Macbeth: The Persuasion
Macbeth has decided not to murder the king. Lady Macbeth has decided otherwise. One of the great persuasion scenes in the language.
Good for: classical audition, dramatic two-hander, two actors
William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 7 (public domain, abridged)
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Start rehearsingSetting
A room in Macbeth's castle, night. The king sleeps under their roof. MACBETH has just talked himself out of the murder. LADY MACBETH enters to talk him back into it. Abridged from Act 1, Scene 7.
Characters
- LADY MACBETH - Sees the crown within reach and will not watch her husband flinch.
Voiced by Despina · Premium voice
- MACBETH - A soldier who has killed for kings, deciding whether to kill one.
Voiced by Alnilam · Premium voice
The Scene
MACBETH
We will proceed no further in this business. He hath honoured me of late, and I have bought golden opinions from all sorts of people, which would be worn now in their newest gloss, not cast aside so soon.
LADY MACBETH
Was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since? And wakes it now, to look so green and pale at what it did so freely?
LADY MACBETH (CONT'D)
Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour as thou art in desire?
MACBETH
Prithee, peace. I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none.
LADY MACBETH
What beast was it, then, that made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man; and to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man.
LADY MACBETH (CONT'D)
I have given suck, and know how tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me. I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this.
MACBETH
(quietly)
If we should fail?
LADY MACBETH
We fail. But screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we'll not fail.
LADY MACBETH (CONT'D)
When Duncan is asleep, his two chamberlains will I with wine and wassail so convince that memory, the warder of the brain, shall be a fume. What cannot you and I perform upon the unguarded Duncan?
MACBETH
Bring forth men-children only, for thy undaunted mettle should compose nothing but males.
MACBETH (CONT'D)
I am settled, and bend up each corporal agent to this terrible feat. Away, and mock the time with fairest show: false face must hide what the false heart doth know.
lineecho.app/scenes/macbeth-act-1-scene-7
How to play this scene
The beats
- Macbeth arrives settled: "We will proceed no further in this business" is a decision he thinks is final.
- Lady Macbeth attacks his manhood, not the plan: "When you durst do it, then you were a man" reframes courage as who he is.
- The crack is three words: "If we should fail?" hands her the opening she has been driving toward.
- He flips fully on "I am settled, and bend up each corporal agent to this terrible feat," dread hardening into resolve.
Playing it
For Lady Macbeth the objective is to move him from no to yes tonight, before the resolve cools, and every line is a tactic aimed at that: shame, the dare, the horrifying vow about the child. For Macbeth the objective is to hold his ground, and he loses it inch by inch. Play it as a real negotiation with a genuine turning point at "If we should fail?", not a foregone conclusion.
Common mistakes
- Lady Macbeth playing pure evil from the first line instead of a wife who knows exactly which buttons to press.
- Macbeth playing weak; he is a battle-hardened soldier resisting, which is what makes the collapse cost something.
- Throwing away "If we should fail?" - it is the hinge of the whole scene and needs its weight.
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