Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron 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 howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.
Cover image credit: “The Witches in Macbeth” by Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps, public domain. Originally sourced from Wikimedia Commons.
The Song of the Witches from Shakespeare’s Macbeth is one of the most famous examples of witchy literature out there.
Fun fact: The icky ingredients featured in the poem, like “eye of newt”, are actually code for certain types of plants — not the body parts of poor critters!