First Witch
Where hast thou been, sister?
Second Witch
Killing swine.
Third Witch
Sister, where thou?
First Witch
A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap, And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd:-- 'Give me,' quoth I: 'Aroint thee, witch!' the rump-fed ronyon cries. Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger: But in a sieve I'll thither sail, And, like a rat without a tail, I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do.
Second Witch
I'll give thee a wind.
First Witch
Thou'rt kind.
Third Witch
And I another.
The witches gather again and their conversation this time sounds much more prosaic than their initial chants, largely resisting any rhythmic pulse. The second witch’s assertion that she has been “killing swine” confirms her as the village witch, using powers to sabotage livestock. The first witch has taken insult at the “sailor’s wife” who refuses her chestnuts and calls her a “witch” – they refer to themselves instead as the more grandiose “weird sisters” – and so she schemes against her, a crime known as ‘mischief following anger’. The insults are returned verbally, too; the witch’s speech is coarse and vulgar, filled with offensive slang – “rump-fed” implies the woman is pampered (fed on steak) and fat, and “ronyon” is suggestive of a scabbiness (and also apparently connected with testicles). The woman’s husband is the “master o’ the Tiger”, a popular name for a ship in this period, and the witches conspire to disrupt its journey, bringing a storm and travelling in a “sieve” (a common belief was that witches could sail in a bottomless boat), and transforming into a “rat without a tail” (a relatively rare allusion to animal transformation, with the idea that no part of a woman could turn into a tail...). The threat of bringing a storm seems to allude to James I’s belief that witches had tried to drown him at sea in 1590 as he crossed from Denmark, where violent storms threatened his safety. This experience increased his fear of violent death and treason, ignited a fascination and fear of witchcraft, and culminated in the North Berwick Witch Trials (where Agnes Sampson ‘confessed’ to sending 200 witches to sea). Yet the witches here seem little preoccupied with a complex mastery of fate; they seem instead merely meddlesome and their powers are relatively banal, used vindictively against perceived slights.
- Sophia and Bella