Tonight good Duncan, friend and guest
This dagger shall pass through thy breast
I shall be king as was the prophecy and belief
Told by the hags upon the heath
Unsexed like them, my Lady chides me still
For my kindness and uncertain will
Even as my dagger drips once more
And blood from noble Banquo stains the floor
Now in blood so far I'm steeped
Only can I wade more deep
But this horizon leads no longer to infinity
Steadily it closes in on me
Slow but marching all the same
Toward the hill at Dunsinane
And though those warning words I scorned
Not all men are of woman born
Thus proves the prophesy no lie
Live by the sword and therefore by it die
In theatrical circles the superstition persists that it is very bad luck to mention the title of "the Scottish play". Such is the power of Shakespeare's Macbeth.
References:
Act I Scene V (Lady Macbeth to Macbeth)
yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way
Act I Scene VI (Lady Macbeth)
Come you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to toe-top full
Of direst cruelty!
Act III Scene IV (Macbeth)
I am in blood,
Stepped so far that should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er.
Act IV Scene I (Second Apparition)
Be ******, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn
The power of man, for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth
Act IV Scene I (Third Apparition)
Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care
Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are:
Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until
Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill
Shall come against him