Scene Five
[A Heath]
Thunder. Enter the three Witches, meeting Hecate.
First Witch. Why, how now, Hecate! you look angerly.
Hec. Have I not reason, beldams as you are,
Saucy and overbold? How did you dare
To trade and traffic with Macbeth 4
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, 8
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, 12
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 16
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 20
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; 24
I'll catch it ere it come to ground:
And that distill' d by magic sleights
Scene Five; cf. n.
2 beldams: hags
7 close: secret
15 Acheron: a river of Hades
24 profound: of profound significance
26 sleights: arts
