_______ V fo r Vendetta'. A Graphic Retelling of Macbeth
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Is there scarce ask’d for who; and good men’s lives
Expire before the flowers in their caps,
Dying or ere they sicken. (164-172)
Nor is Rosse’s report the only one offered. Angus in 5.2 offers a statement on
the morale of Macbeth’s troops:
Now does he feel
His secret murthers sticking on his hands;
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach:
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love: now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe
Upon a dwarfish thief. (16-21)
It appears from these reports that Macbeth is the traitor and tyrant that has been
so obviously depicted.
However, an alternate interpretation is offered by Macbeth himself in 3.1
when he is discussing the proposed murder of Banquo with the murderers:
Well then, now
Have you consider’d of my speeches?—know
That it was he, in the times past, which held you
So under fortune, which you thought had been
Our innocent self? This I made good to you
In our last conference; pass’d in probation with you,
How you were borne in hand; how cross’d the instruments;
Who wrought with them; and all things else, that might,
To half a soul, and to a notion craz’d,
Say, ‘Thus did Banquo’. (74-82)
This does not seem strong evidence at first; Macbeth’s position as a reliable
narrator is necessarily questionable and he does appear to be persuading
desperate men to murder Banquo. But this is not the first time Macbeth has
questioned Banquo’s character; the first occurred earlier in Macbeth’s soliloquy
when he had no audience to convince and no reason to lie:
To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus:
Our fears in Banquo
Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature
Reigns that which would be fear’d: ’tis much he dares;
And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour
To act in safety. There is none but he
Whose being I do fear: and under him
My Genius is rebuk’d; (3.1.47-55)