Macbeth Act 1 Scene 3 - The Witches meet Macbeth

Macbeth

Please see the bottom of the page and the highlighted text for full explanatory notes and paraphrases.

ACT I SCENE III	A heath near Forres.
	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 munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd:--	5
	'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,	10
	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.
First Witch	I myself have all the other,	15
	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	20
	Hang upon his pent-house lid;
	He shall live a man forbid:
	Weary se'n nights nine times nine
	Shall he dwindle, peak and pine:
	Though his bark cannot be lost,	25
	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,
	Wreck'd as homeward he did come.	30
	Drum within.
Third Witch	A drum, a drum!
	Macbeth doth come.
ALL	The weird sisters, hand in hand,
	Posters of the sea and land,
	Thus do go about, about:	35
	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.
BANQUO	How far is't call'd to Forres? What are these	40
	So wither'd 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	45
	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!	50
Second Witch	All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!
Third Witch	All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!
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	55
	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,	60
	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!	65
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!	70
First Witch	Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!
MACBETH	Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:
	By Sinel'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	75
	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.	80
	Witches vanish.
BANQUO	The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
	And these are of them. Whither are they vanish'd?
MACBETH	Into the air; and what seem'd corporal melted
	As breath into the wind. Would they had stay'd!
BANQUO	Were such things here as we do speak about?	85
	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.
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	95
	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 Norweyan 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 pour'd them down before him.
ANGUS	We are sent
	To give thee from our royal master thanks;	105
	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 borrow'd robes?
ANGUS	Who was the thane lives yet;	115
	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 labour'd in his country's wrack, I know not;
	But treasons capital, confess'd 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.	125
	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	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.	135
MACBETH	Aside.
	Two truths are told,
	As happy prologues to the swelling act
	Of the imperial theme. -- I thank you, gentlemen.
	Aside.
	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:	140
	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 smother'd in surmise, and nothing is
	But what is not.
BANQUO	Look, how our partner's rapt.	150
MACBETH	Aside.
	If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me,
	Without my stir.
BANQUO	New honors come upon him,
	Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould
	But with the aid of use.
MACBETH	Aside.	155
	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 register'd where every day I turn
	The leaf to read them. Let us toward the king.	160
	Think upon what hath chanced, and, at more time,
	The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak
	Our free hearts each to other.
BANQUO	Very gladly.
MACBETH	Till then, enough. Come, friends.
	[Exeunt]

Next: Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 4
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Explanatory notes below for Act 1, Scene 3
From Macbeth. Ed. Thomas Marc Parrott. New York: American Book Co.
(Line numbers have been altered.)
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With this scene the real action of the play begins. The first scene brought the witches before us; the second gave us a noble picture of Macbeth. Now the two parties, the tempters and the tempted, meet, and from their meeting and the witches' prophecy proceed directly all the remaining events of the story. The witches awaken in Macbeth the passion of ambition, which henceforth is the mainspring of his action. But we must not think that they in any way enchant Macbeth or compel him to do their evil will. After the meeting, as before, he is a free man, and can act or refrain from action as he sees fit. This is shown, in part at least, by the fact that Banquo, although also greeted by the witches with prophecies of future honour for his house, is not led on to any crime to make good the prophecy. There is something in Macbeth's own heart that receives and answers the greeting of the witches. This is Shakespeare's way of writing tragedy ; he makes the fate of his men and women depend upon their own characters, not upon chance or outside influences.

In the first thirty-seven lines of the scene, the witches recount to each other the evil deeds in which they have been engaged since their last meeting. It is worth noting that these deeds are petty and vulgar; but just as every good deed — even the giving of a cup of cold water, — is a blessed thing, so every evil deed — even the killing of swine — is a delight to the powers of evil. This conversation, moreover, serves to identify the "weird sisters" of the play with the familiar witches of Elizabethan superstition.

2. Killing swine. One of the commonest charges brought against supposed witches in Shakespeare's day was that they maliciously killed by pestilence, or the evil eye, the domestic animals of those they had a grudge against.

45, 46. By each ... lips. The witches lay their fingers on their lips to hush Banquo into silence. Their business is not with him, but with Macbeth; and they will not speak to Banquo until they have discharged their errand.

47. beards. Witches were generally thought of as bearded women.

49. All hail, Macbeth. The witches, like ghosts, will not speak until they are spoken to; but as soon as Macbeth questions them, they break out in their triple hail.

50. Glamis. an old castle in Scotland, still standing. The title "Thane of Glamis" was hereditary in Macbeth's family. See line [73] of this scene.

53. start. Macbeth starts because the witches' prophecy that he shall be king is an echo of his secret ambition. Indeed it would seem from his wife's words (i. 7. 48-52) that he had on some previous occasion gone so far as to plot the murder of Duncan.

57. present grace, "honour," "honourable distinction," referring to the title of Thane of Glamis, which Macbeth then enjoyed.

58. royal hope, the hope, or expectation, of royalty.

59. rapt, Macbeth is so struck with the greeting of the witches that he stands silent as in a trance, while Banquo speaks.

67-9. Lesser ... none. The ambiguity of the witches' address to Banquo is in marked contrast to the directness of their speeches to Macbeth. He is to be "lesser than Macbeth" in rank, and "greater," because he will never be the slave of guilt; not so "happy," i.e, "fortunate," because he will never be king, "happier" because he will never fall from his estate. The prediction that he shall "get," i.e, "beget," kings, is also vague, since it only asserts that some of his descendants shall be kings. According to tradition, the royal house of Stuart sprang from Banquo's son, Fleance. [Please click here for much more on this subject.]

81. Note the different way in which the sudden vanishing of the witches affects Banquo and Macbeth. The former is only surprised; the latter regrets that they did not remain to tell him more.

88, 89. Your children, etc, Macbeth cannot free his mind from the predictions of the witches, but he carefully avoids mentioning the most startling of them.

112. devil in this line is pronounced as a monosyllable like the Scotch "deil."

113, 114. dress me In borrowed robes, adorn me with honours that are not mine.

115. Who was the thane, he who formerly was the thane. Cawdor had already been deprived of his rank and possessions.

116. under heavy judgement, under sentence of death.

128. trusted home, completely trusted.

134. In deepest consequence, in matters of the greatest importance.

137. the swelling act, the performance developing in my mind.

140. I am in this line should be contracted in reading into "I'm" to preserve the meter.

142. unfix my hair, make my hair stand up in fright.

144. Against the use of nature, unnaturally.

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How to cite the explanatory notes:
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Ed. Thomas Marc Parrott. New York: American Book Co., 1904. Shakespeare Online. 10 Aug. 2010. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/macbeth_1_3.html >.

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