Banquet prepared. Enter Macbeth, Lady, Ross, Lennox, Lords, and attendants

MACBETH      You know your own degrees; sit down.

At first and last, the hearty welcome.

LORDS            Thanks to your majesty.

MACBETH      Ourself will mingle with society

And play the humble host. Our hostess keeps her state,

But in best time we will require her welcome.

LADY              Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends,

For my heart speaks they are welcome.      (3.4.1-7)

Banquet could suggest to an early modern audience that the dinner has already taken place, that this is the dessert course, sweetmeats and spiced wine, which at court and in great houses often involved a change of location—as in the Banqueting House at Whitehall. But this seems to be the occasion’s beginning, rather than a reconstitution of the company, because of the words of welcome: there might be a formal, ceremonial entrance, and what’s being emphasized at the scene’s beginning is order and hierarchy, especially apparent if the company enter in procession according to rank, which is what the stage direction suggests. (No way of knowing that it’s Shakespeare’s, but it’s in the Folio text.) Many in an early modern audience would also be used to the seating at dinner being organised according to status, with the key division being who sat ‘below the salt’, a salt-cellar (which might be very ornate, reflecting the high value of salt historically) marking the line between those of the first rank and those lower. In the hall of a great house, everyone might well dine together, including at least some servants, but distinctions of status would be maintained by a strict division of seating; in the Inns of Court, law students and qualified lawyers too observed a very rigid hierarchy of who sat where when they dined.  Macbeth tells his guests that he trusts them to know where to sit; they know their own degrees, where they fit in the pecking order. On the early modern stage, the table would have been boards set on trestles, with stools for the guests and thrones or (perhaps more likely?) more elaborate chairs for the Macbeths: our hostess keeps her state, Macbeth says, meaning that she’s taking the most elevated position. And (just thinking practically) the expectation would be that the food would be brought in by a procession of servants, for a dinner like this, so the table wouldn’t have to be set with much at the top of the scene.

Macbeth’s habitual stiff, over-formal verbosity in public-speaking situations has here given way to a kind of bluff heartiness in welcoming the thanes: at first and last, the hearty welcome, to all, whatever your degree. Presumably mumbled and varied thanks, rather than a massed thanks to your majesty—the point is, there’s a hubbub of conviviality, as everyone seats themselves and prepares for dinner. Macbeth’s not sitting down yet, though: ourself (the awkward plural) strikes a jarring note, although he could play it slightly ironically, look at me, US I should say, king, hosting the feast—ourself will mingle with society and play the humble host. He’s not going to sit in the big chair, but rather performatively lower himself, go down to the foot of the table even, to play the humble host. Our hostess keeps her state, though—Lady Macbeth’s not playing this game—but in best time we will require her welcome. The dynamic of this scene alters if there are other women present, but if not—and for practical casting reasons, it’s unlikely that there were in the original stagings—Lady Macbeth can look very isolated, especially if the atmosphere seems to have the potential to become laddy, boorish, officers’ mess. There’s potentially a slight edge, therefore, to in best time we will require her welcome, you’ll be hearing from her later, lads, she’ll let her hair down (maybe even the sense of an ongoing fight between the couple, the tension continuing from their last encounter). But so far she’s in control: pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends—that is, that they’re welcome to our gracious home, our table—for my heart speaks they are welcome. I don’t need to tell them that they’re welcome here! they know it implicitly—and anyway, you’re doing the honours on behalf of us both. So far, so smooth, and she’s smoothing over his social awkwardness, his tendency to be just slightly off in everything that he does in public.