thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man 140
That function is smothered in surmise,
And nothing is but what is not.
Banquo
Look how our partner’s rapt.
Macbeth
[aside] If chance will have me King, why, chance may crown me,
Without my stir.
Banquo
New honours come upon him, 145
Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould
But with the aid of use.
Macbeth [aside]
Come what come may,
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
Banquo
Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.
Macbeth
Give me your favour. My dull brain was wrought 150
With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains
Are register’d where every day I turn
The leaf to read them. Let us toward the King.
[Aside to BANQUO] Think upon what hath chanc’d; and, at more time,
The interim having weigh’d it, let us speak 155
Our free hearts each to other.
Banquo
[aside to MACBETH] Very gladly.
Macbeth
[aside to BANQUO] Till then, enough. – Come, friends.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE III
The meeting of Macbeth and the witches, which we heard them predict in Act I, Scene i, is about to take place. However, before Macbeth arrives on the heath, unaware of what he will find, the witches plan to torment a sea-captain whose wife has annoyed them.
2. Killing swine Witches were said to kill farm animals, often in revenge for some supposed insult.
7. Aroint thee…! Get out!
7. rump-fed this probably means ‘fed on rump-steak’, therefore sleek and plump. The gaunt witches would envy her.
7. ronyon worthless woman.
8. Tiger a common name for a ship in Shakespeare’s time.
9. There are records of criminal trials in which so-called witches confessed that they went to sea in a sieve.
10. Another special ability witches were belived to have was to turn themselves into animals, but when they did this they became tailless and could be identified.
11. She seems almost fuming with rage and malice. What do you think she intends to do?
15–18. I myself have…card ‘I have control of all the other winds and (I know) the exact harbours from which they blow, from all points of the compass.’ The main point is that she wants to prevent the Tiger from entering any port, and leave the poor ship miserably tossing on the waves.
19. Because the Tiger will not be able to refill her water-supply.
20–1. This is an ominous suggestion of Macbeth’s later insomnia (see, for example, Act III, Scene iv, line 141).
21. pent-house lid An eyelid slopes something like the roof of a pent-house. (A penthouse is a small structure built against a larger one, therefore having only one roof-slope).
22. forbid cursed.
23. sev’nights weeks. Compare the similar word fortnight (fourteen nights) which is still in regular use. The witch is going to manipulate the winds to keep the ship at sea for 81 weeks.
24. dwindle, peak become thin.
25. bark ship. It is important to note that the power of the witches is limited. At crucial points in the play Macbeth excuses or explains his past actions or what he is about to do by assuming that they have absolute power and knowledge, but this is not so.
29. a pilot’s thumb. Bits of dead bodies were valued ingredients in making spells.
31. Is this perhaps a supernatural drum? There is no indication that Macbeth and Banquo have an escort, but they may have.
32. Weird This coms from an Old English word ‘wyrd’ which means fate.
33. Posters creatures which travel quickly.
35–6. Three and multiples of three have always been regarded as magic numbers. At this point they also indicate roughly the steps of their dance: ‘three paces your way, three paces my way, and three more paces (in the direction of the Third Witch).’
37. wound up ‘set, and ready for action’. At this very moment Macbeth and Banquo enter, as though brought there by the charm.
38. So foul and fair Macbeth’s unconscious echo of the witches’ words in Act I, Scene i, confirms the impression that he is already under their influence.
39. How far is’t called…? How far do they reckon it is…?
39–61. Banquo’s reaction to the first sight of the witches is a suspicious one. Macbeth says little, but seems far more prepared than Banquo to accept the witches’ words.
42–3. aught that man may question? beings with whom one is allowed to communicate?
44. choppy chapped. The fact that the witches put their fingers on their lips in answer to Banquo seems to suggest that they want to speak, not to him, but to Macbeth.
50. hereafter in the future. They have just addressed him as the present Thane of Cawdor, as well as Glamis.
51. Banquo notices that Macbeth
