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Why am I know reminded of the beginning of Macbeth when the three witchs are gathered around the cauldron and recite their spells before venturing out?
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chanting, "Double, double toil and trouble
Macbeth, in his letter to his wife, writes of the witches. Macbeth has jumped to a conclusion; he doesn't know for sure that the witches have supernatural knowledge.
He goes on to complain that then the witches prohesied that Banquo -- not Macbeth -- would be the father of a line of kings.
Also, it's clear that Macbeth wants to know what is the worst that can happen to him, but what does he mean by referring to the witches as "the worst means"? He must know that they are evil, but does he also know that they are not to be
trusted? (How could he not know? How can those who make a bargain with the devil forget that the devil is the devil and won't keep his end of a bargain?)
The third Witch........says
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,
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 ingredients of our cauldron.