Notes On Shakespeare

This play, written circa 1606, was based on historical fact surrounding Banquo, the Scottish nobleman and ancestor of King James I. Shakespeare’s repertory company found favor with the king who generously supported the theater. Macbeth was most likely a tribute to James I. Shakespeare depended greatly on Holinshed’s Chronicles, published in 1577, as a reference for his historical plays.

An Excerpt from Shakespeare’s Macbeth:

Act IV, Scene I. A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron.

[Thunder. Enter the three witches.]

FIRST WITCH. Thrice the branded cat hath mewed.
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 poisoned entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Sweltered 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 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 blindworm’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,
Witches’ mummy, maw and gulf;
Of the ravined salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digged in the dark,
Slivered in the moon’s eclipse,
Nose of Turk and Tartar’s lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe,
Ditch-delivered 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.
[Enter HECATE, to the other three WITCHES]
HECATE. O, well done! I commend your pains;
And every one shall share i’ the 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,” etc. HECATE retires.]
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?

***
Although Shakespeare was not the first by far to write of so-called witches, the image of witches around a cauldron that was impressed upon us as children comes largely from the quoted portion of this play. How many of us are familiar with “Double, double, toil and trouble?” How often is “Something wicked this way comes” quoted?

The detailed description of the items placed in the cauldron were set to at once disgust and amuse, and to play upon the highly superstitious Elizabethan sensibilities. Four hundred years later, the effect remains. Children place imaginary offal in their imaginary cauldrons, and adults recoil with a laugh.

Witch trials and murders of the convicted were common at the time.

I am not a particular fan of Shakespeare, just making a point about the witches.

c. 2007 Jayvin Alternative Media.