Hurlyburly.

In the first words spoken in Macbeth, the three witches make plans to meet again soon. The thunder and lightning of the impending storm has already begun, but inclement weather seems to only better set the mood for their plotting:

1 Witch. When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

2 Witch. When the hurlyburly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won.

3 Witch. That will be ere the set of sun. (Macbeth, 1. 1.1-5.)

Not only has the thunder and lightning already sounded, but one may argue that the “hurlyburly” has already begun as well. The Arden edition of the play helpfully supplies the definition of this unusual word: “uproar, tumult, confusion, esp. the tumult of sedition or insurrection” (3). The “uproar, tumult, confusion” of the battle has already come to an end, with its victors declared, its defeated humiliated, and its heroes proven. The “sedition and insurrection” of the Thane of Cawdor’s treason has also come to light, and his title stripped to reward the heroism of Macbeth. But “ere the set of sun” another “hurlyburly” will be underway, and, one may argue, another battle already lost before it had begun.

The seeds of the “sedition and insurrection” plotted by the Macbeths will end in the murder of a king (among others), and the new Thane of Cawdor will end in much the same way his predecessor did—in the disgrace of treason. But the seeds of this next “hurlyburly” were planted long before this day. In the ruthless ambition and cruel intentions of Lady Macbeth’s heart, the battle for good and honor was lost long before she received her husband’s letter. “Ere the set of sun” not only will the witches meet again, but the bloody results of the Macbeth’s “hurlyburly” will be all but done.

The witches meet to plot, cavort, and do mischief. Although they are analogous to the three Greek furies of vengeance, jealousy and rage, their real mischief isn’t in pronouncing curses or enacting evil and murderous deeds. The “hurlyburly’s done” and the battle for good is already “lost and won”—theirs is only a descriptive commentary on the evil already intended by others. There is little real work for witches or furies amid the hurlyburly of the human heart.