Lady Macbeth: “The raven himself is hoarse”

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

Lady Macbeth is at home in the castle at Inverness. She has just read her husband's letter: three strange women hailed him as Thane of Cawdor and promised he would be king, and the first promise has already come true. She fears he is too kind to take the crown by force.

Then a messenger brings news she can hardly believe: King Duncan will stay here tonight. The chance she wanted has arrived in one sentence. She sends the messenger off and is alone.

Nobody hears this speech. She calls on dark spirits to strip away everything soft in her so she can see the murder through. Seconds after her last word, Macbeth walks in, so she is also steeling herself to meet him.

Lines: 17
Words: 128
At 150 wpm: 54 sec
Form: Verse

The speech, beat by beat

The full text in 5 beats. Under each beat: what it means in plain English, and a note for playing it.

Lines 1–3 · The omen at the gate

1The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits

In plain English Even the raven, the bird that announces death, has croaked itself hoarse announcing Duncan's arrival under my walls. His coming here will be his last. Then, at the end of line 3, she starts her call: 'Come, you spirits.'

Acting note The messenger arrived out of breath; she turns him into a bird of doom. Notice the possessive: these are 'my' battlements. She already owns the crime.

Lines 4–6 · First summons: unsex me

4That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
5And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;

In plain English Spirits who serve murderous thoughts, take away my womanhood. Fill me from head to toe with the worst cruelty there is, and thicken my blood.

Acting note 'Come' is a real command, not a figure of speech. She believes these spirits exist and can hear her. Commit to that.

Lines 7–10 · Block the way to pity

7Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
10The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts,

In plain English Close off every road that remorse could travel. Don't let any natural pang of conscience shake my purpose or come between my plan and the doing of it. Then, mid-line 10, a second call: come to my breasts.

Acting note The images are of locking doors and blocking passages. She is building a wall inside her own body.

Lines 11–13 · Second summons: my milk for poison

11And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature’s mischief! Come, thick night,

In plain English Invisible agents of murder, wherever you lurk helping nature do harm, take my milk and give me bitter poison in its place. And then a third call begins: come, thick night.

Acting note This is the most physical and the most shocking request. It goes to the core of what she thinks a woman is. Don't rush past it.

Lines 14–17 · Third summons: bring the dark

14And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
15That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry “Hold, hold!”

In plain English Night, wrap yourself in the darkest smoke of hell, so my knife can't see the wound it makes and heaven can't peek through the dark and shout 'Stop!'

Acting note She pictures her own hand on the knife. The fear underneath is real: if anything sees, she might stop. The speech ends on heaven's voice, not hers.

Hard words

Word	Line	Meaning
battlements	3	the top walls of a castle; here, her home
tend on mortal thoughts	4	serve deadly, murderous thoughts
unsex me	4	take away my female nature (and the gentleness she links with it)
top-full	5	filled to the brim
compunctious visitings of nature	8	natural stirrings of guilt or pity
fell	9	savage, deadly
keep peace between	9	come between, so as to stop (her purpose and its result)
gall	11	bile; bitter poison
murdering ministers	11	agents or servants of murder (the spirits)
sightless substances	12	invisible bodies or forms
pall	14	wrap, as in a funeral cloth
dunnest	14	darkest, murkiest

How to perform it

Play the objective, not the mood. She wants to be changed, right now, before her husband arrives. The speech works like a spell: three times she says 'Come' (lines 3, 10 and 13), and each request is more extreme. Let each summons climb higher than the last.
Ask why she needs the help. A woman who already felt no pity wouldn't have to pray for cruelty. Later she admits she couldn't kill Duncan herself because he looked like her father asleep. Let a little of that crack show here.
Decide how loud this is. She is alone at night in a house about to fill with guests. A hushed, urgent invocation can be more frightening than a shout. Build, but don't save everything for a scream at the end.
Use the sounds. The hard k and t sounds (croaks, keen knife, cry) and the hissing s's (sightless substances) do much of the work if you speak them fully.
Breathe at the big turns: after 'battlements' (line 3), 'cruelty' (line 6) and 'mischief' (line 13). Lines 6 to 10 are one long thought; carry it on as few breaths as you can so the blocking feels relentless.
Common mistakes: playing a cartoon villain from the first word; treating the spirits as a metaphor; and yelling 'Hold, hold!' Those words are heaven's cry, the thing she is trying to shut out. They can land quietly.

Using it in an audition

A strong, well-known piece; panels have heard it many times and will judge you on clarity and choice, not volume. At 17 lines it runs about a minute, ideal for a short slot but thin for two minutes. If you need more, start earlier in the same scene, with her reading the letter, and run into this speech. It suits adult actors across a wide age range, and a younger Lady Macbeth frightened by her own ambition can be very effective. Pair it with something lighter that shows warmth or wit, such as a comic Shakespeare heroine or a funny contemporary piece.

Lady Macbeth, Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5. William Shakespeare. Public domain text.

How long it runs

Pace	Words a minute	Run time
Deliberate	130	1.0 minutes
Conversational	150	54 seconds
Brisk	170	48 seconds

These are speech times before pauses. To time your own run, paste the text into the monologue timer.

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.

T r h i h

T c t f e o D

U m b. C, y s

T t o m t, u m h,

A f m f t c t t t t-f

O d c! m t m b;

S u t a a p t r,

T n c v o n

S m f p, n k p b

T e a i! C t m w b,

A t m m f g, y m m,

W i y s s

Y w o n m! C, t n,

A p t i t d s o h,

T m k k s n t w i m,

N h p t t b o t d,

T c “H, h!”

Sources

Questions actors ask

How long is Lady Macbeth’s The raven himself is hoarse speech?

17 lines and 128 words. At 150 words a minute it runs about 54 seconds; a slower, more deliberate delivery at 130 takes about 1.0 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.