Source of "Something Wicked This Way Comes"

Example Questions that can be answered by this FAQ:

• I’m trying to find the name and author of a poem that has the line "The landscape turns to ashen crumbs, when something wicked this way comes."

The above verse is actually from a series of commercials for Lexus cars; we were asked about it many times when the ad first started being broadcast. The actual source of the line "something wicked this way comes" is act IV, scene 1 of the play Macbeth:

By the pricking of my thumbs,

Something wicked this way comes.

Open, locks,

Whoever knocks!

This can be found in -Bartlett’s Quotations-, located online at:

http://www.bartleby.com/100/
and in print at your local public or college library; it’s one of the standard reference sources for quotations.