The conspiracy to overthrow Duncan

The conspiracy to overthrow Duncan converts a brief appeal to self-rule into a plan for regime change, a division of power, and a collective oath to kill the ruler. Its decisive turn is not simply that Macbett and Banco agree to drive Duncan out: the scene reveals that Lady Duncan is already an indispensable member of their conspiracy, while Macbett intends to take the throne for himself. A ritual of crossed daggers gives their political agreement the force of a sworn commitment, even as Duncan’s entrance immediately afterward places their secret action beside the visible majesty of the existing ruler.

From Self-Rule to Overthrow

The conspiracy begins in the language of governing oneself. Macbett names its aim as self-rule, and Banco glosses that phrase as running their own affairs. The exchange then moves rapidly from political principle to direct action: Macbett says they must drive Duncan out, Banco calls for his removal “Lock, stock and barrel,” and both repeat the demand that Duncan be overthrown. Their repeated declarations establish a shared objective, but they do not develop a public program or describe a wider political movement. The immediate business of the scene is the removal of one ruler.

That distinction gives their language an unstable edge. Self-government sounds like a collective claim, yet the plan that follows gives Macbett the throne. Banco supports the overthrow, but the dialogue soon makes clear that the proposed new order is not an equal partnership. The scene lets the political slogan and the private arrangement stand next to each other, exposing the gap between the promise of ruling their own affairs and the distribution of authority the conspirators actually contemplate.

The Proposed Division of Power

Macbett presents a specific settlement: the conspirators will divide the kingdom, each taking a share, while he becomes king and Banco serves as his chamberlain. Banco recasts the post as second-in-command, but Macbett corrects him: Banco would be third. The correction punctures the appearance of equal division. Even before Duncan has been removed, Macbett is assigning ranks within the replacement order and placing himself unmistakably at its summit.

Macbett acknowledges that the task they have set themselves is difficult and says they need all the help they can get. He then identifies a third conspirator: Lady Duncan. Banco reacts with surprise, and Macbett insists that she is indispensable. The revelation changes the apparent shape of the plot. What initially sounds like a compact between two men is already a three-person conspiracy, with the ruler’s wife involved in the plan against him. The scene does not explain how the three first came together or what part Lady Duncan will play in carrying out the overthrow; it establishes her membership and importance without filling in those details.

The conspiracy is also bound to a marriage alliance. Macbett announces to Banco that he and Lady Duncan are engaged. Banco calls her the future Lady Macbett, congratulates them, and kisses her hand. The exchange makes the prospective marriage part of the political arrangement presented onstage, joining Macbett’s claim to rule with his announced union to Duncan’s wife. It also gives Banco a place as witness to both the engagement and the conspiracy’s expanding membership, though the scene does not specify the marriage’s eventual consequences.

Daggers and the Oath

Lady Duncan’s “To the death!” turns the group’s agreement toward its lethal purpose. The three conspirators draw their daggers and cross them at arm’s length, making their bodies and weapons a visible emblem of their alliance. The stage action gives the oath a concentrated theatrical form: the plot is no longer only a sequence of proposals about offices and shares, but a pact enacted together with drawn blades.

Their words sharpen that transformation. One of them calls for an oath to kill the tyrant; Macbett substitutes “the usurper,” and Banco calls Duncan “the dictator.” The changing labels frame the intended killing as the removal of a ruler condemned in turn as tyrannical, illegitimate, and dictatorial. Lady Duncan proposes that they swear to exterminate him, and all three repeat the vow together. The shared declaration is a performative commitment within the scene: they speak not merely about opposing Duncan but bind themselves aloud to his destruction. The text establishes their intention, not the completion of the assassination or the success of their plan.

Departure and Dramatic Irony

After the collective vow, fanfares sound and the conspirators hurry out to the left. Duncan enters from the right, and the stage direction says that, at least at the beginning of the scene that follows, he possesses real majesty. The opposing entrances create a pointed transition: the secret agreement to destroy the ruler has just been sealed, yet the ruler who is its target appears immediately afterward in a posture of authority. The contrast keeps the conspirators’ ambition and Duncan’s present power in view at once.

The ending therefore leaves the conspiracy poised between declaration and consequence. Its participants have named their goal, sketched a new hierarchy, disclosed Lady Duncan’s role, connected Macbett’s marriage plans to the political bargain, and sworn together with daggers drawn. They leave quickly, but the scene offers no account here of the plot’s next practical step. Instead, Duncan’s entrance shifts the stage from covert alliance to sovereign display, making the distance between the conspirators’ intended future and the ruler’s continuing majesty the scene’s final tension.