Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-delivered by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab.
Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron
For th’ingredience 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 and the other three Witches
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
HECATE
Black spirits and white, red spirits and grey,
Mingle, mingle, mingle, you that mingle may.
FOURTH WITCH
Titty, Tiffin, keep it stiff in;
Firedrake, Puckey, make it lucky;
Liard, Robin, you must bob in.
ALL Round, around, around, about, about,
All ill come running in, all good keep out.
FOURTH WITCH
Here’s the blood of a bat.
HECATE
Put in that, O put in that!
FIFTH WITCH
Here’s leopard’s bane.
HECATE
Put in a grain.
FOURTH WITCH
The juice of toad, the oil of adder.
FIFTH WITCH
Those will make the younker madder.
HECATE
Put in, there’s all, and rid the stench.
A WITCH
Nay, here’s three ounces of a red-haired wench.
ALL Round, around, around, about, about,
All ill come running in, all good keep out.
SECOND WITCH
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
⌈Knock within⌉
Open, locks, whoever knocks.
Enter Macbeth
MACBETH
How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags,
What is’t you do?
ALL THE WITCHES 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 yeasty waves
Confound and swallow navigation up,
Though bladed corn be lodged 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 80
Her nine farrow; grease that’s sweaten
From the murderer’s gibbet throw
Into the flame.
ALL THE WITCHES
Come high or low,
Thyself and office deftly show.
Thunder. First Apparition: an armed head
MACBETH
Tell me, thou unknown power—
FIRST WITCH
He knows thy thought.
Hear his speech, but say thou naught.
FIRST APPARITION
Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth, beware Macduff,
Beware the Thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough.
Apparition descends
MACBETH
Whate’er thou art, for thy good caution thanks.
Thou hast harped my fear aright. But one word
more—
FIRST WITCH
He will not be commanded. Here’s another,
More potent than the first.
Thunder. Second Apparition: a bloody child
SECOND APPARITION Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth.
MACBETH Had I three ears I’d hear thee.
SECOND APPARITION
Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn
The power of man, for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth.
Apparition descends
MACBETH
Then live, Macduff—what need I fear of thee?
But yet I’ll make assurance double sure,
And take a bond of fate thou shalt not live,
That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies,
And sleep in spite of thunder.
Thunder. Third Apparition: a child crowned, with a
tree in his hand
What is this
That rises like the issue of a king,
And wears upon his baby-brow the round
And top of sovereignty?
ALL THE WITCHES
Listen, but speak not to’t.
THIRD APPARITION
Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care
Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are.
Macbeth shall never vanquished be until
Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill
Shall come against him.
Apparition descends
MACBETH
That will never be.
Who can impress the forest, bid the tree
Unfix his earth-bound root? Sweet bodements, good!
Rebellious dead, rise never till the wood
Of Birnam rise, and on’s high place Macbeth
Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath
To time and mortal custom. 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?
ALL THE WITCHES
Seek to know no more.
MACBETH
I will be satisfied. Deny me this,
And an eternal curse fall on you! Let me know.
The cauldron sinks. Hautboys
Why sinks that cauldron? And what noise is this?
FIRST WITCH Show.
SECOND WITCH Show.
THIRD WITCH Show.
ALL THE WITCHES
Show his eyes and grieve his heart,
Come like shadows, so depart.
A show of eight kings, the last with a glass in his
hand; and Banquo
MACBETH
Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo. Down!
Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs. And thy hair,
Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first.