TEXT:
Second Witch
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks!
Enter MACBETH
MACBETH
How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!
What is't you do?
ALL
A deed without a name.
MACBETH
I conjure you, by that which you profess,
Howe'er you come to know it, answer me:
Though you untie the winds and let them fight
Against the churches; though the yesty waves
Confound and swallow navigation up;
Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down;
Though castles topple on their warders' heads;
Though palaces and pyramids do slope
Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure
Of nature's germens tumble all together,
Even till destruction sicken; answer me
To what I ask you.
First Witch
Speak.
Second Witch
Demand.
Third Witch
We'll answer.
First Witch
Say, if thou'dst rather hear it from our mouths,
Or from our masters?
MACBETH
Call 'em; let me see 'em.
First Witch
Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten
Her nine farrow; grease that's sweaten
From the murderer's gibbet throw
Into the flame.
ALL
Come, high or low;
Thyself and office deftly show!
Thunder. First Apparition: an armed Head
NOTES:
Pricking Thumbs
The witch here feels a tingling sensation in her thumbs - rather than pricking her thumbs to draw blood. The assumption was that witches had the ability to perceive other evil creatures as they approached. And thus she invites us to count Macbeth among them.
Adjective Order
The viral piece of grammatical information that I mentioned in this episode is available here. The rule in question is that, if you’re using multiple adjectives in English, they are always ranked in this order: opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose. As such, Macbeth is obeying the rule when he addresses the secret (opinion) black (colour) and midnight (purpose) witches. Think about how weird it would be to describe a curiosity old shop, or a Greek fat big wedding.
Conjuring
Nowadays we associate this word either with parlour magicians or with horror films - but Macbeth is all but forcing the witches to answer him with this word. Its original meaning from Latin suggests a shared oath - he’s inviting the witches, by all that they hold dear, to tell him what he wants to know.
On The Trinity
A work by St. Augustine of Hippo, an early philosopher of the Christian church.
Germen
This is a word for seeds, or things that will grow and become life. Nature’s germen, therefore, is all that will grow in the future. Within the episode I said that it was Macbeth who asked the witches “if you can look into the seeds of time and see which grain will grow and which will not” - it is of course Banquo who has this line.
Gibbet
Gibet was the French word for the gallows, the wooden structure from which a condemned man would be hanged. But what makes the difference between the gallows and the gibbet is quite grim: the gibbet was a structure on which the executed corpse would stay hanging on display. The body would be left as evidence and as a deterrent; the witches could harvest whatever grease or other substances the body might secrete.