The Witches Spell

“Three times the brinded cat has mewed,” said the first witch.

“Thrice plus one the hedgehog whined,” said the second.

“Harpier cries: it’s time, it’s time!” the third said.

The first witch moved closer to the boiling cauldron.

“Round about the cauldron go:

In the poisoned entrails throw.

Toad that under cold stone

Days and nights, thirty-one

Vicious venom its sleeping got,

Boil it first in this charmed pot!”

Then in unison the witches chanted into the cauldron:

“Double, double, toil and trouble,

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.”

The second witch came to the cauldron for her contribution to the spell.

“Fillet of a marsh snake,

In the cauldron boil and bake:

Eye of newt and toes of frog,

Wool of bat and tongue of dog,

Adder’s fork and blindworm’s sting,

Lizard’s leg and owlet’s wing,

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.”

The witches then chanted together.

“Double, double, toil and trouble,

fire burn and cauldron bubble!”

Then the third of the Weird Sisters came forward to the cauldron to say her piece of the spell.

“Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,

Witch’s mummy, guts and gullet

Of the fed salt-sea shark,

Root of hemlock, dug in the dark,

Liver of blaspheming Jew,

Gall of goat and slips of yew

Felled in the moon’s eclipse,

Nose of Turk and Tartar’s lips,

Finger of birth-strangled babe

Ditch-delivered by a slag:

Last, a tiger’s entrails.

Our pot will create what entails.”

Again they said in unison:

“Double, double toil and trouble,

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.”

The second witch then finalised the spell:

“Cool it with baboon’s blood,

Then the charm is firm and good.”

The completion of the spell summoned Hecate

“Oh, well done! I commend your pains

And everyone shall share in the gains.

And now about the cauldron sing,

Like elves and fairies in a ring,

Enchanting all that you put in.”

Hecate Exits.

– By William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Witches Spell Macbeth

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RE:
what is the spell in macbeth the actual spell,it's translation into new english and what it's for?

You can find a modern translation of the poem on this page:

http://nfs.sparknotes.com/macbeth/page_130.epl

Or, alternatively, you can look at the original text with links that explain some words and phrases here: http://shakespeare.about.com/od/studentresources/a/witchesspeeches.htm

Harpier is a corruption of the word harpy. Most of the gross things that the witches are throwing into the pot (eye of newt, etc,) are references to normal flowers and herbs. For example, “Fillet of a fenny snake” refers to the species of Arum otherwise known as “snakes meat.”

I believe the spell was merely part of their efforts to influence Macbeth into doing things. That’s practically what they are doing throughout the entire play. Their power is mostly based on the words they speak to influence, and the spell was mostly just for “effect.”

No. I am Jewish and we are taught there are none. If you want to read the “Old Testament”, go get a Jewish Tanakh. That will be the best. If you can’t read Hebrew you can get a copy that is translated directly from the Hebrew. It is my understanding that Christians and Jews share the Tanakh which Christians call the “Old Testament”. If that is true (and I could be wrong and please correct me if I am) then why not read the JPS Tanakh translated directly from Hebrew? What would be the difference? Any other version is tranlated from Hebrew to Greek to Latin to whatever other language and it becomes a bit like playing the telephone game.