A dark Cave. In the middle, a Cauldron Boiling.
Thunder. Enter the three Witches.
FIRST WITCH.
Thrice the brinded cat hath mew’d.
SECOND WITCH.
Thrice, and once the hedge-pig whin’d.
THIRD WITCH.
Harpier cries:—’Tis time, ’tis time.
FIRST WITCH.
Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison’d entrails throw.—
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter’d venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i’ th’ charmed pot!
ALL.
Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire, burn; and cauldron, bubble.
SECOND WITCH.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
ALL.
Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire, burn; and cauldron, bubble.
THIRD WITCH.
Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witch’s mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg’d i’ th’ dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Sliver’d in the moon’s eclipse,
Nose of Turk, and Tartar’s lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver’d by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron,
For th’ ingredients of our cauldron.
ALL.
Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire, burn; and cauldron, bubble.
SECOND WITCH.
Cool it with a baboon’s blood.
Then the charm is firm and good.
Enter Hecate.
HECATE.
O, well done! I commend your pains,
And everyone shall share i’ th’ gains.
And now about the cauldron sing,
Like elves and fairies in a ring,
Enchanting all that you put in.
[Music and a song: “Black Spirits,” &c.]
[Exit Hecate.]
SECOND WITCH.
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks!
Enter Macbeth.
MACBETH.
How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!
What is’t you do?
ALL.
A deed without a name.
MACBETH.
I conjure you, by that which you profess,
(Howe’er you come to know it) answer me:
Though you untie the winds, and let them fight
Against the churches; though the yesty waves
Confound and swallow navigation up;
Though bladed corn be lodg’d, and trees blown down;
Though castles topple on their warders’ heads;
Though palaces and pyramids do slope
Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure
Of nature’s germens tumble all together,
Even till destruction sicken, answer me
To what I ask you.
FIRST WITCH.
Speak.
SECOND WITCH.
Demand.
THIRD WITCH.
We’ll answer.
FIRST WITCH.
Say, if thou’dst rather hear it from our mouths,
Or from our masters?
MACBETH.
Call ’em, let me see ’em.
FIRST WITCH.
Pour in sow’s blood, that hath eaten
Her nine farrow; grease that’s sweaten
From the murderer’s gibbet throw
Into the flame.
ALL.
Come, high or low;
Thyself and office deftly show!
[Thunder. An Apparition of an armed Head rises.]
MACBETH.
Tell me, thou unknown power,—
FIRST WITCH.
He knows…
