Transcriber's Notes:In the original text, a single note reference sometimes applies to more than one note. For clarity's sake, in this e-text a number has been added to the end of such references to distinguish among the notes.There are a few phrases in Greek. In the original text, some of the Greek characters have diacritical marks which do not display properly in some browsers, such as Internet Explorer. In order to make this e-text as accessible as possible, the diacritical marks have been ignored. All text in Greek has a mouse-hover transliteration, e.g.,καλος.
Transcriber's Notes:In the original text, a single note reference sometimes applies to more than one note. For clarity's sake, in this e-text a number has been added to the end of such references to distinguish among the notes.
There are a few phrases in Greek. In the original text, some of the Greek characters have diacritical marks which do not display properly in some browsers, such as Internet Explorer. In order to make this e-text as accessible as possible, the diacritical marks have been ignored. All text in Greek has a mouse-hover transliteration, e.g.,καλος.
Dedication. "The Right Honorable Thomas Lord Knyvet."] Sir Thomas Knivet, or Knyvet, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to James the First, was afterwards created Baron of Escricke, in the county of York. He it was who was intrusted to search the vaults under the Parliament House, and who discovered the thirty-six barrels of gunpowder, and apprehended Guido Fawkes, who declared to him, that if he had happened to be within the house when he took him, as he was immediately before, he would not have failed to blow him up, house and all. (Howell'sState Trials, vol. ii., p. 202.) His courage and conduct on this occasion seem to have recommended him to the especial favour of James. Dying without issue, the title of Lord Howard of Escrick was conferred on Sir Edward Howard, son of Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk, who had married the eldest daughter and co-heir of Sir H. Knivet; and, having been enjoyed successively by his two sons, ended in his grandson Charles, in the beginning of the last century. It must be admitted that the writer has chosen his patron very felicitously. Who so fit to have the book dedicated to him as one who had acted so conspicuous a part on the memorable occasion at Westminster? The blowing up of Lancaster Castle and good Mr. Covel, by the conclave of witches at Malkin's Tower, was no discreditable imitation of the grand metropolitan drama on provincial boards.
A 2.First Imprimatur. "Ja. Altham, Edw. Bromley."] These two judges were Barons of the Court of Exchequer, but neither of them seems tohave left a name extraordinarily distinguished for legal learning. Altham was one of the assistants named in the commission for the trial of the Countess of Somerset for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury in 1616. Bromley appears, from incidental notices contained in the diary of Nicholas Assheton, (see Whitaker'sWhalley, third edition, page 300,) and other sources, to have frequently taken the northern circuit. He was not of the family of Lord Chancellor Bromley, but of another stock.
A 3.Second Imprimatur: "Edward Bromley. I took upon mee to reuise and correct it."] This revision by the judge who presided at the trial gives a singular and unique value and authority to the work. We have no other report of any witch trial which has an equal stamp of authenticity. How many of the rhetorical flourishes interspersed in the book are the property of Thomas Potts, Esquier, and how many are the interpolation of the "excellent care" of the worthy Baron, it is scarcely worth while to investigate. Certainly never were judge and clerk more admirably paired. TheShallowon the bench was well reflected in theMaster Slenderbelow.
Ba. "The number of them being knowen to exceed all others at any time heretofore at one time to be indicted, arraigned, and receiue their tryall."] Probably this was the case, at least in England; but a greater number had been convicted before, even in this country, at one time, than were found guilty on this occasion, as it appears from Scot, (Discovery of Witchcraft, page 543, edition 1584,) that seventeen or eighteen witches were condemned at once, at St. Osith, in Essex, in 1576, of whom an account was written by Brian Darcy, with the names and colours of their spirits.
Bb. "She was a very old woman, about the age of fourescore."] Dr. Henry More would have styled old Demdike "An eximious example of Moses, his Mecassephah, the word which he uses in that law,—Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Margaret Agar and Julian Cox, (see Glanvill'sCollection of Relations, p. 135, edition 1682,) on whom he dwells with such delighted interest, were very inferior subjects to what, in his hands, Elizabeth Sothernes would have made. They had neither of them the finishing attribute of blindness, so fearful in a witch, to complete the sketch; nor such a fine foreground for the painting as the forest of Pendle presented; nor the advantage, for grouping, of a family of descendants in which witchcraft might be transmitted to the third generation.
B 2a. "Roger Nowell, Esquire."] This busy and mischievous personage who resided at Read Hall, in the immediate neighbourhood of Pendle, was sheriff of Lancashire in 1610. He married Katherine, daughter of John Murton, of Murton, and was buried at Whalley, January 31st, 1623. He was of the same family as Alexander Nowell, the Dean of St. Paul's, and Lawrence Nowell, the restorer of Saxon literature in England; and tarnished a name which they had rendered memorable, by becoming, apparently, an eager and willing instrument in that wicked persecution which resulted in the present trial. His ill-directed activity seems to have fanned the dormant embers into a blaze, and to have given aim and consistency to the whole scheme of oppression. From this man was descended, in the female line, one whose merits might atone for a whole generation of Roger Nowells, the truly noble-minded and evangelical Reginald Heber.
B 2b1. "Gouldshey,"] so commonly pronounced, but more properly Goldshaw, or Goldshaw Booth.
B 2b2. "The spirit answered, his name was Tibb."] Bernard, who is learned in the nomenclature of familiar spirits, gives, in hisGuide to Grand Jurymen, 1630, 12mo, the following list of the names of the more celebrated familiars of English witches. "Such as I have read of are these: Mephistophiles, Lucifer, Little Lord, Fimodes, David, Jude, Little Robin, Smacke, Litefoote, Nonsuch, Lunch, Makeshift, Swash, Pluck, Blue, Catch, White, Callico, Hardname, Tibb, Hiff, Ball, Puss, Rutterkin, Dicke, Prettie, Grissil, and Jacke." In the confession of Isabel Gowdie, a famous Scotch witch, (inPitcairne's Trials, vol. iii. page 614,) we have the following catalogue of attendant spirits, rather, it must be confessed, a formidable band. "The names of our Divellis, that waited upon us, ar thes: first, Robert the Jakis; Sanderis, the Read Roaver; Thomas the Fearie; Swain, the Roaring Lion; Thieffe of Hell; Wait upon Hirself; Mak Hectour; Robert the Rule; Hendrie Laing; and Rorie. We would ken them all, on by on, from utheris. Some of theim apeirit in sadd dunn, som in grasse-grein, som in sea-grein, and some in yallow." Archbishop Harsnet, in his admirableDeclaration of Popish Impostures, under the pretence of casting out Devils, 1605, 4to, a work unsurpassed for rich humour and caustic wit, clothed in good old idiomatic English, has a chapter "on the strange names of these devils," in which he observes, (p. 46,) "It is not amiss that you be acquainted withthese extravagant names of devils, least meeting them otherwise by chance you mistake them for the names of tapsters, or juglers." Certainly, some of the names he marshalls in array smell strongly of the tavern. These are some of them: Pippin, Philpot, Modu, Soforce, Hilco, Smolkin, Hillio, Hiaclito, Lustie Huffe-cap, Killico, Hob, Frateretto, Fliberdigibbet, Hoberdidance, Tocobatto, and Lustie Jollie Jenkin.
B 2b3. "About Day-light Gate."] Day-light Gate, i.e. Evening, the down gate of daylight. SeePromptuarium Parvulorum, (edited by Way for the Camden Society,) page 188, "Gate down, or downe gate of the Sunne or any other planet."—Occasus. Palgrave gives, "At the sonne gate downe; sur le soleil couchant."
B 3a1. "The said Deuill did get blood vnder her left arme."] It would seem (see Elizabeth Device's Examination afterwards) as if some preliminary search were made, in the case of this poor old woman, for the marks which were supposed to come by the sucking or drawing of the Spirit or Familiar. Most probably her confession was the result of this and other means of annoyance and torture employed in the usual unscrupulous manner, upon a blind woman of eighty. Of those marks supposed to be produced by the sucking of the Spirit or Familiar, the most curious and scientific (if the word may be applied to such a subject) account will be found in a very scarce tract, which seems to have been unknown to the writers on witchcraft. Its title is "A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft, containing these several particulars; That there are Witches called bad Witches, and Witches untruly called good or white Witches, and what manner of people they be, and how they may be knowne, with many particulars thereunto tending. Together with the Confessions of many of those executed since May, 1645, in the several Counties hereafter mentioned. As also some objections Answered. By John Stearne, now of Lawshall, neere Burie Saint Edmunds in Suffolke, sometimes of Manningtree in Essex. Prov. xvii. 15, He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are an abomination to the Lord. Deut. xiii. 14, Thou shall therefore enquire, and make search, and aske diligently whether it be truth and the thing certaine. London, Printed by William Wilson, dwelling in Little Saint Bartholomews, neere Smithfield, 1648, pages 61, besides preface." Stearne, in whom Remigius and De Lancre would have recognized a congenial soul, had a sort of joint commission withHopkins, as Witch-finder, and tells us (see address to Reader) that he had been in part an agent in finding out or discovering about 200 witches in Essex, Suffolk, Northamptonshire, Huntingtonshire, Bedfordshire, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and the Isle of Ely. He deals with the subject undoubtedly like a man whose extensive experience and practice had enabled him to reduce the matter to a complete system. (See his account of their marks, pp. 43 to 50.) He might, like John Kincaid in Tranent, (see Pitcairne'sCriminal Trials, vol. iii. p. 599,) have assumed the right of Common Pricker, i.e. Searcher for the devil's marks, and had his own tests, which were infallible. He complains, good man, "that in many places I never received penny as yet, nor any am like, notwithstanding I have hands for satisfaction, except I should sue; [he should have sued by all means, we might then have had his bill of particulars, which would have been curious;] but many rather fall upon me for what hath been received, but I hope such suits will be disannulled, and that where I have been out of moneys for Towns in charges and otherwise such course will be taken that I may be satisfied and paid with reason." He was doubtless well deserving of a recompense, and his neighbours were much to blame if he did not receive a full and ample one. Of the latter end of his coadjutor, Hopkins, whom Sir Walter Scott (see Somers's Tracts, vol. iii. p. 97, edit. 1810,) and several other writers represent as ultimately executed himself for witchcraft, he gives a very different, and no doubt more correct account; which, singularly enough, has hitherto remained entirely unnoticed. "He died peaceably at Manningtree, after a long sicknesse of a consumption, as many of his generation had done before him, without any trouble of conscience for what he had done, as was falsely reported of him. He was the son of a godly minister, and therefore, without doubt, within the Covenant." Were not the interests of truth too sacred to be compromised, it might seem almost a pity to demolish that merited and delightful retribution which Butler's lines have immortalized.
B 3a2. "I will burne the one of you and hang the other."] The following extracts from that fine old play, "The Witch of Edmonton," bear a strong resemblance to the scene described in the text. Mother Sawyer, in whom the milk of human kindness is turned to gall by destitution, imbittered by relentless outrage and insult, and who, driven out of the pale of human fellowship, is thrown upon strange and fearful allies, would almost appear to be the counterpart of Mother Demdike. The weird sisters of ourtranscendant bard are wild and wonderful creations, but have no close relationship to the plain old traditional witch of our ancestors, which is nowhere represented by our dramatic writers with faithfulness and truth except in the Witch of Edmonton:—
EnterElizabeth Sawyer,gathering sticks.
Saw.And why on me? why should the envious worldThrow all their scandalous malice upon me?'Cause I am poor, deform'd, and ignorant,And like a bow buckled and bent together,By some more strong in mischiefs than myself,Must I for that be made a common sink,For all the filth and rubbish of men's tonguesTo fall and run into? Some call me Witch,And being ignorant of myself, they goAbout to teach me how to be one; urging,That my bad tongue (by their bad usage made so)Forespeaks their cattle, doth bewitch their corn,Themselves, their servants, and their babes at nurse.This they enforce upon me; and in partMake me to credit it; and here comes oneOf my chief adversaries.
EnterOldBanks.
Banks.Out, out upon thee, witch!
Saw.Dost call me witch?
Banks.I do, witch, I do; and worse I would, knew I a name more hateful. What makest thou upon my ground?
Saw.Gather a few rotten sticks to warm me.
Banks.Down with them when I bid thee, quickly; I'll make thy bones rattle in thy skin else.
Saw.You won't, churl, cut-throat, miser!—there they be; [Throws them down.] would they stuck across thy throat, thy bowels, thy maw, thy midriff.
Banks.Say'st thou me so, hag? Out of my ground!
[Beats her.
Saw.Dost strike me, slave, curmudgeon! Now thy bones aches, thy joints cramps, and convulsions stretch and crack thy sinews!
Banks.Cursing, thou hag! take that, and that.
[Beats her, and exit.
Saw.Strike, do!—and wither'd may that hand and armWhose blows have lamed me, drop from the rotten trunk!Abuse me! beat me! call me hag and witch!What is the name? where, and by what art learn'd,What spells, what charms or invocations?May the thing call'd Familiar be purchased?
* * * * * * *
Saw.Still vex'd! still tortured! that curmudgeon BanksIs ground of all my scandal; I am shunn'dAnd hated like a sickness; made a scornTo all degrees and sexes. I have heard old beldamsTalk of familiars in the shape of mice,Rats, ferrets, weasels, and I wot not what,That have appear'd, and suck'd, some say, their blood;But by what means they came acquainted with them,I am now ignorant. Would some power, good or bad,Instruct me which way I might be revengedUpon this churl, I'd go out of myself,And give this fury leave to dwell withinThis ruin'd cottage, ready to fall with age!Abjure all goodness, be at hate with prayer,And study curses, imprecations,Blasphemous speeches, oaths, detested oaths,Or anything that's ill; so I might workRevenge upon this miser, this black cur,That barks and bites, and sucks the very bloodOf me, and of my credit. 'Tis all one,To be a witch, as to be counted one:Vengeance, shame, ruin light upon that canker!
Enter aBlack Dog.
Dog.Ho! have I found thee cursing? now thou artMine own.
Saw.Thine! what art thou?
Dog.He thou hast so oftenImportuned to appear to thee, the devil.
Saw.Bless me! the devil!
Dog.Come, do not fear; I love thee much too wellTo hurt or fright thee; if I seem terrible,It is to such as hate me. I have foundThy love unfeign'd; have seen and pitiedThy open wrongs, and come, out of my love,To give thee just revenge against thy foes.
Saw.May I believe thee?
Dog.To confirm't, command meDo any mischief unto man or beast.And I'll effect it, on conditionThat, uncompell'd, thou make a deed of giftOf soul and body to me.Saw.Out, alas!My soul and body?Dog.And that instantly,And seal it with thy blood: if thou deniest,I'll tear thy body in a thousand pieces.Saw.I know not where to seek relief: but shall I,After such covenants seal'd, see full revengeOn all that wrong me?Dog.Ha, ha! silly woman!The devil is no liar to such as he loves—Didst ever know or hear the devil a liarTo such as he affects?Saw.Then I am thine; at least so much of meAs I can call mine own—Dog.Equivocations?Art mine or no? speak, or I'll tear—
Saw.All thine.
Dog.Seal't with thy blood.
[She pricks her arm, which he sucks.—Thunder and lightning.
See! now I dare call thee mine!For proof, command me: instantly I'll runTo any mischief; goodness can I none.Saw.And I desire as little. There's an old churl,One Banks—
Dog.That wrong'd thee: he lamed thee, call'd thee witch.
Saw.The same; first upon him I'd be revenged.
Dog.Thou shalt; do but name how?
Saw.Go, touch his life.
Dog.I cannot.
Saw.Hast thou not vow'd? Go, kill the slave!
Dog.I will not.
Saw.I'll cancel then my gift.
Dog.Ha, ha!
Saw.Dost laugh!Why wilt not kill him?Dog.Fool, because I cannot.Though we have power, know, it is circumscribed,And tied in limits: though he be curst to thee,Yet of himself, he is loving to the world,And charitable to the poor; now men, that,As he, love goodness, though in smallest measure,Live without compass of our reach: his cattleAnd corn I'll kill and mildew; but his life(Until I take him, as I late found thee,Cursing and swearing) I have no power to touch.
Saw.Work on his corn and cattle then.
Dog.I shall.TheWitch of Edmontonshall see his fall.
Ford's Plays, edit. 1839, p. 190.
B 3a3. "Alizon Device."] Device is merely the common name Davies spelled as pronounced in the neighbourhood of Pendle.
B 3b. "Is to make a picture of clay."]
Hecate.What death is't you desire for Almachildes?Duchess.A sudden and a subtle.Hecate.Then I've fitted you.Here be the gifts of both; sudden and subtle:His picture made in wax and gently moltenBy a blue fire kindled with dead men's eyesWill waste him by degrees.Duchess.In what time, prithee?Hecate.Perhaps in a moon's progress.Middleton's Witch, edit. 1778, p. 100.
Hecate.What death is't you desire for Almachildes?
Duchess.A sudden and a subtle.
Hecate.Then I've fitted you.Here be the gifts of both; sudden and subtle:His picture made in wax and gently moltenBy a blue fire kindled with dead men's eyesWill waste him by degrees.
Duchess.In what time, prithee?
Hecate.Perhaps in a moon's progress.
Middleton's Witch, edit. 1778, p. 100.
None of the offices in the Witches rubric had higher classical warrant than this method, a favourite one, it appears, of Mother Demdike, but in which Anne Redfern had the greatest skill of any of these Pendle witches, of victimizing by moulding and afterwards pricking or burning figures of clay representing the individual whose life was aimed at. Horace, Lib. i. Sat. 8, mentions both waxen and woollen images—
Lanea et effigies erat altera cerea, &c.
Lanea et effigies erat altera cerea, &c.
And it appears from Tacitus, that the death of Germanicus was supposed to have been sought by similar practices. By such a Simulachrum, or image, the person was supposed to be devoted to the infernal deities. According to the Platonists, the effect produced arose from the operation of the sympathy and synergy of the Spiritus Mundanus, (which Plotinus callsτον μεγαν γοητα, the grand magician,) such as they resolve the effect of the weaponsalve and other magnetic cures into. The following is the Note in Brand on this part of witchcraft:—
King James, in his "Dæmonology," book ii., chap. 5, tells us, that "the Devil teacheth how to make pictures of wax or clay, that, by roasting thereof, the personsthat they bear the name of may be continually melted or dried away by continual sickness."See Servius on the 8th Eclogue of Virgil; Theocritus, Idyll, ii., 22; Hudibras, part II., canto ii., l. 351.Ovid says:"Devovet absentes, simulachraque cerea figitEt miserum tenues in jecur urget acus."Heroid.Ep. vi., l. 91.See also "Grafton's Chronicle," p. 587, where it is laid to the charge (among others) of Roger Bolinbrook, a cunning necromancer, and Margery Jordane, the cunning Witch of Eye, that they, at the request of Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, had devised an image of wax, representing the king, (Henry the Sixth,) which by their sorcery a little and a little consumed; intending thereby in conclusion to waste and destroy the king's person. Shakspeare mentions this, Henry VI., P. II., act i., sc. 4.It appears, from Strype's "Annals of the Reformation,", vol. i., p. 8, under anno 1558, that Bishop Jewel, preaching before the queen, said, "It may please your grace to understand that witches and sorcerers within these few last years are marvellously increased within your grace's realm. Your grace's subjects pine away, even unto the death; their colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed, their senses are bereft. I pray God they never practisefurther than upon the subject." "This," Strype adds, "I make no doubt was the occasion of bringing in a bill, the next parliament, for making enchantments and witchcraft felony." One of the bishop's strong expressions is, "These eyes have seenmost evident and manifest marks of their wickedness."It appears from the same work, vol. iv., p. 6, sub anno 1589, that "one Mrs. Dier had practised conjuration against the queen, to work some mischief to her majesty; for which she was brought into question: and accordingly her words and doings were sent to Popham, the queen's attorney, and Egerton, her solicitor, by Walsingham, the secretary, and Sir Thomas Heneage, her vice-chamberlain, for their judgment, whose opinion was that Mrs. Dier was not within the compass of the statute touching witchcraft, for that she did no act, and spake certain lewd speeches tending to that purpose, but neither set figure nor made pictures."Ibid., vol. ii., p. 545, sub anno 1578, Strype says: "Whether it were the effect of magic, or proceeded from some natural cause, but the queen was in some part of this year under excessive anguishby pains of her teeth, insomuch that she took no rest for divers nights, and endured very great torment night and day."Andrews, in his "Continuation of Henry's History of Great Britain," 4to, p. 93, tells us, speaking of Ferdinand, Earl of Derby, who in the reign of Queen Elizabeth died by poison, "The credulity of the age attributed his death to witchcraft. The disease was odd, and operated as a perpetual emetic; and awaxen image, with hair like that of the unfortunate earl, found in his chamber, reduced every suspicion to certainty.""The wife of Marshal d'Ancre was apprehended, imprisoned, and beheaded for a witch, upon a surmise that she had inchanted the queen to dote upon her husband; and they say the young king's picture was found in her closet, in virgin wax, with one leg melted away. When asked by her judges what spells she had made use of to gain so powerful an ascendancy over the queen, she replied, 'that ascendancy only which strong minds ever gain over weak ones.'" Seward's "Anecdotes of some Distinguished Persons," &c., vol. ii., p. 215.Blagrave, in his "Astrological Practice of Physick," p. 89, observes that "the way which the witches usually take for to afflict man or beast in this kind is, as I conceive, done by image or model, made in the likeness of that man or beast they intend to work mischief upon, and by the subtlety of the devil made at such hours and times when it shall work most powerfully upon them, by thorn, pin, or needle, pricked into that limb or member of the body afflicted."This is farther illustrated by a passage in one of Daniel's Sonnets:"The slie inchanter, when to work his willAnd secret wrong on some forspoken wight,Frames waxe, in forme to represent arightThe poore unwitting wretch he meanes to kill,And prickes the image, framed by magick's skill,Whereby to vex the partie day and night."Son. 10; from Poems and Sonnets annexed to "Astrophil and Stella," 4to, 1591.Again, in "Diaria, or the Excellent Conceitful Sonnets of H.C.," (Henry Constable,) 1594:"Witches, which some murther do intend,Doe make a picture, and doe shoote at it;And in that part where they the picture hit,The parties self doth languish to his end."Decad. II., Son. ii.Coles, in his "Art of Simpling," &c., p. 66, says that witches "take likewise the roots of mandrake, according to some, or, as I rather suppose, theroots of briony, which simple folke take for the true mandrake, and make thereof an ugly image, by which they represent the person on whom they intend to exercise their witchcraft." He tells us,ibid., p. 26, "Some plants have roots with a number of threads, like beards, as mandrakes, whereof witches and impostors make an ugly image, giving it the form of the face at the top of the root, and leave those strings to make a broad beard down to the feet."—Brand's Antiquities, vol. iii. p. 9.
King James, in his "Dæmonology," book ii., chap. 5, tells us, that "the Devil teacheth how to make pictures of wax or clay, that, by roasting thereof, the personsthat they bear the name of may be continually melted or dried away by continual sickness."
See Servius on the 8th Eclogue of Virgil; Theocritus, Idyll, ii., 22; Hudibras, part II., canto ii., l. 351.
Ovid says:
"Devovet absentes, simulachraque cerea figitEt miserum tenues in jecur urget acus."Heroid.Ep. vi., l. 91.
"Devovet absentes, simulachraque cerea figitEt miserum tenues in jecur urget acus."Heroid.Ep. vi., l. 91.
See also "Grafton's Chronicle," p. 587, where it is laid to the charge (among others) of Roger Bolinbrook, a cunning necromancer, and Margery Jordane, the cunning Witch of Eye, that they, at the request of Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, had devised an image of wax, representing the king, (Henry the Sixth,) which by their sorcery a little and a little consumed; intending thereby in conclusion to waste and destroy the king's person. Shakspeare mentions this, Henry VI., P. II., act i., sc. 4.
It appears, from Strype's "Annals of the Reformation,", vol. i., p. 8, under anno 1558, that Bishop Jewel, preaching before the queen, said, "It may please your grace to understand that witches and sorcerers within these few last years are marvellously increased within your grace's realm. Your grace's subjects pine away, even unto the death; their colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed, their senses are bereft. I pray God they never practisefurther than upon the subject." "This," Strype adds, "I make no doubt was the occasion of bringing in a bill, the next parliament, for making enchantments and witchcraft felony." One of the bishop's strong expressions is, "These eyes have seenmost evident and manifest marks of their wickedness."
It appears from the same work, vol. iv., p. 6, sub anno 1589, that "one Mrs. Dier had practised conjuration against the queen, to work some mischief to her majesty; for which she was brought into question: and accordingly her words and doings were sent to Popham, the queen's attorney, and Egerton, her solicitor, by Walsingham, the secretary, and Sir Thomas Heneage, her vice-chamberlain, for their judgment, whose opinion was that Mrs. Dier was not within the compass of the statute touching witchcraft, for that she did no act, and spake certain lewd speeches tending to that purpose, but neither set figure nor made pictures."Ibid., vol. ii., p. 545, sub anno 1578, Strype says: "Whether it were the effect of magic, or proceeded from some natural cause, but the queen was in some part of this year under excessive anguishby pains of her teeth, insomuch that she took no rest for divers nights, and endured very great torment night and day."
Andrews, in his "Continuation of Henry's History of Great Britain," 4to, p. 93, tells us, speaking of Ferdinand, Earl of Derby, who in the reign of Queen Elizabeth died by poison, "The credulity of the age attributed his death to witchcraft. The disease was odd, and operated as a perpetual emetic; and awaxen image, with hair like that of the unfortunate earl, found in his chamber, reduced every suspicion to certainty."
"The wife of Marshal d'Ancre was apprehended, imprisoned, and beheaded for a witch, upon a surmise that she had inchanted the queen to dote upon her husband; and they say the young king's picture was found in her closet, in virgin wax, with one leg melted away. When asked by her judges what spells she had made use of to gain so powerful an ascendancy over the queen, she replied, 'that ascendancy only which strong minds ever gain over weak ones.'" Seward's "Anecdotes of some Distinguished Persons," &c., vol. ii., p. 215.
Blagrave, in his "Astrological Practice of Physick," p. 89, observes that "the way which the witches usually take for to afflict man or beast in this kind is, as I conceive, done by image or model, made in the likeness of that man or beast they intend to work mischief upon, and by the subtlety of the devil made at such hours and times when it shall work most powerfully upon them, by thorn, pin, or needle, pricked into that limb or member of the body afflicted."
This is farther illustrated by a passage in one of Daniel's Sonnets:
"The slie inchanter, when to work his willAnd secret wrong on some forspoken wight,Frames waxe, in forme to represent arightThe poore unwitting wretch he meanes to kill,And prickes the image, framed by magick's skill,Whereby to vex the partie day and night."Son. 10; from Poems and Sonnets annexed to "Astrophil and Stella," 4to, 1591.
"The slie inchanter, when to work his willAnd secret wrong on some forspoken wight,Frames waxe, in forme to represent arightThe poore unwitting wretch he meanes to kill,And prickes the image, framed by magick's skill,Whereby to vex the partie day and night."Son. 10; from Poems and Sonnets annexed to "Astrophil and Stella," 4to, 1591.
Again, in "Diaria, or the Excellent Conceitful Sonnets of H.C.," (Henry Constable,) 1594:
"Witches, which some murther do intend,Doe make a picture, and doe shoote at it;And in that part where they the picture hit,The parties self doth languish to his end."Decad. II., Son. ii.
"Witches, which some murther do intend,Doe make a picture, and doe shoote at it;And in that part where they the picture hit,The parties self doth languish to his end."Decad. II., Son. ii.
Coles, in his "Art of Simpling," &c., p. 66, says that witches "take likewise the roots of mandrake, according to some, or, as I rather suppose, theroots of briony, which simple folke take for the true mandrake, and make thereof an ugly image, by which they represent the person on whom they intend to exercise their witchcraft." He tells us,ibid., p. 26, "Some plants have roots with a number of threads, like beards, as mandrakes, whereof witches and impostors make an ugly image, giving it the form of the face at the top of the root, and leave those strings to make a broad beard down to the feet."—Brand's Antiquities, vol. iii. p. 9.
Ben Johnson has not forgotten this superstition in his learned and fancifulMasque of Queens, in which so much of the lore of witchcraft is embodied. There are few finer things in English poetry than his 3rd Charm:—
The owl is abroad, the bat, and the toad,And so is the cat-a-mountain,The ant and the mole sit both in a hole,And the frog peeps out o' the fountain;The dogs they do bay, and the timbrels play,The spindle is now a turning;The moon it is red, and the stars are fled,But all the sky is a burning:The ditch is made, and our nails the spade,With pictures full, of wax and of wool;Their livers I stick, with needles quick;There lacks but the blood, to make up the flood.Quickly, dame, then bring your part in,Spur, spur upon little Martin,Merrily, merrily, make him sail,A worm in his mouth, and a thorn in his tail,Fire above, and fire below,With a whip in your hand, to make him go.Ben Johnson's Works, by Gifford, vol. vii. p. 121.
The owl is abroad, the bat, and the toad,And so is the cat-a-mountain,The ant and the mole sit both in a hole,And the frog peeps out o' the fountain;The dogs they do bay, and the timbrels play,The spindle is now a turning;The moon it is red, and the stars are fled,But all the sky is a burning:The ditch is made, and our nails the spade,With pictures full, of wax and of wool;Their livers I stick, with needles quick;There lacks but the blood, to make up the flood.Quickly, dame, then bring your part in,Spur, spur upon little Martin,Merrily, merrily, make him sail,A worm in his mouth, and a thorn in his tail,Fire above, and fire below,With a whip in your hand, to make him go.Ben Johnson's Works, by Gifford, vol. vii. p. 121.
Meric Casaubon, who is always an amusing writer, and whose works, notwithstanding his appetite for the wonderful, do not merit the total oblivion into which they have fallen, is very angry with Jerome Cardan, an author not generally given to scepticism, for the hesitation he displays on the subject of these waxen images:—
I know some who question not the power of devils or witches; yet in this particular are not satisfied how such a thing can be. For there is no relation or sympathy in nature, (saith one, who hath written not many years ago,) between a man and his effigies, that upon the pricking of the one the other should grow sick. It is upon another occasion that he speaks it; but his exception reacheth this example equally. A wonder to me he should so argue, who in many things hath very well confuted the incredulity of others, though in some things too credulous himself. If we must believe nothing but what we can reduce to natural, or, to speak more properly, (for I myself believe the devil doth very little, but by nature, though to us unknown,) manifest causes, he doth overthrow his own grounds, and leaves us but very little of magical operations to believe. But of all men, Cardan had least reason to except against this kind of magick as ridiculous or incredible, who himself is so full of incredible stories in that kind, upon his own credit alone, that they had need to be of very easie belief that believe him, especially when they know (whereof more afterwards) what manner of man he was. But I dare say, that from Plato's time, who, among other appurtenances of magic, doth mention these,κηÏινα μιμηματαthat is, as Ovid doth call them,Simulachra cerea, or as Horace,cereas imagines, (who also in another place more particularly describes them,) there is not any particular rite belonging to that art more fully attested by histories of all agesthan this is. Besides, who doth not know that it is the devil's fashion (we shall meet with it afterwards again) to amuse his servants and vassals with many rites and ceremonies, which have certainly no ground in nature, no relation or sympathy to the thing, as for other reasons, so to make them believe, they have a great hand in the production of such and such effects; when, God knows, many times all that they do, though taught and instructed by him, is nothing at all to the purpose, and he, in very deed, is the only agent, by means which he doth give them no account of. Bodinus, in his preface to his "Dæmonology," relateth, that three waxen images, whereof one of Queen Elizabeth's, of glorious memory, and two other,Reginæ proximorum, of two courtiers, of greatest authority under the queen, were found in the house of a priest at Islington, a magician, or so reputed, to take away their lives. This he doth repeat again in his second book, chap. 8, but more particularly that it was in the year of the Lord 1578, and that Legatus Angliæ and many Frenchmen did divulge it so; but withal, in both places he doth add, that the business was then under trial, and not yet perfectly known. I do not trust my memory: I know my age and my infirmities. Cambden, I am sure, I have read; and read again; but neither in him, nor in Bishop Carleton's "Thankful Remembrancer," do I remember any such thing. Others may, perchance. Yet, in the year 1576, I read in both of some pictures, representing some that would have kill'd that glorious queen with a motto,Quorsum hæc, alio properantibus!which pictures were made by some of the conspiracy for their incouragement; but intercepted, and showed, they say, to the queen. Did the time agree, it is possible these pictures might be the ground of those mistaken, if mistaken, waxen images, which I desire to be taught by others who can give a better account.—Casaubon's (M.) Treatise, proving Spirits, Witches, and Supernatural Operations, 1672. 12mo., p. 92.
I know some who question not the power of devils or witches; yet in this particular are not satisfied how such a thing can be. For there is no relation or sympathy in nature, (saith one, who hath written not many years ago,) between a man and his effigies, that upon the pricking of the one the other should grow sick. It is upon another occasion that he speaks it; but his exception reacheth this example equally. A wonder to me he should so argue, who in many things hath very well confuted the incredulity of others, though in some things too credulous himself. If we must believe nothing but what we can reduce to natural, or, to speak more properly, (for I myself believe the devil doth very little, but by nature, though to us unknown,) manifest causes, he doth overthrow his own grounds, and leaves us but very little of magical operations to believe. But of all men, Cardan had least reason to except against this kind of magick as ridiculous or incredible, who himself is so full of incredible stories in that kind, upon his own credit alone, that they had need to be of very easie belief that believe him, especially when they know (whereof more afterwards) what manner of man he was. But I dare say, that from Plato's time, who, among other appurtenances of magic, doth mention these,κηÏινα μιμηματαthat is, as Ovid doth call them,Simulachra cerea, or as Horace,cereas imagines, (who also in another place more particularly describes them,) there is not any particular rite belonging to that art more fully attested by histories of all agesthan this is. Besides, who doth not know that it is the devil's fashion (we shall meet with it afterwards again) to amuse his servants and vassals with many rites and ceremonies, which have certainly no ground in nature, no relation or sympathy to the thing, as for other reasons, so to make them believe, they have a great hand in the production of such and such effects; when, God knows, many times all that they do, though taught and instructed by him, is nothing at all to the purpose, and he, in very deed, is the only agent, by means which he doth give them no account of. Bodinus, in his preface to his "Dæmonology," relateth, that three waxen images, whereof one of Queen Elizabeth's, of glorious memory, and two other,Reginæ proximorum, of two courtiers, of greatest authority under the queen, were found in the house of a priest at Islington, a magician, or so reputed, to take away their lives. This he doth repeat again in his second book, chap. 8, but more particularly that it was in the year of the Lord 1578, and that Legatus Angliæ and many Frenchmen did divulge it so; but withal, in both places he doth add, that the business was then under trial, and not yet perfectly known. I do not trust my memory: I know my age and my infirmities. Cambden, I am sure, I have read; and read again; but neither in him, nor in Bishop Carleton's "Thankful Remembrancer," do I remember any such thing. Others may, perchance. Yet, in the year 1576, I read in both of some pictures, representing some that would have kill'd that glorious queen with a motto,Quorsum hæc, alio properantibus!which pictures were made by some of the conspiracy for their incouragement; but intercepted, and showed, they say, to the queen. Did the time agree, it is possible these pictures might be the ground of those mistaken, if mistaken, waxen images, which I desire to be taught by others who can give a better account.—Casaubon's (M.) Treatise, proving Spirits, Witches, and Supernatural Operations, 1672. 12mo., p. 92.
In Scotland this practice was in high favour with witches, both in ancient and modern times. The lamentable story of poor King Duff, as related by Hector Boethius, a story which has blanched the cheek and spoiled the rest of many a youthful reader, is too well known to need extracting. Even so late as 1676, Sir George Maxwell, of Pollock, (See Scott'sLetters on Demonology and Witchcraft, p. 323,) apparently a man of melancholy and valetudinarian habits, believed himself bewitched to death by six witches, one man and five women, who were leagued for the purpose of tormenting a clay image in his likeness. Five of the accused were executed, and the sixth only escaped on account of extreme youth.
Isabel Gowdie, the famous Scotch witch before referred to, in her confessions gives a very particular account of the mode in which these images were manufactured. It is curious, and worth quoting:—
Johne TaylorandJanet Breadhead, his wyff, in Bellnakeith,Bessie Wilsone, in Aulderne, andMargret Wilsone, spows toDonald Callamin Aulderne, and I,maid an pictur of clay, to distroythe Laird of Parkismeall[62]children.Johne Taylorbrowght hom the clay, in his plaid newk;[63]his wyff brak it verie small, lyk meall,[64]and sifted it with a siew,[65]and powred in water among it, inthe Divellisnam, and vrought it werie sore, lyk rye-bowt;[66]and maid of it a pictur ofthe Lairdissones. It haid all the pairtis and merkis of a child, such as heid, eyes, nose, handis, foot, mowth, and little lippes. It wanted no mark of a child; and the handis of it folded down by its sydes. It was lyk a pow,[67]or a flain gryce.[68]We laid the face of it to the fyre, till it strakned;[69]and a cleir fyre round abowt it, till it ves read lyk a cole.[70]After that, we wold rest it now and then; each other day[71]ther wold be an piece of it weill rosten.The Laird of Parkisheall maill children by it ar to suffer, if it be not gotten and brokin, als weill as thes that ar borne and dead alreadie. It ves still putt in and taken out of the fyre, inthe Divellisname. It wes hung wp wpon an knag. It is yet inJohne Taylor'shows, and it hes a cradle of clay abowt it. OnlieJohne Taylorand his wyff,Janet Breadhead,BessieandMargret Wilsonesin Aulderne, andMargret Brodie, thair, and I, were onlie at the making of it. All the multitud of our number ofWitches, of all theCoevens, kent[72]all of it, at owr nixt meitting after it was maid.The wordis which we spak, quhan we maid the pictur, for distroyeing ofthe Laird of Parkismeall-children, wer thus:'In the Divellisnam, we powr in this water among this mowld (meall,)[73]For lang duyning and ill heall;We putt it into the fyre,That it mey be brunt both stik and stowre.It salbe brunt, with owr will,As any stikle[74]wpon a kill.'The Divelltaught ws the wordis; and quhan ve haid learned them, we all fell downe wpon owr bare kneyis, and owr hair abowt owr eyes, and owr handis lifted wp, looking steadfast wponthe Divell, still saying the wordis thryse ower, till it wes maid. And then, inthe Divellisnam, we did put it in, in the midst of the fyre. Efter it had skrukned[75]a little before the fyre, and quhan it ves read lyk a coale, we took it owt inthe Divellisnam. Till it be broken, it will be the deathe of all the meall children thatthe Laird of Parkwill ewer get. Cast it ower an Kirk, it will not brak quhill[76]it be broken with an aix, or som such lyk thing, be a man's handis. If it be not broken, it will last an hundreth yeir. It hes ane cradle about it of clay, to preserue it from skaith;[77]and it wes rosten each vther day, at thefyr; som tymes on pairt of it, som tymes an vther pairt of it; it vold be a litle wat with water, and then rosten. The bairn vold be brunt and rosten, ewin as it ves by ws.—Pitcairne's Criminal Trials, Vol. iii. pp. 605 and 612.
Johne TaylorandJanet Breadhead, his wyff, in Bellnakeith,Bessie Wilsone, in Aulderne, andMargret Wilsone, spows toDonald Callamin Aulderne, and I,maid an pictur of clay, to distroythe Laird of Parkismeall[62]children.Johne Taylorbrowght hom the clay, in his plaid newk;[63]his wyff brak it verie small, lyk meall,[64]and sifted it with a siew,[65]and powred in water among it, inthe Divellisnam, and vrought it werie sore, lyk rye-bowt;[66]and maid of it a pictur ofthe Lairdissones. It haid all the pairtis and merkis of a child, such as heid, eyes, nose, handis, foot, mowth, and little lippes. It wanted no mark of a child; and the handis of it folded down by its sydes. It was lyk a pow,[67]or a flain gryce.[68]We laid the face of it to the fyre, till it strakned;[69]and a cleir fyre round abowt it, till it ves read lyk a cole.[70]After that, we wold rest it now and then; each other day[71]ther wold be an piece of it weill rosten.The Laird of Parkisheall maill children by it ar to suffer, if it be not gotten and brokin, als weill as thes that ar borne and dead alreadie. It ves still putt in and taken out of the fyre, inthe Divellisname. It wes hung wp wpon an knag. It is yet inJohne Taylor'shows, and it hes a cradle of clay abowt it. OnlieJohne Taylorand his wyff,Janet Breadhead,BessieandMargret Wilsonesin Aulderne, andMargret Brodie, thair, and I, were onlie at the making of it. All the multitud of our number ofWitches, of all theCoevens, kent[72]all of it, at owr nixt meitting after it was maid.
The wordis which we spak, quhan we maid the pictur, for distroyeing ofthe Laird of Parkismeall-children, wer thus:
'In the Divellisnam, we powr in this water among this mowld (meall,)[73]For lang duyning and ill heall;We putt it into the fyre,That it mey be brunt both stik and stowre.It salbe brunt, with owr will,As any stikle[74]wpon a kill.'
'In the Divellisnam, we powr in this water among this mowld (meall,)[73]For lang duyning and ill heall;We putt it into the fyre,That it mey be brunt both stik and stowre.It salbe brunt, with owr will,As any stikle[74]wpon a kill.'
The Divelltaught ws the wordis; and quhan ve haid learned them, we all fell downe wpon owr bare kneyis, and owr hair abowt owr eyes, and owr handis lifted wp, looking steadfast wponthe Divell, still saying the wordis thryse ower, till it wes maid. And then, inthe Divellisnam, we did put it in, in the midst of the fyre. Efter it had skrukned[75]a little before the fyre, and quhan it ves read lyk a coale, we took it owt inthe Divellisnam. Till it be broken, it will be the deathe of all the meall children thatthe Laird of Parkwill ewer get. Cast it ower an Kirk, it will not brak quhill[76]it be broken with an aix, or som such lyk thing, be a man's handis. If it be not broken, it will last an hundreth yeir. It hes ane cradle about it of clay, to preserue it from skaith;[77]and it wes rosten each vther day, at thefyr; som tymes on pairt of it, som tymes an vther pairt of it; it vold be a litle wat with water, and then rosten. The bairn vold be brunt and rosten, ewin as it ves by ws.—Pitcairne's Criminal Trials, Vol. iii. pp. 605 and 612.
B 4b1. "And sayd that she should haue gould, siluer, and worldly wealth at her will."] These familiars, to use Warburton's expression, always promised with the lavishness of a young courtier, and performed with the indifference of an old one. Nothing seems to puzzle Dr. Dee more, in the long and confidential intercourse he carried on so many years with his spirits, than to account for the great scarcity of specie they seemed to be afflicted with, and the unsatisfactory and unfurnished state of their exchequer. Bills, to be sure, they gave at long dates; but these constantly required renewing, and were never honoured at last. Any application for present relief, in good current coin of the realm, was invariably followed by what Meric Casaubon very significantly calls "sermonlike stuff." The learned professor in witchery, John Stearne, seems to fix six shillings as the maximum of money payment at one time which in all his experience he had detected between witches and their familiars. He was examining Joan Ruccalver, of Powstead, in Suffolk, who had been promised by her spirit that she should never want meat, drink, clothes, or money. "Then I asked her whether they brought her any money or no; and she said sometimes four shillings at a time, and sometimes six shillings at a time; but that is but seldom,for I never knew any that had any money before, except of Clarke's wife, of Manningtree, who confessed the same, and showed some, which, she said, her impe brought her, which was proper money." Confirmation, page 27. Judging from the anxiety which this worthy displays to be "satisfied and paid with reason" for his itinerant labours, such a scanty and penurious supply would soon have disgusted him, if he had been witch, instead of witch-finder.
B 4b2. "She had bewitched to death Richard Ashton, sonne of Richard Ashton, of Downeham, Esquire."] Richard Assheton, (as the name is more properly spelled,) thus done to death by witchcraft, was the son of Richard Assheton, of Downham, an old manor house, the scite of which is now supplied by a modern structure, which Dr. Whitaker thinks, in point of situation, has no equal in the parish of Whalley. Richard, the son, married Isabel, daughter and heiress of Mr. Hancock, of Pendleton Hall, and died without offspring. The family estate accordingly descended to the younger brother, Nicholas Assheton, whose diary for part of the year 1617 and part of the year following is given, page 303 of Whitaker'sHistory of Whalley,edition 1818, and is a most valuable record of the habits, pursuits, and course of life of a Lancashire country gentleman of that period. It well deserves detaching in a separate publication, and illustrating with a more expanded commentary.
Cb. "Piggin full."] Piggin is properly a sort of bowl, or pail, with one of the staves much longer than the rest, made for a handle, to lade water by, and used especially in brewhouses to measure out the liquor with.
C 2a. "Nicholas Banister."] Dr. Whitaker, in the pedigree of the Banisters, of Altham, (genealogy was, it is well known, one of the vulnerable parts of this Achilles of topography,) erroneously states this Nicholas Banister to have been buried at Altham, December 7, 1611. It appears, however, from a deed, an inspection of which I owe to the kindness of my friend, Dr. Fleming, that his will was dated the 15th August, 1612. In all probability he did not die for some years after that date. He married, first, Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Richard Elston, of Brockall, Esq.; and, second, Catherine, daughter of Edmund Ashton, of Chaderton, Esq. The manor house of Altham, for more than five centuries the residence of this ancient family, stands, to use Dr. Whitaker's words, upon a gentle elevation on the western side of the river Calder, commanding a low and fertile domain. It has been surrounded, according to the prudence or jealousy of the feudal times, with a very deep quadrangular moat, which must have included all the apparatus of the farm.
C 3a. "At Malking Tower, in the forrest of Pendle."] Malkin Tower was the habitation of Mother Demdike, the situation of which is preserved, for the structure no longer exists, by local tradition. Malkin is the Scotch or north country word for hare, as this animal was one into which witches were supposed to be fond of transforming themselves. Malkin Tower is, in fact, the Witches' Tower. The term is used in the following passage in Morison'sPoems, p. 7, which bears upon the above explanation:—
"Or tell the pranks o' winter's nights,How Satan blazes uncouth lights;Or how he does a core conveneUpon a witch-frequented green,Wi' spells and cauntrips hellish rantin',Like mawkins thro' the fields they're janting."
"Or tell the pranks o' winter's nights,How Satan blazes uncouth lights;Or how he does a core conveneUpon a witch-frequented green,Wi' spells and cauntrips hellish rantin',Like mawkins thro' the fields they're janting."
C 4b. "We want old Demdike, who dyed in the castle before she came to her tryall."] Worn out most probably with her imprisonment, she having been committed in April, and the cruelties she had undergone, both before and after her commitment. Master Nowell and Master Potts bothwantedher, we may readily conceive, to fill up the miserable pageant; but she was gone where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. With the exception of Alice Nutter, in whom interest is excited from very different grounds, Mother Demdike attracts attention in a higher degree than any other of these Pendle witches. She was, beyond dispute, the Erictho of Pendle. Mother Chattox was but second in rank. There is something fearfully intense in the expression of the former,—blind, on the last verge of the extreme limit of human existence, and mother of a line of witches,—"that she would pray for the said Baldwin, both still and loud." She is introduced in Shadwell's play, theLancashire Witches, 1682, as apersona dramatis, along with Mother Dickinson and Mother Hargrave, two of the witches convicted in 1633, but without any regard to the characteristic circumstances under which she appears in the present narrative. The following invocation, which is put into her mouth, is rather a favourable specimen of that play, certainly not one of the worst of Shadwell's, in which there are many vigorous strokes, with an alloy of coarseness not unusual in his works, and some powerful conceptions of character: