SCENE V
A Heath.
Thunder. Enter the three Witches meeting HECATE
First Witch
Why, how now, Hecate! you look angerly.
HECATE
Have I not reason, beldams as you are,
Saucy and overbold?1 How did you
dare
To trade and traffic with Macbeth
In riddles and affairs of death;2
And I, the mistress of your charms,
The close contriver of all harms,
Was never call'd to bear my part,
Or show the glory of our art?
And, which is worse, all you have done
Hath been but for a wayward son,
Spiteful and wrathful, who, as others do,
Loves for his own ends, not for you.3
But make amends now: get you gone,
And at the pit of Acheron
Meet me i' the morning: thither he
Will come to know his destiny:
Your vessels and your spells provide,
Your charms and every thing beside.
I am for the air;4 this night I'll
spend
Unto a dismal and a fatal end:
Great business must be wrought ere noon:
Upon the corner of the moon
There hangs a vaporous drop profound;
I'll catch it ere it come to ground:
And that distill'd by magic sleights
Shall raise such artificial sprites
As by the strength of their illusion
Shall draw him on to his confusion:
He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear
He hopes 'bove wisdom, grace and fear:
And you all know, security
Is mortals' chiefest enemy.
Music and a song within: 'Come away, come away,'
Hark! I am call'd; my little spirit, see,
Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me.
Exit
First Witch
Come, let's make haste; she'll soon be back again.
Exeunt
FOOTNOTES
1 You have given me good reason to be
angry, you presumptuous old hags!
2 You have no right deceiving Macbeth
with confusing ideas and suggestions of murder
3 More annoying, still, is that you used
your spells to help someone who is selfish and listens to you only
for serving his own interests.
4 I'm going to fly into the air now
SUMMARY
The 3 witches meet
with Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft. She yells at the witches
for meddling with Macbeth without telling her, but says she'll take
over as supervisor of their mischief. She says that when Macbeth
goes to them the next day, they must summon up visions that will
fill him with a false sense of security and drive him to further
confusion. Hecate vanishes and the witches prepare their
charms.
