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Word Nerd: "quarry"
Context and Language Videos
Act 1,
Scene 2
Lines 7b-15

An explanation of the word "quarry" in Act 1, Scene 2 of myShakespeare's Macbeth. 

myShakespeare | Macbeth 1.2 Word Nerd: Quarry

Sergeant

                                   Doubtful it stood,
As two spent swimmers that do cling together
And choke their art. The merciless Macdonald —
Worthy to be a rebel, for to that,
The multiplying villainies of nature
Do swarm upon him — from the Western Isles,
Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied.
And Fortune, on his damned quarry smiling,
Showed like a rebel's whore. But all's too weak,   
Video Transcript: 

RALPH: Quarry derives from the old French word, cuiriee, the hide of an animal. Originally, quarry meant the worthless parts of an animal killed on a hunt--like the entrails--which were given to the hounds as their reward. 

DAVINA: Later, quarry came to mean any group of dead corpses, either animals killed during a hunt, or soldiers slain on the battlefield. Later still, it also came to mean the animal which you were pursuing on a hunt. 

RALPH: In this line, Shakespeare uses both of these last two meanings of the word. In the first sense, Fortune is smiling on Macdonald’s quarry, referring to all of the soldiers Macdonald has killed. In the second sense, Fortune is hunting Macdonald, making him its next intended victim.