ACT III. | |
SCENE V. The 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? 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 everything 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. |
| [Music and 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.] |