Macbeth pg. 17,19- Act 1: Scene 3
"
First Witch-
All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Than of Glamis!
Second Witch-
All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Than of Cawdor!
Third Witch-
All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!
…
First Witch-
Lesser then Macbeth and greater.
Second Witch-
Not so happy, yet much happier.
Third Witch-
Thou salt get kings, though thou be none. So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!"
In this passage in
Macbeth, the witches make their famous appearances with Macbeth and Banquo. The scene takes place in a moment of confusion by Macbeth and Banquo. The witches first begin hailing to Macbeth and giving him titles such as, Than of Glamis and Thane of Cawdor when one already exists for each. After a while of thinking it through, Macbeth and Banquo begin to decipher the witches.
The witches know what comes in the future- Macbeth will be Thane of Glamis and Cawdor. By saying "shalt be king hereafter" was giving that Macbeth will be king, which he became later in Act 3. As the witches began talking about Banquo- they said that he would be less of what Macbeth would be, but greater. He might not have the titles or importance of Macbeth, but would be greater (possibly because of his death). Banquo wouldn't be that happy, but he would still be happier than Macbeth, implying that Macbeth will not carry on to be a happy man. The witches also said, Banquo would get kings, meaning have children to be kings, but he would not be one.
This passage sets the story for Macbeth and for what happens. When something happens in further scenes, we refer back to this scene of the witches. We still did not find out the bad things to happen in this scene, such as the death of Banquo we recently found out about. They also did not give the how to becoming Thane of Glamis, Cawdor, and being King, when Macbeth was questioning the how the whole time.
