Chapter: SCENE III.

A heath.

[Thunder. Enter the three Witches.]

FIRST WITCH.
Where hast thou been, sister?

SECOND WITCH.
Killing swine.

THIRD WITCH.
Sister, where thou?

FIRST WITCH.
A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap,
And mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd:--"Give me," quoth I:
"Aroint thee, witch!" the rump-fed ronyon cries.
Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger:
But in a sieve I'll thither sail,
And, like a rat without a tail,
I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do.

SECOND WITCH.
I'll give thee a wind.

FIRST WITCH.
Thou art kind.

THIRD WITCH.
And I another.

FIRST WITCH.
I myself have all the other:
And the very ports they blow,
All the quarters that they know
I' the shipman's card.
I will drain him dry as hay:
Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his pent-house lid;
He shall live a man forbid:
Weary seven-nights nine times nine
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine:
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tost.--
Look what I have.

SECOND WITCH.
Show me, show me.

FIRST WITCH.
Here I have a pilot's thumb,
Wreck'd as homeward he did come.

[Drum within.]

THIRD WITCH.
A drum, a drum!
Macbeth doth come.

ALL.
The weird sisters, hand in hand,
Posters of the sea and land,
Thus do go about, about:
Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine,
And thrice again, to make up nine:--
Peace!--the charm's wound up.

[Enter Macbeth and Banquo.]

MACBETH.
So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

BANQUO.
How far is't call'd to Forres?--What are these
So wither'd, and so wild in their attire,
That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,
And yet are on't?--Live you? or are you aught
That man may question? You seem to understand me,
By each at once her chappy finger laying
Upon her skinny lips:--you should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.

MACBETH.
Speak, if you can;--what are you?

FIRST WITCH.
All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!

SECOND WITCH.
All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!

THIRD WITCH.
All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter!

BANQUO.
Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear
Things that do sound so fair?-- I' the name of truth,
Are ye fantastical, or that indeed
Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner
You greet with present grace and great prediction
Of noble having and of royal hope,
That he seems rapt withal:--to me you speak not:
If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow, and which will not,
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favors nor your hate.

FIRST WITCH.
Hail!

SECOND WITCH.
Hail!

THIRD WITCH.
Hail!

FIRST WITCH.
Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.

SECOND WITCH.
Not so happy, yet much happier.

THIRD WITCH.
Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none:
So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!

FIRST WITCH.
Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!

MACBETH.
Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:
By Sinel's death I know I am Thane of Glamis;
But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives,
A prosperous gentleman; and to be king
Stands not within the prospect of belief,
No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence
You owe this strange intelligence? or why
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting?--Speak, I charge you.

[Witches vanish.]

BANQUO.
The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
And these are of them:--whither are they vanish'd?

MACBETH.
Into the air; and what seem'd corporal melted
As breath into the wind.--Would they had stay'd!

BANQUO.
Were such things here as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten on the insane root
That takes the reason prisoner?

MACBETH.
Your children shall be kings.

BANQUO.
You shall be king.

MACBETH.
And Thane of Cawdor too; went it not so?

BANQUO.
To the selfsame tune and words. Who's here?

[Enter Ross and Angus.]

ROSS.
The king hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth,
The news of thy success: and when he reads
Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight,
His wonders and his praises do contend
Which should be thine or his: silenc'd with that,
In viewing o'er the rest o' the self-same day,
He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
Strange images of death. As thick as hail
Came post with post; and every one did bear
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defense,
And pour'd them down before him.

ANGUS.
We are sent
To give thee, from our royal master, thanks;
Only to herald thee into his sight,
Not pay thee.

ROSS.
And, for an earnest of a greater honor,
He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor:
In which addition, hail, most worthy thane,
For it is thine.

BANQUO.
What, can the devil speak true?

MACBETH.
The Thane of Cawdor lives: why do you dress me
In borrow'd robes?

ANGUS.
Who was the Thane lives yet;
But under heavy judgement bears that life
Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combin'd
With those of Norway, or did line the rebel
With hidden help and vantage, or that with both
He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not;
But treasons capital, confess'd and proved,
Have overthrown him.

MACBETH.
[Aside.] Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor:
The greatest is behind.--Thanks for your pains.--
Do you not hope your children shall be kings,
When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me
Promis'd no less to them?

BANQUO.
That, trusted home,
Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
Besides the Thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange:
And oftentimes to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths;
Win us with honest trifles, to betray's
In deepest consequence.--
Cousins, a word, I pray you.

MACBETH.
[Aside.] Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme.--I thank you, gentlemen.--
[Aside.] This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill; cannot be good:--if ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor:
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings:
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man, that function
Is smother'd in surmise; and nothing is
But what is not.

BANQUO.
Look, how our partner's rapt.

MACBETH.
[Aside.] If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me
Without my stir.

BANQUO.
New honors come upon him,
Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould
But with the aid of use.

MACBETH.
[Aside.] Come what come may,
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.

BANQUO.
Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.

MACBETH.
Give me your favor:--my dull brain was wrought
With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains
Are register'd where every day I turn
The leaf to read them.--Let us toward the king.--
Think upon what hath chanc'd; and, at more time,
The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak
Our free hearts each to other.

BANQUO.
Very gladly.

MACBETH.
Till then, enough.--Come, friends.

[Exeunt.]

 Now that the witches' prophecy has been realized, they reconvene at the predetermined heath. The first witch explains to the others why she was late in coming. Angered at the impudence of a sailor's wife in not giving her chestnuts, the first witch vows to seek revenge on the sailor, making him a sleepless, cursed man. It is important to note here that the witch associates sleeplessness with an evil or cursed life. Macbeth, after killing King Duncan, can hardly sleep because of his ghastly nightmares. While the witches are talking, Macbeth and Banquo enter the area. Macbeth proclaims that he has never seen a day "so fair and foul. This is reminiscent of the weird sisters' statement in Scene 1 that "fair is foul and foul is fair. This is a prominent theme in the play, as it beautifully expresses the macabre state of affairs within Macbeth and without. Banquo, after seeing the witches, becomes horrified by their hideous appearances. Macbeth, however, ignores the physical aspects of the sorceresses and asks them to speak. Each witch addresses him in a different manner-one as the Thane of Glamis, the second as the Thane of Cawdor and the third as "that shalt be king hereafter. After hearing these strange prophecies, Macbeth remains in a sort of ecstatic stupor while Banquo asks the witches to look into his future. The weird sisters say that while Banquo himself will not be as happy or lucky as Macbeth will, he will be much more fortunate in the long run. Also, they tell him that he will beget a line of kings even though he will never be a monarch himself. Awakened from his stupor, Macbeth asks the witches how it can be possible that he will be the Thane of Cawdor, when to his knowledge, the nobleman still lives. He also asks them from whence they get their knowledge of the future. Suddenly, the weird sisters disappear into thin air, much to the surprise of Banquo and Macbeth. Ross and Angus, sent by King Duncan, meet up with the pair at this time. Ross tells Macbeth that in return for his brave combat, Duncan bestows upon him the title of the Thane of Cawdor. Angus explains that the current Thane of Cawdor will be executed for his treachery. Both Macbeth and Banquo are stunned to realize that the witches' first prophecy has actually come to pass. Banquo, however, tells Macbeth that oftentimes the prophecies of such evil creatures come with heavy consequences. It is important to note here that while Banquo quickly realized the truly "foul" nature of the witches, Macbeth still considered them as "fair. While Banquo talks to Angus and Ross, Macbeth engages in profound thought. He cannot determine whether the prophecies are good or evil. If the sayings are evil, he says, then it is strange that he has achieved so much success by them already. If the predictions are good, however, then he wonders why he is so frightened by the sudden thought that has just occurred to him. Macbeth has just considered killing King Duncan in order to shorten the interim period between the present and the realization of the last prophecy. At the same time, however, Macbeth concedes that he could also just let fate run its course. Macbeth urges Banquo to carefully analyze the night's strange incidents so that they can talk about them in detail later. The group then leaves the heath and travels towards the residence of the king

