chantler63

By chantler63

Eye of newt

I have had huge technical issues getting this blip loaded - at screaming point - but the 'show must go on'!

Out all day visiting friends near Alicante. Liz is in the middle of chemo treatment for breast cancer but managed lunch with us. At her house I found this wall ornament which I have picked for today's Shakespeare Challenge relating to the Wyrd Sisters. It's not the best image I've taken today but fits the bill.

Shakespeare’s Witches (Wyrd Sisters)
The Three Witches greet Macbeth with a prophecy that he shall be King of Scotland, which has a great impact upon him. The trio then meet at a forbidding place and produce a series of ominous visions for Macbeth that herald his downfall. Shakespeare's creation of the Three Witches may have been influenced by an anti-witchcraft law passed by King James as well as folklore or simply his own imagination. The three weird sisters should be seen as ambiguous figures since they are never clearly described as witches by themselves or other characters in the play.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
. Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron 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.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.


Terry Pratchett, in his book, The Wyrd Sisters, picks up on the Macbeth plot with his version of Shakespeare’s witches Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat, Very funny!
‘Someone has to do it. It's all very well calling for eye of newt, but do you mean Common, Spotted or Great Crested? Which eye, anyway? Will tapioca do just as well? If we substitute egg white will the spell a) work b) fail or c) melt the bottom out of the cauldron?’

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