Enter MACBETH and BANQUO
MACBETH
So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
BANQUO
How far is't call'd to Forres? What are these So wither'd and so wild in their attire, That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth, And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught That man may question? You seem to understand me, By each at once her chappy finger laying Upon her skinny lips: you should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so.
MACBETH
Speak, if you can: what are you?
Three scene changes and 117 lines in, we finally meet our eponymous hero, Macbeth. His first words – “so foul and fair a day I have not seen” - form an immediate connection between him and the witches. Though the paradox is the same as that of the witches in 1.1, the rhythm and feel of the line is not; Macbeth’s line is in iambic pentameter, dressed up in nobility and marking his words as momentous, in contrast to the unsettling nature of the witches’ trochaic chant. Whereas the witches’ “fair is foul” is confusing, Macbeth’s can be prosaically explained – the day is fair because the battle is won, but foul because of the weather. It is Banquo who first acknowledges the witches, and he is employed as a descriptive tool. As an audience, we can see the witches on stage (unlike the dagger or ghost later on), so Banquo’s words work to both extend and complicate their appearance. They are “so wither’d and so wild in their attire”, foreign and ‘other’ (and, perhaps, old and lower-class), so much so that they “look not like the inhabitants o’ the earth”. Banquo’s words alienate the witches, influencing our perception of the witches by making us doubt what we see. Any doubts we have as to whether these are merely village witches are erased by Banquo’s reaction to them, with the layering of questions showing his curiosity and – more dominantly – trepidation. Banquo’s curiosity is met by “her chappy finger upon her skinny lips”, a dismissive attempt to silence him which is met by an equally disrespectful reaction as he insults their appearance directly. The “beards” suggest androgyny; the witches disrupt the natural order by being un-female. For a Jacobean audience, there is, perhaps, also something of a joke in this: the witches were likely played by men, and so there is a brief moment where the audience are being asked to distrust what they see, whilst also being made to see it most literally. Ultimately, Banquo is unable to resolve this ambiguity; the signs “forbid” him from seeing who – or indeed what – they truly are, and his attempt to “question” the witches is unsuccessful. Banquo’s reflective questioning is juxtaposed by Macbeth’s directness in his one-line reaction. His imperative “speak” implies a confidence and a willingness to listen to the answer and the audience too anticipates the witches’ response.
~ Kate, Xanthia, Ella, Ruiyun.