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Lady Macduff

The Tragedy of Macbeth · 19 speeches across 1 scenes

The loyal, vulnerable wife of Lord Macduff. Her brutal murder crystallizes Macbeth's tyranny.

Who they are

Lady Macduff appears in only one scene (4.2) but serves as a powerful domestic foil to Lady Macbeth. She represents the innocent victims of Macbeth's bloody ambition. Her defiant love for her children and husband contrasts starkly with the play's political scheming. Her murder, alongside her children, seals Macduff's motivation for revenge.

Playing them

Play her with sharp, earthy intelligence—she's no passive victim but a fiercely protective mother. The scene shifts rapidly from anxious banter with her son to a terrifying confrontation with murderers. Let the humor with her child reveal the warmth of what is about to be destroyed. Her final scream should be the most raw, primal sound in the play.

Worth knowing

Shakespeare invented this character, expanding on Holinshed's brief mention of Macduff having a wife. She has no parallel in the historical Macbeth's Scotland, existing purely to magnify Macbeth's villainy.

Where they appear

Play Lady Macduff

Take the part and Yorick reads every other role aloud, following you line by line as you speak.

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Shakespeare the way it was meant to be had — out loud

These plays were written to be performed, not silently read. Yorick is a rehearsal app that lets you perform them: you take a part in any of Shakespeare’s 38 plays, and Yorick reads every other role aloud, listens while you speak your lines, keeps your place, and prompts you the moment you dry.

It is built for the person who has to be off book by tech week — school and college productions, community theatre, festivals, drama students and classical auditions — and for anyone who wants to hear a scene rather than skim it. Alongside the performance you get a plain-English translation of every speech, scene context, performance notes, and the ability to ask about any line and get an answer that already knows the play, the scene and who is speaking.

The text is the public-domain Cambridge/Globe edition. Translations and notes are AI-generated rehearsal aids for actors and students, not a scholarly apparatus. Yorick runs in a browser with nothing to install, and on iPhone and Android.