top of page
Writer's picturefairisfoul

I come, Graymalkin! (1.1.9-13)

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

380 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

I'll go no more (2.2.45-51)

LADY MACBETH Go get some water, And wash this filthy witness from your hand. - Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must...

Still it cried, 'Sleep no more!' (2.2.40-45)

MACBETH Still it cried 'Sleep no more!' to all the house: 'Glamis hath murder'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor Shall sleep no more; Macbeth...

Sleep no more! (2.2.34-39)

MACBETH Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep', the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravell'd...

コメント


bottom of page