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”?
Macbeth calls the dead Banquo “the grown serpent” because Banquo is the dangerous threat he believes he has eliminated. He then calls the escaped Fleance “the worm that’s fled,” suggesting Fleance may grow into a threat later. So Macbeth is comparing Banquo to a snake.
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