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Enter MACBETH
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MACBETH enters.
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MACBETH How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags?
What is ’t you do?
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MACBETH What’s going on here, you secret, evil, midnight hags?
What are you doing?
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ALL A
deed without a name.
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ALL Something there isn’t a word for.
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MACBETH
50I 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 yeasty waves
Confound and swallow navigation up,
55Though 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,
60Even till destruction sicken, answer me
To what I ask you.
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MACBETH I don’t know how you know the things you do, but I insist
that you answer my questions. I command you in the name of whatever
dark powers you serve. I don’t care if you unleash violent
winds that tear down churches, make the foamy waves overwhelm ships
and send sailors to their deaths, flatten crops and trees, make
castles fall down on their inhabitants' heads, make palaces
and pyramids collapse, and mix up everything in nature. Tell me what
I want to know.
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FIRST WITCH Speak.
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FIRST WITCH Speak.
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SECOND WITCH Demand.
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SECOND WITCH Demand.
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THIRD WITCH We’ll
answer.
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THIRD WITCH We’ll answer.
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FIRST WITCH Say, if th' hadst rather hear it from our mouths,
Or from our masters'.
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FIRST WITCH Would you rather hear these things from our mouths or from our
master’s?
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MACBETH Call
'em. Let me see 'em.
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MACBETH Call them. Let me see them.
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FIRST WITCH
65Pour in sow’s blood, that hath eaten
Her nine farrow; grease that’s sweaten
From the murderer’s gibbet throw
Into the flame.
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FIRST WITCH Pour in the blood of a sow who has eaten her nine offspring. Take
the sweat of a murderer on the gallows and throw it into the
flame.
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