| A | B |
|---|
| prophecy | The three witches predicted a "special" future to Macbeth and Banquo. |
| Globe | The main theater where Shakespeare directed his plays. |
| Scone | Scottish kings were crowned in this city. |
| Dunsinane | Macbeth's castle |
| Holinshed's Chronicles | The history book Shakespeare was purported to have used to research his plays. |
| Birnam Wood | The forest that moved |
| soliloquy | Dramatic form of discourse where a character on stage talks to himself or herself usually to reveal his or her thoughts to the audience. |
| aside | Usually short remark spoken in an undertone, which only the audience is to hear. |
| King James I | The king who ruled England when Shakespeare wrote Macbeth. |
| Hecate | Goddess of Greek mythology, capable of good & evil; associated w/ witchcraft, magic, the Moon, doorways, and creatures of the night such as hell-hounds & ghosts. |
| Porter | The only comic relief in Macbeth. |
| The King's Men previously called Lord Chamberlain's Men | Shakespeare's group of actors renamed by the King. |
| Fife | Macduff's castle |
| 3 | Number of kings who reigned during the length of Macbeth. |
| Norway | The country the Scots are at war with at the beginning of the play. |
| 1599 | The year the Globe was erected. |
| 2000 | Approximately the number of people who could watch a play in the original Globe. |
| groundlings | The spectators in the cheap standing-room section of an Elizabethan theater. |
| Stratfotd-upon-Avon | Where Shakespeare hailed from. |
| "The Theatre" | First theatre built in London for plays. |
| iambic pentameter | the verse Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in: five alternating stressed and unstressed syllables. |
| Hope, Swan, Rose | Names of theatres which opened prior to 1600. |
| the plague | The main reason theaters were closed for lengthy periods. |
| Queen Elizabeth I | Dazzling pageants and performances were popular entertainment at court during this monarch's time. |
| bear baiting and cockfighting | popular forms of entertainment |
| tragedy | The genre of literature where the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances. |
| hurly-burly | uproar and turmoil of battle |
| paradox | A statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth. |
| dramatic irony | A plot device used to enhance the audience's knowledge of events or individuals. A character's speeche takes on a different meaning, which is understood by the audience, but not the character in the play. |
| motif | recurring image in a play; i.e. sleeplessness |
| foreshadow | To show or indicate beforehand. i.e. prophecies, evil |
| plot | rising action |
| conflict | Opposition between characters or forces in a work of drama or fiction, especially opposition that motivates or shapes the action of the plot. |
| oxymoron | A rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined. |
| sirrah | variation of the word "sir" |
| apostrophe | The direct address of an absent or imaginary person or of a personified abstraction. |
| taint | to infect |
| physic | medicine |
| equivocation | double talk |
| harbingers | messengers |
| Graymalkin | demon helper in the form of a cat |
| anon | immediately |
| broil | battle |
| sooth | truth |
| Thane | Scottish nobleman |
| deign | allow |
| swine | pigs |
| whence/whither | where |
| Inverness | Site of Macbeth's castle |
| harbinger | representative sent ahead to make arrangements |
| prithee | pray thee/please |
| durst | dared |
| quell | murder |
| chamberlain | servant/attendant |
| withal | with |
| shut up | went to bed |
| prate of | talk of/reveal |
| knell | funeral bell |
| possets | drink |
| Belzebub | devil |
