© Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates. All rights reserved.NOTESThe greatest is behind.^37 [To Ross and Angus]
Thanks for your pains.
[Aside to Banquo] Do you not hope your children shall be
kings,
When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me
Promised no less to them?
Banquo. [Aside to Macbeth] That, trusted home,^38
Might yet enkindle you unto^39 the crown.
Besides the Thane of Cawdor. But ’tis strange:
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm.
The instruments of darkness tell us truths.
Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s
In deepest consequence.
Cousins,^40 a word, I pray you.
Macbeth. [Aside] Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme.^41 —I thank you, gentlemen.—
[Aside] This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor:
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion^42
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
And make my seated^43 heart knock at my ribs.
Against the use of nature?^44 Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings.
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical
Shakes so my single^45 state of man that function
Is smothered in surmise,^46 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 honors come upon him,
Like our strange^47 garments, cleave not to their mold
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.^48
Macbeth. Give me your favor.^49 My dull brain was wrought
With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains
Are registered where every day I turn
The leaf to read them. Let us toward the King.
[Aside to Banquo] Think upon what hath chanced, and at
more time.- behind still to come.
120- home fully.
- enkindle you unto encourage
you to hope for.
125130- Cousins often used as a term
of courtesy between fellow
noblemen. - swelling... theme stately idea
that I will be King.
135 - suggestion thought of
murdering Duncan.
140 43. seated fixed. - single unaided; weak.
145 46. surmise (suhr MYZ)
imaginings; speculation.
150 47. strange new.- stay upon your leisure await
your convenience. - favor pardon.
155 - Against... nature in an
unnatural way.
The Tragedy of Macbeth, Act I 267LIT17_SE12_U03_A1C_WC.indd 267WriteNow Express and Reflect 20/03/16 1:23 AM
Good or Bad News Point out to students that
Macbeth reacts to the news that he is now the
Thane of Cawdor during his soliloquy in Scene iii,
lines 131−146. He is surprised that the witches’
prophecy has come true, but wonders if the
prediction that he is to become king is goodnews or bad news as he says it “cannot be ill,
cannot be good.” Ask students to write a
paragraph reflecting on why Macbeth thinks the
possibility of his becoming king may be a good
thing or a bad thing, citing lines from the play to
support their argument.Whole-Class Learning 267
LIT17_TE12_U03_A1C_WC.indd 267 16-03-29 11:08 AM