The opposition between the hand and the other organs and senses recurs again and again. ibid.
One of the multitudinous characteristics of the general style of the play, multitudinous antithesis. ibid.
Shakespeare combined the story of Macbeth with the earlier account of the murder of King Duff by Donwald and his wife, thus replacing an open conspiracy, in which Banquo was an accomplice, with a secret murder of a royal guest. ibid.
‘The passions are directed to their true ends. Lady Macbeth is merely detested; and though the courage of Macbeth preserves some esteem, yet every reader rejoices at his fall’. ibid. W K Wimsatt, Dr Johnson on Shakespeare 1969
Yet there is no play which puts so persuasively the contrasting good. Shakespeare makes Duncan venerable and saintly, Malcolm an image of perfection, Macduff a righteous avenger. ibid.
Macbeth is aware from the very beginning that the deed he contemplates is evil. He admits that its ‘horrid image’ makes his hair stand on end, and his heart knock against his ribs. Although he never discusses with his wife the morality of the murder, which she always mentions euphemistically, and although he hardly faces it himself, every word he speaks shows that he is struck to the soul with a realization of the horror of the deed. ibid.
To some critics, however, the play has seemed to be lacking in inevitability and coherence. ibid.
A Macbeth who feels the horror of the deed as Shakespeare’s hero would not, Bridges thought, be able to commit it. The argument is that Shakepseare sacrificed psychological consistency to theatrical effect. ibid.
Macbeth has not a predisposition to murder; he has merely an inordinate ambition that makes murder itself seem to be a lesser evil than failure to achieve the crown and to satisfy his wife. They both misjudge, destroying themselves for the sake of the other. ibid.
He [Dover Wilson] rejected Coleridge’s view of a prior discussion ibid.
The characters are thus subordinated to the poetry, rather than (as in much earlier criticism) the poetry to the characters. ibid.
What ought Banquo to have done? ibid.
‘Her [Lady Macbeth] constant effort throughout the play was to bully conscience. She was a woman of a visionary and day-dreaming turn of mind; he eye fixed on the shadows of her solitary ambition; and her feelings abstracted, through the deep musings of her absorbing passion, from the common-life sympathies of flesh and blood. But her conscience, so far from being seared, was continually smarting within her; and she endeavours to stifle her voice, and keep down its struggles, by inflated and soaring fancies, and appeals to spiritual agency’. ibid. Coleridge on Shakespeare 1969 ed T Hawkes
‘[Lady Macbeth’s] willed submission to demonic powers, her unequivocal resolve to lay her being open to the invasion of witchcraft, is held in dramatic contrast to the painful, casuistic deliberations of Macbeth’. ibid. W Moelwyn Merchant, viz Aspects of Macbeth (Muir and Edwards) 1977
The flattening of the minor characters, however, is a legitimate dramatic device, used consistently by Shakespeare in order to focus attention on the protagonists. ibid.
On his return to Rome the people named him Perpetual Dictator. William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar 1970 starring Charlton Heston & Diana Rigg & Jason Robards & Christopher Lee & John Gielgud & Robert Vaughn & Richard Chamberlain & Richard Johnson & Jill Bennett et al, director Stuart Burge, prologue
Beware the Ides of March! ibid. Soothsayer to Gielgud as Caesar
He doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus. ibid. Johnson as Cassius
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars but in ourselves. ibid.
So every bondman in his own hand bears the power to cancel his captivity. ibid. Vaughn as Casca
There is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the flood leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and miseries. ibid. Brutus
Coward that I am to live so long. ibid. Cassius
This was the noblest Roman of them all. ibid. Antony
We make holiday to see Caesar and rejoin in his triumph. Julius Caesar 2012 starring Paterson Joseph & Ray Fearon & Cyril Nri & Adjoa Andoh & Jeffery Kissoon et al, director Gregory Duran RSC production ***** cobbler
The eye sees not itself but by reflection by some other things. ibid. Brutus and Cassius
For let the gods so speed me that I love the name of Honour more than I fear Death. ibid. Brutus
Honour is the subject of my story. ibid. Cassius
This man is now become a god. ibid.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars but in ourselves. ibid.
So every bondman in his own hand bears the power to cancel his captivity. ibid. Casca
Between the acting of a dreadful thing and the first motion all the interim is like a phantasma or a hideous dream. ibid. Brutus
Let us be sacrificers but not butchers. ibid.
Let us carve him as a dish fit for the gods, not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds. ibid.
The honey heavy dew of slumber. ibid.
Dwell I but in the suburbs of your good pleasure? ibid. Portia
What can be avoided whose end is purposed by the mighty God? ibid. Caesar
Cowards die many times before their deaths. ibid.
I am constant as the northern star. ibid.
That we shall die we know; tis but the time and drawing days out that men stand upon. ibid. Brutus
Peace! Freedom! And Liberty! ibid.
The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones. ibid. Antony
You all did love him once not without cause. ibid.
If you have tears prepare to shed them now. ibid.
The ghost of Caesar hath appeared to me. ibid. Brutus
Caesar, now be still. ibid.
What the devil hast thou to do with the time of day? The Hollow Crown: Henry IV part I starring Jeremy Irons & Tom Hiddleston & Alun Armstrong & Joe Armstrong & John Ashton & Will Attenborough & Conrad Asquith & Simon Russell Beale & David Beames & Jim Bywater & Alexandra Clatworthy et al, director Richard Eyre, Hal to Falstaff, BBC 2012
I must give over this life. ibid. Falstaff
I’ll so offend to make offence a skill
Redeeming time when men think least I will. ibid. Hal
Is there no virtue extant? ibid. Falstaff
Shall we be merry? ibid.
Villainous company hath been the death of me. ibid.
Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying. ibid.
What says the doctor to my water? The Hollow Crown: Henry IV part II 2012 ***** BBC starring Jeremy Irons & Simon Russell Beale & Tom Hiddleston & Alun Armstrong & David Bamber & Julie Walters & Niamh Cusack & David Dawson & Michaelle Dockery et al, director Richard Eyre, Falstaff
Let order die! And darkness be the burier of the dead! ibid. Percy’s dad
You have misled the youthful prince. ibid. Lord Chief Justice to Falstaff
Wake not the sleeping wolf. ibid.
I’m only old in judgment and understanding. ibid. Falstaff to Lord Chief Justice
Consumption of the purse. ibid. Falstaff to boy
My grief stretches itself beyond the hour of death. ibid. King
If his weapon be out, he will thrust like any devil. ibid. Mistress Quickly
He hath eaten me out of house and home. ibid.
Wash thy face and draw the action. ibid. Falstaff to Mistress Quickly
No more words. ibid.
Thou art a great fool. ibid. Lord Chief Justice to Falstaff
O sleep, O gentle sleep, Nature’s soft nurse ... Steep my senses in forgetfulness. ibid. King
I cannot abide swaggerers. ibid. Mistress Quickly
I am old. I am old. ibid. Falstaff to Doll Tearsheet
This honest, virtuous, civil, gentle woman. ibid. Hal, re Doll Tearsheet