BANQUO
Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair? I' the name of truth, Are ye fantastical, or that indeed Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner You greet with present grace and great prediction Of noble having and of royal hope, That he seems rapt withal: to me you speak not. If you can look into the seeds of time, And say which grain will grow and which will not, Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear Your favours nor your hate.
It is not Macbeth who first responds to the witches, but Banquo. His words act as a prompt for the actor playing Macbeth and as commentary for the audience. Macbeth “start[s]”, either jumping in surprise at the prophecies or recoiling from them, an action Banquo explains as “fear”, but perhaps also a sign of guilty thoughts (which he will shortly express in his soliloquy). He is “rapt”, mesmerised by the prophecies, but also spellbound, under the power of the supernatural (the etymological origin in ‘rapere’ also implies this is against his will, that he has been seized by force). Banquo describes the witches’ prophecies as “fair”, but “fair” now also recalls “foul” (from both 1.1 and earlier in 1.3), and we know to treat the prophecies with suspicion. He tries to interrogate the witches “I’ the name of truth”, to work out what is “fantastical”, illusory, and what is tangible and real. With the witches, “truth” is slippery and language is deceptive, and Banquo’s questions are left for the audience to answer. He goes on to reframe the prophecies in poetic language; “noble” Macbeth is predicted “noble having”, the first “noble” a character trait, the second, rank and estate. The repeated word forms a connection between the two: Macbeth is – at this point - deserving of thane of Cawdor. Banquo asks the witches to look again “into the seeds of time”. He presumes that time is set out in a linear way, that the witches know its future development, but it allows for possibility, for shifts. Some “will grow”, some “will not”, and we are left to extend the metaphor ourselves: the seeds have been planted (by the witches? by his own actions? by his wife?) and take root, but they can still be tended, harvested, neglected. What is set out here is the difference in the routes Macbeth and Banquo take; both request the witches to “speak”, but Banquo responds with moderation – “beg nor fear”, “favours nor ... hate” - the antithesis setting out the extremes between which Macbeth will move.