The witches’ prophecies to Macbett and Banco

The witches’ prophecies to Macbett and Banco recast a succession of military rewards as a contest over who may rule and whose descendants will inherit. The First Witch and Second Witch announce titles, explain Duncan’s alleged plans, and forecast a future kingship for Macbett; when they address Banco, they deny him the expected title but promise that his line will produce kings for a thousand years. The encounter makes political uncertainty sound like destiny, while the generals’ disbelief shows that the predictions have not yet displaced their faith in Duncan.

Macbett: titles, loyalty, and kingship

The First Witch greets Macbett as thane of Candor, and the Second Witch then hails him as thane of Glamiss. Macbett is startled by the second title: Glamiss is still alive, he says, and Duncan had promised its title and lands to Banco. The First Witch counters that Glamiss is dead, drowned after a torrent swept him and his horse away. The prophecies thus begin with a concrete reversal in the succession of titles, not with an abstract vision of a distant future.

The Second Witch predicts that Duncan will exploit Glamiss’s death by giving Macbett the title while keeping the lands for himself. Macbett rejects the accusation, insisting that Duncan is loyal and keeps his promises. The First Witch raises the stakes beyond a disputed title: Macbett will become Archduke, rule the country, and eventually be king. He denies ambition, describing his sole ambition as service to his king. His response places his professed loyalty beside a forecast that would make him sovereign, leaving the audience to measure the distance between his stated purpose and the power the witches assign him.

Macbett also invokes the obstacle of legitimate succession. Duncan’s son Macol, he points out, is studying at Carthage and is the natural heir; the Second Witch adds that Duncan has another son, Donalbain, completing postgraduate studies in economics and navigation at Ragusa. The prophecy therefore meets not just Macbett’s reluctance but a recognizable dynastic order. By naming Duncan’s sons, Macbett gives his objection political substance, while the witches’ certainty frames that order as no barrier to the future they announce.

Banco: rivalry and a promised dynasty

The witches approach Banco from both sides. The First Witch hails him as Macbett’s companion; the Second calls him General Banco and declares that he will not become thane of Glamiss. Banco demands to know how they know his name and the title he expected. His questions echo Macbett’s earlier wonder at how rumor might travel through forest, wind, and storm, linking the two encounters through the same unsettled boundary between public news and supernatural foreknowledge.

The witches tell Banco that Glamiss is dead and that Duncan is displeased with him for letting Glamiss escape. According to the First Witch, Duncan will give the title of Baron Glamiss to Macbett, while all the estates revert to the crown. Banco initially resists this account: the title alone would have been sufficient, he argues, and Duncan is loyal and keeps his promises. But the prediction turns that defense into a personal comparison. The Second Witch identifies Macbett as Banco’s successful rival, and Banco’s questions shift toward why Macbett should receive favors and privileges while he is punished.

After Banco runs back and forth brandishing his sword and trying to strike the witches, he returns to center stage and wonders whether he saw and heard them at all. The Second Witch’s voice then becomes pleasant and melodious. It tells him that he will not be king, but will be greater than Macbett as the founder and father of a dynasty that will rule the country for a thousand years. Banco says he does not believe the prediction, yet thinks he recognizes the voice and asks whether it has a body or face. The voice replies that it is beside him and far away, promising that they will meet again. The encounter closes not with Banco’s conversion but with an unresolved promise of renewed contact.

What the prophecies change—and what they leave open

The two prophecies distribute power in contrasting forms. Macbett is offered immediate advancement and the crown; Banco is denied the title he expects but promised enduring importance through his descendants. The distinction makes rivalry more than a competition for present favor: it sets a prospective ruler against the supposed founder of a future royal line. Yet the prophecies are claims spoken by the witches, not confirmations that their forecasts have come true. Macbett and Banco both contest their accounts, and neither man is shown accepting them as settled truth.

Later disputes give the encounter a political afterlife. Banco insists that Duncan cannot deny him his promised reward, whether the title or the lands, and declares that Duncan cannot do this to him. Macbett, in turn, tells Banco that he and Lady Duncan have intervened with the Archduke on his behalf; if their efforts fail, he says, they will use more cogent arguments and then stronger ones. Banco calls Duncan stubborn, and Macbett agrees, comparing him to a mule that can nevertheless be made to budge. These later exchanges do not prove the witches’ forecasts, but they echo the original dispute over promised rewards and reveal how quickly the question of loyalty becomes a question of pressure.

Dramatic role

The scene builds its tension through repetition with variation. Both generals hear the same assurance that Duncan is exploiting Glamiss’s death, and both initially defend the king’s loyalty. But where Macbett is told that he will rise to kingship, Banco is told that he will not rule and must instead imagine greatness through a dynasty. The witches’ knowledge of names, titles, deaths, and private expectations gives their speech an air of authority; the generals’ resistance keeps that authority uncertain. Their predictions do not settle the political future in the scene. They make the existing hierarchy newly legible as a field of rival claims, and leave the audience with two incompatible measures of greatness: possession of the throne and descent from the man who will not possess it.