In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the three witches predict the future with double meanings and duplicity. The clever predictions spur Macbeth towards heinous choices and into murderous actions. The famous incantation echoes, “Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.” We know that no good can come from listening to the witches, but Macbeth’s ambition sees only what he wants to see in those double meanings. He does not see the tragic end that is coming.
On this day of Halloween and all days, take care at how you interpret the signs, symbols, and predictions. Keep an eye out for the good witches, friendly ghosts, and good omens.
Beware the double meanings…
Excerpt from Macbeth
First Witch:
Thrice the brinded cat hath mew’d.
Second Witch:
Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.
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’ the 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 owlet’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,
Witches’ mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg’d i’ the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Silver’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 the 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.
Another witch named Hecate joins the three witches at the cauldron.
HECATE:
O well done! I commend your pains;
And every one shall share i’ the gains;
And now about the cauldron sing,
Live elves and fairies in a ring,
Enchanting all that you put in.
The group sings, and Hecate leaves after the song.
Second Witch:
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks, Whoever knocks!
Macbeth enters.
~ Excerpt from Macbeth by William Shakespeare
