1 C H A R M.
Ame, Dame, the Watch is set:
Quickly come, we all are met.
(a) From the Lakes, and from the Fens,
From the Rocks, and from the Dens,
From the Woods, and from the Caves,
From the Church-yards, from the Graves,
From the Dungeon, from the Tree
That they die on, here are we.
Comes she not yet?
Strike another heat.
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(a) These
places, in
their own
nature
dire and
dismal are
reckon'd
up, as the
fittest
from
whence
such Persons should come: and were notably observed by that ex-
cellent Lucan, in the Description of his Erictho. lib. 6. to which we
may add this Corollary out of Agrip. de occult. Philosop. l. 1. c. 48.
Saturno correspondent loca quævis ftida, tenebrosa, subterranea, reli-
giosa & funesta, ut cmiteria, busta, & hominibus deserta habitacula, &
vetustate caduca, loca obscura, & horrenda, & solitaria antra, cavernæ
putei: Præterea piscinæ, stagna, paludes, & ejusmodi. And in lib. 3.
c. 42. speaking of the like, and in lib. 4. about the end, Aptissima
sunt loca plurimum experientia visionum, nocturnarumque incursionum
& consimilium phantasmatum, ut cmiteria, & in quibus fieri solent
executiones criminalis judicii, in quibus recentibus annis publicæ strages
factæ sunt, vel ubi occisorum cadavera, necdum expiata, nec ritè sepulta,
recentioribus annis subhumata sunt.
2 C H A R M.
He Weather is fair, the Wind is good,
Up Dame, o'your (b) Horse of Wood:
Or else, tuck up your gray Frock,
And saddle your (c) Goat, or your green (d) Cock,
And make his Bridle a bottom of Thrid,
To rowl up how many Miles you have rid.
Quickly come away;
For we, all, stay.
Nor yet? Nay, then,
We'll try her agen.
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(b) Delrio
Disq.Mag.
lib.2. quæ.
6. has a
Story out
of Trie-
zius 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. l. 2. cap. 4. &c. (c) The
Goat is the Devil himself, upon whom they ride often to their Solem-
nities, as appears by their Confessions in Rem. and Bodin. ibid. His
Majesty also remembers the Story of the Devils appearance to those
of Calicut, in that form, Dæmonol. lib. 2. cap. 3. (d) Of the green
Cock, we have no other ground (to confess ingenuously) than a vul-
gar Fable of a Witch, that with a Cock of that colour, and a bottom
of blue Thred, would transport her self through the Air; and so esca-
ped (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 Mar. Delr. Disqui. Mag. lib. 2. quæst. 6. of one Zuti, a
Bohemian, that, among other his dexterities, aliquoties equis rheda-
riis vectum, gallis gallinaceis ad Epirrhedium suum allegatis, subseque-
batur.
3 C H A R M.
He 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 Frog peeps out o'the Fountain;
The Dogs, they do bay, and the Timbrels play,
The (e) Spindle is now a turning;
The Moon it is red, and the Stars are fled,
But all the Sky is a burning:
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(e) All this
is but a
Periphra-
sis of the
Night, in their charm, and their applying themselves to it with their
Instruments, whereof the Spindle in Antiquity was the chief: and be-
side the testimony of Theocrisus, 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.
[column break]
The (f) Ditch is made, and our Nails the Spade,
With Pictures full, of Wax, and of Wooll;
Their Lives 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 (g) Martin,
Merrily, merrily, make him fail,
A Worm in his Mouth, and a Thorn in's 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.
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(f) This
Rite also
of making
a Ditch
with their
Nails, is
frequent
with our
Witches;
whereof
see Bodin.
Remig.
Delr. Mal-
leus, Mal.
Godelman,
l. 2. de La-
miis, as
also the antiquity of it most lively exprest by Hor. Satyr. 8. lib. 1.
where he mentions the Pictures, and the Blood of a black Lamb.
All which are yet in use with our modern Witchcraft. Scalpere terram
(speaking of Canidia, and Sagana) Unguibus, & pullam divellere
mordicus agnam Cperunt: Cruor fossam confusus, ut inde Maneis eli-
cerent animas responsa daturas. Lanea & effigies erat, altera cerea, &c.
And then, by and by, Serpentes atque videres Infernas errare caneis,
Lunamque rubentem, Ne foret his testis, post magna latere sepulchra.
Of this Ditch, Homer makes mention in Cerces Speech to Ulysses.
Odyss. K. about the end. Boqron oruxai, &c. And Ovid. Metam. lib. 7.
in Medeas magick, Haud procul egesta scrobibus tellure duabus Sa-
cra facit cultrosque in gutture velleris atri Conjicit, & patulas per-
fundit sanguine fossas. And of the waxen Images, in Hypsipiles Epistle
to Jason, where he expresseth that mischief also of the Needles. De-
vovet absentes, simulacraque cerea fingit. Et miserum tenues in jecur ur-
get acus. Bodin. Dæmon. lib. 2. cap. 8. hath (beside the known Story
of King Duffe out of Hector Boetius) much of the Witches later pra-
ctice in that kind, and reports a Relation of a French Embassadors,
out of England, of certain Pictures of Wax found in a Dunghill, near
Islington, of our late Queens, which Rumor, I my self (being then
very young) can yet remember to have been current. (g) Their
little Martin is he that calls them to their Conventicles, which is
done in a humane Voice, but coming forth, they find him in a shape
of a great buck Goat, upon whom they ride to their Meetings, Delr.
Disq. Mag. quæst. 16. lib. 2. And Bod. Dæmon. lib. 2. cap. 4. have both
the same Relation from Paulus Grillandus, of a Witch. Adveniente
nocte & hora evocabatur voce quadam velut humana ab ipso Dæmone,
quem non vocant Dæmonem, sed Magisterulum, aliæ Magistrum Mar-
tinettum sive Martinellum. Quæ sic evocata, mox sumebat pyxidem
unctionis, & liniebat corpus suum in quibusdam partibus & membris,
quo linito exibat ex domo, & inveniebat Magisterulum suum in forma
hirci illam expectantem apud ostium, super quo mulier equitabat, &
applicare solebat fortiter manus ad crineis, & statim hircus ille adscen-
debat per aerem, & brevissimo tempore deferebat ipsam, &c.
At this, the (h) Dame enter'd to them, Naked-
arm'd, bare-footed, her Frock tuck'd, 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, utter-
ing, by way of Question, the End wherefore they came:
which if it had been done either before, or otherwise,
had not been so natural. For, to have made them-
selves, their own Decypherers, and each one to have
told upon their entrance, what they were, and whe-
ther they would, had been a most pitious Hearing,
and utterly unworthy any quality of a Poem: wherein
a Writer should always trust somewhat to the capa-
city of the Spectator, especially, at these Specta-
cles; where Men, beside inquiring Eyes, are understood
to bring quick Ears, and not those sluggish ones of
Porters and Mechanicks, that must be bored
through, at every Act, with Narrations.
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(h) This
Dame I
make to
bear the
Person of
Ate, or
Mischief
(for so I
interpret
it) out of
Homer's
Descrip-
tion of
her, Il. i.
where he
makes her
swift to
hurt Man-
kind,
strong,
and sound
of her
Feet; and
Iliad. T. walking upon Mens Heads; in both Places using one
and the same Phrase to signifie her Power, Blaptous anqrwpouV,
Lædens homines. I present her bare-footed, and her Frock tuck'd,
to make her seem more expedite, by Horace his authority. Sat. 8.
lib. 1. 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,
& incomptum caput. And that of Lucan, lib. 6. speaking of Erectho's
attire. Discolor, & vario Furialis cultus amictu Induitur, vultusq; ape-
ritur crine remoto, Et coma vipereis substringitur horrida sertis. For
her Torch, see Remig. lib. 2. cap. 3.
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