Hallowe'en Season - Macbeth

Hi Guys,

Kicking off our Hallowe'en season this year looking at the witches from Macbeth.

Macbeth is considered a cursed play, and it is unlucky to say the name, referring instead to The Scottish Play. There is a lot of tragedy in this play, plus, of course, witches!

I was going to do this as a Flora Friday post, but it isn't just about plants.

In Act 4 Scene 1 of Macbeth, we see the Weird Sisters for the first time, here is the spell they are casting:

ALL

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

Second Witch

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 owlet's wing,

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

ALL

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Third Witch

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

Silver'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.

ALL

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Second Witch

Cool it with a baboon's blood,

Then the charm is firm and good.

So, I am going to look at the ingredients that have been placed into the cauldron, and see if they have equivalents - many wise folk used what are effectively code names for their ingredients, so that they would not get caught and punished.

• Eye of Newt is a mustard seed
• Fillet of Fenny Snake is possibly an Indian Turnip
• Toe of Frog is a bulbous buttercup stem
• Wool of Bat is either moss or holly leaves
• Tongue of Dog is Houndstongue (highly toxic)
• Adder's Fork is either the dogtooth violet or a lily
• Blind Worm's sting is variously described as poppyseed, knotwood or wormwood (toxic)
• Lizard's Leg is either ivy or brestweed
• Owlet's Wing is either garlic, ginger or henbane (toxic)
• Scale of Dragon is either the dragonscale plant, tarragon or dragon's blood resin
• Tooth of Wolf is either wolfsbane or club moss
• Witch's Mummy is very probably the powdered remains of an actual mummy!
• Maw and Gulf of the Rain'd Sea Shark is possibly the actual upper part of a shark
• Root of Hemlock - kind of obvious, and toxic
• Gall of Goat is either St John's Wort, honeysuckle or a bezoar
• Slips of Yew - again pretty obvious, and toxic
• Finger of Birth Strangl'd Babe is very possibly foxglove (toxic)
• Tiger's Chaudron is Lady's Mantle
• Baboon's blood is either actual blood from a baboon or dill

As you can see from this list, there are many toxic plants in there, so one can assume that these sisters had ill intent with their potion. It is also not one for vegans!

There are other passages that I have skipped, mainly because there was a lot of anti-Semitic and other racist slurs in many of Shakespeare's plays, as this reflected the laws and feeling of the time. Thankfully, these things have changed for the better.

I hope that this helps you to see that there are alternatives out there for most ingredients.

Anything I have missed or got wrong, please let me know in the comments below.

Kerenza x

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