Double, double toil and trouble: Recite Shakespeare’s ‘Song of the Witches’ this Halloween

One of history's greatest playwrights was William Shakespeare. In his play 'Macbeth,” three witches predict tragedy for the titular general.

In this excerpt from Act IV, Scene I, the 'weird sisters” circle a cauldron brewing a potion. It was retrieved from americanliterature.com.

Put on your creepiest, spookiest voice and recite this spooky poem aloud.

'Round about the cauldron go:

In the poisoned entrails throw.

Toad, that under cold stone

Days and nights has thirty-one

Sweated venom sleeping got,

Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the cauldron 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.

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,

Witch's 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 ingredients of our cauldron.

Double, double toil and trouble,

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Cool it with a baboon's blood,

Then the charm is firm and good.”

Comments: molly.duffy@thegazette.com