First Witch
I myself have all the other, And the very ports they blow, All the quarters that they know I' the shipman's card. I will drain him dry as hay: Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang upon his pent-house lid; He shall live a man forbid: Weary se'nnights nine times nine Shall he dwindle, peak and pine: Though his bark cannot be lost, Yet it shall be tempest-tost. Look what I have.
Second Witch
Show me, show me.
First Witch
Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wreck'd as homeward he did come.
With the help of all three witches lending winds, they can now “blow all quarters”, yet their powers are limited. The speech’s sound, with its trochaic tetrameter, gives it a spell-like tone, lends it a sense of confusion and suggests the witches have a hidden language. This is intensified by the muddled syntax of “he shall live a man forbid”, where the modal verb “shall” suggests the witches have an understanding of what may occur in the future, but their power is ultimately limited to placing him under an uncertain curse. They do not have absolute control to bring life and death – he lives on despite their anger - but they instead enact their influence so the sailor “shall ... dwindle, peak and pine”. “Dwindle” suggests a gradual diminish in power and the alliterative “peak and pine” suggests that this man will eventually waste away. The line, however, does not end there, and the witch’s assertion is conditioned by “though” ; the witches’ power is not absolute and they cannot remove “his bark”. The sailor will be “tempest-tossed”, a beautifully alliterative phrase which almost aurally mimics the rolling of the waves, and “sleep shall neither night nor day” grace him, a threat which perhaps foreshadows Macbeth’s insomnia after his act of regicide. The supernatural here is curiously present and yet weakened, ignited and trivialised, so that we are simultaneously (and conflictingly) encouraged to both believe in and question its omnipotence when Macbeth arrives.
- Toby and Desmond