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Macbeth and Banquo with the Witches by Henry Fuseli. Banquo is in a third of the play's scenes, as both a human and a ghost. As significant as he is to the plot, he has fewer lines than the relatively insignificant Ross, a Scottish nobleman who survives the play. [12]
Fleance and his father Banquo are both fictional characters presented as historical fact by the Scottish historian Hector Boece, whose Scotorum Historiae (1526–27) was a source for Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles, [1] a history of the British Isles popular in Shakespeare's time.
He and Banquo meet the three witches, who make exactly the same prophecies as in Shakespeare's version. Macbeth and Banquo then together plot the murder of Duncan, at Lady Macbeth's urging. Macbeth has a long, ten-year reign before eventually being overthrown by Macduff and Malcolm. The parallels between the two versions are clear.
The killings of Banquo and Fleance were important to Macbeth and, while the banquet that night was scheduled to start at 7pm, Macbeth did not appear until midnight. Paton believes the Third Murderer extinguished a light to avoid recognition, and later, Macbeth tells Banquo's ghost something that sounds like "In yon black struggle you could ...
In Eugène Ionesco's satirical version of the play Macbett (1972), one of the witches removes a costume to reveal that she is, in fact, Lady Duncan, and wants to be Macbeth's mistress. Once Macbeth is King and they are married, however, she abandons him, revealing that she was not Lady Duncan all along, but a witch.
Fearing that Banquo will seize the kingdom, Macbeth invites him to a supper where he intends to kill him and his son. He succeeds in killing Banquo, but his son, Fleance, flees to Wales. Macbeth, convinced by the witches of his invincibility, commits outrageous acts against his subjects, gradually becoming a cruel and paranoid ruler.
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Worried that Banquo's descendants would rule Scotland, Macbeth invites Banquo to a royal banquet. He sends two men to successfully murder Banquo, but his son Fleance escapes. At the banquet, Macbeth becomes haunted after seeing Banquo's ghost. The others panic at Macbeth raging at an empty chair, until a desperate Lady Macbeth tells them that ...