Macbeth - Act 1 Scene 4
Forres. The palace.
Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, and Attendants
DUNCAN
Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not
Those in commission yet returned?
This report praises the stoic approach to death, describing a noble and honorable end, and hinting at the possibility of redemption. This stoicism becomes a counterpoint to Macbeth's ambition and later fears.
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 confessed 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's comment serves to reiterate the play's concerns with falseness, lies, and the separation between internal reality and external appearance; it also once more links the title of Thane of Cawdor with treachery and deceit.
Duncan's language is ornate and flattering, but the substance of it is telling: he claims that Macbeth's actions in the war are so astonishing as to be beyond thanks or repayment, and wishes that Macbeth had done less, so that Duncan could seem generous in rewarding him. After the Witches' prophecy, Duncan's words here could lead Macbeth to expect to be named heir to the throne.
Macbeth may lying here, or he may be honest in his loyalty until later in the play. Whether his words are honest or deceitful, they remind the audience of what a subject's relationship to a king ought to be, reiterating the ideas of stability, honor, and duty which Macbeth's later actions will endanger.
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.
Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSS, and ANGUS
O worthiest cousin!
The sin of my ingratitude even now
Was heavy on me: thou art so far before
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow
To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved,
That the proportion both of thanks and payment
Might have been mine! Only I have left to say,
More is thy due than more than all can pay.
MACBETH
The service and the loyalty I owe,
In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part
Is to receive our duties; and our duties
Are to your throne and state children and servants,
Which do but what they should, by doing every thing
Safe toward your love and honour.
DUNCAN
Welcome hither:
I have begun to plant thee, and will labour
To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo,
That hast no less deserved, nor must be known
No less to have done so, let me enfold thee
And hold thee to my heart.
BANQUO
There if I grow,
The harvest is your own.
This line suggests that Duncan is either weeping or holding back tears, another indication of the difference between him and the more militant Macbeth.
Duncan's announcement gives the play a historical context: if succession by the eldest son were a given, it wouldn't need to be announced. Later in the play, Macbeth is named King through a kind of election. Duncan is changing the political system to make his son Malcolm the heir to the throne, a move which dashes Macbeth's hopes of becoming King through legitimate means.
DUNCAN
My plenteous joys,
Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves
In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, Thanes,
And you whose places are the nearest, know
We will establish our estate upon
Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter
The Prince of Cumberland; which honour must
Not unaccompanied invest him only,
But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
On all deservers. From hence to Inverness,
And bind us further to you.
MACBETH
The rest is labour, which is not used for you:
I'll be myself the harbinger and make joyful
The hearing of my wife with your approach;
So humbly take my leave.
DUNCAN
My worthy Cawdor!
Macbeth here articulates a distinction between his former killings, which were military exploits, done in the light of day, and his future actions, which will be illicit, secret, and dark.
MACBETH
[Aside]
The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step
On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires!
Let not light see my black and deep desires;
The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be,
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.
Exit
Duncan is once again led astray by trust, oblivious either through age, foolishness, or a desire to think the best of his companions.
Duncan's decision to follow Macbeth to Inverness gives the next several scenes a rushed quality, a sense of events piling up on one another, which increases the tension and urgency of the action.
DUNCAN
True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant,
And in his commendations I am fed:
It is a banquet to me. Let's after him,
Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome:
It is a peerless kinsman.
Flourish. Exeunt