After the witches show Macbeth three apparitions, which he
mistakenly takes for good omens, he asks them:
readability="9">Yet my heart
Throbs
to know one thing: tell me, if your artCan tell so much,
shall Banquo's issue everReign in this
kingdom?They answer with
this:readability="45">ALL:
Show his eyes,
and grieve his heart;Come like shadows, so
depart!A show of eight Kings, and Banquo last
with a glass in his
hand.MACBETH:
Thou
are too like the spirit of Banquo. Down!Thy crown does
sear mine eyeballs. And thy hair,Thou other gold-bound
brow, is like the first.A third is like the former. Filthy
hags!Why do you show me this? A fourth! Start,
eyes!What, will the line stretch out to the crack of
doom?Another yet! A seventh! I'll see no
more:And yet the eighth appears, who bears a
glassWhich shows me many more; and some I
seeThat twofold balls and treble sceptres
carry:Horrible sight! Now I see ’tis
true;For the blood-bolter'd Banquo smiles upon
me,And points at them for his. What, is this
so?Eight kings appear, and
they all look like Banquo. The last apparition/king holds a mirror which shows even more
kings. So more than eight generations of Banquo's children will be kings, stretching, as
legend has it, all the way to the King to whom Shakespeare dedicated Macbeth:
King James I.
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