Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog.

These lines are spoken by the Weird Sisters (the witches) in William Shakespeare’s tragedy *Macbeth* during their incantation over a boiling cauldron. The scene occurs after Macbeth has become king through murder and is increasingly desperate for supernatural guidance to secure his power. In the witches’ cavern, they concoct a grotesque “charm of powerful trouble,” adding repellent ingredients as part of a ritual meant to summon apparitions and deliver prophecies. The chant’s sing-song rhythm and catalog of animal parts heighten the atmosphere of dark magic and moral inversion that surrounds Macbeth’s unraveling.

The couplet exemplifies how *Macbeth* links unnatural acts with political and moral disorder. The witches’ recipe—made of scavenged, distorted fragments of nature—suggests a world where boundaries are violated and the ordinary is perverted into something ominous. Its nursery-rhyme cadence is unsettling: the playful sound contrasts with the gruesome content, reinforcing the witches’ deceptive allure and the danger of taking their words at face value. Dramatically, the chant functions as a spellbinding prelude to prophecy, emphasizing that Macbeth’s pursuit of certainty will be mediated through ambiguity, manipulation, and the corrupting fascination of the supernatural.

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.