Macbeth Group

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fcassondra18
fcassondra18
Student
High School - 12th Grade

What is Macbeth's dying speech?

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Posted by fcassondra18 on Wednesday March 4, 2009 at 10:13 AM and tagged with act 5, die, dying speech, lay on macduff, macbeth, macduff, shakespeare, speech.

Answers:


  1. robertwilliam

    The last thing he actually says in the play is

    Lay on, Macduff!
    And curs'd be he that first cries 'Hold, enough!'

    He's telling Macduff to get on with the fighting - and let the person be damned that asks for the fighting to stop first! Macbeth, at the last, goes out bravely, goes out fighting, and dies on the battlefield, just as he began.

    But that isn't necessarily his dying speech. This is because Macbeth goes offstage, fighting with Macduff, and then, a little later, Macduff comes back with his head, which he has cut off. Macbeth dies offstage. So I suppose, in a pedant's world, you could make a good, reasoned argument that Macbeth could have said something else before he died. But Shakespeare doesn't record it.

    Hope it helps!

     

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/macbeth-text

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    Posted by robertwilliam on Wednesday March 4, 2009 at 10:43 AM