Saturday 31 October 2009

The Witches from ... By William Shakespeare

I can't conceive Halloween without this.
And oh, appearently we are not supposed to say the name of the play... Another English eccentricity.

MACBETH: ACT 1, SCENE 1

SCENE I. A desert place.

Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches

First Witch
When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

Second Witch
When the hurlyburly's done,
When the battle's lost and won.

Third Witch
That will be ere the set of sun.

First Witch
Where the place?

Second Witch
Upon the heath.

Third Witch
There to meet with Macbeth.

First
I come, Graymalkin!

Second
Paddock calls.

Third
Anon.

ALL
Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air.

ACT 3, SCENE 5

SCENE I. A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron.

Thunder. Enter the three Witches

First
Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.

Second
Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.

Third
Harpier cries 'Tis time, 'tis time.

First
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
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
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
Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.

1 comment:

  1. You know, i recently found out that excentricity about the name of that play. It's very supersticious but the fact is that every time thet the play is on scene, something happens to the main actor, or the theater itself, for instance, in my country - Portugal, the Theater Dª Maria II, was destroyed in a huge fire, just when that play was on. Strange, hã

    Kiss^^

    ReplyDelete

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