Macbeth speaks these words in an aside when he is with Banquo, his loyal friend. “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me / Without my stir.” Perhaps to make things from bad to worse. They agree with each other to vanish after the incantation is over and while the air is still dirty and misty. In the same way, whatever seems bad is actually good. They say that whatever they do seems good, but it will bring evil. Three witches who appear in Macbeth in the first scene speak these lines as they continue to weave their spell.

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

While the first witch expresses the unfavorable weather, the Second Witch says that they might meet after all the chaos is over and one of the kingdoms has won the war in Scotland. The main theme of these lines is to decide when the witches would meet next.

These lines are rhyming with each other to show that the incantation of the witches has begun. These are the initial lines spoken by First Witch and Second Witch when weaving a spell to lure Macbeth. “When shall we three meet again / In thunder, lightning, or in rain? / When the hurly burly ‘s done, /When the battle ‘s lost and won.”

Macbeth conflict quotes