Clavis Libri

Literary device

Repetition

Returning to the same word, phrase, or construction, at the start of successive verses or sentences (anaphora) or throughout the text, to give rhythm, emphasis, or insistence.

In Macbeth

O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly! / Thou mayst revenge.

The verb "flee" appears three times in a row, in the haste of someone with a single moment to speak. The repetition gives Banquo’s cry the urgency of an order shouted in the dark, one step from death.

Act III: The King Ruled by Fear, Banquo

Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth! Beware Macduff; / Beware the Thane of Fife.
Unlock with a subscription

Act IV: Deceptive Prophecies and Massacre, the first apparition, an armed head

He has no children. All my pretty ones? / Did you say all? O hell-kite! All? / What, all my pretty chickens and their dam / At one fell swoop?
Unlock with a subscription

Act IV: Deceptive Prophecies and Massacre, Macduff

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, / To the last syllable of recorded time; [...] Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage / And then is heard no more. It is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.
Unlock with a subscription

Act V: Sleepwalking, Birnam, and the Fall, Macbeth

Subscription

The explanation of each passage, in every device and in every work, comes with a subscription.

See the plansAlready subscribed? Sign in