Original: Was the hope drunk
Modern: Were you drunk on hope

Original: Wherein you dress’d yourself? hath it slept since?
Modern: When you made that promise? Has that hope been sleeping ever since?

Original: And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
Modern: And does it wake up now, looking sick and pale

Original: At what it did so freely? From this time
Modern: At what it so easily promised? From now on

Original: Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
Modern: That’s how I’ll judge your love for me. Are you afraid

Original: To be the same in thine own act and valour
Modern: To show the same courage in your actions

Original: As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
Modern: As you do in your wants? Do you want that thing

Original: Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life,
Modern: Which you consider the crown jewel of life,

Original: And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Modern: Yet live as a coward in your own eyes,

Original: Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’
Modern: Letting “I’m too scared” follow after “I want to,”

Original: Like the poor cat i’ the adage?
Modern: Like the cat in that old saying?

Original: What beast was’t, then,
Modern: What kind of animal were you, then,

Original: That made you break this enterprise to me?
Modern: When you first told me about this plan?

Original: When you durst do it, then you were a man;
Modern: When you dared to do it, then you were a real man;

Original: And, to be more than what you were, you would
Modern: And to become more than what you were, you would

Original: Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place
Modern: Be that much more of a man. Neither the timing nor the place

Original: Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:
Modern: Were right back then, and yet you were willing to make them work:

Original: They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
Modern: Now they’ve arranged themselves perfectly, and their perfect timing

Original: Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know
Modern: Is making you fall apart. I have breastfed a baby, and I know

Original: How tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me:
Modern: How tender it is to love the child that nurses from me:

Original: I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Modern: I would have, while it was smiling up at me,

Original: Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums,
Modern: Pulled my breast from its soft gums,

Original: And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Modern: And smashed its head in, if I had made the same oath that you

Original: Have done to this.
Modern: Have made about this.

In Act I, Scene 7 of Macbeth, the scene opens with Macbeth alone, wrestling with his conscience about the planned murder of King Duncan. He deliberates on the consequences of killing his king, who is both his kinsman and guest, acknowledging that Duncan has been a virtuous ruler who trusts him completely. Macbeth recognizes that his only motivation for the murder is his own ambition, which he fears will ultimately lead to his downfall.

Lady Macbeth enters and discovers that Macbeth has left the dinner feast early. When she learns that he no longer wishes to proceed with their plan to kill Duncan, she launches into a fierce attack on his resolve and masculinity. She questions his courage and reminds him of his earlier promise to commit the deed, even going so far as to describe how she would kill her own nursing child if she had sworn to do so as he has sworn to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth then outlines her plan for the murder: they will wait until Duncan’s chamberlains fall asleep from the wine she will provide, then use the chamberlains’ daggers to kill the king and smear the servants with blood to frame them for the crime. Convinced by her argument and plan, Macbeth agrees to proceed with the murder.

Macbeth: Plot Summary

Macbeth, a Scottish general and Thane of Glamis, encounters three witches on a heath following a victorious battle against rebels and Norwegian invaders. The witches prophesy that Macbeth will become Thane of Cawdor and eventually King of Scotland, and that his companion Banquo’s descendants will inherit the throne. When King Duncan almost immediately grants Macbeth the title of Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth begins to contemplate the possibility of fulfilling the rest of the prophecy. Urged on by his wife, Lady Macbeth, he murders King Duncan in his sleep while the king is a guest at their castle. Macbeth frames Duncan’s chamberlains for the murder, and Duncan’s sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, flee the country out of fear for their own lives, which causes them to fall under suspicion for their father’s death. Macbeth is crowned King of Scotland.

As king, Macbeth grows increasingly paranoid and ruthless. Troubled by the witches’ prophecy that Banquo’s descendants will be kings, he arranges for Banquo and his son Fleance to be murdered. Banquo is killed, but Fleance escapes. At a royal banquet, Macbeth is visited by Banquo’s ghost, causing him to behave erratically in front of his assembled nobles. Lady Macbeth attempts to cover for her husband, but the dinner dissolves in confusion. Macbeth returns to the witches, who present him with new prophecies warning him to beware of Macduff, the Thane of Fife, but assuring him that no man born of woman can harm him, and that he will not be defeated until Birnam Wood marches to Dunsinane Hill. Taking comfort in what seem to be impossible conditions, Macbeth orders the massacre of Macduff’s castle, killing his wife and children.

Macduff has traveled to England to join Malcolm, Duncan’s son, and together they raise an army against Macbeth. Meanwhile, Lady Macbeth, tormented by guilt, descends into madness and ultimately dies, reportedly by her own hand. Malcolm’s army cuts down branches from Birnam Wood to use as camouflage as they march on Macbeth’s castle at Dunsinane, fulfilling one of the witches’ prophecies. In the ensuing battle, Macbeth encounters Macduff, who reveals that he was delivered by caesarean section and was therefore not, in the traditional sense, born of woman. Macduff kills Macbeth in combat. Malcolm is proclaimed the rightful King of Scotland and order is restored to the kingdom.