Macbeth

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Macbeth Page 14

by William Shakespeare


  6closet chest or cabinet

  10do...watching act as if awake

  16meet fitting

  17-18having...speech (the gentlewoman's report would amount to charging the king with murder, which would be treasonable)

  19guise custom

  20close concealed

  42Thane of Fife Macduff

  45starting flinching

  46Go to, go to come, come

  53sorely charged heavily burdened

  55dignity high rank (i.e., as queen)

  58practice professional skill

  75annoyance harm, trouble

  77mated defeated (cf. checkmate)

  V.2 Open country near Dunsinane

  s.d.Drum and Colors drummers and standard-bearers

  3Revenges burn desire for revenge burns

  4bleeding shedding of blood

  5Excite incite; mortified dead

  8file list

  10unrough beardless

  11Protest assert

  15distempered diseased

  16rule authority

  18minutely every minute; revolts rebellions; faith breach broken faith

  19in command under orders

  23pestered tormented

  27med'cine physician (i.e., Malcolm); weal state

  30dew water

  V.3 Within Macbeth's castle at Dunsinane

  3taint grow weak

  5mortal consequences human eventualities

  8English epicures pleasure-loving English

  9I sway by (1) that rules me, (2) that I rule by

  11cream-faced pale (with fear); loon scoundrel

  12goose foolish

  16over-red paint red (i.e., with ruddy courage)

  17patch fool

  22push attack

  23disseat unseat

  25sere dry, withered

  37horses horsemen; skirr scour

  44Raze out erase

  45oblivious causing forgetfulness

  49physic medicine

  52dispatch hurry

  52-53cast...water analyze the urine (as a way of diagnosing illness)

  60it i.e., the remaining armor

  61bane destruction

  V.4 Before Birnam Wood

  2chambers private rooms (i.e., our homes);nothing not at all

  5shadow conceal

  6discovery (Macbeth's) reconnaissance

  10setting down before laying siege to

  11where...given as the opportunity presents itself

  12more...revolt high and low (i.e., nobility and commoners) have rebelled against him

  14just censures impartial judgment

  15Attend...event await the actual result

  20certain...arbitrate blows must decide the final outcome

  21war army

  V.5 Inside Macbeth's castle

  4ague fever

  5forced reinforced

  6dareful defiant

  11fell head

  12dismal treatise frightening story

  14Direness horror

  15start frighten

  18a time i.e., an appropriate time

  31say insist

  40cling shrivel; sooth truth

  42pull in curb, check

  43doubt suspect; equivocation double-talk

  47avouches affirms

  50estate order

  52harness armor

  V.6 Fields outside Dunsinane Castle

  4battle battalion

  6order battle plan

  7power forces

  V.7 The same

  2course attack (like a bear tied to a stake and baited by dogs)

  17kerns mercenary foot soldiers

  18staves lances

  20undeeded having done nothing

  21note importance

  22bruited indicated, noised

  24gently rendered surrendered calmly (or nobly)

  27itself professes declares itself

  29strike beside us (1) fight on our side, (2) strike to one side of us

  V.8 2Whiles...lives as long as I see living creatures

  V.8 2Whiles...lives as long as I see living creatures

  5charged burdened

  8give thee out describe you

  9intrenchant incapable of being cut

  10impress mark

  13charm magic

  14angel guardian spirit; still always

  18cowed made cowardly; better...man most of what makes me a man

  19juggling deceiving, quibbling

  20palter with us equivocate to us, trick us

  23yield thee coward surrender as, or concede that you are, a coward

  25monsters freaks

  26Painted...pole depicted on a signboard

  36go off perish; these i.e., these here assembled

  42unshrinking station place from which he did not retreat

  46Had...before were his wounds on the front of his body (i.e., was he running away)

  50knolled tolled

  52score reckoning

  56compassed surrounded; kingdom's pearl what is most valuable in the kingdom (i.e., the assembled nobility)

  61reckon settle accounts

  62make...with repay our debts to

  65planted...time done at the beginning of the new era

  68ministers agents

  70self and violent her own violent

  73perform in measure, time duly perform at the appropriate time

 

 

 


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