First Witch
I come, Graymalkin!
Second Witch
Paddock calls.
Third Witch
Anon.
ALL
Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air. Exeunt
The reference to the familiars – “Graymalkin”, “Paddock” - acts as confirmation (at least to the Jacobean audience) that these women are, in fact, witches. The rapid stichomythia works to confuse the audience, making it hard to identify the speaker and creating the illusion that the witches are one, emphasising their unified alignment with evil. The scene closes with the paradox “fair is foul and foul is fair”, which sets up the play’s thematic concern with appearances and deception. The paradox blurs the line between what is right and what is wrong, showing the moral ambiguity of the witches (and, by extension, Macbeth, when he later echoes their words and accepts their claims). The confusion is aurally mimicked by the alliteration of fricative “f”, with the “fog” acting as a physical representation of the witches’ confusing words: like the paradox, it too obscures and hides. The rhyming couplet, said in unison and in trochaic tetrameter, strengthens the chant-like effect of the scene, as if the witches are performing a spell. By starting with the witches, the play begins under the influence of the supernatural, an opening which would have driven both fear and fascination through the superstitious Jacobean audience (not least, King James I, with his belief in the evil of witchcraft documented in ‘Daemonologie’).
- Raquel, Hannah and Joe
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