Macbeth: “Is this a dagger which I see before me”

What is happening, what every line means, how to perform it, and how to use it in an audition, with the full text.

The Offbook team

Oct 8, 2026

What is happening

It is past midnight in Macbeth's castle. King Duncan, his guest, is asleep, and Lady Macbeth has dealt with the guards outside his room. Tonight Macbeth will kill the king and take the crown the witches promised him.

Just before this, Macbeth met his friend Banquo, who admitted he has been dreaming about the witches. Macbeth brushed it off. Then he sent his servant to bed, telling him to have Lady Macbeth strike a bell when his drink is ready. That bell is the signal.

Now he is alone in the dark, waiting. He sees a dagger hanging in the air, handle toward his hand, pointing the way to Duncan's room. He wants to know if it is real. Under that, he is working himself up to the hardest step of his life.

Lines: 32
Words: 263
At 150 wpm: 1.8 min
Form: Verse

The speech, beat by beat

The full text in 6 beats. Under each beat: what it means in plain English, and a note for playing it.

Lines 1–3 · The vision and the grab

1Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

In plain English Is that a dagger in front of me, with its handle turned toward my hand? Let me take hold of it. I can't grip it, and yet I can still see it.

Acting note There is a built-in stage direction here: he reaches, and his hand closes on nothing. Make the grab specific and real, not a vague wave.

Lines 4–9 · Real or imagined?

4Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
5To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.

In plain English Deadly vision, can I touch you as well as see you? Or are you only a dagger in my mind, a fake made by my fevered brain? I still see you, as solid-looking as this one I'm drawing now.

Acting note Line 9 is short. He pulls out his own real dagger, and the half-line leaves room for that action and the silence after it.

Lines 10–15 · It leads; it bleeds

10Thou marshall’st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o’ the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
15Which was not so before. There’s no such thing:

In plain English You're leading me exactly where I was going, and you're the very weapon I meant to use. Either my eyes are fooling me or they're the only sense I can trust. Now there is blood on your blade and handle that wasn't there before. No: there is no such thing.

Acting note The blood is a fresh discovery and a shock. Then 'There's no such thing' is his attempt to snap out of it. Let those two moments be different.

Lines 16–24 · The night world

16It is the bloody business which informs
Thus to mine eyes. Now o’er the one half-world
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain’d sleep; witchcraft celebrates
20Pale Hecate’s offerings, and wither’d murder,
Alarum’d by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin’s ravishing strides, towards his design
Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,

In plain English It's the bloody job ahead that is putting this shape in front of my eyes. Over half the world, nature seems dead; evil dreams trouble sleepers; witches make offerings to their goddess; and Murder, woken by the wolf's howl, creeps toward his victim like a ghost, with the stride of the rapist Tarquin. At the end of line 24 he turns to the ground under his feet.

Acting note The pace changes here. The questions stop, and he starts to move. He talks about murder as 'he' and then walks like him, so the description becomes his own stealthy walk.

Lines 25–29 · Silence, and a warning to himself

25Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.── 90-second cut ends here ──

In plain English Solid earth, don't listen to where my feet are going, in case the very stones gossip about where I am and break the horrible silence that suits this moment. While I stand here making threats, he stays alive. Talking only cools the heat that action needs.

Acting note Lines 28 and 29 rhyme. The couplet is him catching himself talking too much. Snap it shut.

Lines 30–32 · The bell

30I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell.

In plain English I'll go, and it's as good as done. The bell is calling me. Don't hear it, Duncan: it's a funeral bell that sends you to heaven or to hell.

Acting note The bell rings before line 30. It is his wife's signal. Take the time to hear it; everything changes on that sound.

Hard words

Word	Line	Meaning
clutch	2	grab, grip
sensible	4	able to be felt or touched
heat-oppressed brain	7	feverish, overheated mind
palpable	8	solid, touchable
marshall’st	10	you lead or guide
dudgeon	14	the handle or hilt of a dagger
gouts	14	large drops
informs	16	takes shape; creates this image
Hecate	20	the goddess of witchcraft
Tarquin	23	a Roman prince who raped Lucrece; a byword for a stealthy, violent attacker
prate	26	chatter, gossip
knell	31	a bell rung for a death or funeral

How to perform it

Your objective is to reach Duncan's room and do it. Everything either pulls him toward the door or holds him back. Questions dominate the first half; statements and decisions take over the second. Track that shift.
Decide what you actually see and keep it in one exact place. Leaving the dagger invisible lets the audience share his doubt. If you place it precisely in the air and your eyes return to the same spot each time ('I see thee still,' 'I see thee yet'), the audience will see it too.
Don't announce the famous opening. He is seeing something impossible for the first time. Wonder, fear, excitement and dread are all possible readings. Choose one and let the next lines change it.
Use the verse. The short line 9 gives you a beat to draw the real dagger. Where a line ends with no punctuation (lines 4, 5, 8, and 16 to 19), carry the sense over. Breathe after 'brain' (line 7), after 'before' (line 15), and before 'Thou sure and firm-set earth' (line 24). Lines 17 to 24 are one long, creeping sentence; fill up before it and let it unroll.
Lines 28 to 29 and 31 to 32 are rhyming couplets, and rhyme often marks a decision. The first stops his talking; the second, after the bell, seals Duncan's fate. Don't sing them, but let them click shut.
Common mistakes: no clear focus point for the dagger; playing madness from the start; rushing the night-world section; shouting the last couplet. He is in a sleeping house, about to walk into a king's bedroom.

Using it in an audition

This speech appears on lists of overdone Shakespeare monologues, so panels will compare you with every Macbeth they have seen. If you choose it, bring a specific take, a precise dagger in the air, and clean verse. Our 90-second cut ends at line 29 on the couplet 'Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives,' a natural stop before the bell. It suits men from their 20s to 50s; Macbeth is a soldier in his prime. Pair it with something lighter or more outgoing, such as a comic Shakespeare role or a contemporary piece spoken to someone.

Macbeth, Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 1. William Shakespeare. Public domain text.

How long it runs

Pace	Words a minute	Run time
Deliberate	130	2.0 minutes
Conversational	150	1.8 minutes
Brisk	170	1.5 minutes

These are speech times before pauses. To time your own run, paste the text into the monologue timer. The cut marks in the text stop at a full sentence near 90 seconds (line 29).

Practice it: first-letter version

Each word is cut to its first letter. Say the whole line from the letters, then check the text. Make cues from any script with the first-letter memorizer.

I t a d w I s b m,

T h t m h? C, l m c t.

I h t n, a y I s t s.

A t n, f v, s

T f a t s? o a t b

A d o t m, a f c,

P f t h-o b?

I s t y, i f a p

A t w n I d.

T m m t w t I w g;

A s a i I w t u.

M e a m t f o’ t o s,

O e w a t r; I s t s,

A o t b a d g o b,

W w n s b. T n s t:

I i t b b w i

T t m e. N o t o h-w

N s d, a w d a

T c s; w c

P H o, a w m,

A b h s, t w,

W h h w, t w h s p,

W T r s, t h d

M l a g. T s a f-s e,

H n m s, w w t w, f f

T v s p o m w,

A t t p h f t t,

W n s w i. W I t, h l:

W t t h o d t c b g.

I g, a i i d; t b i m.

H i n, D; f i i a k

T s t t h o t h.

Sources

Questions actors ask

How long is Macbeth’s Is this a dagger which I see before me speech?

32 lines and 263 words. At 150 words a minute it runs about 1.8 minutes; a slower, more deliberate delivery at 130 takes about 2.0 minutes. Pauses add time, so time a full run out loud.

Is it a good audition monologue?

What is the fastest way to memorize it?

Learn it in sense units, not line by line: say each thought out loud until you can do it without looking, then add the next. The first-letter version below keeps the shape of every line in view while you test yourself.