Guide Note

Macbeth is a classic tragedy by William Shakespeare. The shortest of his tragedies, the play is believed to have been written between 1603 and 1606. The play tells the story of King Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth's, lust from the Scottish crown. Many actors believe that the play is cursed and will not refer to its name aloud, referring to it instead as "The Scottish Play" and to the character as "Mackers." Saying the word "Macbeth" backstage at a theater is considered extremely bad luck.

The play has been adapted for film, television and the operatic stage. Most notably, Orson Welles helmed a film version in 1948 and Trevor Nunn's 1979 television version featured Royal Shakespeare Company members Ian McKellen and Judi Dench.

Fast Facts

1. Believed to have been written between 1603 and 1606
2. Loosely based on Raphael Holinshed's historical account of King Macbeth of Scotland
3. Published in the First Folio 1623
4. Shortest of Shakespeare's tragedies (1993 lines)
5. First performance: April 1611 - Globe Theatre
6. Ran for 131 performances on Broadway in 1941
7. Main Characters:
   1. Macbeth
   2. Lady Macbeth
   3. Macduff
   4. Duncan
   5. Banquo
   6. The Weird Sisters
8. Famous Speeches:
   1. To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow- Act 5. Scene 5
   2. If it were done when tis done, then 'twere well...- Act 1. Scene 7
   3. Out, damned spot! out, I say!-Act 5. Scene 1
   4. Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts! unsex me here - Act 1. Scene 5
   5. Is this a dagger I see before me-Act 2. Scene 1
9. Famous Quotes:
   1. Out, damned spot! out, I say! -Lady Macbeth, Act 4. Scene 1
   2. Lay on, Macduff.-Macbeth, Act 5. Scene 8
   3. Fair is foul, and foul is fair.-Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 1
   4. Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it.- Act 1. Scene 5
   5. Screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we'll not fail.- Act 1. Scene 5
   6. Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble.- Act 4. Scene 1
   7. By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes. - Act 4. Scene 1
   8. Yet do I fear thy nature; it is too full o' the milk of human kindness.-Act 1. Scene 5

"Is this a dagger..." Soliloquy

• Is this a dagger which I see before me,
• The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
• 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?
• 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.
• Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
• Or else worth all the rest; 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 mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworld
• Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
• The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates
• Pale Hecate's offerings , and wither'd murder,
• Alarum'd 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. 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.
• A bell rings
• 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.