Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Double
Double, double, toil and trouble,
Fire burn; and caldron bubble.
Shakespeare.—Macbeth, Act IV. Scene 1. (All the Witches.)
Double, double toil and trouble; literally, trouble brings trouble to trouble.
Buckley’s Sophocles.—Ajax, Page 267.
War he sung, is toil and trouble;
Honour but an empty bubble.
Dryden.—Alexander’s Feast.