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Second Witch

The Tragedy of Macbeth · 14 speeches across 3 scenes

Second Weird Sister; a cryptic agent of fate who speaks in paradoxes, often echoing the others to tighten their prophetic spell.

Who they are

Witch 2 is one of three Weird Sisters who set the tragedy in motion by prophesying Macbeth’s rise and fall. She speaks in terse, rhythmic contributions—‘Killing swine,’ ‘I’ll give thee a wind’—and joins the coven’s unified chants. Her role is to sustain the eerie, collective voice that blurs natural and supernatural orders. She shares key choral moments in Act 1’s heath and Act 4’s cauldron scene, reinforcing the trio’s uncanny harmony.

Playing them

Lean into a guttural, chanting vocal quality—almost sing-song when incanting. Use jagged, staccato movements in the trio’s choreography, but hold still during curses. Emotional range should oscillate between gleeful malice and unnerving calm; the line ‘Something wicked this way comes’ can be a chill, knowing aside rather than a shout. Traditional staging often has all three witches move as one organism, so mirror the others’ physicality while lending distinct, witchy timbre.

Appearance

Typically ragged, gender-ambiguous (bearded, per Banquo’s description), with wild hair and tattered cloaks. The trio may share a single staff or cauldron prop, forming a visual triangle of decay.

Worth knowing

Shakespeare drew on Holinshed’s Chronicles and contemporary witch lore (e.g., James I’s Daemonologie). This second witch’s lines about familiars (‘Paddock calls’) reflect Tudor beliefs in animal spirits aiding witches.

Where they appear

Play Second Witch

Take the part and Yorick reads every other role aloud, following you line by line as you speak.

Rehearse Macbeth on your phone: App Store · Google Play

Shakespeare the way it was meant to be had — out loud

These plays were written to be performed, not silently read. Yorick is a rehearsal app that lets you perform them: you take a part in any of Shakespeare’s 38 plays, and Yorick reads every other role aloud, listens while you speak your lines, keeps your place, and prompts you the moment you dry.

It is built for the person who has to be off book by tech week — school and college productions, community theatre, festivals, drama students and classical auditions — and for anyone who wants to hear a scene rather than skim it. Alongside the performance you get a plain-English translation of every speech, scene context, performance notes, and the ability to ask about any line and get an answer that already knows the play, the scene and who is speaking.

The text is the public-domain Cambridge/Globe edition. Translations and notes are AI-generated rehearsal aids for actors and students, not a scholarly apparatus. Yorick runs in a browser with nothing to install, and on iPhone and Android.