MACBETH - Act 1 Scene 3

A heath near Forres.

Once again, the Witches’ arrival is signalled with thunder. This could be loud thunder, indicating that foul weather follows the Witches, or is created by them. Alternatively, it could be distant thunder, suggesting that the worst part of the storm is still growing, and approaching.

Thunder. Enter the three Witches

First Witch
Where hast thou been, sister?

Second Witch
Killing swine.

Third Witch
Sister, where thou?

First Witch
A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap,
And munched, and munched, and munched – 'Give me,' quoth I:
'Aroint thee, witch!' the rump-fed ronyon cries.
Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger:
But in a sieve I'll thither sail,
And, like a rat without a tail,
I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do.

Second Witch
I'll give thee a wind.

First Witch
Thou'rt kind.

Third Witch
And I another.

These exchanges do little to advance the plot, but they establish the Witches as troublemakers and agents of chaos, acting out of a general enjoyment of malice and mischief.

First Witch
I myself have all the other,
And the very ports they blow,
All the quarters that they know
I' the shipman's card.
I will drain him dry as hay:
Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his penthouse lid;
He shall live a man forbid;
Weary se'n nights nine times nine
Shall he dwindle, peak and pine.

Much of the time, the Witches have their own lilting rhythm, which distinguishes their speech from that of other characters. Technically, this is trochaic tetrameter, a line with four strong stresses, alternating strong and weak.

Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tost.
Look what I have.

Second Witch
Show me, show me.

First Witch
Here I have a pilot's thumb,
Wrecked as homeward he did come.

Drum within

Third Witch
A drum, a drum!
Macbeth doth come.

Part of the task for each production of the play is to create sounds and gestures to accompany the Witches’ spell-casting. Words like "hand in hand" and "go about, about" suggest that this sequence could be a dance of some kind.

ALL
The weird sisters, hand in hand,
Posters of the sea and land,
Thus do go about, about:
Thrice to thine and thrice to mine
And thrice again, to make up nine.
Peace! The charm's wound up.

Enter MACBETH and BANQUO

MACBETH
So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

Part of the task for each production of the play is to create sounds and gestures to accompany the Witches’ spell-casting. Words like "hand in hand" and "go about, about" suggest that this sequence could be a dance of some kind.

BANQUO
How far is't called to Forres? What are these,
So withered and so wild in their attire,
That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,
And yet are on't? Live you? Or are you aught
That man may question? You seem to understand me,
By each at once her choppy finger laying
Upon her skinny lips; you should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.

MACBETH
Speak, if you can: what are you?

First Witch
All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!

Second Witch
All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!

Third Witch
All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter!

Banquo’s reaction indicates that there is something genuinely mystical about the Witches. He does not dismiss them as mad or foolish, but demands to know what prophecy they have for him.

BANQUO
Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear
Things that do sound so fair? I' the name of truth,
Are ye fantastical, or that indeed
Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner
You greet with present grace and great prediction
Of noble having and of royal hope,
That he seems rapt withal; to me you speak not.
If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow and which will not,
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favours nor your hate.

First Witch
Hail!

Second Witch
Hail!

Third Witch
Hail!

First Witch
Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.

Second Witch
Not so happy, yet much happier.

Third Witch
Thou shalt get Kings, though thou be none:
So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!

First Witch
Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!

Macbeth’s line suggests that the Witches try to exit, prompting him to command them to stay, though he does not succeed.

MACBETH
Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:
By Sinell's death I know I am Thane of Glamis,
But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives,
A prosperous gentleman; and to be King
Stands not within the prospect of belief,
No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence
You owe this strange intelligence? Or why
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.

This effect may have originally been accomplished using a trap door, and it remains a challenge for staging, and an opportunity to create memorable visual effects.

Witches vanish

BANQUO
The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
And these are of them. Whither are they vanished?

MACBETH
Into the air; and what seemed corporal melted
As breath into the wind. Would they had stayed!

Once the Witches are gone, Banquo and Macbeth naturally turn to each other for confirmation that this bizarre encounter truly took place.

BANQUO
Were such things here as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten on the insane root
That takes the reason prisoner?

MACBETH
Your children shall be kings.

BANQUO
You shall be King.

MACBETH
And Thane of Cawdor too: went it not so?

BANQUO
To the selfsame tune and words. Who's here?

Enter ROSS and ANGUS

This speech recounts the events of the previous scene, and suggests that there may have been additional reports of Macbeth's accomplishments, to the point where Duncan became torn between admiration and shock.

The image of Macbeth fearlessly killing and wounding foreshadows his later encounters with blood and death, and with fear.

ROSS
The King hath happily received, Macbeth,
The news of thy success; and when he reads
Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight,
His wonders and his praises do contend
Which should be thine or his; silenced with that,
In viewing o'er the rest o' the selfsame day,
He finds thee in the stout Norwegian ranks,
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make:
Strange images of death. As thick as tale
Came post with post, and every one did bear
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence,
And poured them down before him.

ANGUS
We are sent
To give thee from our royal master thanks;
Only to herald thee into his sight,
Not pay thee.

ROSS
And, for an earnest of a greater honour,
He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor:
In which addition, hail, most worthy Thane!
For it is thine.

BANQUO
What, can the devil speak true?

MACBETH
The Thane of Cawdor lives: why do you dress me
In borrowed robes?

This speech links the title of Thane of Cawdor with acts of treason, a linkage which will become significant for Macbeth later on.

It also reinforces the idea that position and title can be separated from the person holding them.

ANGUS
Who was the thane lives yet,
But under heavy judgment bears that life
Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined
With those of Norway, or did line the rebel
With hidden help and vantage, or that with both
He laboured in his country's wrack, I know not;
But treasons capital, confessed and proved,
Have overthrown him.

MACBETH
[Aside]
Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor:
The greatest is behind.

To ROSS and ANGUS

Thanks for your pains.

To BANQUO.

Do you not hope your children shall be kings,
When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me
Promised no less to them?

Banquo serves as a voice of reason and caution, reminding Macbeth that truth can still be used to mislead, and that the Witches’ words may be temptations, rather than simple predictions.

BANQUO
That, trusted home,
Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
Besides the Thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange:
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray's
In deepest consequence.
Cousins, a word, I pray you.

Here, as in several later scenes, Macbeth must hide his inner thoughts while in public, a skill he has not fully mastered.

MACBETH
[Aside]
Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme. – I thank you, gentlemen.

[Aside]

Here, as in several later scenes, Macbeth must hide his inner thoughts while in public, a skill he has not fully mastered.

This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill, cannot be good: if ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor:
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings:
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man that function
Is smothered in surmise, and nothing is
But what is not.

BANQUO
Look, how our partner's rapt.

MACBETH
[Aside]
If chance will have me King, why, chance may crown me,
Without my stir.

The image of clothing recurs throughout the play, especially in the notion of new, unsuitable, or ill-fitting clothes (such as Macbeth's earlier reference to "borrowed robes"), an image which emphasizes the difference between a person’s inner nature and outer appearance or behaviour.

BANQUO
New honors come upon him
Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould
But with the aid of use.

MACBETH
[Aside]
Come what come may,
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.

BANQUO
Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.

MACBETH
Give me your favour: my dull brain was wrought
With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains
Are registered where every day I turn
The leaf to read them. Let us toward the King
Think upon what hath chanced, and, at more time,
The interim having weighed it, let us speak
Our free hearts each to other.

For the moment, Macbeth and Banquo are united by their troubling encounter with the Witches, though the details of the prophecies may already be driving a wedge between them.

BANQUO
Very gladly.

MACBETH
Till then, enough. Come, friends. 170

Exeunt

MACBETH - Act 1 Scene 3

Once again, the Witches’ arrival is signalled with thunder. This could be loud thunder, indicating that foul weather follows the Witches, or is created by them. Alternatively, it could be distant thunder, suggesting that the worst part of the storm is still growing, and approaching.

These exchanges do little to advance the plot, but they establish the Witches as troublemakers and agents of chaos, acting out of a general enjoyment of malice and mischief.

Much of the time, the Witches have their own lilting rhythm, which distinguishes their speech from that of other characters. Technically, this is trochaic tetrameter, a line with four strong stresses, alternating strong and weak.

Part of the task for each production of the play is to create sounds and gestures to accompany the Witches’ spell-casting. Words like "hand in hand" and "go about, about" suggest that this sequence could be a dance of some kind.

Part of the task for each production of the play is to create sounds and gestures to accompany the Witches’ spell-casting. Words like "hand in hand" and "go about, about" suggest that this sequence could be a dance of some kind.

Banquo’s reaction indicates that there is something genuinely mystical about the Witches. He does not dismiss them as mad or foolish, but demands to know what prophecy they have for him.

Macbeth’s line suggests that the Witches try to exit, prompting him to command them to stay, though he does not succeed.

This effect may have originally been accomplished using a trap door, and it remains a challenge for staging, and an opportunity to create memorable visual effects.

Once the Witches are gone, Banquo and Macbeth naturally turn to each other for confirmation that this bizarre encounter truly took place.

This speech recounts the events of the previous scene, and suggests that there may have been additional reports of Macbeth's accomplishments, to the point where Duncan became torn between admiration and shock.

The image of Macbeth fearlessly killing and wounding foreshadows his later encounters with blood and death, and with fear.

This speech links the title of Thane of Cawdor with acts of treason, a linkage which will become significant for Macbeth later on. It also reinforces the idea that position and title can be separated from the person holding them.

Banquo serves as a voice of reason and caution, reminding Macbeth that truth can still be used to mislead, and that the Witches’ words may be temptations, rather than simple predictions.

Here, as in several later scenes, Macbeth must hide his inner thoughts while in public, a skill he has not fully mastered.

Here, as in several later scenes, Macbeth must hide his inner thoughts while in public, a skill he has not fully mastered.

The image of clothing recurs throughout the play, especially in the notion of new, unsuitable, or ill-fitting clothes (such as Macbeth's earlier reference to "borrowed robes"), an image which emphasizes the difference between a person’s inner nature and outer appearance or behaviour.

For the moment, Macbeth and Banquo are united by their troubling encounter with the Witches, though the details of the prophecies may already be driving a wedge between them.

This speech links the title of Thane of Cawdor with acts of treason, a linkage which will become significant for Macbeth later on.

It also reinforces the idea that position and title can be separated from the person holding them.