Grimalkin

[Mary Krimmel]

In Act I, Scene !, one of the witches says at the end of the meeting of the 
three, "I come, Graymalkin." I believe that she is answering the call of 
her cat, her contact with the devil or with Hecate.

Whether a cat's call is generally heard in productions of Macbeth I do not 
know.

Mary Krimmel

At 04:35 PM 7/29/03 -0500, you wrote:
>Forgive me if this has been mentioned already, but isn't Grimalkin also the
>name of one of the Weird Sisters in _Macbeth_?
>
>I seem to recall one of the sisters referring to another by that name,
>although the stage directions always refer to them as "witch."
>
>Tim
>
>
> > grimalkin - 1630, name given to a cat, hence any cat, especially an old
> > she-cat; from gray + Malkin, dim. of fem. proper name Matilda or Maud.
> >
> > Gray + Maud = cat
> >
> > I know this is ludicrous, but there's just no accounting for taste.
> >
> >