Double Trouble

"Something Wicked This Way Comes"
Song information
Alternative names	"Double Trouble"
Performed by	Frog Choir

"Something Wicked This Way Comes" or "Double Trouble" was a song performed by the Frog Choir. It was performed at the Hogwarts Welcoming Feast on 1 September 1993. The choir held toads and ravens while singing.

Lyrics

Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Double, double, toil and trouble;
Something wicked this way comes!

Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing.

Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Double, double, toil and trouble;
Something wicked this way comes!

In the cauldron boil and bake,
Fillet of a fenny snake,
Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witches' mummy, maw and gulf.

Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Double, double, toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Something wicked this way comes!

Behind the scenes

Listen to a sample of "Something Wicked This Way Comes"

• John Williams combined lines from parts of the famous scene in William Shakespeare's Macbeth in which the Witches are around the cauldron and set them to music he composed for the films. One of the witches also says the phrase, "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes."
• The phrase Something Wicked This Way Comes was also used as the title for a well-known Ray Bradbury novel.
• The original play goes:

First Witch: Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
Second Witch: Thrice, and once the hedge-pig whined.
Third Witch: Harper cries "'Tis time, 'tis time."
First Witch: Round about the chaudron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter'd poison sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charm'd pot.
All: Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
Second Witch: Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog
Adders fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
All: Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witch's mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark
Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat and slips of yew
Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse
Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch delivered by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab.
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron.
All: Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
Second Witch: Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good."

The line "By the pricking of my thumbs,/ Something wicked this way comes" is delivered a few lines after.

See also

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (soundtrack)

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film) (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (soundtrack) (Track 5)
• The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (Opening performance)