In the play “Macbeth”, Shakespeare used several different literary devices to entice his readers. One of the most notable literary devices he used, however, was comic relief. The three witches in his play terrify his captivated audience. Shakespeare knew how disturbing they were, so he wrote in a humorous scene where one of the witches became angry because a woman would not share her chestnuts and the witch decided to chase after the woman’s husband to torture him. “But in a sieve I’ll thither sail / And, like a rat without a tail, I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do” (Act 1, Scene 3, lines 7-10). Shakespeare knew that the witches would disturb his audience, so he chose to allow them a moment of respite to allow them to prepare for future events