Macbeth · William Shakespeare
SCENE I. 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 thy thought: Hear his speech, but say thou naught. APPARITION. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff; Beware the Thane of Fife.—Dismiss me.—Enough. [_Descends._] MACBETH. Whate’er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks; Thou hast harp’d my fear aright.—But one word more. FIRST WITCH. He will not be commanded. Here’s another, More potent than the first. [_Thunder. An Apparition of a bloody Child rises._] APPARITION. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! MACBETH. Had I three ears, I’d hear thee. APPARITION. Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn The power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth. [_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. An Apparition of a Child crowned, with a tree in his hand, rises._] What is this, That rises like the issue of a king, And wears upon his baby brow the round And top of sovereignty? ALL. Listen, but speak not to’t. APPARITION. Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are: Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be, until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill Shall come against him.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.