Witches verse lines make number god language speak

Text	The Witches' language Throughout the play, the language used by the Witches helps to mark them out as mysterious and other-worldly. They speak in verse, but it is a form of verse that is very different from that which is used by most of Shakespeare’s characters. Many of the lines in this passage are in rhyming couplets, in contrast to the unrhymed verse used elsewhere in the play. Rather than speaking in an iambic metre, with alternating unstressed and stressed syllables, the Witches speak in a trochaic metre, with stressed syllables followed by unstressed. In addition, where most of Shakespeare’s verse lines have five stresses, the Witches’ lines typically only have four. These heavy stresses give the Witches’ speech a sense of foreboding that emphasises their malevolence and unearthliness. In the First Witch’s lines, they make her vendetta against the sailor seem relentless. At the end of this passage, when the Witches chant in unison, they bring a sense of eeriness. It’s also worth noting that the Witches’ speech is full of numbers. The First Witch will make the sailor’s torture last ‘sev'nnights, nine times nine’ (1.3.22): a ‘sev’nnight’ was a week (seven nights), so the sailor will suffer for 81 weeks. As the Witches chant, they move ‘Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine / And thrice again, to make up nine’ (1.3.35–36). There are further examples of the number three: the sailor’s wife ‘mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd’ (1.3.5); the First Witch repeats ‘I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do’ (1.1.10); and there are, of course, three witches. Three is a number that is often seen as having a particular significance. In Christianity, for example, there is the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Bad luck is frequently thought to come in threes. Macbeth is hailed by three titles (Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor and King hereafter) and is later given three prophecies. Nine, meanwhile, is a multiple of three: therefore, ‘nine’ and ‘nine times nine’ multiplies and reinforces the power of the number three. Is Shakespeare suggesting that the Witches are a kind of unholy trinity http://www.bl.uk/shakespeare/articles/witchcraft-magic-and-religion ? It’s an obvious conclusion.

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The Witches' language

Throughout the play, the language used by the Witches helps to mark them out as mysterious and other-worldly. They speak in verse, but it is a form of verse that is very different from that which is used by most of Shakespeare’s characters. Many of the lines in this passage are in rhyming couplets, in contrast to the unrhymed verse used elsewhere in the play. Rather than speaking in an iambic metre, with alternating unstressed and stressed syllables, the Witches speak in a trochaic metre, with stressed syllables followed by unstressed. In addition, where most of Shakespeare’s verse lines have five stresses, the Witches’ lines typically only have four.

These heavy stresses give the Witches’ speech a sense of foreboding that emphasises their malevolence and unearthliness. In the First Witch’s lines, they make her vendetta against the sailor seem relentless. At the end of this passage, when the Witches chant in unison, they bring a sense of eeriness.

It’s also worth noting that the Witches’ speech is full of numbers. The First Witch will make the sailor’s torture last ‘sev'nnights, nine times nine’ (1.3.22): a ‘sev’nnight’ was a week (seven nights), so the sailor will suffer for 81 weeks. As the Witches chant, they move ‘Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine / And thrice again, to make up nine’ (1.3.35–36). There are further examples of the number three: the sailor’s wife ‘mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd’ (1.3.5); the First Witch repeats ‘I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do’ (1.1.10); and there are, of course, three witches. Three is a number that is often seen as having a particular significance. In Christianity, for example, there is the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Bad luck is frequently thought to come in threes. Macbeth is hailed by three titles (Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor and King hereafter) and is later given three prophecies.

Nine, meanwhile, is a multiple of three: therefore, ‘nine’ and ‘nine times nine’ multiplies and reinforces the power of the number three. Is Shakespeare suggesting that the Witches are a kind of

unholy trinity
http://www.bl.uk/shakespeare/articles/witchcraft-magic-and-religion

? It’s an obvious conclusion.

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