often to win us
our harm, instruments of
darkness tell us truths
Into yet another Monday of my life and Big Bill’s Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow was running through my mind which led me to look, anew, at the play Macbeth and I came across Banquo’s speech where Banquo says …
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray ’s
In deepest consequence …
I need not remind you that this is prefaced by Banquo’s question, What, can the devil speak true?
According to Wikipedia, Banqo or: Lord Banquo, the Thane of Lochaber, is a semi-historical character in William Shakespeare’s 1606 play Macbeth.
In the play, he is at first an ally of Macbeth (both are generals in the King’s army) and they meet the Three Witches together.
After prophesying that Macbeth will become king, the witches tell Banquo that he will not be king himself, but that his descendants will be.
Later, Macbeth in his lust for power sees Banquo as a threat and has him murdered by three hired assassins; Banquo’s son, Fleance, escapes. Banquo’s ghost returns in a later scene, causing Macbeth to react with alarm in public during a feast.
It came to me that Banquo would fit right in with today’s executive branch of Government.
He would fit in, but what might Banquo so if he were here?
I asked ChatGPT and I got this:
If Banquo from Shakespeare’s Macbeth were suddenly serving at a modern table and addressing Donald Trump, he’d likely speak in measured, wary verse—ever mindful of ambition, power, and the uneasy nature of prophecy.
Something like this:
“My lord, though fortune sets thee high in state,
Yet crowns are hollow when they court the storm.
I’ve seen how words, once feathered with fair hope,
May turn and prick the hand that feeds the flame.
So tread thou light where praise grows loud and fast,
For vaulting pride oft breaks the rider’s back.”
Ever mindful of ambition, power, and the uneasy nature of prophecy.
For vaulting pride oft breaks the rider’s back.
Well Banquo might say this.
But who in the executive branch would understand it and its warnings.
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