Time for Such a Word - Verbal Echoing in Macbeth | George Walton Williams, Duke University
George Walton Williams, Duke University
It is a critical commonplace that Macbeth's opening line—'So foul and fair a day I have not seen' (1.3.36), whatever its particular referents may be1—is singularly important to Macbeth's character, echoing as it does the enigmatic and ominous chant of the Witches as they conclude their first appearance: 'Fair is foul, and foul is fair' (1.1.10). That the play begins with the witches strikingly adumbrates their immanent presence throughout the play; that they are the first to mention the name of the hero confirms their importance. The play and the character both will live under the shadow and the menace of these opening lines—the shortest first scene in the canon. The scene includes this gnomic utterance that destroys 'the distinction [between] … foul and fair '; with it the Witches verbalize their position, standing for 'those who have said "Evil, be thou my good.'"2 Their...
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