Today’s Totally Random Lines
‘Tis he.
Third Murderer
Macbeth Act III Scene ii, Line 13
This is the short scene where Banquo is murdered. It’s Banquo that the Third Murderer is speaking of when he says
‘Tis he.
It’s a very short scene, less than twenty lines, so I read it through just now and I came up with something interesting. A few scenes earlier Macbeth hires two murderers for this job, but this scene has three murderers. The first line of the scene, spoken by Murderer One to Murderer Three, is
But who did bid thee join with us?
Third Murderer responds,
Macbeth.
Murderers One and Two
question this a bit, but then just proceed.
Why do I give you this detail? I give it because it seems interesting that
Murderer Three is added. Wherefore (remember, that means why)? Murderer Three
is the first to point out that Banquo's son, Fleance, got away. He seems to be the one
of the three that’s paying attention to detail and knows the most about what’s
going on. But is he needed? One of the first two murderers couldn’t have
noticed that Fleance got away? Murderers One and Two are shadowy enough on their own: they show up in one
scene and are assigned the task, they have their own short scenes (this one for the murder), and then Murderer One shows up very briefly in a subsequent
scene to report to Macbeth. So, we needed a third guy to beef these guys up?
Again, why?
Ah, so it turns out that I’ve stumbled onto a mystery that’s well known. I used the Google and found out that the Third Murderer, and his true identity, has been the topic of many a discussion, scholarly and otherwise, on this play. I guess we shouldn't be surprised. There is much belief that Murderer Three is Macbeth, following up on the two guys he hired to make sure they get the job done.
Needless to say, there is no conclusive evidence to tell us who the third murderer is or why he’s been put into this scene. I guess we’ll have to add this to the list of questions we have for Will when we have him over to dinner.
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