Macbeth — Act 1, Scene 3

original text and modern English, side by side

A heath · First Witch, Second Witch, Third Witch, Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, Angus

Fresh from victory, Macbeth and Banquo cross the heath where the witches are waiting for them. Neither man yet knows that King Duncan has already awarded Macbeth the executed traitor's title, Thane of Cawdor.

Thunder. Enter the three Witches

First Witch

Where hast thou been, sister?

Where have you been, sister?

Second Witch

Killing swine.

Killing pigs.

Third Witch

Sister, where thou?

Sister, where have you been?

First Witch

A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap,

And mounch’d, and mounch’d, and mounch’d.

A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap, and she munched, and munched, and munched.

“Give me,” quoth I.

'Give me some,' I said.

“Aroint thee, witch!” the rump-fed ronyon cries.

'Get away from me, witch!' the fat-bottomed, scabby hag yells.

Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master o’ th’ _Tiger:_

But in a sieve I’ll thither sail,

And, like a rat without a tail,

Her husband has sailed to Aleppo as master of the ship the Tiger — but I'll sail there in a kitchen sieve, and like a rat without a tail I'll work my mischief on him.

I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.

I'll do it, I'll do it, and I'll do it.

Second Witch

I’ll give thee a wind.

I'll give you a wind to sail by.

First Witch

Th’art kind.

You're kind.

Third Witch

And I another.

And I'll give you another.

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.

And I already control all the rest — the very ports they blow toward, every direction on a sailor's compass chart.

I will drain him dry as hay:

I'll drain him as dry as hay.

Sleep shall neither night nor day

Hang upon his pent-house lid;

He shall live a man forbid.

Sleep will never settle on his drooping eyelids, night or day: he'll live like a man under a curse.

Weary sev’n-nights nine times nine,

Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine:

Through eighty-one exhausting weeks he'll shrink, waste, and wither away.

Though his bark cannot be lost,

Yet it shall be tempest-tost.

And though his ship can't actually be sunk, it will be battered by storms all the same.

Look what I have.

Second Witch

Show me, show me.

First Witch

Here I have a pilot’s thumb,

Wrack’d as homeward he did come.

Here — I have the thumb of a ship's pilot who was wrecked on his way home.

Drum within.

Third Witch

A drum, a drum!

Macbeth doth come.

Macbeth is coming.

All

The Weird Sisters, hand in hand,

Posters of the sea and land,

Thus do go about, about:

Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine,

And thrice again, to make up nine.

The Weird Sisters, hand in hand, swift travelers over sea and land, go circling round and round like this: three turns for you, three for me, and three more to make it nine.

Peace!—the charm’s wound up.

Quiet — the spell is wound up and ready.

Enter Macbeth and Banquo

Macbeth

So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

I've never seen a day so foul and fair at once.

Banquo

How far is’t call’d to Forres?

How far is it supposed to be to Forres?

What are these,

So wither’d, and so wild in their attire,

— What are these creatures, so withered and so wild in what they wear?

That look not like the inhabitants o’ th’ earth,

And yet are on’t?

They don't look like anything that lives on the earth, and yet here they are, standing on it.

Live you?

Are you alive?

or are you aught

That man may question?

Are you anything a human being is allowed to question?

You seem to understand me,

By each at once her choppy finger laying

Upon her skinny lips.

You seem to understand me — each of you at once laying a cracked finger on her skinny lips.

You should be women,

And yet your beards forbid me to interpret

That you are so.

You look like you should be women, and yet your beards make it impossible for me to believe you are.

Macbeth

Speak, if you can;

Speak, if you can.

—what are you?

What are you?

First Witch

All hail, Macbeth!

hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!

Hail to you, Thane of Glamis!

Second Witch

All hail, Macbeth!

hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!

Hail to you, Thane of Cawdor!

Third Witch

All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter!

All hail, Macbeth, who will be king one day!

Banquo

Good sir, why do you start

Good sir, why do you flinch?

and seem to fear

Things that do sound so fair?

Why do you seem afraid of things that sound so good?

—I’ th’ name of truth,

Are ye fantastical, or that indeed

Which outwardly ye show?

— In the name of truth, are you illusions, or really the things you appear to be?

My noble partner

You greet with present grace and great prediction

Of noble having and of royal hope,

That he seems rapt withal.

You greet my noble companion with his existing title and with grand predictions of new honors and hopes of kingship, until he seems lost in a trance.

To me you speak not.

To me you say nothing.

If you can look into the seeds of time,

And say which grain will grow, and which will not,

Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear

Your favours nor your hate.

If you can look into the seeds of time and say which grain will grow and which will not, then speak to me — I neither beg for your favors nor fear your hatred.

First Witch

Hail!

Second Witch

Hail!

Third Witch

Hail!

First Witch

Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.

Second Witch

Not so happy, yet much happier.

Not as happy, yet much happier.

Third Witch

Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none:

You will father kings, though you will never be one.

So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!

First Witch

Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!

Macbeth

Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more.

Wait, you half-finished speakers — tell me more.

By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis;

Since my father Sinel died, I know I'm Thane of Glamis.

But how of Cawdor?

But how Thane of Cawdor?

The Thane of Cawdor lives,

A prosperous gentleman;

The Thane of Cawdor is alive and a prosperous gentleman.

and to be king

Stands not within the prospect of belief,

No more than to be Cawdor.

And as for being king — that's no more believable than being Cawdor.

Say from whence

You owe this strange intelligence? or why

Upon this blasted heath you stop our way

With such prophetic greeting?

Tell me where you got this strange information, and why you stop us on this blasted heath with such prophetic greetings.

—Speak, I charge you.

Speak — I command you.

Witches vanish.

Banquo

The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,

And these are of them.

The earth has bubbles, just as the water does, and these were some of them.

Whither are they vanish’d?

Where did they vanish to?

Macbeth

Into the air;

Into the air.

and what seem’d corporal,

Melted as breath into the wind.

What seemed to have a body melted like breath into the wind.

Would they had stay’d!

I wish they had stayed!

Banquo

Were such things here as we do speak about?

Were these things actually here, the way we're talking about them?

Or have we eaten on the insane root

That takes the reason prisoner?

Or have we eaten some of that insane root that takes reason prisoner?

Macbeth

Your children shall be kings.

Your children will be kings.

Banquo

You shall be king.

You will be king.

Macbeth

And Thane of Cawdor too; went it not so?

And Thane of Cawdor too — isn't that how it went?

Banquo

To the selfsame tune and words.

Exactly the same tune and words.

Who’s here?

Who's this?

Enter Ross and Angus

Ross

The King hath happily receiv’d, Macbeth,

The news of thy success,

Macbeth, the King has received the news of your victory with joy,

and when he reads

Thy personal venture in the rebels’ fight,

His wonders and his praises do contend

Which should be thine or his:

and when he reads about the risks you personally took in the fight against the rebels, his amazement and his praise compete over which should be yours and which should stay his.

silenc’d with that,

In viewing o’er the rest o’ th’ selfsame day,

He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,

Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,

Strange images of death.

Struck silent by that, and looking over the rest of that same day, he finds you deep in the sturdy Norwegian ranks, not at all afraid of the strange images of death you yourself were creating.

As thick as tale

Came post with post; and everyone did bear

Thy praises in his kingdom’s great defence,

And pour’d them down before him.

Messenger after messenger arrived, thick and fast as words can be counted, and every one of them carried praise of you for your great defense of his kingdom and poured it out before him.

Angus

We are sent

To give thee from our royal master thanks;

Only to herald thee into his sight,

Not pay thee.

We've been sent to give you thanks from our royal master — only to escort you into his presence, not to pay you what you're owed.

Ross

And, for an earnest of a greater honour,

He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor:

And as a down payment on a greater honor, he told me to call you Thane of Cawdor, from him.

In which addition, hail, most worthy thane,

For it is thine.

So hail in that new title, most worthy thane — for it is yours.

Banquo

What, can the devil speak true?

What — can the devil tell the truth?

Macbeth

The Thane of Cawdor lives:

The Thane of Cawdor is alive.

why do you dress me

In borrow’d robes?

Why are you dressing me in borrowed robes?

Angus

Who was the Thane lives yet,

But under heavy judgement bears that life

Which he deserves to lose.

The man who was the Thane still lives, but he's under a heavy sentence and deserves to lose that life.

Whether he was combin’d

With those of Norway, or did line the rebel

With hidden help and vantage, or that with both

He labour’d in his country’s wrack, I know not;

Whether he was openly allied with the Norwegians, or secretly reinforced the rebel with hidden help and advantages, or worked with both of them for his country's ruin, I don't know.

But treasons capital, confess’d and prov’d,

Have overthrown him.

But capital treasons — confessed and proven — have brought him down.

Aside.

Macbeth

Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor:

The greatest is behind.

(To himself) Glamis, and now Thane of Cawdor: the greatest title is still to come.

[_To Ross and Angus._] Thanks for your pains.

(To Ross and Angus) Thank you for your trouble.

To Banquo.

Macbeth

Do you not hope your children shall be kings,

(To Banquo) Aren't you hoping now that your children will be kings?

When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me

Promis’d no less to them?

The same creatures who gave me the title of Cawdor promised them nothing less.

Banquo

That, trusted home,

Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,

Besides the Thane of Cawdor.

If you trust all of it completely, it might yet set you on fire to reach for the crown itself, beyond just being Thane of Cawdor.

But ’tis strange:

But this is strange.

And oftentimes to win us to our harm,

The instruments of darkness tell us truths;

Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s

In deepest consequence.—

Often, to lure us to our own destruction, the agents of darkness tell us truths: they win us over with honest trifles so they can betray us in the things that matter most.

Cousins, a word, I pray you.

— Cousins, a word with you, please.

Aside.

Macbeth

Two truths are told,

As happy prologues to the swelling act

Of the imperial theme.

(To himself) Two truths have been told — like happy opening scenes to a swelling drama whose theme is kingship.

—I thank you, gentlemen.—

(To the others) I thank you, gentlemen.

Aside.

Banquo

This supernatural soliciting

Cannot be ill; cannot be good.

(To himself) This supernatural invitation can't be bad — and it can't be good.

If ill,

Why hath it given me earnest of success,

Commencing in a truth?

If it's bad, why has it handed me a guarantee of success by starting with a truth?

I am Thane of Cawdor:

I am Thane of Cawdor.

If good, why do I yield to that suggestion

Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,

And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,

Against the use of nature?

If it's good, why do I find myself giving in to a suggestion whose horrifying image makes my hair stand on end and my steady heart pound against my ribs, against everything natural?

Present fears

Are less than horrible imaginings.

The fears in front of me right now are smaller than my horrible imaginings.

My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,

Shakes so my single state of man

That function is smother’d in surmise,

And nothing is but what is not.

The mere thought of murder — still nothing but a fantasy — shakes my whole being so badly that the power to act is smothered in speculation, and nothing feels real to me except the thing that doesn't exist.

Banquo

Look, how our partner’s rapt.

Look how spellbound our companion is.

Aside.

Macbeth

If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me

Without my stir.

(To himself) If chance wants me to be king, then chance can crown me without my lifting a finger.

Banquo

New honours come upon him,

Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould

But with the aid of use.

New honors have settled on him, and like new clothes, they won't fit his shape until they've been worn a while.

Aside.

Macbeth

Come what come may,

Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.

(To himself) Come what may, time and the hour push on through even the roughest day.

Banquo

Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.

Worthy Macbeth, we're ready whenever you are.

Macbeth

Give me your favour.

Forgive me —

My dull brain was wrought

With things forgotten.

my dull brain was wrestling with forgotten things.

Kind gentlemen, your pains

Are register’d where every day I turn

The leaf to read them.

Kind gentlemen, your trouble is written down in a book where I turn the page every day to read it.

—Let us toward the King.—

Let's go to the King.

Think upon what hath chanc’d;

(Quietly, to Banquo) Think about what has happened;

and at more time,

The interim having weigh’d it, let us speak

Our free hearts each to other.

and later, when we've had time to weigh it all, let's speak our minds openly to each other.

Banquo

Very gladly.

Macbeth

Till then, enough.—Come, friends.

Until then — enough. Come, friends.

Exeunt.

Macbeth Act 1, Scene 3 summary

Who appears in this scene

First Witch, Second Witch, Third Witch, Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, Angus — A heath.

Famous lines in Macbeth Act 1, Scene 3, explained

“So foul and fair a day I have not seen.” (line 38): Macbeth's first words — describing a day both stormy and victorious — unknowingly repeat the witches' chant from the opening scene, 'fair is foul, and foul is fair.' The echo links Macbeth to the witches before he ever meets them, and introduces the play's obsession with things that are two opposites at once.
“All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter!” (line 51): The third witch's greeting is the prophecy that sets the whole tragedy in motion. Notice what it leaves out: any mention of murder, or of how or when. The witches only name an outcome; the method — killing Duncan — is entirely Macbeth's own contribution, which is why the play's fate-versus-free-will debate starts here.
“And oftentimes to win us to our harm, / The instruments of darkness tell us truths” (line 131): Banquo's warning is the play's thesis about how evil works: dark powers hook people with small, verifiable truths — Macbeth really did become Thane of Cawdor — in order to betray them in what matters most. It is the standard quotation for arguing that the witches manipulate Macbeth rather than control him.
“And nothing is but what is not.” (line 151): The climax of Macbeth's first private meditation on murder: the imagined crime feels more real to him than the world in front of him. The paradox shows fantasy 'smothering' his ability to act or perceive, and begins the play's long study of a mind losing its grip on what is real.

What happens in this scene

The witches reconvene on the heath, and the First Witch describes her revenge on a sailor's wife who refused her chestnuts: she'll sail to Aleppo in a sieve and torment the woman's husband — drain him 'as dry as hay,' keep sleep off his eyelids for eighty-one weeks — though his ship 'can't actually be sunk.' A drum announces Macbeth, and the sisters wind up their charm. Macbeth enters with Banquo, fresh from victory, and his first line — 'I've never seen a day so foul and fair at once' — unknowingly echoes the witches' own chant. Banquo describes the creatures (withered, wild, bearded women), and they greet Macbeth three ways: Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, 'king one day.' Macbeth flinches and falls silent; Banquo demands his own fortune and gets riddles — 'Lesser than Macbeth, and greater,' father of kings though never king himself. Pressed for explanation, the witches vanish.

Almost immediately, Ross and Angus arrive from King Duncan and hail Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor — the previous thane is condemned for treason. One prophecy is fulfilled within minutes of being spoken. Banquo's reaction is the warning at the play's core: 'to lure us to our own destruction, the agents of darkness tell us truths.' Macbeth's reaction, in a string of asides, goes somewhere else entirely: 'Two truths have been told,' and already a 'thought of murder — still nothing but a fantasy' makes his hair stand on end, until 'nothing feels real to me except the thing that doesn't exist.' He steadies himself with 'If chance wants me to be king, then chance can crown me without my lifting a finger,' asks Banquo to talk it over later, and they ride to the King.

Why this scene matters

This scene starts the tragedy's engine and defines its terms. The prophecy names an outcome — king — and pointedly omits any method, so when Macbeth's mind leaps straight to murder, the crime is established as his contribution, not the witches'. The instant fulfillment of the Cawdor prophecy is the hook: one small verified truth is what makes the enormous unverified one credible. The scene also sets up the Banquo problem — 'you will father kings' is the clause that outlives Duncan's murder and drives Act 3 — and plants Banquo as the control experiment: same prophecy, same temptation, opposite response. Without this scene there is no ambition to write to Lady Macbeth about, and no play.

Key decisions and motivations

The witches choose their target and their bait — note that with the sailor they can torment but not sink, a limit that suggests they tempt rather than control. Macbeth's real decision is internal: nobody mentions murder to him, but within minutes of the Cawdor confirmation he is fighting off a 'horrifying image' of it, then choosing to conceal his thoughts, defer to chance, and manage Banquo with a promise to talk later — three small choices that all point one direction. Banquo, given the same supernatural offer, chooses skepticism out loud, naming the trap ('honest trifles' sold to betray us 'in the things that matter most') while admitting the invitation 'can't be bad — and it can't be good.'

Themes in this scene

The fair/foul inversion arrives in Macbeth's own mouth before he has met the witches, announcing a world where categories flip and appearances lie — picked up again in his 'borrowed robes' image for the Cawdor title. Fate versus free will is staged as a live experiment: a prophecy without instructions, and two men choosing differently what to do with it. And the scene opens the play's study of imagination as a destructive power — the merely fantasized murder already 'shakes my whole being,' until, in the scene's key paradox, 'nothing is but what is not': the unreal thing has become the only real one.

Common questions about this scene

Do the witches control Macbeth's fate or just tempt him?: The text is built to support temptation, not control. Their prophecy names an outcome and never mentions murder — killing Duncan is entirely Macbeth's idea, arriving unbidden in his asides — and the sailor story shows their power has limits ('though his ship can't actually be sunk'). The strongest evidence is Banquo: he receives an equally grand prophecy and responds with warnings instead of plans, proving the prophecy doesn't compel anything.
How do Macbeth's and Banquo's reactions to the prophecies differ, and why does the contrast matter?: Macbeth starts and falls silent — Banquo asks why he seems to 'fear things that sound so good' — and his asides show him already imagining murder while deciding to hide it. Banquo stays outward and skeptical, warning that 'the agents of darkness tell us truths' precisely to betray us later. The contrast matters because it isolates the variable: same witches, same kind of promise, so the difference in what follows comes from character, not fate.
What is the significance of Macbeth's first line, 'So foul and fair a day I have not seen'?: Literally he means the day is both storm-ugly and victory-sweet. But the phrasing repeats the witches' chant from the play's opening scene — 'fair is foul, and foul is fair' — so his very first words align him with them before he knows they exist. It announces the play's obsession with doubleness: things that are two opposites at once, appearances that invert, and a hero whose best day and worst day are the same day.

Keep reading

About this translation: the original text follows the public-domain Project Gutenberg Globe edition; the modern English translation was written in-house for Polytranslator and is reviewed on an ongoing basis (last revised August 2026). Free to print and photocopy for classroom use. Cite as: “Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3. Polytranslator side-by-side translation, polytranslator.com/shakespeare/macbeth/act-1-scene-3.”

Studying the language itself? Our Shakespearean English course teaches thou/thee, the verbs, and the meter — free through Unit 2. Or try the Shakespearean English translator.