In Chronicles Banquo is an accomplice to Macbeth in the murder of the king, rather than a loyal subject of the king who is seen as an enemy by Macbeth.

Holinshed portrays Banquo as an historical figure: he is an accomplice in Mac Bethad mac Findlaích's ( Macbeth's ) murder of Donnchad mac Crínáin ( King Duncan ) and plays an important part in ensuring that Macbeth, not Máel Coluim mac Donnchada ( Malcolm ), takes the throne in the coup that follows.

Boece's work is the first known record of Banquo and his son Fleance ; and scholars such as David Bevington generally consider them fictional characters invented by Boece.

Why Shakespeare's Banquo is so different from the character described by Holinshed and Boece is not known, though critics have proposed several possible explanations.

There was, however, a need to provide a dramatic contrast to Macbeth ; a role that many scholars argue is filled by Banquo.

Banquo is in a third of the play's scenes, as both a human and a ghost.

During the melee, Banquo holds off the assailants so that Fleance can escape, but is himself killed.

This is visible in act two ; after Banquo sees Duncan to bed, he says: " There's husbandry in heaven, / Their candles are all out ".

This premonition of the coming darkness in association with Macbeth's murders is repeated just before Banquo is killed: " it will be rain to-night ", Banquo tells his son Fleance.

They argue that Banquo is merely setting aside his sword for the night.

" Thou canst not say I did it ", for example, can mean that Macbeth is not the man who actually killed Banquo, or it can mean that Duncan, who was asleep when Macbeth killed him, cannot claim to have seen his killer.

Scholars debate whether Macbeth's vision of Banquo is real or a hallucination.

Several performances of the play have even ignored the stage direction to have the Ghost of Banquo enter at all, heightening the sense that Macbeth is growing mad, since the audience cannot see what he claims to see.

In Roman Polanski's 1971 adaptation, Banquo is played by acclaimed stage actor Martin Shaw, in a style reminiscent of earlier stage performances.

in the 1990 telling of Macbeth in a New York Mafia crime family setting, " Men of Respect " the character of Banquo is named " Bankie Como " played by American actor Dennis Farina.

Although Malcolm, and not Fleance, is placed on the throne, the witches ' prophecy concerning Banquo (" Thou shalt get kings ") was known to the audience of Shakespeare's time to be true: James VI of Scotland ( later also James I of England ) was supposedly a descendant of Banquo.

For Antony the nemesis is Octavius, for Macbeth it is Banquo.

Shakespeare borrowed the character of Banquo from Holinshed's Chronicles, a history of Britain published by Raphael Holinshed in 1587.

Shakespeare may have changed this aspect of his character in order to please King James, who was thought at the time to be a descendant of the real Banquo.

Similarly, when Jean de Schelandre wrote about Banquo in his Stuartide in 1611, he also changed the character by portraying him as a noble and honourable man — the critic D. W. Maskell describes him as “… Schelandre's paragon of valour and virtue ”— probably for reasons similar to Shakespeare's.

Second, Shakespeare may have altered Banquo's character simply because there was no dramatic need for another accomplice to the murder ; there was, however, a need to give a dramatic contrast to Macbeth — a role which many scholars argue is filled by Banquo.

In another gangster adaptation, Men of Respect ( 1991 ), Fleance is replaced by a character named Phil, who similarly helps overthrow Mike ( Macbeth ) after his father, Bankie ( Banquo ), is murdered.

The phrase is famously used in the Day of Judgement sense by William Shakespeare in Macbeth, where on the heath the Three Witches show Macbeth the line of kings that will issue from Banquo:

William Shakespeare was clearly describing the House Martin when Banquo brings the nests and birds to the attention of Duncan at Macbeth's castle, Inverness: " This guest of summer,

In Shakespeare's day, however, they were considered historical figures of great repute, and the king, James I, based his claim to the throne in part on a descent from Banquo.

What Shakespeare writes here thus amounts to a strong support of James ' right to the throne by lineage, and for audiences of Shakespeare's day, a very real fulfillment of the witches ' prophecy to Banquo that his sons would take the throne.

Shakespeare's text states: " Enter Ghost of Banquo, and sits in Macbeth's place.

He and Banquo meet the three witches, who make exactly the same prophecies as in Shakespeare's version.

In Shakespeare's day, Banquo was thought to be a direct ancestor of the Stuart King James I ( Banquo's Stuart descent was disproven in the 19th century, when it was discovered that the Fitzalans actually descended from a Breton family ).

*" You should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so " – Banquo, to the witches, in Shakespeare's Macbeth.

Fleance and his father Banquo are both fictional characters presented as historical fact by Hector Boece, whose Scotorum Historiae ( 1526 – 27 ) was a source for Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles, a history of the British Isles popular in Shakespeare's time.

In the second scene of the play, King Duncan describes the brave manner in which Macbeth, Thane of Glamis, and Banquo bravely led his army against invaders, fighting side by side.

Banquo steadily resists the temptations of evil within the play, praying to heaven for help, while Macbeth seeks darkness, and prays that evil powers will aid him.

When Macbeth returns to the witches later in the play, they show him an apparation of the murdered Banquo, along with eight of his descendants.

In 1933 a Russian director named Theodore Komisarjevsky staged a modern retelling of the play ( Banquo and Macbeth were told of their future through palmistry ); he used Macbeth's shadow as the ghost.

In 1936 Orson Welles helped produce an African-American cast of the play, including Canada Lee in the role of Banquo.

As the play appears to celebrate King James's ancestors and the Stuart accession to the throne in 1603 ( James believed himself to be descended from Banquo ), scholars say that the play is unlikely to have been composed earlier than 1603 and suggest that the parade of eight kings — which the witches show Macbeth in a vision in Act IV — is a compliment to King James.

In 2008, Pegasus Books published The Tragedy of Macbeth Part II: The Seed of Banquo, a play by American author and playwright Noah Lukeman which endeavoured to pick up where the original Macbeth left off, and to resolve its many loose ends.

When Macbeth returns to the witches later in the play, they show him an apparition of the murdered Banquo, along with eight kings of his family, descending through Fleance.

Theater expert Marvin Rosenberg theorizes that Macbeth has a son, and interprets the play as commenting on the rivalries between pairs of father and son: Banquo and Fleance, Macduff and his son, Macbeth and his.

In 2008, Pegasus Books published The Tragedy of Macbeth Part II: The Seed of Banquo, a play by American author and playwright Noah Lukeman that endeavored to pick up where the original Macbeth left off, and to resolve its many loose ends, particularly the prophesied ascension of the seed of Banquo.

This rivalry between groups of fathers and sons ( Banquo and Fleance, Macduff and his son, Macbeth and his ...) is seen as an important theme of the play.