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The Great Gatsby
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Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Macbeth Scotland Quotes

Some holy angel
Fly to the court of England and unfold
His message ere he come, that a swift blessing
May soon return to this our suffering country
Under a hand accursed!

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 6. Lennox prays that the forces of good in the person of Macduff will return from England to rescue Scotland – “our suffering country” – from the accursed hand of the tyrant Macbeth.

Let us rather
Hold fast the mortal sword, and like good men
Bestride our down-fall’n birthdom.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. In contrast to Malcolm’s pessimism over the situation in Scotland under Macbeth, Macduff shows himself to be a man of action in making this call to arms. Displaying his patriotism, he appeals to Malcolm to join with him and fight to defend their fallen country.

Each new morn
New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows
Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds
As if it felt with Scotland and yell’d out
Like syllable of dolour.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. Macduff details the evil of Macbeth’s tyranny in Scotland, where daily he creates new widows and orphans. Heaven is personified as Macduff describes how Macbeth is going against God, causing heaven to feel Scotland’s pain and cry out.

Bleed, bleed, poor country - Macduff in Macbeth

Bleed, bleed, poor country!
Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure,
For goodness dare not check thee.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. A despairing Macduff says this when he believes that he cannot persuade Malcolm to fight Macbeth and save Scotland from his brutal reign. His patriotism shines through as he laments how “goodness” dares not put a curb on Macbeth’s “great tyranny.” Scotland is personified as a wounded and bleeding country.

our country sinks beneath the yoke - Malcolm in Macbeth

I think our country sinks beneath the yoke;
It weeps, it bleeds; and each new day a gash
Is added to her wounds.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. Just like Macduff, Malcolm shows that he is a patriot who loves his country and has great empathy for Scotland and its suffering people. Scotland is personified as an abused and bleeding country.

O Scotland, Scotland!

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. Macduff’s desperate cry over the fate of his beloved Scotland under the tyrannical thumb of Macbeth highlights his patriotism.

O nation miserable
With an untitled tyrant, bloody-scepter’d.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. Macduff reveals his deep love for his country when he speaks of Scotland’s misery under the rule of an illigitimate tyrant who seized power by violent means.

Alas, poor country!
Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot
Be call’d our mother, but our grave; where nothing,
But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile;
Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the air
Are made, not mark’d; where violent sorrow seems
A modern ecstacy.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. When Ross meets up with Macduff in England, Macduff asks how things are going in Scotland. Ross offers this grim report on the state of affairs back home under Macbeth’s rule. Ross can no longer think of Scotland as his motherland, but his grave. He uses personification to convey how his suffering country, afraid to know itself, has been turned from a joyful place of smiles into one of “groans and shrieks.”

The dead man’s knell
Is there scarce ask’d for who; and good men’s lives
Expire before the flowers in their caps,
Dying or ere they sicken.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. Ross says that Macbeth has turned Scotland into a country of death. When the funeral bells sounds, people no longer ask who died, and men’s lives are cut shorter than the time it takes for the flowers in their caps to wither.

Well, march we on,
To give obedience where ’tis truly owed:
Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal,
And with him pour we in our country’s purge
Each drop of us.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 2. Malcolm is referred to by Menteith in a metaphor as the medicine to cure a sick Scotland. In another metaphor he compares the soldiers that will fight Macbeth to drops of blood that will purge Scotland.

If thou couldst, doctor, cast
The water of my land, find her disease,
And purge it to a sound and pristine health.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 3. After the Doctor says he cannot heal the mentally troubled Lady Macbeth, Macbeth makes this sarcastic request of him. He asks him to treat the metaphorical disease Scotland is afflicted with, which in Macbeth’s view is the English invasion. Scotland is personified as a patient suffering an illness. But the irony of Macbeth’s words is that he is the disease and only his death can bring Scotland back to health again.

Behold, where stands
The usurper’s cursed head: the time is free:
I see thee compass’d with thy kingdom’s pearl,
That speak my salutation in their minds;
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine:
Hail, King of Scotland!

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 8. After the battle Macduff hails Malcolm as the new King of Scotland. Holding Macbeth’s severed head he announces that the usurper’s reign of terror is over – “the time is free” – an example of personification. Macduff uses the metaphor of a pearl to describe the Scottish nobility surrounding Malcolm.