Student Question

In Act 4, Scene 1 of Macbeth, what do "blaspheming" and "chaudron" mean?

Quick answer:

In Act 4, Scene 1 of Macbeth, "blaspheming" means to speak profanely about God or sacred things, often referring to Jews in Shakespeare's time for rejecting Christ. "Chaudron" refers to the entrails or guts of an animal, in this case, a tiger, used by the witches for their potion.

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"Blaspheming" means to speak profanely to or of God or sacred things.  My understanding of that phrase, "liver of blaspheming Jew," is that the witches are including the liver of a Jew - it would have been characteristic in Shakespeare's day to call Jews blasphemers because they rejected Christ as the...

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Savior and Son of God.

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I think you are referring to the passage below:

THIRD WITCH.
Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witch's mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse,
Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips,
Finger of birth-strangl'd babe
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,--
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingredients of our caldron.

Because Shakespeare's language is so archaic, it is sometimes difficult to understand. Fortunately, Enotes has side-by-side etexts for many of Shakespeare's plays. They show both the original and a modern translation of the play.

Below is the paraphrase for the lines you were unsure of:

THIRD WITCH.
Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witch's mummy, a gulf-like stomach,
Of the rough sea salt glisten,
Root of poison hemlock dug up in the dark,
Liver of Christians not baptized,
Gall bladder of goat, and slips of pine trees
Cut off the tree when the moon eclipsed,
Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips,
Finger of a baby born dead
Delivered in a ditch by a prostitute,
Make the gruel thick and gooey.
Also add a tiger's guts,
For the ingredients of our caldron.

You can see the rest of the text at the link below:

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