Chapter: ACT I. SCENE I.

An open Place. Thunder and Lightning.

[Enter three Witches.]

FIRST WITCH.
When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

SECOND WITCH.
When the hurlyburly's done,
When the battle's lost and won.

THIRD WITCH.
That will be ere the set of sun.

FIRST WITCH.
Where the place?

SECOND WITCH.
Upon the heath.

THIRD WITCH.
There to meet with Macbeth.

FIRST WITCH.
I come, Graymalkin!

ALL.
Paddock calls:--anon:--
Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air.

[Witches vanish.]

 Three witches meet on a foggy heath in Scotland, amidst thunder and lightening. It's all very dramatic and mysterious. They discuss when they'll meet again, and decide to hook up "When the hurly-burly's done, when the battle's lost and won." In other words, when the fighting that's going on has ended, which apparently will be today, before sunset. Brain snack: Even though the play's speech headings and stage directions refer to these three lovely ladies as "witches," the term "witch" only shows up once in the play. The sisters are, however, called "weird" six times, but not "weird" like kooky and strange; they're "weird" like "wyrd," an Old English term meaning "fate." Spooky. They let the audience in on their plan to meet some dude named Macbeth. Title alert! The witches then call out to Graymalkin and Paddock, the witches' "familiars," or spirits that serve the witches. All three witches then chance, "Fair is foul and foul is fair" before going back about their supernatural business.

