Existing comment:
Thomas Barker
MacBeth and the Witches, ca 1830
Here Macbeth meets the "secret, black, and midnight hags," who have harvested "slips of yew" at the "moons eclipse" and dug "root of hemlock" in the dark. The deep shadow in the painting suggests Macbeth's own complicity in the "darkness" of the witches as he has sought help through demonic means. Only later, when it is too late, does he jokingly seek the help of the legitimate physician, from whom he asks for some "rhubarb" or some other "purgative drug" to rid Scotland of the English forces. |