Scene 3d—Enter the three witches. There is an idle repetition of words. The offense of the sailor’s wife is visited upon her husband, who is, however, to encounter only the appearance, not the reality of destruction. A certain combination of numbers completes the charm.
Macbeth and Banquo now encounter the weird sisters on the heath. Macbeth’s exclamations relate chiefly to the ambiguity of their appearance. He says, they “look not like the inhabitants of the earth, and yet are on it.” They “seem to understand me.”
They should be women,
And yet their beards forbid me to interpret
That they are so.
The witches then salute Macbeth in terms which are to him incomprehensible. They call him Thane of Cawdor, which he is, but does not know it. They also salute Banquo in ambiguous language: “Lesser than Macbeth and greater.” “Not so happy, yet much happier,” etc., etc.
The witches now “melt into the wind;” upon which Banquo says,
The earth hath bubbles as the water has,
And these are of them.
Ross and Angus now enter and salute Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor, who, finding the prediction of the witches verified in this particular, asks Banquo whether he does not hope his children shall be kings. Banquo’s answer points to the ambiguity of appearances,