Original: Is this a dagger which I see before me,
Modern: Is that a dagger I see floating in front of me?

Original: The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
Modern: With the handle pointing toward my hand? Come here, let me grab you.

Original: I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Modern: I can’t actually hold you, but I can still see you there.

Original: Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
Modern: Aren’t you real, you deadly vision? Can’t I

Original: To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
Modern: touch you the way I can see you? Or are you just

Original: A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Modern: a dagger created by my mind, something fake

Original: Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
Modern: coming from my feverish, stressed-out brain?

Original: I see thee yet, in form as palpable
Modern: I can still see you, and you look as real

Original: As this which now I draw.
Modern: as this real dagger I’m pulling out now.

Original: Thou marshall’st me the way that I was going;
Modern: You’re leading me in the direction I was already headed,

Original: And such an instrument I was to use.
Modern: and you’re exactly the kind of weapon I planned to use.

Original: Mine eyes are made the fools o’ the other senses,
Modern: Either my eyes are being fooled while my other senses know the truth,

Original: Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,
Modern: or my eyes are the only sense I can trust. I still see you,

Original: And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Modern: and now there are drops of blood on your blade and handle,

Original: Which was not so before. There’s no such thing:
Modern: which weren’t there before. This can’t be real—

Original: It is the bloody business which informs
Modern: it’s the bloody murder I’m about to commit that’s making

Original: Thus to mine eyes. Now o’er the one halfworld
Modern: my eyes see things this way. Now, over half the world,

Original: Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
Modern: nature seems dead, and evil dreams torment

Original: The curtain’d sleep; witchcraft celebrates
Modern: people behind their bed curtains as they sleep. Witches celebrate

Original: Pale Hecate’s offerings, and wither’d murder,
Modern: their offerings to the goddess Hecate, and shriveled Murder,

Original: Alarum’d by his sentinel, the wolf,
Modern: awakened by his guard, the wolf,

Original: Whose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace.
Modern: whose howling marks the time, moves with silent steps.

Original: With Tarquin’s ravishing strides, towards his design
Modern: Like the rapist Tarquin sneaking toward his victim,

Original: Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Modern: Murder moves like a ghost. You solid, steady ground,

Original: Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Modern: don’t let my footsteps be heard, no matter where I walk, because

Original: Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
Modern: even your stones might chatter about where I am

Original: And take the present horror from the time,
Modern: and ruin the perfect horror of this moment,

Original: Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:
Modern: which fits so well right now. While I make threats, Duncan stays alive—

Original: Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
Modern: talking about action only cools down the passion needed to act.

Original: I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
Modern: I’m going now, and it will be finished; the bell is calling me.

Original: Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
Modern: Don’t hear it, Duncan, because it’s a funeral bell

Original: That summons thee to heaven or to hell.
Modern: that’s calling you to either heaven or hell.

In Act II, Scene 1 of Macbeth, Banquo and his son Fleance enter the courtyard of Macbeth’s castle late at night. Banquo cannot sleep and mentions to Fleance that he has been having disturbing dreams about the three witches. He gives Fleance his sword and dagger, asking him to take them since he wishes to sleep yet feels uneasy. When Macbeth appears, Banquo is startled but greets him cordially. Banquo tells Macbeth that King Duncan is sleeping peacefully and mentions that the king has been asking for Macbeth, having received gifts for Macbeth’s household servants and a diamond for Lady Macbeth.

After Banquo and Fleance exit, Macbeth is left alone and begins to see a vision of a bloody dagger floating in the air before him, pointing toward Duncan’s chamber. He questions whether the dagger is real or a figment of his troubled mind, reaching for it but grasping only air. As he contemplates the murder he is about to commit, the dagger becomes covered with blood. Macbeth reflects on the dark nature of night and murder, invoking images of witchcraft and stealth. He moves toward Duncan’s chamber as a bell rings - the signal from Lady Macbeth that the time has come to carry out their murderous plan.

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.