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“happy prologues to the swelling act”
Simile
Act 1,
Scene 3
Lines 129b-144

An explanation of the simile “as happy prologues to the swelling act” in Act 1, Scene 3 of myShakespeare’s Macbeth.

Banquo

Ross

Angus

Ross

Banquo

Macbeth

Angus

Macbeth

Banquo

[Banquo joins Ross and Angus; Macbeth speaks to himself]

Macbeth

                                                        [Aside] Two truths are told
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme. [To Ross and Angus] I thank you, gentlemen.
[Aside] This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor.
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings.
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man that function
Is smothered in surmise — and nothing is,
But what is not.

In this simile, Macbeth compares the witches’ statements to a play. The first two truths which they have told - that Macbeth is the Thane of Glamis and the Thane of Cawdor - are like the prologue, or introduction, of the play. The final act of the play has a royal theme because that’s when Macbeth becomes king.

(The Three Witches from Shakespeares Macbeth, Daniel Gardner, c. 1775)