Banquo was skeptical at first. Unlike Macbeth, he was not impressed by the three witches when he and Macbeth encountered them in Act I, Scene 3. He told the witches:
If you can look into the seeds of time
And say which grain will grow and which will not,
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favors nor your hate.
The Third Witch promises him:
Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.
In the same scene Banquo tells Macbeth:
But ’tis strange;
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray's
In deepest consequence...
However, by Act III, Scene 1, Banquo is beginning to believe in the prophetic powers of the three witches. In the soliloquy that opens Scene 1, he says to himself:
Thou hast it now: King, Cawdor, Glamis, all,
As the weird women promised, and I fear
Thou play'dst most foully for't: yet it was said
It should not stand in thy posterity,
But that myself should be the root and father
Of many kings. If there come truth from them—
As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine—
Why, by the verities on thee made good,
May they not be my oracles as well
And set me up in hope? But hush, no more.
It is significant that he ends his soliloquy abruptly with, "But hush, no more." He knows it is dangerous to be thinking about the prospect of having his own offspring succeed Macbeth rather than Macbeth's children and grandchildren. If Macbeth thought Banquo was taking the witches seriously, then Banquo's life would be in extreme peril, for at least two reasons. One is that Macbeth would start to fear that Banquo might assassinate him in order to help make the witches' prophecy come true--just as Macbeth acted himself when he assassinated Duncan. If Macbeth was afraid of being killed by Banquo, then Macbeth might have Banquo killed to forestall him.
The other reason Banquo's life might be in danger would be that Macbeth might try to forestall the witches prophecy by having Banquo and his son Fleance killed. Banquo does not want to do or say anything to suggest that he takes the prophecy seriously because he is hoping Macbeth will not take the witches seriously either. After all, Macbeth was already Thane of Glamis and had been appointed Thane of Cawdor before they even met the witches. The only thing the witches were really predicting was that Macbeth would become king. And both Banquo and Macbeth know that this came about, not through supernatural intervention, but by Macbeth's treachery.
The big difference in the reactions of Macbeth and Banquo to the witches prophecies in Act I, Scene 3, is due to the fact that Macbeth had been giving a lot of thought to assassinating King Duncan. The witches seemed to be reading his mind and encouraging him to go ahead with what he was already planning and discussing with his wife. Banquo had no such thoughts, and in fact it probably never would have occurred to him that there was any possibility of his heirs becoming kings. Macbeth believes because he was prepared to believe. If Banquo had lived, he might have started thinking about expediting the fulfillment of the witches' prophecy by assassinating King Macbeth.
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