DUNCAN
Who comes here?
Enter ROSS
MALCOLM
The worthy thane of Ross.
LENNOX
What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look That seems to speak things strange.
As soon as the Captain finishes, we are given a new entrance – still not Macbeth, but Ross. He is introduced to Duncan as “the worthy thane”, the adjective now making its third appearance and embedding the idea of honour as a recurring theme throughout the play. “Worthy” here is linked directly to his position as “thane”; the position requires nobility, high regard and moral worth, and any betrayal of these virtues (such as that of the thane of Cawdor) would be a betrayal of their rank and, by extension, the king. Duncan and Malcolm (and the audience) are still awaiting the final resolution of the second battle with Norway, and the news arrives with Ross. Imagery of the eyes (the window to the soul) suggests the news is disturbing and it is hurried with “haste”, implying the report has had to travel quickly, but also that the message has left Ross panic-stricken (a result explained when we realise he is reporting an attempted inversion of the natural order through Cawdor’s treachery). Lennox explains this “haste” as necessary, “should” showing that it is Ross’s responsibility to be bearer of this news and that he is dutiful in his fulfilment of this role. The news appears “strange”, a word which recalls the audience’s own experience of the witches and perhaps encourages us to connect the witches to the battle, as a commanding force who corrupt the way of the battle in order to set Macbeth up for his honourably accounted brutal actions. Perhaps more simply, it suggests that the idea of betrayal is baffling to the thanes and shows the high regard in which they – like Duncan – hold loyalty and valour; for the Jacobean audience, as for the characters, to go against the order (ordained by God through the Divine Right of Kings and set out in the Chain of Being) would have been “strange” and (if not supernatural) unnatural indeed.
~ Xanthia, Ella, Kate and Ruiyun.