Asides
Working Cut – text for experiment
Mac
The greatest is behind.
[To Ross and Angus.] Thanks for your pains.
[To Banquo.] Do you not hope your children shall be
kings?
[To Macbeth.] That, trusted home,
Might yet enkindle you unto the crown.
[To himself.] Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act.
[To the others.] I thank you, gentlemen.
[To himself.] This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill; cannot be good.
[To Ross & Angus.] Look how our partner’s rapt.
[To himself.] If chance will have me king,
Why, chance may crown me,
Without my stir.
•• In groups of three, one of you takes the part of Macbeth, one takes the part of
Banquo and one is the audience.
•• Read through the Working Cut text. Macbeth, when you talk to yourself, turn away
from the others and say the lines to yourself. When you talk to anybody else point
and look at the person playing Banquo.
•• Repeat the activity, except this time, Macbeth, when you talk to yourself, you must
look directly at the person who is the audience.
1 What was different about the two ways of playing the scene?
2 How did the two versions feel to the person playing the ‘part’ of the audience?
3 How did the two versions feel to the person playing Macbeth?
4 What does Macbeth reveal to the audience about himself that he does not reveal to
Banquo?
5 Why does Macbeth not share these asides with Banquo?
6 What might the audience feel about the character of Macbeth at this point of the
play?
Macbeth: Worksheet 3: Asides
Ban
Mac
Ban
Mac
[To himself.] Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor:
Asides
Globe Education Shakespeare: Macbeth
COPYRIGHT © 2011 THE SHAKESPEARE GLOBE TRUST
1