)
“Yet who would have the thought the old man to have so much blood in him?”
(Act 5, Scene 1)
Are any of your favourite Lady Macbeth quotes missing from this list? Please let us know in the comments below! Or read more Macbeth quotes from other characters.
One of Lady Macbeth’s quotes.
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