In Act 4, Scene 1 of Macbeth, what does it mean when Macbeth says, "And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass / Which shows me many more"?

In Act 4, Scene 1, Macbeth confronts the three witches and asks them questions about the future. He receives assurances from the apparitions the witches invoke, such as that he cannot be harmed by any man of woman born and that he is safe until Birnam Wood shall move to Dunsinane. Finally he asks the question that has been plaguing him since the beginning of the play.

Yet my heart
Throbs to know one thing: tell me, if your art
Can tell so much, shall Banquo's issue ever
Reign in this kingdom?

The witches present a show to answer his question. The stage directions call for:

A show of eight Kings, and Banquo last with a glass in his hand.

Shakespeare wanted to show that there would be many more kings descended from Banquo, but the stage could get too crowded. So the playwright has Banquo holding a mirror--probably just a small hand-mirror--in which Macbeth explains that he sees many more kings stretching back into infinity. The images would be getting smaller and smaller as they receded, but the audience could not see this because they could only imagine it. Macbeth has to describe it, not to himself or to the three witches, but for the benefit of the theater audience.

And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass
Which shows me many more; and some I see
That twofold balls and treble sceptres carry:

The "twofold balls" allude to the fact that King James I, who claimed descent from Banquo and inherited the crown of England from Elizabeth I, would be ruler of two kingdoms. The "treble sceptres" possibly represent England, Scotland and Ireland, or England, Scotland and Wales.

The "glass which shows me many more" is a simple mirror used to indicate that there are many more kings in Banquo's line of succession than can be conveniently shown on the Elizabethan stage along with Macbeth, the three witches, and Banquo with seven other actors representing his descendants. Only Macbeth can see into the mirror. He explains to the audience that the glass, or magic mirror, shows him "many more" of Banquo's descendants.

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

nouns - what do you call the person who passes the trophies to the prize giver/presenter?

The person who gives out the trophies to the winners are called award presenters. So what do u call the person who passes the trophies to the presenter? Thanks!

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.

Notes

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