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or are you aught
That man may question? William Shakespeare – Macbeth Act 1 Scene 3

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Banquo wonders whether the Witches exist in some supernatural state that prevents them from hearing or answering human questions. In his next line, he acknowledges that they seem to have responded to him. (But they haven’t answered him.)

Readers, audiences, and critics have never stopped “questioning” the nature of the Witches. See a roundup of related articles here and here.

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8 years

Are you flesh and blood, or at least are you beings it is lawful to address?

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The author's account of his country, and their manners and customs Olaudah Equiano – The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (Chap. 1)

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Italicized headers containing abstracts of the contents of a chapter were a common feature of 18th and 19th-century books. More recently, Cormac McCarthy revived the feature in his historical novel Blood Meridian (1986), set in the American West of 1849-50.

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The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (Chap. 1) Olaudah Equiano – The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (Chap. 1)

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First published in England in 1789, Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography is one of the earliest and most famous slavery memoirs in Western literature.

Biography and background via DocSouth at UNC-Chapel Hill:

Olaudah Equiano was born in 1745 in Eboe, in what is now Nigeria. When he was about eleven, Equiano was kidnapped and sold to slave traders headed to the West Indies. Though he spent a brief period in the state of Virginia, much of Equiano’s time in slavery was spent serving the captains of slave ships and British navy vessels. One of his masters, Henry Pascal, the captain of a British trading vessel, gave Equiano the name Gustavas Vassa, which he used throughout his life, though he published his autobiography under his African name. In service to Captain Pascal and subsequent merchant masters, Equiano traveled extensively, visiting England, Holland, Scotland, Gibraltar, Nova Scotia, the Caribbean, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and South Carolina. He was purchased in 1763 by Robert King, a Quaker merchant from Philadelphia, for whom he served as a clerk. He also worked on King’s trading sloops. Equiano, who was allowed to engage in his own minor trade exchanges, was able to save enough money to purchase his freedom in 1766. He settled in England in 1767, attending school and working as an assistant to scientist Dr. Charles Irving. Equiano continued to travel, making several voyages aboard trading vessels to Turkey, Portugal, Italy, Jamaica, Grenada, and North America. In 1773 he accompanied Irving on a polar expedition in search of a northeast passage from Europe to Asia. Equiano published his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, in 1789 as a two-volume work. It went through one American and eight British editions during his lifetime. Following the publication of his Interesting Narrative, Equiano traveled throughout Great Britain as an abolitionist and author. He married Susanna Cullen in 1792, with whom he had two daughters. Equiano died in London in 1797.

First edition frontispiece, 1789

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http://images.rapgenius.com/2a037c0a90b976164fc02b2578359c44.515x640x1.jpg

First published in England in 1789, Olaudah Equiano's [autobiography](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Interesting_Narrative_of_the_Life_of_Olaudah_Equiano) is one of the earliest and most famous slavery memoirs in Western literature.

Biography and background via [DocSouth](http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/equiano1/summary.html) at UNC-Chapel Hill:

>Olaudah Equiano was born in 1745 in Eboe, in what is now Nigeria. When he was about eleven, Equiano was kidnapped and sold to slave traders headed to the West Indies. Though he spent a brief period in the state of Virginia, much of Equiano's time in slavery was spent serving the captains of slave ships and British navy vessels. One of his masters, Henry Pascal, the captain of a British trading vessel, gave Equiano the name Gustavas Vassa, which he used throughout his life, though he published his autobiography under his African name. In service to Captain Pascal and subsequent merchant masters, Equiano traveled extensively, visiting England, Holland, Scotland, Gibraltar, Nova Scotia, the Caribbean, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and South Carolina. He was purchased in 1763 by Robert King, a Quaker merchant from Philadelphia, for whom he served as a clerk. He also worked on King's trading sloops. Equiano, who was allowed to engage in his own minor trade exchanges, was able to save enough money to purchase his freedom in 1766. He settled in England in 1767, attending school and working as an assistant to scientist Dr. Charles Irving. Equiano continued to travel, making several voyages aboard trading vessels to Turkey, Portugal, Italy, Jamaica, Grenada, and North America. In 1773 he accompanied Irving on a polar expedition in search of a northeast passage from Europe to Asia. Equiano published his autobiography, *The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano*, or *Gustavus Vassa,* the African, in 1789 as a two-volume work. It went through one American and eight British editions during his lifetime. Following the publication of his *Interesting Narrative*, Equiano traveled throughout Great Britain as an abolitionist and author. He married Susanna Cullen in 1792, with whom he had two daughters. Equiano died in London in 1797.

http://images.rapgenius.com/b6699d3c43bcf6e5e5d065ff557aee16.621x1000x1.png
[*First edition frontispiece, 1789*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olaudah_Equiano#/media/File:Olaudah_Equiano_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_15399.png)

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Vixi duellis nuper idoneus
Et militavi non sine gloria Henry Reed – Naming of Parts

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The Latin epigraph translates to: “Lately I have lived in the midst of battles, creditably enough / and have soldiered, not without glory” (Horace’s Odes 3.26.1-2, with, as the Ninth Edition of the Norton Anthology of English Literature Volume F states, “the p of puellis–girls–turned upside down to produce duellis–battles; an emendation that encapsulates the theme of the Lessons,” from which “Naming of Parts” comes).

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We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. Henry Reed – Naming of Parts

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Lines like these draw a parallel between the parts of the rifle and the parts of human anatomy. The bolt is particularly phallic and is sliding “rapidly backwards and forwards.” The speaker of this poem (or the listener, really–the one who hears the drill sergeant but also notices the natural world around him) seems to make this connection because of the bees around him, “assaulting and fumbling the flowers.”

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Welcome, gentlemen! ladies that have their toes
Unplagued with corns will have a bout with you. William Shakespeare – Romeo and Juliet Act 1 Scene 5

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Ladies of this era often got corns from wearing shoes that were too small for them, making it hard to dance or move around. Capulet is jocularly saying that any ladies who don’t suffer from these nasty foot blisters (or are willing to dance rather than admit they do) will dance a round with the gentlemen.

have a bout: dance a round. Notice how this metaphor emphasizes the love-violence connection that runs through the play.

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Blow, wind! come, wrack! William Shakespeare – Macbeth Act 5 Scene 5

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Compare Macbeth’s apocalyptic speech to the witches in 4.1:

Though you untie the winds and let them fight
Against the churches….
Even till destruction sicken; answer me
To what I ask you.

See also King Lear’s rant against the storm in Lear 3.2:

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!

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Though you untie the winds and let them fight
Against the churches; William Shakespeare – Macbeth Act 4 Scene 1

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In this passage Macbeth demands the witches answer him, even at the price of total apocalypse.

We know from 1.3 that the witches control the winds. The image of winds “fight[ing] against the churches” suggests a battle between religion or established order and the forces of chaos.

There are strong similarities between this passage and King Lear’s famous rant against the storm in Lear 3.2:

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench’d our steeples, drown’d the cocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world!
Crack nature’s moulds, all germens spill at once,
That make ingrateful man!

Macbeth’s own imagination grows increasingly apocalyptic as the play goes on; see 5.5:

I gin to be aweary of the sun,
And wish the estate o' the world were now undone.
Ring the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack!
At least we’ll die with harness on our back.

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In this passage Macbeth demands the witches answer him, even at the price of total apocalypse.

We know from 1.3 that the [witches control the winds](http://genius.com/2670982). The image of winds "fight[ing] against the churches" suggests a battle between religion or established order and the forces of chaos.

There are strong similarities between this passage and King Lear's famous rant against the storm in [*Lear* 3.2:](http://genius.com/2542992)

>Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world!
Crack nature's moulds, all germens spill at once,
That make ingrateful man!

Macbeth's own imagination grows increasingly apocalyptic as the play goes on; see [5.5:](http://genius.com/3058812)

>I gin to be aweary of the sun,
And wish the estate o' the world were now undone.
Ring the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack!
At least we'll die with harness on our back.

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3 years

“Against the churches” would also seem a shock to the audience at those times. As many people were quite religious so this would be seen as quite blasphemous. As, Macbeth is the king therefore would be seen as chosen by God. However, we know that he killed Duncan to get his title, so although he is king he is the complete opposite of what God is. Relating him to the Devil.

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4 years

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And, like a rat without a tail,
I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do. William Shakespeare – Macbeth Act 1 Scene 3

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As the Random House Publishing Group (2013) edition notes, this is

suggestive of the witches' deformity and sexual insatiability. (Witches were thought to seduce men sexually. Do means [1] act [2] perform sexually.)

More on the sexual mythology of witches here.

Luis Ricardo Falero, The Witches' Sabbath (1880). Via Wikimedia

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434

8 years

Shakespeare uses the rule of three again, the first being the three witches

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210

8 years

‘without a tail’ – while a witch could assume what animal shape she wished, she could not acquire a tail. Hence, an animal without a tail was evidence of witch-craft.

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Hover through the fog and filthy air. William Shakespeare – Macbeth Act 1 Scene 1

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The Witches will indeed “hover” like presiding spirits over Macbeth, in all its moral ambiguity and darkness (fog and filth). They appear directly in only a few scenes, but their unsettling presence pervades the atmosphere of the play.

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1 year

The reference to hovering comes from a reference to the book Daemonlogie, written by King James 1st, who watched this play be performed. By using reference to his book and taking on these ideas to present them to the Jacobean audience, this allows Shakespeare to ingratiate himself with King James I

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Misari

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2 years

This conversation the Three Witches have is in the uncommon trochaic tetrameter. Shakespeare used this to show how the witches are different from common people and the rhythm make it sound like they are casting a spell, rather than just talking.

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3 years

Fricatives are used in “fair”, “foul”, “fog” and “filthy”. This articulation is used to warn or threaten others, baring teeth and pressing the air out of the mouth.
These perpetuate the hostile environment that Shakespeare had in mind for these supernatural beings.

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Macbeth Genius

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3 years

Wait how are there wiches in the play. r wiches even real (yes or no)

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334

3 years

‘fog and filthy air’ could be a reference to what all the characters must go through – unknown situations and that can be seen as walking through fog. As for ‘filthy air’ you could interpret that as a miasma – a cause of disease which was popular belief at the time. In the case of disease it would be a mental illness that Macbeth has as he does anything to fulfil his destiny and gain power

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3 years

Pathetic Fallacy at ‘Fog and filthy air’

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1,625

4 years

The fog and filthy air could a metaphor for the way that it is hard to get to the truth because of all the lies and conspiracies the witches have created

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4 years

The fog also comes in other parts of the play where evil prevails and characters perform questionable acts. Shakespeare uses fog throughout the play to forebode morally wrong actions that are about to happen

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Evani

4 years

Shakespeare creates a recurring theme of obscurity and blur of vision, suggesting that the witches are at their most powerful when blocking the light and all things good from others or that power can obscure the vision of others hence creating their downfall. These can also link to the theme of the supernatural as the witches powers are beyond others. It’s a shame that all things black and dark were associated with evil and corrupt things however it simply is meant to illustrate shadow and obscurity.

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luckydeer

7 years

Looking at the structure of the first scene we can see that it has a consistent triad structure. The first witch speaks then second, third, first witch, second witch, third witch etc. This could also suggest a cyclical way of speech or an cumulative effect, as in the end they all speak together which symbolises their unity and foreshadows their power to determine fate. Knowing what each other are going to say without rehearsing also conveys the idea that they are familiar with a situation like this, they know how it is going to end. therefore, Shakespeare presents the witches as the string pullers in this play, putting their character in par with himself. This can be disturbing for a modern and contemporary audience as witches are portrayed to be pernicious beings so from this we can infer an ominous ending – nothing could possibly end well.

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