<P> The witches' lines in the first act: "Fair is foul, and foul is fair / Hover through the fog and filthy air" are often said to set the tone for the remainder of the play by establishing a sense of moral confusion . Indeed, the play is filled with situations in which evil is depicted as good, while good is rendered evil . The line "Double, double toil and trouble," (often sensationalised to a point that it loses meaning), communicates the witches' intent clearly: they seek only to increase trouble for the mortals around them . </P> <P> Though the witches do not deliberately tell Macbeth to kill King Duncan, they use a subtle form of temptation when they inform Macbeth that he is destined to be king . By placing this thought in his mind, they effectively guide him on the path to his own destruction . This follows the pattern of temptation attributed to the Devil in the contemporary imagination: the Devil was believed to be a thought in a person's mind, which he or she might either indulge or reject . Macbeth indulges the temptation, while Banquo rejects it . </P> <P> Several non-Shakespearean moments are thought to have been added to Macbeth around 1618 and include all of 3.5 and 4.1. 39--43 and 4.1. 125 - 32, as well as two songs . </P> <P> In a version of Macbeth by William Davenant (1606--1668) a scene was added in which the witches tell Macduff and his wife of their future as well as several lines for the two before Macbeth's entrance in Act 4 . Most of these lines were taken directly from Thomas Middleton's play The Witch . David Garrick kept these added scenes in his eighteenth - century version . Horace Walpole created a parody of Macbeth in 1742 entitled The Dear Witches in response to political problems of his time . The witches in his play are played by three everyday women who manipulate political events in England through marriage and patronage, and manipulate elections to have Macbeth made Treasurer and Earl of Bath . In the final scene, the witches gather around a cauldron and chant "Double, double, Toil and Trouble / parties burn and Nonsense bubble ." Into their concoction they throw such things as "Judgment of a Beardless Youth" and "Liver of a Renegade". The entire play is a commentary on the political corruption and insanity surrounding the period . </P>

Who is the goddess of witchcraft in macbeth