The long Strain of Concealment.
iii. i, ii.
To convey dramatically the continuous strain of keeping up appearances in face of steadily accumulating suspicion is more difficult than to depict a single crisis. Shakespeare manages it in the present case chiefly by presenting Macbeth to us on the eve of an important council, at which the whole truth is likely to come out.
iii. i. 30.
We hear, our bloody cousins are bestowed
In England and in Ireland, not confessing
Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers
With strange invention: but of that to-morrow.
It is enough to note here that Macbeth takes the step—the fatal step, as was pointed out in the last study—of contriving Banquo's murder simply because he cannot face the suspense of waiting for the morrow, and hearing the defence of the innocent princes made in presence of Banquo, who knows the inducement he had to such a deed. That he feels the danger of the crime, which nevertheless he cannot hold himself back from committing, is clear from the fact that he will not submit it to the calmer judgment of his wife. iii. ii. 45.The contrast of the two characters appears here as everywhere. Lady Macbeth can wait for an opportunity of freeing themselves from Banquo:
iii. ii. 37.