Macbeth · Act 5, Scene 5
Macbeth monologue from Macbeth
- Play
- William Shakespeare
- Men
- Playing age 20s–50s
- About 1:15
- Classical · verse
Macbeth’s monologue from the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare (Act 5, Scene 5). A classical piece for men with a playing age of 20s–50s, running about 1:15.
The full speech. Read it out loud twice before you start working it.
Macbeth’s monologue
I have almost forgot the taste of fears;
The time has been, my senses would have cool'd
To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
As life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrors;
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts
Cannot once start me.
[Re-enter SEYTON]
Wherefore was that cry She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Public domain text.
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About Macbeth
- Macbeth is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy.
- By theatre superstition, actors avoid saying its name inside a theatre and call it "the Scottish play."
All 11 monologues from Macbeth All 135 William Shakespeare monologues
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