Many productions, such as the one staring Judy Densch as Lady Macbeth, depict Duncan as very old and venerable, carried on stage in Act 1, in part to make it a more egregious crime when the Macbeths kill him. We do see his kindness in 2.2 when he visits the Macbeth castle in Inverness, for Banquo tells Macbeth that “the king’s abed” (suggesting, perhaps, he is worn out from his journey) and that he has given Lady Macbeth “this diamond…by the name of most kind hostess” (13-15). Lady Macbeth says, to explain why she didn’t kill him, “Had he not resembled / My father as he slept, I had done’t” again giving reason to consider him a kind, generous old man (12-13).
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