Page:Hallowe'en festivities (1903).djvu/76

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
72
WERNER'S READINGS No. 31

Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron, bubble.

Third Witch.
[Continues on around and repeats her rhyme while others jail out and stand one side, nodding and thumping sticks.]

Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witches' mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Silver'd in the moon's eclipse,
Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips,
Make the gruel thick and slab;
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingredients of our caldron.

All:

[At close of Third Witch's speech others fall in and march around caldron, thumping sticks as they go, all saying:]

Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron, bubble.

Second Witch.
[Continues on until she says her lines. Others step one side.]

Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.

[Enter Hecate to the other three Witches.]

Hecate.

O, well done! I commend your pains;
And every one shall share i' the gains.
And now about the caldron sing,
Live elves and fairies in a ring,
Enchanting all that you put in.

[Soft dreamy music, then weird music. Witches dance around caldron, keeping time to music and humming in peculiar manner as they make evolutions. Hecate retires while they are dancing.]