Delrio, Disq. Mag. lib. 2, quæst. 6, has a story out of Triezius of this horse of wood: but that which our witches call so, is sometimes a broom-staff, sometimes a reed, sometimes a distaff. See Remig. Dæmonol. lib. 1, cap. 14. Bodin. 1. 2, cap. 4, &c. The goat is the Devil himself, upon whom they ride often to their solemnity, as appears by their confessions in Rem. and Bodin. ibid. His majesty also remembers the story of the devil's appearancel to those of Calicut in that form, Dæmonol. lib. 2, cap. 3. Of the green cock we have no other ground (to confess ingenuously) than a vulgar fable of a witch, that with a cock of that colour and a bottom of blue thread, would transport herself through the air; and so escaped (at the time of her being brought to execution) from the hand of justice. It was a tale when I went to school; and somewhat there is like it in Mart. Delr. Disq. Mag. lib. 2, quæst. 6, of one Zyti, a Bohemian, that, among other his dexterities, aliquoties equis rhedariis vectum, gallis gallinaceis ad epirrhedium suum alligatis, subseque batur. § All this is but a periphrasis of the night, in their charm, and their applying themselves to it 1 His majesty also remembers the story, &c.] Jonson cannot escape the commentators, and his name serves them as a foil upon all occasions. Warburton having incidentally observed that a in Macbeth was "intended as a compassage pliment to James," Steevens subjoins that the truth of history was also perverted for the same purpose; yet, continues he, "the flattery of Shakspeare is not more gross than that of Ben Jonson, who has"-done what, does the reader think?"condescended to quote his majesty's ridiculous book on Demonology!" The reader has here the whole of the poet's offence: with respect to "his majesty," his book was not more ridiculous" than any of the others quoted on the subject; and as Jonson collected his authorities merely in obedience to the commands of the Prince, there seems no violent strain of flattery in barely citing the book of his father for a popular story. with their instruments, whereof the spindle in antiquity was the chief: and beside the testimony of Theocritus, in Pharmaceutria; (who only used it in amorous affairs) was of special act to the troubling of the moon. To which Martial alludes, lib. 9, ep. 30, Quæ nunc Thessalico Lunam deducere rhombo, &c. And lib. 12, ep. 57, Cum secta Colcho Luna vapulat rhombo. This rite also of making a ditch with their nails is frequent with our witches, whereof see Bodin. Remig. Delr. Malleus Mal. Godelman. 1. 2 de Lamiis, as also the antiquity of it most he mentions the pictures, and the blood of a vively exprest by Hor. Satyr. 8, lib. 1, where black lamb. All which are yet in use with our modern witchcraft. Scalpere terram (speaking of Canidia and Sagana) agnam Unguibus, et pullam divellere mordicus Serpentes atque videres Haud procul egesta scrobibus tellure duabus Conjicit, et patulas perfundit sanguine fossas. Sacra facit, cultrosque in gutture velleris atri And of the waxen images, in Hypsipyle's epistle to Jason, where he expresseth that mischief also of the needles: Devovet absentes, simulacraque cerea fingit; Et miserum tenues in jecur urget acus. Bodin. Damon. lib. 2, cap. 8, hath (beside the known story of King Duffe out of Hector Boetius) much of the witches' later practice in that kind, and reports a relation of a French Ambassador's, out of England, of certain pictures of wax, found in a dunghill near Islington, of our late queen's: which rumour I myself (being then very young) can yet remember to have been current. Quickly, dame, then bring your part in, Spur, spur upon little Martin,* Merrily, merrily, make him sail, Dame. Well done, my Hags! And come we fraught with spite, To overthrow the glory of this night? A worm in his mouth, and a thorn in 's Holds our great purpose? tail, Fire above and fire below, With a whip i' your hand to make him go." O, now she's come! Let all be dumb. At this the DAME† entered to them, nakedarmed, barefooted, her frock tucked, her hair knotted, and folded with vipers; in her hand a torch made of a dead man's arm, lighted, girded with a snake. To whom they all did reverence, and she spake, uttering, by way of question, the end wherefore they came. *Their little Martin is he that calls them to their conventicles, which is done in a human voice, but coming forth, they find him in the shape of a great buck goat, upon whom they ride to their meetings, Delr. Disq. Mag. quæst. 16, lib. 2. And Bod. Damon. lib. 2, cap. 4, have both the same relation from Paulus Grillandus, of a witch. Adveniente nocte et hora evocabatur voce quadam velut humana ab ipso Dæmone, quem non vocant Dæmonem, sed Magisterulum, aliæ Magistrum Martinettum, sive Martinellum. Quæ sic evocata, mox sumebat pyxidem unctionis et linebat corpus suum in quibusdam partibus et membris, quo linito exibat ex domo, et inveniebat Magisterulum suum in forma hirci illam expectantem apudostium, super quo mulier equitabat, et applicare solebat fortiter manus ad crineis, et statim hircus ille adscendebat per aerem, et brevissimo tempore deferebat ipsam, &c. This Dame I make to bear the person of Ate, or Mischief (for so I interpret it), out of Homer's description of her, Il. A, where he makes her swift to hurt mankind, strong, and sound of her feet; and Iliad. T, walking upon men's heads; in both places using one and the same phrase to signify her power, Вλаπтоvσ' avepúrovs, Lædens homines. I present her barefooted, and her frock tucked, to make her seem more expedite, by Horace's authority, Sat. 8, Succinctam vadere palla Canidiam pedibus nudis, passoque capillo. But for her hair, I rather respect another place of his, Epod. lib. ode 5, where she appears Canidia brevibus implicata viperis Crineis, ct incomptum caput. And that of Lucan, lib. 6, speaking of Erichtho's attire, lib. I. one to have told upon their entrance what they were and whither they would, had been a piteous hearing, and utterly unworthy any quality of a poem: wherein a writer should always trust somewhat to the capacity of the spectator, especially at these spectacles; where men, beside inquiring eyes, are understood to bring quick ears, and not those sluggish ones of porters and mechanics, that must be bored through at every act with narrations. § In the chaining of these vices, I make as if one link produced another, and the Dame were born out of them all, so as they might say to her, Sola tenes scelerum quicquid possedimus omnes. Nor will it appear much violenced, if their series be considered, when the opposition to all virtue begins out of Ignorance, that Ignorance begets 1 Well done, my hags!] In Macbeth, Hecate says to the Witches, "O, well done!" upon which important resemblance, Mr. Steevens thus expatiates. "The attentive reader will observe that, in the Masque of Queens, old Ben has exerted his strongest powers to rival the incantation of Shakspeare's" (Middleton's) "Witches, and the final address of Prospero to the aerial spirits under his command.”. Now let Macbeth have been written when it may, Steevens well knew that the Tempest was one of Shakspeare's latest plays, and was not in existence till many years after this period (1609); if therefore any rivalry be found between the parting speech of Prospero and the awful invocation of the dame (p. 133), the "jealousy must be attributed, however harshly it may sound, to Shakspeare. Discolor, et vario Furialis cultus amictu With respect to the invidious comparison elsewhere instituted between the Hecate of Shak ignorance. The dame of the latter is not Hecate, but Ate, as he himself expressly calls her. But be she who she may, she is as superior (if the truth must be told) to the Hecate of Macbeth, as Macbeth is superior to every other tragedy. Whose eyes do never sleep; let her knit With quick Credulity, that next her stands, She, Malice, whetting of her forked tongue; Let Impudence lead Slander on, to boast Draw to thee Bitterness, whose pores sweat She, flame-eyed Rage; Rage, Mischief. Dame. Join now our hearts, we faithful To Fame and Glory. Let not these bright Of honour blaze, thus to offend our eyes; Our wonted rages: do what may beseem Such names and natures; Virtue else will deem Our powers decreased, and think us No less than heaven. All her antique birth, And cause the ends run back into their Hags. What our Dame bids us do, Dame. Then fall to. But first relate met what you have sought, Where you have been, and what you have brought. Suspicion (for Knowledge is ever open and chari- quently ascribed to witches, and challenged by table) that Suspicion, Credulity, as it is a vice; for themselves wherever they are induced, by Homer, being a virtue, and free, it is opposite to it: but Ovid, Tibullus, Pet. Arbiter, Seneca, Lucan, such as are jealous of themselves, do easily credit Claudian, to whose authorities I shall refer more anything of others whom they hate. Out of this anon. For the present, hear Socrat. in Apul. Credulity springs Falsehood, which begets de Asin. aureo, . 1, describing Meroe, the Murmur: and that Murmur presently grows witch. Saga et divinipotens cælum deponere, Malice, which begets Impudence: and that Im- terram suspendere, fontes durare, monteis pudence, Slander: that Slander, Execration: Exe-diluere, manes sublimare, deos infimare, sidera cration, Bitterness: Bitterness, Fury: and Fury, Mischief. Now for the personal presentation of them, the authority in poetry is universal. But in the absolute Claudian, there is a particular and eminent place, where the poet not only produceth such persons, but almost to a like purpose, in Ruf. lib. 1, where Alecto, envious of the times, Infernas ad limina tetra sorores ours the night. extinguere, tartarum ipsum illuminare: and See This is also solemn in their witchcraft, to be examined, either by the devil or their dame, at their meetings, of what mischief they have done : M. Philippo Ludwigus Elich. Damonomagia and what they can confer to a future hurt. lib. quæst. 10. But Remigius, in the very form, * Here again by way of irritation I make the lib. 1. Dæmonolat. c. 22, Quemadmodum solent Dame pursue the purpose of their coming, and heri in villicis procuratoribus, cum eorum discover their natures more largely which had rationes expendunt, segnitiem negligentiamque been nothing if not done as doing another thing, durius castigare; ita Damon, in suis comitiis, but moratio circa vilem patulumque orbem; quod tempus examinandis cujusque rebus atque than which the poet cannot know a greater vice, actionibus ipse constituit, eos pessimè habere he being that kind of artificer to whose work is consuevit, qui nihil afferunt quo se nequiores ac required so much exactness as indifferency is flagitiis cumulatiores doceant. Nec cuiquam not tolerable. adeo impune est, si à superiore conventu nulla These powers of troubling nature are fre-se scelere novo obstrinxévit; sed semper oportet, VOL. III. I Hag. I have been all day looking And plucked him up, though he grew full after* A raven feeding upon a quarter; And soon as she turned her beak to the south, I snatched this morsel out of her mouth. 2 Hag. I have been gathering wolves' The mad dog's foam, and the adder's ears; 3 Hag. I last night lay all alone low; And as I had done the Cock did crow. 4 Hag. And I ha' been choosing out From charnel-houses that were full; 5 Hag. Under a cradle I did creep nose. Ast ubi servantur saxis, quibus intimus humor qui gratus esse volet in alium, novum aliquod facinus fecisse. And this doth exceedingly solicit them all, at such times, lest they should come unprepared. But we apply this examination of ours to the particular use; whereby also we take occasion not only to express the things (as vapours, liquors, herbs, bones, flesh, blood, fat, and such like, which are called Media 3. Pliny, writing of the mandrake, Nat. Hist. magica), but the rites of gathering them, and 25, c. 13, and of the digging it up, hath this from what places, reconciling as near as we can ceremony, Cavent effossuri contrarium ventum, the practice of antiquity to the neoteric, et tribus circulis ante gladio circumscribunt, and making it familiar with our popular witch-postea fodiunt ad occasum spectantes. have later tradition, that the forcing of it up is so fatally dangerous, as the groan kills, and therefore they do it with dogs, which I think but borrowed from Josephus's report of the root being so principal an ingredient in their magic, Baæras, lib. 7 de Bel. Judaic. Howsoever, it craft. 42, * For the gathering pieces of dead flesh, Et quodcunque jacet nuda tellure cadaver membra Vult ferro manibusque suis, morsusque lupo rum Expectat siccis raptura à faucibus artus; 2. Spuma canum, lupi crines, nodus hyena, oculi draconum, serpentis membrana, aspidis aures, are all mentioned by the ancients in witchcraft. And Lucan particularly, lib. 6. Huc quicquid fætu genuit natura sinistro Viscera non lyncis, non duræ nodus hyena And Ovid. Metamorph. lib. 7, reckons up others. But we it was fit she should boast to be the plucker up 4. I have touched this before, in my note upon the first, of the use of gathering flesh, bones, and skulls: to which I now bring that piece of Apuleius, lib. 3 de Asino aureo, of Pamphile, Priusque apparatu solito instruxit feralem officinam, omne genus aromatis, et iguorabiliter laminis literatis, et infelicium navium durantibus clavis de fletorum, sepultarum etiam cadaverum expositis multis admodum membris, hic nares et digiti, illic carnosi clavi pendentium, alibi trucidatorum servatus cruor, et extorta dentibus ferarum trunca calvaria. And for such places Lucan makes his witch to inhabit them, lib. 6. Desertaque busta Incolit et tumulos expulsis obtinet umbris. 5. For this rite see Barthol. de Spina, quæst. affirms, Hæc et nostræ ætatis maleficis homi de Strigibus, cap. 8, Mal. Malefic. tom. 2, where nibus moris est facere, præsertim si cujus suphe disputes at large the transformation of witches plicio affecti cadaver exemplo datum est, et in to cats, and their sucking both their spirits and crucem sublatum. Nam non solum inde sor their blood, calling them Striges, which Godel-tilegiis suis materiam mutuantur: sed et ab man, lib. de Lamiis, would have à stridore, et avibus fœdissimis ejusdem nominis, which I the rather incline to, out of Ovid's authority. Fast. lib. 6, where the poet ascribes to those birds the same almost that these do to the witches: Nocte volant, puerosque petunt nutricis egenteis, Et vitiant cunis corpora rapta suis: Carpere dicuntur lactentia viscera rostris, Et plenum poto sanguine guttur habent. Nec cessant à cæde manus, si sanguine vivo usu est. 7. The abuse of dead bodies in their witchcraft, both Porphyrio and Psellus are grave authors of. The one lib. de sacrif. de vero cultu. The other lib. de Damo. which Apuleius toucheth too, lib. 2 de Asin, aureo. But Remigius, who deals with later persons, and out of their own mouths, Damonol. lib. 2, cap. 3, ipsis carnificina instrumentis, reste, vinculis, Laqueum nodosque nocenteis artus 8. These are Canidia's furniture in Hora. Epod. lib. ode 5, Et uncta turpis ova rane sanguine, plumamque nocturne strigis. And part of Medea's confection in Ovid. Metamorph. lib. 7, Strigis infames, ipsis cum carnibus, alas." That of the skin (to make a purse for her fly) was meant ridiculous, to mock the keeping of their familiars. 9. Cicuta, hyoscyamus, ophioglosson, solanum, martagon, doronicum, aconitum, are the common venefical ingredients remembered by Paracelsus, Porta, Agrippa, and others: which I make her to have gathered, as about a castle, church, or some vast building (kept by dogs) among ruins and wild heaps. 10. Ossa ab ore rapta jejuna canis, Horace gives Canidia, in the place before quoted. Which jejuna I rather change to gardener's, as imagining such persons to keep mastiffs for the defence of their grounds, whither this hag might also go for simples: where, meeting with the bones, and not content with them, she would yet do a domestic hurt in getting the cat's brains: which is another special ingredient; and of so much more efficacy by how much blacker the cat is, if you will credit Agr. Cap, de suffitibus. 11. These also, both by the confessions of |