Things that do sound so fair?”
And then, again, still unintroitive, addresses the Witches:—
... “I' the name of truth,
Are ye fantastical, or that indeed
Which outwardly ye show?”
Banquo's questions are those of natural curiosity,—such as a girl would put after hearing a gipsy tell her schoolfellow's fortune;—all perfectly general, or rather, planless. But Macbeth, lost in thought, raises himself to speech only by the Witches being about to depart:—
“Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:”—
and all that follows is reasoning on a problem already discussed in his mind,—on a hope which he welcomes, and the doubts concerning the attainment of which he wishes to have cleared up. Compare his eagerness,—the keen eye with which he has pursued the Witches' evanishing—
“Speak, I charge you!”
with the easily satisfied mind of the self-uninterested Banquo:—