'When Shall We 3 Meet Over again' is the opening line of William Shakespeare'south great tragedy, Macbeth. Spoken by the First Witch, the line immediately ushers united states into a world of witches, prophecy, and blackness magic, elements which Shakespeare probably chose to include considering the new Rex of England, James I, had written censoriously about witchcraft in his book Demonologie.

The best way to analyse the meaning of the opening 'When Shall We Three Run across Over again' scene is to summarise it, stage by stage. Simply first, here's the scene:

Thunder and lightning. Enter 3 WITCHES

FIRST WITCH

When shall we 3 come across again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

Second WITCH

When the hurly-burly's done,
When the boxing's lost and won.

THIRD WITCH

That will be ere the gear up of sun.

FIRST WITCH

Where the identify?

2nd WITCH

Upon the heath.

THIRD WITCH

There to meet with Macbeth.

FIRST WITCH

I come up, Graymalkin!

SECOND WITCH

Paddock calls.

3rd WITCH

Betimes.

ALL

Fair is foul, and foul is fair
Hover through the fog and filthy air.

Exeunt

At present, let's go through the scene, chip by bit, and summarise what'south going on, offer some words of analysis as we go.

Thunder and lightning. Enter iii WITCHES

This scene, according to the stage directions, takes place in 'an open place'. Immediately, Shakespeare establishes an atmosphere of foreboding: the tempest which begins Macbeth heralds the turbulent events which are going to follow, all of which the Witches take prophesied. From the kickoff, things are strange, out-of-kilter: fair is foul, and foul is fair, equally the Witches volition later (collectively) say.

Showtime WITCH

When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

The Commencement Witch asks her two fellow Witches when they volition next go together. Not how the second line, 'In thunder, lightning, or in rain' is – as Frank Kermode noted in his vivid Shakespeare's Language – not really a choice, since thunder usually accompanies lightning and vice versa, and rain tends to accompany both.

As Kermode goes on to detect, such a deceptive and subtle line, which seems to offer pick that is in fact no choice, nicely introduces one of the recurrent themes of Macbeth, which is the extent to which the characters – and most of all, the championship character himself – are in control of their own actions.

Second WITCH

When the hurly-burly's done,
When the battle's lost and won.

As Kermode also notes, battles which are lost by one side are also won by another: every boxing is both lost and won. More choices which turn out not to exist choices, or mutually exclusive outcomes. Of course, the final battle between Macbeth and Macduff, which will meet Macbeth defeated, volition be both lost by Macbeth and won past Macduff, so this line is another which prefigures the play to come up. Only the 'battle' more directly referred to here is the one which Duncan and Macbeth discuss shortly after this scene – the battle at which the traitorous insubordinate, the Thane of Cawdor, is defeated and Macbeth wins the praise of the King, Duncan.

'Hurly-burly' means tumult or uproar: the word may imply hither the tumult of insurrection or revolt (the Thane of Cawdor who is executed for his treason against the King), but also suggestions that modify is in the air and the kingdom is near to be plunged into trigger-happy chaos.

The word 'done' ('When the hurly-burly'due south done') volition resonate throughout Macbeth: it volition recur in Macbeth's own speeches ('If information technology were done when 'tis washed, and so 'twere well / Information technology were done quickly') and it is at that place as a homophonic presence in both Duncan and Dunsinane. Here we have the word's first appearance, but information technology volition return once again and again throughout this short play.

Tertiary WITCH

That will be ere the ready of sun.

Things are moving swiftly: the Third Witch believes that the battle will be over earlier sunset.

FIRST WITCH

Where the place?

2nd WITCH

Upon the heath.

3rd WITCH

At that place to run across with Macbeth.

The Witches accept already decided to arroyo Macbeth afterwards the boxing, so they tin can tell him virtually the prophecy which foretells that he will exist Male monarch of Scotland after Duncan.

Outset WITCH

I come, Graymalkin!

Graymalkin or 'Grimalkin' in some versions literally means 'grey Mary', and is the name of the Start Witch's cat. Witches' familiars are often cats in accounts of witchcraft, although 'gray' suggests something slightly different from the usual clichéd black cat. This is one of the earliest uses of Graymalkin/Grimalkin in literature, although not quite the first: nosotros can find a Grimalkin in the remarkable 1550s piece of work Beware the Cat, a London-set up narrative which might be described every bit the get-go English novel. (See my AMAZON for more on this fascinating proto-Gothic text.)

SECOND WITCH

Paddock calls.

Paddock is another witches' familiar – in this case, a toad. The discussion 'paddock' is an one-time English dialect term for the toad.

Third WITCH

Betimes.

ALL

Fair is foul, and foul is fair
Hover through the fog and filthy air.

Exeunt

The line 'Fair is foul, and foul is off-white' is well-nigh proverbial, and was already so when Shakespeare wrote this line. In Edmund Spenser'southward The Faerie Queene from the 1590s, for instance, we find the line, 'Then faire grew foule, and foule grew faire in sight'.

One time again, hither, we have the natural order being overturned and inverted, with the pair of opposites dissolving into one: fair has been rendered foul, and foul has become off-white. Good and evil announced to have swapped places. Just every bit that boxing is both lost and won, so fair and foul are indistinguishable.

'When Shall We Iii Meet Again' is among Shakespeare's more than famous opening lines, and for many it immediately conjures the earth of witchcraft and prophecy in which the events of Macbeth take place. But, mayhap surprisingly, the scene has non proved universally popular with critics. The actor Harley Granville-Barker, an influential critic of Shakespeare'south plays, went then far every bit to depict it as a 'pointless scene'.

Yet others have seen how the Witches' opening exchange sets the tone and mood for the play itself. Samuel Taylor Coleridge pointed out that this opening scene establishes an 'invocation' which is 'fabricated at once to the imagination'. And so it is a powerful opening scene, fifty-fifty though it works quite differently from many other opening scenes we find in Shakespeare.