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All Site ContentMacbethAct 1Scene 5
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What thou wouldst highly, /that wouldst thou holily”
Wordplay
Act 1,
Scene 5
Lines 14-24

An explanation of the wordplay in Lady Macbeth’s speech in Act 1, Scene 5 of myShakespeare’s Macbeth.

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be
What thou art promised; yet do I fear thy nature –
It is too full o'th milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great,
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly,
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,
And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou'dst have, great Glamis,
That which cries 'Thus thou must do' if thou have it,
And that which rather thou dost fear to do
Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither

This line could be paraphrased as, “What you want a lot, you want to get in a holy, or upstanding way.” Note the wordplay in Shakespeare’s sentence structure:

  • The first words and of each phrase (what, that), as well as the last (highly, holily) are both synonyms and sonic echoes (near rhymes).
  • In both phrases, “thou” is the subject and “wouldst” is the verb, but their order is reversed in the second, which forms a chiasmus.