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Subject Area: Literature
Collection: Banned Books

Scene V.—: A Heath. - William Shakespeare, Macbeth [1623]

Edition used:

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (The Oxford Shakespeare), ed. with a glossary by W.J. Craig M.A. (Oxford University Press, 1916).

Part of: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (The Oxford Shakespeare)

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


Scene V.—

A Heath.

Thunder. Enter the three Witches, meetingHecate.

First Witch.

Why, how now, Hecate! you look angerly.

Hec.

Have I not reason, beldams as you are,

Saucy and overbold? How did you dare

To trade and traffic with Macbeth

In riddles and affairs of death;

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.

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; 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

His hopes ’bove wisdom, grace, and fear;

And you all know security

Is mortals’ chiefest enemy.

[Song within, ‘Come away, come away,’ &c.

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.