Act III Scene 4

First Murderer appears at the door

MACBETH: 
See, they encounter thee with their hearts’ thanks.
Both sides are even: here I’ll sit i’ the midst:
Be large in mirth; anon we’ll drink a measure
The table round.


Approaching the door


There’s blood on thy face.

FIRST MURDERER: 
’Tis Banquo’s then.

MACBETH: 
’Tis better thee without than he within.
Is he dispatch’d?

FIRST MURDERER: 
My lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him.

MACBETH: 
Thou art the best o’ the cut-throats: yet he’s good
That did the like for Fleance: if thou didst it,
Thou art the nonpareil.

FIRST MURDERER: 
Most royal sir,
Fleance is ’scaped.

MACBETH: 
Then comes my fit again: I had else been perfect,
Whole as the marble, founded as the rock,
As broad and general as the casing air:
But now I am cabin’d, cribb’d, confined, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo’s safe?

FIRST MURDERER: 
Ay, my good lord: safe in a ditch he bides,
With twenty trenched gashes on his head;
The least a death to nature.

MACBETH: 
Thanks for that:
There the grown serpent lies; the worm that’s fled
Hath nature that in time will venom breed,
No teeth for the present. Get thee gone: to-morrow
We’ll hear, ourselves, again.


Exit Murderer

This scene gives the audience key insight into Macbeth's mind, firstly you can see from his words that he was "perfect" with the thought that banquo and fleance escaped. However I think that one of the reasons Macbeth reacted this way was because he now knows that his children will not be king. Secondly he now knows that flelance can testify to saying that his fathers death was not an accident.


MACBETH: 
Blood hath been shed ere now, i’ the olden time,
Ere human statute purged the gentle weal;
Ay, and since too, murders have been perform’d
Too terrible for the ear: the times have been,
That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
And there an end; but now they rise again,
With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,
And push us from our stools: this is more strange
Than such a murder is.

LADY MACBETH: 
My worthy lord,
Your noble friends do lack you.

MACBETH: 
I do forget.
Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends,
I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing
To those that know me. Come, love and health to all;
Then I’ll sit down. Give me some wine; fill full.
I drink to the general joy o’ the whole table,
And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss;
Would he were here! to all, and him, we thirst,
And all to all.

LORDS: 
__Our duties, and the pledge.


Re-enter Ghost Of Banquo


This extract occurs just after the ghost of banquo had entered the feast.   In it, Macbeth's sense of natural order of the world has been distorted. This is because in the past he has killed many people and never before has he seen a ghost
"the times have been,
That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
And there an end; but now they rise again,"


The text was taken from:
BBC Booknotes