Macbush

Act I, Scene 2

On Capitol Hill, three justices are dressed in Ku Klux Klan robes with a large cross flaming in the background. The justices are gathered around a black pot with the legend "The Supremes". Thunder and lightning.

1ST JUST.: Where hast thou been, brother?

2ND JUST.: Killing abortionists. Where thou?

1ST JUST.: Condemning teachers of evolution.

3RD JUST.: Look, look what I have.

1ST JUST.: Show me, show me!

3RD JUST.: Here I have a liberal's thumb, recalled from office as he did come.

2ND JUST.: Round about the cauldron go; In the poisoned entrails throw.

The justices sing as they throw their objects into the pot.

1ST JUST.: Fillet of a rattlesnake,
In the cauldron boil and bake.

2ND JUST.: Eye of democrat, toe of frog.
Nose of lesbian, tongue of dog.

3RD JUST.: Civil rights and lawyers fees,
Nolo contendere, cut down the trees!

1ST JUST.: Finger of birth-strangled fetus,
Into the pot brothers, throw now, let us.

2ND JUST.: For a charm of pow'rful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

3RD JUST.: A people's hopes are o'erthrwn:
A base usurper do we enthrone.

ALL: Double, double, toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good!

1ST JUST.: By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.

2ND JUST.: Open locks,
Whoever knocks.

3RD JUST.: Comes Macbush.

Enter Macbush and Gore, dressed in mail shirts, carrying swords.

GORE: What are these,
So withered and so wild in their attire?
You should be men,
And yet your robes forbid me to interpret
That you are so.

1ST JUST.: All hail, Gore!

2ND JUST.: All hail, Macbush! Hail to thee, Thane of Texas!

3RD JUST.: All hail, Macbush! Hail to thee, son of a king!

1ST JUST.: All hail, Macbush, that shall be king hereafter!

MACBUSH: How now, you secret, black and midnight hags! What is't you do?

ALL: A deed without a name.

GORE: I conjure you by that which you profess,
Howe'er you come to know it, answer me.
Even till destruction sicken, answer me
To what I ask you.

1ST JUST.: Speak.

2ND JUST.: Demand.

3RD JUST.: We'll answer.

GORE: If you can look into the seeds of time, and say
Which grain will grow and which will not,
Speak to me, say, betwixt us two,
Which hath th'election?

1ST JUST.: Lesser than Macbush, and greater

2ND JUST.: Not so happy, yet much happier.

3RD JUST.: Thou shall serve kings, though thou shall be none.

MACBUSH: Stay, you imperfect speakers. Tell me more: Shall I be king?

Justices nod.

1ST JUST.: When shall we meet again,
In thunder, lightning or in rain?

2ND JUST.: When the hurly-burly's done,
When th'election's lost and won.

3RD JUST.: When the hanging chad is gone.

1ST JUST.: That will be ere the set of sun.

ALL: We weird brethren, hand in hand,
Judges of the sea and land,
Thus do go about, about,
Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine,
And thrice again shall make up nine!
Fair is foul and foul is fair,
Hover through the fog and filthy air.

The justices vanish into vapors.

MACBUSH: If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly. If usurpation
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease success, this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all.
Here upon this bank and shoal of time,
We'ld jump the life to come.

Macbush stabs Gore in the back.

MACBUSH: But I do greatly fear,
We'll still have judgment here.

A crown appears glowing over Macbush's head.