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He says that if they really can predict the future ("look into the seeds of time"), they should "Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear / Your favours nor your hate" (1.3.60-61).
#WHAT DOES RAPT MEAN HOW TO#
Macbeth doesn't reply, so Banquo-as if to show Macbeth how to act-challenges the witches. Where Banquo uses the word "start," we would use the word "jump." It's as though someone had just come up behind Macbeth and yelled "Boo!" A little later we learn that Macbeth is thinking very hard about becoming king by killing King Duncan, so we can guess that it now might seem to him that the witches are reading his mind. They hail Macbeth as "Thane of Glamis," "Thane of Cawdor," and "King hereafter." Macbeth's reaction is described in Banquo's next words: "Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear / Things that do sound so fair?" (1.3.51-52). Then Macbeth asks them to speak, and that seems to be what they were waiting for. Banquo remarks that they look like women, but he won't call them women, because they have beards. They are "So wither'd and so wild in their attire" (1.3.40) that Banquo asks them, "Live you?" Instead of answering, they each put a finger to their lips, as though they have a secret. Macbeth remarks "So foul and fair a day I have not seen" (1.3.38), which simply means that it's one of those days when fog is followed by sunshine, then a thunderstorm, some hail, and more sunshine. When Macbeth and Banquo appear, we see that the two men are on their way back to the King's palace at Forres. They are unpredictable and can make a lot of trouble, but they aren't necessarily agents of inevitable fate.Īs their dance ends, the witches tell each other "Peace," which means "be quiet," and they wait silently. "Weird" in this sense is a good description of how the witches operate. The word "weird" comes from an older word that means "fate," but by Shakespeare's time, "weird" had come to also have the sense of "wayward"-that is, unpredictable, peculiar. The chant begins with them calling themselves "the weird sisters" (1.3.32). However, when they speak to the witches, they are quite alone.) To get ready for Macbeth, the witches chant and dance. (We never see the drummer, but apparently the idea is that he is beating out a marching rhythm for the army that Macbeth and Banquo are leading.
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Just as the first witch is showing the thumb to the other two, they all hear a drum, so they know that Macbeth is coming. And, by the way, she keeps a severed thumb as a kind of toy. She impulsively demands chestnuts, and when she gets only insults, she becomes spiteful and plans (or perhaps fantasizes) a sneaky revenge, not on the woman, but on her husband. This little story shows that the witch is like a very bad child. Then the witch, apparently to prove what a wicked witch she is, shows the others a thumb she took from a drowned pilot. Contending with the storm, he won't sleep and so he will "dwindle." The witch gloats that "Though his bark cannot be lost, / Yet it shall be tempest-toss'd" (1.3.24-25). The witch, with the help of her sister witches, will control the winds so that the sailor won't be able to come into port. Interestingly, the object of her revenge is the sailor, not the sailor's wife, and the revenge has very definite limits. The first witch continues by boasting about how she will get her revenge. (This sort of scene was probably played out many times in the real life of Shakespeare's time, because poor, old women often received little food and less respect.) Naturally, the witch wants to get back at the sailor's wife.
#WHAT DOES RAPT MEAN FULL#
(1.3.4-6).The sailor's wife is a "have" and the witch is a "have-not." The sailor's wife, though she is a "ronyon," a scabby thing, gets to eat all the good food, so she is "rump-fed" and has a lap full of chestnuts, which she eats right in front of the "have-not," who can't stand it, and bursts out with "Give me!" But that only makes the sailor's wife call her a "witch" and order her to go away. "Aroint thee, witch!" the rump-fed ronyon cries. Here's how the first witch's story starts:Ī sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap,Īnd munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd:-"Give me!" quoth I: Then the third witch asks the first one where she's been, and we hear a story that tells us quite a lot about who witches are and what they do. The second witch answers simply, "Killing swine" (1.3.2). The first asks the other two what they've been doing. Macbeth muses on the possibility of killing the King in order to be king.Īs they said they would, the witches meet upon the heath. Ross and Angus tell Macbeth he has been given the title of Thane of Cawdor. The witches prophesy that Macbeth shall be king and Banquo shall be father of kings. Detailed Summary of Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3