Shakespeare Created The Witches Of Macbeth For A Horrible Reason And It Backfired
Fire burn and cauldron bubble, his play was cursed with death and trouble.
The audience sat in the dark. Waiting. Watching. Suddenly, a loud crack of thunder. Then lightning. In a flash of light, they finally see them. Huddled at center stage. Witches. Three of them. Cackling about when to meet again.
When the hurly-burly’s done
When the battle’s lost and won
They speak in crazy riddles with shrill cackling…
Fair is foul
and foul is fair
Hover through fog
and filthy air…
In another crack of lightning — poof, they’re gone.
Later, historians would call the opening scene of Macbeth, “the most theatrical opening stage direction of any play.”
It was 1605, for gosh sakes. The work of William Shakespeare, if you believe he wrote those plays, but that’s a different story for another day.
That dark and foreboding scene set the tone for the entire play.
