In honor of Halloween, we reprint here one of the most famous spooky poems ever written. "Double, double toil and trouble . . ." comes from William Shakespeare's Macbeth, Act IV, scene i, lines 10-45. The witches cast a spell and are interrupted when "something wicked this way comes"—namely, Macbeth himself.
In theatre, Macbeth is rumored to be a cursed play. One theory is that Shakespeare recorded actual witches' spells. Enraged, the witches cursed the play. Now, an inordinate number of theatres that put on the play are struck by disaster—or so the legend goes.
Although it is often quoted and has become one of the most famous passages from the play, many don't remember where the famous phrases "double, double toil and trouble" and "something wicked this way comes" originated.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witches' mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse,
Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab.
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.
O well done! I commend your pains;
And every one shall share i' the gains;
And now about the cauldron sing,
Live elves and fairies in a ring
Enchanting all that you put in.
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Want more spookiness from Shakespeare? Read the full text of Macbeth, or check out more of his ghostly verse in Hamlet.
