ACT I SCENE I A desert place.
[Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches]
First Witch: When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
Second Witch: When the hurly-burly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won.
Third Witch: That will be ere the set of sun.
First Witch: Where the place?
Second Witch: Upon the heath.
Third Witch: There to meet with Macbeth.
First Witch: I come, graymalkin*!
Second Witch: Paddock* calls.
Third Witch: Anon!
All: Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
[Exeunt]
From ‘Macbeth’ (1606) by William Shakespeare
*Graymalkin is an affectionate name for a gray cat. During the Renaissance it was believed that Satan sent witches malicious spirits to help them carry out their evil deeds. These ‘familiars’ or ‘imps’ would appear in animal form. The familiar of the First Witch takes the form of a cat and the familiar of the Second Witch takes the form of a paddock, a toad. The familiar of the Third Witch is not mentioned in the first act but later in the play, it takes the form of a harpy, a nasty creature in Greek mythology with the head and body of a woman and the talons of a bird. -information from Shakespeare Online.
For those in warmer climes, let me tell you: 44 °F (7 °C) feels positively balmy when you’ve recently felt the bite of 19 °F (minus 7 °C).
Fog is made of tiny condensed water droplets suspended in humid air that had been cooled to its dewpoint: the temperature at which it can no longer hold all of the water vapor it contains.