Discovery of Witches Part 28

_Gen._ Amazement still pursues me, how am I chang'd, Or brought ere I can understand myself Into this new world!

_Rob._ You will believe no witches?

_Gen._ This makes me believe all, aye, anything; And that myself am nothing. Prithee, Robin, Lay me to myself open; what art thou, Or this new transform'd creature?

_Rob._ I am Robin; And this your wife, my mistress.

_Gen._ Tell me, the earth Shall leave its seat, and mount to kiss the moon; Or that the moon, enamour'd of the earth, Shall leave her sphere, to stoop to us thus low.

What, what's this in my hand, that at an instant Can from a four-legg'd creature make a thing So like a wife!

_Rob._ A bridle; a jugling bridle, Sir.

_Gen._ A bridle! Hence, enchantment.

A viper were more safe within my hand, Than this charm'd engine.-- A witch! my wife a witch!

The more I strive to unwind Myself from this meander, I the more Therein am intricated. Prithee, woman, Art thou a witch?

_Wife._ It cannot be denied, I am such a curst creature.

_Gen._ Keep aloof: And do not come too near me. O my trust; Have I, since first I understood myself, Been of my soul so chary, still to study What best was for its health, to renounce all The works of that black fiend with my best force; And hath that serpent twined me so about, That I must lie so often and so long With a devil in my bosom?

_Wife._ Pardon, Sir. [_She looks down._]

_Gen._ Pardon! can such a thing as that be hoped?

Lift up thine eyes, lost woman, to yon hills; It must be thence expected: look not down Unto that horrid dwelling, which thou hast sought At such dear rate to purchase. Prithee, tell me, (For now I can believe) art thou a witch?

_Wife._ I am.

_Gen._ With that word I am thunderstruck, And know not what to answer; yet resolve me.

Hast thou made any contract with that fiend, The enemy of mankind?

_Wife._ O I have.

_Gen._ What? and how far?

_Wife._ I have promis'd him my soul.

_Gen._ Ten thousand times better thy body had Been promis'd to the stake; aye, and mine too, To have suffer'd with thee in a hedge of flames, Than such a compact ever had been made. Oh-- Resolve me, how far doth that contract stretch?

_Wife._ What interest in this Soul myself could claim, I freely gave him; but his part that made it I still reserve, not being mine to give.

_Gen._ O cunning devil: foolish woman, know, Where he can claim but the least little part, He will usurp the whole. Thou'rt a lost woman.

_Wife._ I hope, not so.

_Gen._ Why, hast thou any hope?

_Wife._ Yes, sir, I have.

_Gen._ Make it appear to me.

_Wife._ I hope I never bargain'd for that fire, Further than penitent tears have power to quench.

_Gen._ I would see some of them.

_Wife._ You behold them now (If you look on me with charitable eyes) Tinctur'd in blood, blood issuing from the heart.

Sir, I am sorry; when I look towards heaven, I beg a gracious pardon; when on you, Methinks your native goodness should not be Less pitiful than they; 'gainst both I have err'd; From both I beg atonement.

_Gen._ May I presume 't?

_Wife._ I kneel to both your mercies.

_Gen._ Knowest thou what A witch is?

_Wife._ Alas, none better; Or after mature recollection can be More sad to think on 't.

_Gen._ Tell me, are those tears As full of true hearted penitence, As mine of sorrow to behold what state, What desperate state, thou'rt fain in?

_Wife._ Sir, they are.

_Gen._ Rise; and, as I do you, so heaven pardon me; We all offend, but from such falling off Defend us! Well, I do remember, wife, When I first took thee, 'twas _for good and bad_: O change thy bad to good, that I may keep thee (As then we past our faiths) 'till Death us sever.

O woman, thou hast need to weep thyself Into a fountain, such a penitent spring As may have power to quench invisible flames; In which my eyes shall aid: too little, all.

_Late Lancas.h.i.+re Witches, Act 4._

P 2 _a_ 1. "_Being examined by my Lord._"] She had evidently learned her lesson well; but this was, with all submission to his Lords.h.i.+p, if adopted as a test, a mighty poor one. Jennet Device must have known well the persons of the parties she accused, and who were now upon their trial, as they were all her near neighbours.

P 2 _a_ 2. "_Whether she knew Iohan a Style?_"] His Lords.h.i.+p's introduction of this apocryphal legal personage on such an occasion is very amusing. Had he studied Littleton and Perkins a little less, and given some attention to the Lancas.h.i.+re dialect, and some also to the study of that great book, in which even a judge may find valuable matter, the book of human nature, he might have been more successfull in his examination. Jack's o' d.i.c.k's o' Harry's would have been more likely to have been recognised as a veritable person of this world by Jennet Device, than such a name as Johan a Style; which, though very familiar at Westminster, would scarcely have its prototype at Pendle.

But Jennet Device, young as she was, in natural shrewdness was far more than a match for his lords.h.i.+p.

P 3 _a_. "_Katherine Hewit, alias Movld-heeles._"] Of this person, who comes next in the list of witches, our information is very scanty. She was not of Pendle, but of Colne; and as her husband is described as a "clothier," may be presumed to have been in rather better circ.u.mstances than Elizabeth Southernes or Anne Whittle's families.

She made no confession.

P 4 _a_ 1. "_Anne Foulds of Colne. Michael Hartleys of Colne._"] Folds and Hartley are still the names of families at and in the neighbourhood of Colne.

P 4 _a_ 2. "_Had then in hanck a child._"] The meaning of this term is clear, the origin rather dubious. It may come from the Scotch word, _to hanck_, i.e. to have in holdfast or secure, vide Jamieson's Scotch Dictionary, t.i.t. hanck, or from handkill, to murder, vide Jamieson, under that word; or lastly, may be metaphorically used, from hanck, also signifying a skein of yarn or worsted which is tied or trussed up.

Q 2 _a_. "_Iohn Bulc.o.c.ke, Iane Bulc.o.c.ke his mother._"] The condition of these persons is not stated. It may be conjectured that they were of the lowest cla.s.s.

Q 3 _a_ 1. "_At the Barre hauing formerly confessed._"] Why is not their confession given?

Q 3 _a_ 2. "_Crying out in very violent and outrageous manner, even to the gallowes._"] The latter end of these unfortunate people was perhaps similar to that of Isobel Crawford, executed in Scotland the year after for witchcraft, who, on being sentenced, openly denied all her former confessions, and died without any sign of repentance, offering repeated interruption to the minister in his prayer, and refusing to pardon the executioner.

Q 4 _a_. "_Master Thomas Lister of Westby._"] See note on p. Y _a_.

Q 4 _b_. "_The said Bulc.o.c.kes wife doth know of some Witches to bee about Padyham and Burnley._"] Precious evidence this to put the lives of two poor creatures into jeopardy.

R _a_. "_Accused the said Iohn Bulc.o.c.k to turne the Spitt there._"]

What a fact this would have been for De Lancre. With all his accurate statistics on the subject of the witches' Sabbath, he was not aware that a turnspit was a necessary officer on such occasions, as well as a master of ceremonies. This artful and well instructed jade, Jennet Device, must have borne especial malice against John Bulc.o.c.k.