Jonathan O'Neill’s Reviews > Macbeth > Status Update
Jonathan O'Neill
is 34% done
MACBETH
[...]
What hands are here? Ha: they pluck out mine eyes.
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green, one red.
LADY M
My hands are of your colour, but I shame
To wear a heart so white...
— 15 hours, 6 min ago
[...]
What hands are here? Ha: they pluck out mine eyes.
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green, one red.
LADY M
My hands are of your colour, but I shame
To wear a heart so white...
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Jonathan’s Previous Updates
Jonathan O'Neill
is 27% done
MACBETH
Is 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.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To 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. cont.
— Oct 08, 2026 05:07AM
Is 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.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To 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. cont.
Jonathan O'Neill
is 24% done
Lady M gives Macbeth a dressing down for his cold feet. This and all that precedes it is about as stone cold as it gets:
… 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 the nipple from his boneless gums,
And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn
As you have done to this.
— Oct 07, 2026 05:20AM
… 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 the nipple from his boneless gums,
And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn
As you have done to this.
Jonathan O'Neill
is 16% done
LADY M
The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe, top-full
Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood,
Stop up th’access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
Th’effect and it... [cont..]
— Oct 06, 2026 06:12AM
The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe, top-full
Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood,
Stop up th’access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
Th’effect and it... [cont..]
Jonathan O'Neill
is 13% done
Hamlet's, 'One may smile and smile and be a villain, finds companionable thought, here, in King Duncan's, 'There's no art
To find the mind's construction in the face.'
— Oct 06, 2026 05:16AM
To find the mind's construction in the face.'
Jonathan O'Neill
is 8% done
Banquo to the witches:
... You should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.
I'm disappointed I didn't start a catalogue of Shakespearean insults with Hamlet and Midsummer; they're an absolute treasure trove. Better late than never, I guess. No one roasts like the bard.
— Oct 05, 2026 09:25PM
... You should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.
I'm disappointed I didn't start a catalogue of Shakespearean insults with Hamlet and Midsummer; they're an absolute treasure trove. Better late than never, I guess. No one roasts like the bard.
Jonathan O'Neill
is 3% done
For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name),
Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like valour's minion, carved out his passage,
Till he faced the slave,
Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseamed him from the nave to th' chops,
And fixed his head upon our battlements.
— Oct 05, 2026 04:54AM
Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like valour's minion, carved out his passage,
Till he faced the slave,
Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseamed him from the nave to th' chops,
And fixed his head upon our battlements.
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Ilse
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11 hours, 35 min ago
Isn't it amazing, how just one line of Shakespeare keeps on inspiring entire novels, Jonathan? Take A Heart So White - 304 pages :).
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Ilse wrote: "Isn't it amazing, how just one line of Shakespeare keeps on inspiring entire novels, Jonathan? Take A Heart So White - 304 pages :)."It sure is, Ilse! I actually thought about you when I read this, given Marias' work sits on my shelf thanks to your review! :) 'The Sound and the Fury' and 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' are 2 more from this play alone.
The reach of Shakespeare's influence and inspiration is truly incredible, as I'm discovering more about each day. You always hear about it but it's easy to shrug off until you experience the plays, with good commentary, yourself. How one man could so expand and modernise the English Language is awe-inspiring. It feels like every second page of my Arden editions, there's something in the footnotes along the lines of "first citation of this word", "first use of this as a verb", "Shakespeare was the first to adjectivize this verb/noun" etc. etc.
I'm smitten if you couldn't tell! 😁