The Witches Spell

Macbeth, Act IV, Scene I

By William Shakespeare

A dark cave.  In the middle, a caldron boiling.  Thunder.  Enter the three witches.

1 Witch:  Thrice the brinded cat hath mew’d.

2 Witch:  Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whin’d.

3 Witch:  Harpier cries:-‘tis time!  ‘Tis time!

1 Witch:  Round about the caldron 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 caldron bubble.

2 Witch:   Fillet of a fenny snake,

                In the caldron 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 caldron bubble.

3 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 caldron.

All:         Double, double toil and trouble;

                Fire burn and caldron bubble.

2 Witch:   Cool it with a baboon’s blood,

                Then the charm is firm and good.