Vol. 08 · Shakespeare ·Macbeth, Act I.vii ·Macbeth
"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly."
Not quite the line.
How it's usually quoted
"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly."
What Shakespeare actually wrote
"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well / It were done quickly." Macbeth — Macbeth, Act I.vii
Why it matters
Correctly quoted but a classic tongue-twister. The four "done"s mean four different things — finished, finished, finished, performed — and conflating them loses the paradox Macbeth is circling.
More from the canon.
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