2
3
Read the excerpt from act 3, scene 4 of The Tragedy of
Macbeth.
Macbeth. Then comes my fit again: I had else been
perfect;
Whole as the marble, founded as the rock,
As broad and general as the casing air:
But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo 's safe?
First Murderer. Ay, my good lord; safe in a ditch he
bides,
With twenty trenched gashes on his head;
The least a death to nature.
Macbeth. Thanks for that.
There the grown serpent lies: the worm that's fled
Hath nature that in time will venom breed,
No teeth for the present. Get thee gone; to-morrow
We'll hear ourselves again.
What is Macbeth comparing in the metaphor "there the
grown serpent lies"?
O death and a snake
nature and a snake
O Macbeth and a snake
O Banquo and a snake