“To Meet with Macbeth,” given by tutor Louis ... - St. John's College

yearnings, as Macbeth believes what he hears from the Sisters. Yet Macbeth can see and touch
something to confirm his belief: he has become the Thane of Cawdor. What do we know to make us
believe in good ends? Duncan does not seem impressed by the secondhand report of Cawdor’s stages
of repentance followed by his most “becoming” end. (Nor has he seemed to learn the lesson he
articulates about trust, as his overflowing greeting of Macbeth on the cue of that very word makes us
suspect.) One reason that this tragedy is so difficult to penetrate is that we do not insist on seeing with
our own eyes what our will towards the good supplies too readily on their behalf. At Macbeth’s end we
will require seeing the mind in the face, by Shakespeare’s art if we can, by no art if we must.
Let us now listen to Macbeth respond to the political dilemma:
Macbeth.
The service and the loyalty I owe,
In doing it, pays itself.
(I.iv.23-24)
Macbeth could have stopped here and let Duncan finish his line, as Banquo will do momentarily, but his
troubled soul will not be still. Haltingly, repetitively, with more syllables than would sound from
sincerity, he continues:
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 honor.
Duncan.
Welcome hither.
I have begun to plant thee, and will labor
To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo,
. . . .
let me enfold thee
And hold thee to my heart.
Banquo.
There if I grow,
The harvest is your own.
(I.iv.24-33)
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