SCENE V. A Heath. The Tragedy of Macbeth  Shakespeare homepage  |  Macbeth  | Act 3, Scene 5 

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 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 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 

 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,'  & 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. 



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