In the first scene of this act Macbeth dwells on the worthlessness of the mere title which he has won, “To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus.” Then, too, the succession was promised to the issue of Banquo, leaving a barren sceptre in the hands of Macbeth. He resolves to have the substantial prize for which he had “filed his mind,” and therefore plans the destruction of Banquo and Fleance. In the conversation with the murderers whom he engages for that purpose, the theme is curiously illustrated. In reply to Macbeth’s question as to their readiness to revenge an injury, they say, “We are men, my lord.”

The ambiguity of the general name is remedied by the specific description. The name is formal, the description substantial.

In the next Scene (the 2d) both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth continue their reflections on the insecurity of their usurped honors: “We have scotched the snake, not killed it.” She exhorts him to “sleek o’er his rugged look;” and he refuses to explain his purposes as to Banquo, bidding her be innocent of the knowledge till she can applaud the deed; thus sparing her conscience the formal guilt of the murder. His invocation to night and darkness, at the end of this scene, is very similar to that of Lady Macbeth, on a similar occasion, before referred to.

In the 3d Scene the murderers, whilst waiting the approach of Banquo, justify to themselves the deed they are about to commit, by pleading the orders of Macbeth. The deed is his; they are the mere instruments of his will. The allusion to the fading light; “the west yet glimmers with some streaks of day,” seems to refer to the near approach of Banquo’s end; as the extinguishment of the light does to the simultaneous extinguishment of his life, immediately afterward.

The next is the Banquet Scene. It opens with formal ceremony. The murderers then inform Macbeth that they have executed his will on Banquo. Macbeth expresses surprise and regret at Banquo’s absence, but in the midst of his hypocritical professions, his excited imagination embodies the description which has just been given him by the murderers, and the ghost of Banquo, “with twenty trenched gashes on its head,” rises and shakes its gory locks at him. The whole scene abounds with illustrations of the theme. Macbeth endeavors to shelter himself under the letter of the law, when he exclaims, “thou canst not say I did it!” He thinks that after a man has been regularly murdered, he should stay in his grave; he declares his readiness to encounter any substantial foe—the rugged Russian bear, the armed rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger; it is the “horrible shadow” that blanches his cheek with fear. After the guests have retired, he falls into a superstitious train of reflection, in which he expresses his belief in augurs, etc. He declares his intention to revisit the weird sisters; he is fast becoming as formal and as reckless of consequences as his wife; he speaks of his qualms of conscience as the “initiate fear that wants hard use;” and, as if he now passively allowed himself to be borne onward by the tide of events, says he has strange things in his head, “which must be acted e’er they may be scanned.”

Scene 5th. This is another witch scene. Hecate declares her intention to raise up artificial sprites for the purpose of deluding Macbeth, and drawing him on to his confusion, thus preparing the way for the ambiguous predictions.

In the 6th Scene, the relation between the letter and the spirit is exhibited in the ironical speech of Lennox, and in the King of England’s regard for the “dues of birth.”

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