| When shall we three meet again?In thunder, lightning, or in rain? | The first witch asks her sisters when and under what conditions their next meeting will take place. She suggests that the sisters meet again in what appears to be a number of possible weather conditions that could be hospitable to witchcraft. In fact, these three items present no option at all and are a restatement of the same possibility, that the witches shall meet again in rainy weather. One recurring motif in Macbeth is the collapse of apparent choice into what is predestined. |
| When the hurly-burly’s done,When the battle’s lost and won. | The three witches will meet again once the”hurly-burly” (battle, turmoil) is done.The witches specifically throughout the entire play use a number of paradoxes and contradictions to foreshadow the future events, this being the first, and referring to the loss of a battle from the perspective of one army but its victory from the perspective of another. |
| That will be ere the set of sun. | The battle mentioned by the Second Witch will finish before sunset.There is also a motif in the play of items that appear to be concluded but are not, for instance, Banquo’s return. Here, the third sister adds a slightly arrhythmic third line to a previously completed couplet. |
| where the place | A heath is also the setting of several key scenes in another great Shakespearean tragedy, King Lear.The witches finish each others’ eerie, clipped lines, in a way that contrasts with the meaty pentameters of the human characters. |
Quotes from Macbeth
November 6, 2019