Tag Archives: Macbeth

“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow …”

“Life’s but a walking shadow … that struts and frets his hour upon the stage.”

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

— from William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”

 

MacbethAndBanquo-Witches

“Macbeth and Banquo Meeting the Witches on the Heath,” Théodore Chassériau, oil on canvas, 1855

“Double, double toil and trouble;/ Fire burn and cauldron bubble.”

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.

—  “Song of the Witches,” from William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Act IV, Scene 1

 

1963_Shakespeare_–_Macbeth_(1)

“To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day …”

Thank you, Jaine Sirieys, for sharing this!  🙂  (Nobody crack that “Why so Sirieys?” joke, because I sprang that one on her already, and she’s heard it before anyway.)

She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
— To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.

from William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”

Elisabet_Ney_-_Lady_Macbeth_-_Detail

Photo: “Elisabeth Ney – Lady Macbeth – Detail,” by Ingrid Fisch at the German language Wikipedia. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.