SCENE IV. Forres. The palace.Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, and Attendants
DUNCAN Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not
Those in commission yet return'd?
MALCOLM My liege, They are not yet come back. But I have spoke With one that saw him die: who did report That very frankly he confess'd his treasons, Implored your highness' pardon and set forth A deep repentance: nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it; he died As one that had been studied in his death To throw away the dearest thing he owed, As 'twere a careless trifle.
DUNCAN There's no art To find the mind's construction in the face: He was a gentleman on whom I built An absolute trust.
We begin the fourth scene in "the palace", the seat of power. There is movement on the stage - “ an unspecified number of "attendants" - but it is clearly centred on the King and we have moved from the wilderness of the "heath" to Duncan's ordered domain. The scene begins with a reminder of the "execution ... on Cawdor", the old thane (given Macbeth's promotion) who is a traitor and has been disloyal to his king and country. Duncan's impatience for a report from "those in commission" of the execution shows the weight he places on loyalty and there is an irony in the use of titles, not names: he will not find out that Macbeth will be a far worse traitor than his predecessor. Malcolm's response establishes him as faithful to Duncan; he is appropriately deferential in his address terms of "my liege", and his loyalty stands in contrast to the backdrop of treason the previous scenes have established. He reports that the executed Cawdor "confess'd his treasons", and did so "frankly", an image of begging for mercy which shows cowardice (unlike Macbeth's heroic "disdaining Fortune"). There is some strength, though, to the way he "implored" and his "deep repentance" if it were to show deep remorse and regret. Yet Malcolm casts doubt on the idea of a death-bed repentance as he died "as one that had been studied in his death", with studied suggesting not so much a thoughtful and genuine response as a carefully prepared and learned one: he is going through the motions to achieve redemption (unlike Macbeth's deeply-felt - but ultimately partially-realised - emotional repentance in 2.2). Whether his motivations are political or spiritual depend on the way we read "the dearest thing he owed"; it could be either his title or his life - owed to God, and owed to the King. Either way, his act of treason has shown the disregard he shows to either, throwing away both title and life "as 'twere a careless trifle", and we are reminded of the ephemeral nature of both political success and life itself. Duncan himself draws a line under the incident, reflecting with proverbial wisdom that it is not always possible to "find the mind's construction in the face", that appearances can be deceptive (an image Macbeth will repeat in 1.7 when he speaks of "false faces" and "false hearts"). Duncan is simultaneously wise and naïve: he realises his error, but his desire for loyalty against a politically unstable backdrop will blind him to the realities of those around him.
- Xanthia and Chaya