(the Scottish play.)

Macbeth monologues, printed in full

Twenty-one of Macbeth's own, Lady Macbeth's six, and the speeches nobody brings into a room because they never read past the famous ones: Malcolm, the Porter, Lady Macduff, Hecate. Public domain, printed whole, timed.

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1
Lady Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dramatic · 1:47 min
Was the hope drunk Wherein you dress'd yourself? Hath it slept since? And wakes it now, to look so green and pale At what it did so freely? From this time Such I account thy love.…
2
Lady Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dramatic · 0:57 min
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…
3
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dramatic · 2:29 min
Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. (Exit Servant.) Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come,…
4
Soldier from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dramatic · 2:09 min
Doubtful it stood; As two spent swimmers that do cling together And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald (Worthy to be a rebel, for to that The multiplying villainies of…
5
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:11 min
(Aside.) Two truths are told, As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme.—I thank you, gentlemen.— (Aside.) This supernatural soliciting Cannot be ill; cannot be…
6
Lady Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 2:29 min
“They met me in the day of success; and I have learned by the perfect’st report they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further,…
7
Lady Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:27 min
Give him tending. He brings great news. (Exit Messenger.) The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you spirits That tend on…
8
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:52 min
If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well It were done quickly. If th’ assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch With his surcease success; that but this…
9
Lady Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · defiant · 1:47 min
What beast was’t, then, That made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man; And, to be more than what you were, you would Be so much more the…
10
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 2:36 min
Good repose the while! (BANQUO: Thanks, sir: the like to you.) Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. (Exit Servant.) Is this a…
11
Porter from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · comedic · 1:41 min
Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell gate, he should have old turning the key. (Knocking.) Knock, knock, knock. Who’s there, i’ th’ name of Belzebub? Here’s a…
12
Porter from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · comedic · 1:22 min
Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock; and drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things. (MACDUFF: What three things does drink especially provoke?) Marry, sir,…
13
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 3:20 min
Bring them before us. (Exit Servant.) To be thus is nothing, But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature Reigns that which would be fear’d:…
14
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:07 min
Your spirits shine through you. Within this hour at most, I will advise you where to plant yourselves, Acquaint you with the perfect spy o’ th’ time, The moment on’t; for’t must…
15
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 0:58 min
We have scorch’d the snake, not kill’d it. She’ll close, and be herself; whilst our poor malice Remains in danger of her former tooth. But let the frame of things disjoint, Both…
16
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:14 min
Pr’ythee, see there! Behold! look! lo! how say you? Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.— If charnel houses and our graves must send Those that we bury back, our…
17
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:02 min
I do forget.— Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends. I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing To those that know me. Come, love and health to all; Then I’ll sit down.—Give…
18
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:31 min
It will have blood, they say, blood will have blood. Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak; Augurs, and understood relations, have By magot-pies, and choughs, and…
19
Hecate from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 2:05 min
Have I not reason, beldams as you are, Saucy and overbold? How did you dare To trade and traffic with Macbeth In riddles and affairs of death; And I, the mistress of your charms,…
20
Lennox from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:43 min
My former speeches have but hit your thoughts, Which can interpret farther: only, I say, Thing’s have been strangely borne. The gracious Duncan Was pitied of Macbeth:—marry, he…
21
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:00 min
Thou are too like the spirit of Banquo. Down! Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs:—and thy hair, Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first. A third is like the former.—Filthy…
22
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:21 min
Infected be the air whereon they ride; And damn’d all those that trust them!—I did hear The galloping of horse: who was’t came by? (LENNOX: ’Tis two or three, my lord, that bring…
23
Ross from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · contemplative · 1:12 min
My dearest coz, I pray you, school yourself: but, for your husband, He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows The fits o’ th’ season. I dare not speak much further: But cruel…
24
Malcolm from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · contemplative · 1:43 min
What I believe, I’ll wail; What know, believe; and what I can redress, As I shall find the time to friend, I will. What you have spoke, it may be so, perchance. This tyrant, whose…
25
Malcolm from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:16 min
Be not offended: I speak not as in absolute fear of you. I think our country sinks beneath the yoke; It weeps, it bleeds; and each new day a gash Is added to her wounds. I think,…
26
Malcolm from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · defiant · 1:44 min
Macduff, this noble passion, Child of integrity, hath from my soul Wiped the black scruples, reconcil’d my thoughts To thy good truth and honour. Devilish Macbeth By many of these…
27
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · defiant · 1:17 min
Bring me no more reports; let them fly all: Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane I cannot taint with fear. What’s the boy Malcolm? Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know…
28
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:06 min
Take thy face hence. (Exit Servant.) Seyton!—I am sick at heart, When I behold—Seyton, I say!—This push Will cheer me ever or disseat me now. I have liv’d long enough: my way of…
29
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:32 min
Cure her of that: Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas’d, Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Raze out the written troubles of the brain, And with some sweet oblivious…
30
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:03 min
If thou speak’st false, Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive, Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth, I care not if thou dost for me as much.— I pull in resolution;…
31
Malcolm from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · inspirational · 1:09 min
We shall not spend a large expense of time Before we reckon with your several loves, And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen, Henceforth be earls, the first that ever…
32
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:05 min
Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men; As hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves are clept All by the name of dogs: the valu’d file…
33
Lord from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dramatic · 1:19 min
The son of Duncan, From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth, Lives in the English court and is receiv’d Of the most pious Edward with such grace That the malevolence of…
34
Ross from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dramatic · 0:58 min
God save the King! (DUNCAN: Whence cam’st thou, worthy thane?) From Fife, great King, Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky And fan our people cold. Norway himself, with…
35
First Witch from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:16 min
A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap, And mounch’d, and mounch’d, and mounch’d. “Give me,” quoth I. “Aroint thee, witch!” the rump-fed ronyon cries. Her husband’s to Aleppo…
36
Duncan from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · inspirational · 1:04 min
Welcome hither: I have begun to plant thee, and will labour To make thee full of growing.—Noble Banquo, That hast no less deserv’d, nor must be known No less to have done so, let…
37
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:15 min
Fail not our feast. (BANQUO: My lord, I will not.) We hear our bloody cousins are bestow’d In England and in Ireland; not confessing Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers…
38
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:06 min
So shall I, love; and so, I pray, be you. Let your remembrance apply to Banquo; Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue: Unsafe the while, that we Must lave our honours in…
39
Lady Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dramatic · 1:10 min
Sit, worthy friends. My lord is often thus, And hath been from his youth: pray you, keep seat; The fit is momentary; upon a thought He will again be well. If much you note him,…
40
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:14 min
What man dare, I dare: Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, The arm’d rhinoceros, or th’ Hyrcan tiger; Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves Shall never tremble: or…
41
Lady Macduff from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:03 min
What had he done, to make him fly the land? (ROSS: You must have patience, madam.) He had none: His flight was madness: when our actions do not, Our fears do make us traitors.…
42
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 2:10 min
Hang out our banners on the outward walls; The cry is still, “They come!” Our castle’s strength Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie Till famine and the ague eat them…

Length is estimated at a spoken pace of about 150 words a minute. Public-domain pieces are printed in full on their own page; copyrighted ones list the character and the source.

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