Macbeth - Act 2 Scene 1
Inverness. Court within the castle.
This scene is the only time we see Banquo and Fleance together (except for a very brief glimpse in 3.3), and this moment serves to define and communicate their relationship. Depending on the production, Fleance may vary in age from young boy to young man, which will change the relationship significantly.
Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE, bearing a torch before them
BANQUO
How goes the night, boy?
FLEANCE
The moon is down; I have not heard the clock.
BANQUO
And she goes down at twelve.
FLEANCE
I take't, 'tis later, sir.
Banquo, like Macbeth, is troubled with strange thoughts, though he does not go into detail; unlike Macbeth, Banquo seems much more able to refrain from acting on these thoughts.
BANQUO
Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven;
Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.
A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,
And yet I would not sleep; merciful powers,
Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature
Gives way to in repose!
Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch
Give me my sword.
Who's there?
MACBETH
A friend.
BANQUO
What, sir, not yet at rest? The King's abed:
He hath been in unusual pleasure, and
Sent forth great largess to your offices.
This diamond he greets your wife withal,
By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up
In measureless content.
MACBETH
Being unprepared
Our will became the servant to defect
Which else should free have wrought.
Banquo's comment here may be totally innocuous, may relate to his own temptations, or may indicate that he's developing suspicions about Macbeth.
BANQUO
All's well.
I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:
To you they have showed some truth.
MACBETH
I think not of them.
Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,
We would spend it in some words upon that business,
If you would grant the time.
BANQUO
At your kind'st leisure.
Macbeth's entreaty is ambiguous, but he seems to be probing Banquo, trying to determine his friend's loyalties.
Banquo's reply may be simple and forthright, an indication of his honorable nature, or it may be intended as a caution for Macbeth. Either way, Banquo serves as a counter to Lady Macbeth, urging Macbeth away from temptation, toward caution and duty.
Macbeth and Banquo wish each other a peaceful night's sleep, a minor detail that will tie into the play's concern with rest and restlessness.
MACBETH
If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis,
It shall make honour for you.
BANQUO
So I lose none
In seeking to augment it, but still keep
My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,
I shall be counseled.
MACBETH
Good repose the while!
BANQUO
Thanks, sir: the like to you!
Exeunt BANQUO and FLEANCE
MACBETH
Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,
She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.
Exit Servant.
Unlike the Witches, who were visible to the audience, and whose appearance and speech was confirmed by Banquo, the dagger is seen by Macbeth alone. The audience is left wondering (with Macbeth) whether this image is a supernatural spectre, or an indication of madness.
Macbeth dismisses the dagger as a hallucination, but remains in a trance-like state, in heightened awareness of the darkness and silence of the night, which suit his murderous purpose and lead him towards his victim.
The image of Tarquin is a surprising one here. It evokes the rape of the Roman Lucretia by Sextus Tarquinius, the subject of Shakespeare's poem "The Rape of Lucrece." Macbeth imaginatively aligns himself with the rapist Tarquin, linking Duncan with Lucrece, and configuring the murder as a rape.
The separation between active deeds and passive words does not play a major part in Macbeth, but it is a trope which Shakespeare uses elsewhere, most famously in Hamlet.
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going,
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before. There's no such thing:
It is the bloody business which informs
Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one half world
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtained sleep; witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings, and withered murder,
Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace.
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
A bell rings
I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven, or to hell.
Exit