Act 1 Scene 3 Key Quotations


MACBETH why do you dress me / In borrowed robes? BANQUO That, trusted home, /Might yet enkindle you unto the crown


BANQUO…to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray's In deepest consequence


MACBETH ...why do I yield to that suggestion /Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair / And make my seated heart knock at my ribs


MACBETH If chance will have me King, why, chance may crown me, /Without my stir MACBETH Come what come may, / Time and the hour runs through the roughest day


Commentary 


The scene begins with one witch describing how she intends to do great mischief to a sea captain simply because the captain’s wife refused to share chestnuts with her. This moment reveals how the witches perpetrate evil simply on a whim – evil is done for evil’s sake.


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The image of the sailor ‘tempest-tost’ serves as ametaphor for thewitches’powers to influence. However, they are unable to directly sink the ship (‘Though his bark cannot be lost’), just as they are unable to directly harmMacbeth.The vision of an exhausted sea captain, unable to sleep,who will ‘dwindle, peak and pine’ and be drained ‘dry as hay’ foreshadowsMacbeth’s fate inAct 5. Macbeth’s eventual spiritual draining, paranoia and sleeplessness are all anticipated here.


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This is the first time Macbeth and Banquo appear on stage. Both characters seem taken aback by the sudden appearance of the bearded witches. Banquo notes how Macbeth is stunned into silence by the witches’ proclamation that he is Thane of Cawdor and will one day be King of Scotland: ‘My noble partner…seems rapt withal’. In contrast, the witches’ prediction that Banquo will father a line of kings doesn’t seem to impress Banquo and he appears sceptical about their motives. Banquo argues that agents of evil may tell half-truths to encourage faith in them: ‘to win us to our harm, /The instruments of darkness tell us truths, /Win us with honest trifles, to betray's /In deepest consequence’.


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Macbeth’s belief in the witches’ prophecy is bolstered by Ross’s news that Duncan has given Macbeth the title of Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth is immediately troubled by dark thoughts: ‘...why do I yield to that suggestion / Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair / And make my seated heart knock at my ribs’. Although it is not explicitly stated, it can be assumed that Macbeth has been tempted by the witches’ prophecy and is consideringmurdering Duncan to gain the crown for himself.


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In an aside Macbeth tries to console himself: ‘If chance will have me King, why, chance may crown me, /Without my stir’. Here Macbeth seems willing to accept that Fate will crown him.However, this changes later in theAct asMacbeth actively looks to take the crown himself.


Macbeth


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