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Popular Culture Review
Whereas the danger Duncan presents as a “gentle” king is not immediately
as fantastic as the government of V, it is still a threat. Shakespeare could not
obviously paint the reigning king a tyrant or danger to his people because
“censors laid a more restraining hand on drama than on other forms of
literature” (Wills, 18). Moore, however, could create a regime as tyrannical and
horrific as he liked. V, instead of being a terrorist or traitor, seems to be a
freedom-fighter and revolutionary.
While Duncan as a dangerous king he was not a tyrant, but Shakespeare did
present a dangerous tyrant. We believe Macbeth to be that tyrant because we
believe Scotland to be worse off under Macbeth than under Duncan, but if
Banquo ruined the kingdom in Macbeth’s name, “held [them] / So under
fortune, which [they] thought had been / [Macbeth]” then Macbeth’s regicide
fulfilled the first requirement, was justified and his apparent tyranny was
actually Banquo’s.
There is proof that Banquo is not completely innocent. The first undeniable
indication that all is not well in Banquo’s world occurs in 2.1.6-9, “A heavy
summons lies like lead upon me, / And yet I would not sleep: merciful Powers! /
Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature / Gives way to in repose!” A.C.
Bradley takes these lines to mean, “Banquo’s sky begins to darken. At the
opening of the Second Act we see him with Fleance crossing the court of the
castle on his way to bed. The blackness of the moonless, starless night seems to
oppress him. And he is oppressed by something else” (306). It is his dream of
the weird sisters that oppresses him and while he has not yet given in to the
“cursed thoughts,” they have begun to affect him. “The poison has begun to
work” (Bradley, 306).
And this poison seems to have filled Banquo by 3.1.1-10:
Thou hast it now, King, Cawdor, Glamis, all,
As the Weird Women promis’d; and, I fear,
Thou play’dst most foully for’t; yet it was said,
It should not stand in thy posterity;
But that myself should be the root and father
Of many kings. If there come truth from them
(As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine),
Why, by the verities on thee made good,
May they not be my oracles as well,
And set me up in hope?
But this is not Banquo’s first instance of enterprising behavior.
Another example of Banquo acting “in safety” occurs in 2.1.20-28.
Following Banquo’s declaration that “[he] dreamt last night of the three Weird
Sisters” Macbeth replies that when there is time he would like to “spend it in
some words upon that business.” (2.1.22) Banquo agrees and Macbeth states,
very suspiciously, “If you shall cleave to my co