'Double, double toil and trouble'

Wikipedia says, “Halloween is an annual holiday observed on October 31, primarily in Ireland, Scotland, Canada  and the United States.

It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holiday “All Saints' Day.” It says the word witch, a practitioner of witchcraft , derives from the Old English nouns wicce (fem.) and  wicca (masc.)

For your Halloween afternoon reading, here’s a scary set piece from William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. (Glossary: Brinded – having obscure dark streaks or flecks on gray. Gulf – the throat. Drab – prostitute. Chaudron – entrails.)

The scene: A dark Cave. In the middle, a Caldron boils. Thunder echoes throughout. And enter three Witches:

   1 WITCH.  Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
   2 WITCH.  Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whin'd.
   3 WITCH.  Harpier cries:—'tis time! 'tis time!
       1 WITCH.  Round about the caldron go;
    In the poison'd entrails throw.—
    Toad, that under cold stone,
    Days and nights has thirty-one;
    Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
    Boil thou first i' the charmed pot!
       ALL.  Double, double toil and trouble;
    Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
       2 WITCH.  Fillet of a fenny snake,
    In the caldron boil and bake;
    Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
    Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
    Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
    Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,—
    For a charm of powerful trouble,
    Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
       ALL.  Double, double toil and trouble;
    Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
       3 WITCH.  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
    Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse;
    Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips;
    Finger of birth-strangled babe
    Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,—
    Make the gruel thick and slab:
    Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
    For the ingrediants of our caldron.
       ALL.  Double, double toil and trouble;
    Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
       2 WITCH.  Cool it with a baboon's blood,
    Then the charm is firm and good.

+ + + + +
NOTES: The above scene appears at the beginning of Act IV, Scene 1 as found in: The Globe Illustrated Shakespeare: The Complete Works Annotated. Howard Staunton, editor. New York: Gramercy Books, 1993.