Μάκβεθ
Ουίλλιαμ Σαίξπηρ, 1623
★ 3.89 from 1.1m ratings on Goodreads
A brave man hears a promise that he will be king, and discovers how quickly the wish becomes the plan. Betrayal, and the restlessness comes from within. The speech that will never leave your head. A dramatic, quick-moving voice carries ambition and dread, with grief and power tangled into language that stays with you.
Feels like dread, grief and longing. About ambition, freedom and power.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy tragic drama, psychological unraveling, and language that rewards attention. The Greek translation uses older, formal phrasing, and some readers find the play confusing or uneven.
Why read it
Its language and psychological force still make it worth your time: the witches, Lady Macbeth, and ambition turning into guilt give you a sharp study of power and conscience.
Pages from the book
The sentence you have heard a hundred times, in a translation that makes it hurt again.
ΣΕΥΤΩΝΗ βασίλισσα, αυθέντα σεβαστέ μου,απέθανε.ΜΑΚΒΕΘΑργότερα ’μπορούσε ν’ αποθάνη (38).Ας ήτο κι’ άλλοτε καιρός αυτό να το ακούσω.Αύριον, και αύριον, και αύριον — και φεύγειακολουθεί σιγά σιγά ημέρα την ημέραν,ως την εσχάτην συλλαβήν ’ς του Χρόνου το βιβλίον!Και κάθε χθες οπού περνά, ήτο φανός να φέξημωρούς θνητούς να σκονισθούν ’ς τον δρόμον του θανάτου! The sky is asked not to look, so that a hand can do what it has decided to do.
Ακόμη ως κι’ ο κόρακας εβράχνιασε κ’ εκείνοςπου κράζει ότι έρχεται ’ς τους πύργους μου ο Δώγκαν!Ελάτε σεις, Δαιμόνια, εσείς που ’ς των φονέωντας σκέψεις παραστέκεσθε, ξεγυναικώσετέ με!Με άσπλαγχνην σκληρότητα εσείς γεμίσετέ μεαπό τα νύχια ’ς την κορφήν, — το αίμα πήξετέ μου, —τους δρόμους όλους φράξετε εις την συνείδησίν μου,ώστε της φύσεως ορμή ευσπλαγχνική καμμίανα μη μπορή τον φοβερόν σκοπόν μου να κλονίση,ούτε να φέρη δισταγμόν εις την εκτέλεσίν του!Εσείς του Φόνου όργανα, όπου και αν πλανάσθεκι’ αόρατα συντρέχετε ’ς ό,τι κακόν κι’ αν γείνη,ελάτε, κάμετε χολήν το γάλα των μαστών μου! After the deed, the word that won't come out of the throat is a prayer.
ΛΑΙΔΗ ΜΑΚΒΕΘΆφες τα τούτα!ΜΑΚΒΕΘΔιατί κ’ εγώ δεν ημπορούσανα το προφέρω το Αμήν; Είχα πολλήν ανάγκηναπό την χάριν του Θεού, και όμως εκολνούσε’ς τον λάρυγγά μου το Αμήν!ΛΑΙΔΗ ΜΑΚΒΕΘΜη συλλογείσαι τόσοναυτά τα πράγματα, ειδέ ίσως μας έλθη τρέλλα!ΜΑΚΒΕΘΜ’ εφάνη ’σάν να ήκουα μίαν φωνήν να κράζη: What readers say
Readers often admire the language and tragic intensity, enjoy the witches and Lady Macbeth, and are fascinated by ambition, guilt, and psychological unraveling. Some find it confusing, uneven, or a slog, while others call it a favorite.
Ουίλλιαμ Σαίξπηρ.Shakespeare wrote the play under James I, whose own line reached England's throne through Banquo: the Stuart king was flattered by the witches' prophecy of a line of kings. The first printing, 1623, is the Folio.
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Ρωμαίος και Ιουλιέτα
Ουίλλιαμ Σαίξπηρ, 1597
Two teenagers from feuding houses fall in love, and every promise they make costs them a little more. Read Shakespeare as a poet of speed and rashness.
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Questions readers ask
- Is Μάκβεθ for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy tragic drama, psychological unraveling, and language that rewards attention. The Greek translation uses older, formal phrasing, and some readers find the play confusing or uneven.
- What is Μάκβεθ like?
- A dramatic, quick-moving voice carries ambition and dread, with grief and power tangled into language that stays with you. Feels like dread, grief and longing. About ambition, freedom and power.
- What should I read after Μάκβεθ?
- If you liked Μάκβεθ, try Frankenstein (Mary Shelley), Macbeth (William Shakespeare) and The Odyssey (Homer).
A taste of the feed
A mind wakes up with no history, and nobody to ask.
“But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses; or if they had, all my past life was now a blot, a blind vacancy in which I distinguished nothing. From my earliest remembrance I had been as I then was in height and proportion. I had never yet seen a being resembling me or who claimed any intercourse with me. What was I? The question again recurred, to be answered only with groans.
Frankenstein · Mary Shelley
What she must empty out of herself before she can do it.
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 the access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts, And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers, Wherever in your sightless substances You wait on nature’s mischief! Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, To cry “Hold, hold!”
Macbeth · William Shakespeare
What the greatest of the Greek heroes would trade for a day of paid labour.
“I spake; Achilles quickly answered me:— ‘Noble Ulysses, speak not thus of death, As if thou couldst console me. I would be A laborer on earth, and serve for hire Some man of mean estate, who makes scant cheer, Rather than reign o’er all who have gone down To death. Speak rather of my noble son, Whether or not he yet has joined the wars To fight among the foremost of the host.
The Odyssey · Homer
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