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using a certain or supposed charme, against an uncertaine or suspected witchcraft. 3. In searching anxiously for the witches signe or token left behinde her in the house under the threshold, in the bed-straw; and to be sure to light upon it, burning every odd ragge, or bone, or feather, that is to be found. 4. In swearing, rayling, threatning, cursing, and banning the witch; as if this were a right way to bewitch the witch from bewitching. 5. In banging and basting, scratching and clawing, to draw blood of the witch. 6. In daring and defying the witch out of a carnal security and presumptuous temerity."

The following passage is taken from "Stephens's Characters," p. 375: "The torments therefore of hot iron and mercilesse scratching nayles be long thought uppon and much threatned (by the females) before attempted. Meanetime she tolerates defiance thorough the wrathfull spittle of matrons, in stead of fuell, or maintenance to her damnable intentions." He goes on-" Children cannot smile

upon

her

without the hazard of a perpetual wry mouth: a very nobleman's request may be denied more safely than her petitions for butter, milke, and small beere; and a great ladies or queenes name may be lesse doubtfully derided. Her prayers and Amen be a charm and a curse: her contemplations and soules delight bee other men's mischiefe: her portion and sutors be her soule and a succubus: her highest adorations be yew-trees, dampish churchyards, and a fayre moonlight: her best preservatives be odde numbers and mightie Tetragramaton."

It was an article in the creed of popular superstition concerning witches to believe "that, when they are in hold, they must leave their DEVIL." See Holiday's old play .of "TEXNOTAMIA; or the Marriage of the Arts," 4to. 1630, signat. N 4.

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Empescher qu'un sorcier," says M. Thiers, "ne sorte du logis où il est, en mettant des balais à la porte de ce logis." Traité des Superstitions, p. 331.

THE SORCERER, OR MAGICIAN.

A SORCERER or Magician, says Grose, differs from a witch in this: a witch derives all her power from a compact with the Devil: a Sorcerer commands him, and the infernal spirits, by his skill in powerful charms and invocations: (1) and also soothes and entices them by fumigations. For the devils are observed to have delicate nostrils, abominating and flying some kinds of stinks: witness the flight of the evil spirit into the remote parts of Egypt, driven by the smell of a fish's liver burned by Tobit. They are also found to be peculiarly fond of certain perfumes: insomuch that Lilly informs us that, one Evans having raised a spirit at the request of Lord Bothwell and Sir Kenelm Digby, and forgotten a suffumigation, the spirit, vexed at the disappointment, snatched him out from his circle, and carried him from his house in the Minories into a field near Battersea Causeway.

King James, in his "Dæmonologia," says:

"The art of Sorcery consists in divers forms of circles (2) and conjurations rightly joined together, few or more in number according to the number of persons conjurors (always passing the singular number), according to the qualitie of the circle and form of the apparition. Two principal things cannot well in that errand be wanted: holy water (whereby the Devil mocks the Papists), and some present of a living thing unto him. There are likewise certain daies and houres that they observe in this purpose. These things being all ready and prepared, circles are made, triangular, quadrangular, round, double, or single, according to the form of the apparition they crave. But to speake of the diverse formes of the circles, of the innumerable characters and crosses that are within and without, and out-through the same; of the diverse formes of apparitions that the craftie spirit illudes them with, and of all such particulars in that action, I remit it over

to many that have busied their heads in describing of the same, as being but curious and altogether unprofitable. And this farre only I touch, that, when the conjured spirit appeares, which will not be while after many circumstances, long prayers and much muttering and murmurings of the conjurers, like a papist prieste despatching a huntting massehow soone, I say, he appeares, if they have missed one jote of all their rites; or if any of their feete once slyd over the circle, through terror of this fearful apparition, he paies himself at that time, in his owne hand, of that due debt which they ought him and otherwise would have delaied longer to have paied him; I meane, he carries them with him, body and soul.

"If this be not now a just cause to make them weary of these formes of conjuration, I leave it to you to judge upon; considering the longsomeness of the labour, the precise keeping of daies and houres (as I have said), the terribleness of the apparition, and the present peril that they stand in in missing the least circumstance or freite that they ought to observe and, on the other part, the Devil is glad to moove them to a plaine and square dealing with them, as I said before."

"This," Grose observes, "is a pretty accurate description of this mode of conjuration, styled the circular method; but, with all due respect to his Majesty's learning, square and triangular circles are figures not to be found in Euclid or any of the common writers on geometry. But perhaps King James learnt his mathematics from the same system as Doctor Sacheverell, who, in one of his speeches or sermons, made use of the following simile: They concur like parallel lines, meeting in one common centre.'

6

"Another mode of consulting spirits was by the berryl, by means of a speculator or seer, who, to have a complete sight, ought to be a pure virgin, a youth who had not known woman, or at least a person of irreproachable life and purity of manners. The method of such consultation is this: the conjurer, having repeated the necessary charms and adju

rations, with the Litany, or invocation peculiar to the spirits or angels he wishes to call, (for every one has his particular form,) the seer looks into a chrystal or berryl, wherein he will see the answer, represented either by types or figures: and sometimes, though very rarely, will hear the angels or spirits speak articulately. Their pronunciation is, as Lilly says, like the Irish, much in the throat. (3)

"Lilly describes one of these berryls or chrystals. It was, he says, as large as an orange, set in silver, with a cross at the top, and round about engraved the names of the angels Raphael, Gabriel, and Uriel. A delineation of another is engraved in the frontispiece to Aubrey's Miscellanies.' This mode of enquiry was practised by Dr. Dee, the celebrated mathematician. His speculator was named Kelly. From him, and others practising this art, we have a long muster-roll of the infernal host, their different natures, tempers, and appearances. Dr. Reginald Scot has given us a list of some of the chiefs of these devils or spirits."

"These Sorcerers, or Magicians, do not always employ their art to do mischief; but, on the contrary, frequently exert it to cure diseases inflicted by witches, to discover thieves, recover stolen goods, (4) to foretell future events and the state of absent friends. On this account they are frequently called White Witches." (a)

Ady, in his "Candle in the Dark," p. 29, speaking of common jugglers, that go up and down to play their tricks in fayrs and markets, says: "I will speak of one man more excelling in that craft than others, that went about in King James his time, and long since, who called himself the King's Majesties most excellent Hocus Pocus, and so was he called, because that at the playing of every trick he used to say, 'Hocus pocus, (5) tontus, talontus, vade celeriter jubeo,' a darke composure of words to blinde the eyes of beholders."

(a) See the present volume, p. 5.

NOTES TO THE SORCERER, OR MAGICIAN.

(1) The difference between a conjurer, a witch, and an Enchanter, according to Minshew, in his "Dictionary," is as follows: "The conjurer seemeth by praiers and invocations of God's powerful names, to compel the Divell to say or doe what he commandeth him. The witch dealeth rather by a friendly and voluntarie conference or agreement between him and her and the divell or familiar, to have his or her turn served, in lieu or stead of blood or other gift offered unto him, especially of his or her soule. And both these differ from Inchanters or Sorcerers, because the former two have personal conference with the Divell, and the other meddles but with medicines and ceremonial formes of words called churmes, without apparition." See Reed's edit. of Shaksp. 1803, vol. viii. p. 407.

(2) Reginald Scot, in his "Discourse on Devils and Spirits," p. 72, tells us that, with regard to conjurers, "The circles by which they defend themselves are commonly nine foot in breadth, but the eastern Magicians must give

seven.

Melton, in his "Astrologaster," p. 16, speaking of conjurers, says, "They always observe the time of the moone before they set their figure, and when they have set their figure and spread their circle, first exorcise the wine and water which they sprinkle on their circle, then mumble in an unknown language. Doe they not crosse and exorcise their surplus, their silver wand, gowne, cap, and every instrument they use about their blacke and damnable art? Nay, they crosse the place whereon they stand, because they thinke the Devill hath no power to come to it when they have blest it."

The following passage occurs in "A strange Horse-Race," by Thomas Dekker, 4to. Lond. 1613, signat. D 3: "He darting an eye upon them, able to confound a thousand conjurers in their own circles (though with a wet finger they could fetch up a little divell)."

In Osborne's "Advice to his Son," 8vo. Oxf. 1656, p. 100, speaking of the soldiery, that author says, "They, like the spirits of con

jurors, do oftentimes teare their masters and raisers in pieces, for want of other imployment."

I find Lubrican to have been the name of one of these spirits thus raised; in the second part of Dekker's "Honest Whore,” 4to. Lond. 1630, signat. E 3, is the following:

-"As for your Irish Lubrican, that spirit Whom by preposterous charmes thy lust hath raised

In a wrong circle, him Ile damne more blacke Then any tyrant's soule."

A jealous husband is threatening an Irish servant, with whom he suspects his wife to have played false.

In "The Witch of Edmonton," 4to. Lond. 1658, p. 32, Winnifride, as a boy, says :— "I'll be no pander to him; and if I finde Any loose Lubrick 'scapes in him, I'll watch him,

And, at my return, protest I'll shew you all."

The old vulgar ceremonies used in raising the Devil, such as making a circle with chalk, setting an old hat in the centre of it, repeating the Lord's Prayer backward, &c. &c., are now altogether obsolete, and seem to be forgotten even amongst our boys.

Mason, in his "Anatomie of Sorcerie," 4to. Lond. 1612, p. 86, ridicules "Inchanters and charmers-they, which by using of certaine conceited words, characters, circles, amulets, and such-like vaine and wicked trumpery (by God's permission) doe worke great marvailes : as namely in causing of sicknesse, as also in curing diseases in men's bodies. And likewise binding some, that they cannot use their naturall powers and faculties; as we see in night-spells. Insomuch as some of them doe take in hand to bind the Divell himselfe by their inchantments.'

The following spell is from Herrick's "Hesperides," p. 304:

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Sacred spittle bring ye hither;
Meale and it now mix together;
And a little oyle to either:

Give the tapers here their light,
Ring the saints-bell to affright
Far from hence the evill sprite."

The subsequent will not be thought an unpleasant comment on the popular creed concerning spirits and haunted houses. It is taken from a scene in Mr. Addison's wellknown comedy of "The Drummer, or the Haunted House:" the gardener, butler, and coachman of the family, are the dramatis per

sonæ.

"Gardn. Prithee, John, what sort of a creature is a conjurer?

Butl. Why he's made much as other men are, if it was not for his long grey beard.His beard is at least half a yard long: he's dressed in a strange dark cloke, as black as a cole. He has a long white wand in his hand.

Coachm. I fancy 'tis made out of witch elm. Gardn. I warrant you if the ghost appears he'll whisk you that wand before his eyes, and strike you the drum-stick out of his hand.

Butl. No; the wand, look ye, is to make a circle; and if he once gets the ghost in a circle, then he has him. A circle, you must know, is a conjurer's trap.

Coachm. But what will he do with him when he has him there?

Butl. Why then he'll overpower him with his learning.

Gardn. If he can once compass him, and get him in Lob's pound, he'll make nothing of him, but speak a few hard words to him, and perhaps bind him over to his good behaviour for a thousand years.

Coachm. Ay, ay, he'll send him packing to his grave again with a flea in his ear, I warrant him.

Butl. But if the conjurer be but well paid, he'll take pains upon the ghost and lay him, look ye, in the Red Sea-and then he's laid for ever.

Gardn. Why, John, there must be a power of spirits in that (same Red Sea. I warrant ye they are as plenty as fish. I wish the spirit may not carry off a corner of the house with him.

Butl. As for that, Peter, you may be sure

VOL. III.

that the steward has made his bargain with the cunning man beforehand, that he shall stand to all costs and damages."

(3) In Thomas Lodge's "Devils Incarnat of this Age," 4to. Lond. 1596, in the Epistle to the Reader, are the following quaint allusions to Sorcerers and Magicians: "Buy therefore this Christall, and you shall see them in their common appearance: and read these exorcismes advisedly, and you may be sure to conjure them without crossings: but if any man long for a familiar for false dice, a spirit to tell fortunes, a charme to heale disease, this only book can best fit him."

Vallancey, in his "Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis," No. xiii. p. 17, says: "In the Highlands of Scotland a large chrystal, of a figure somewhat oval, was kept by the priests to work charms by; water poured upon it at this day is given to cattle against diseases: these stones are now preserved by the oldest and most superstitious in the country (Shawe). They were once common in Ireland. informed the Earl of Tyrone is in possession of a very fine one."

I am

In Andrews's "Continuation of Henry's History of Great Britain," p. 388, we read: "The conjurations of Dr. Dee having induced his familiar spirit to visit a kind of talisman, Kelly (a brother adventurer) was appointed to watch and describe his gestures. The stone used by these impostors is now in the Strawberry Hill Collection. It appears to be a polished piece of canal coal. To this Butler refers when he writes,

"Kelly did all his feats upon

The devil's looking-glass, a stone."

In "The Museum Tradescantianum," 8vo. Lond. 1660, p. 42, we find an "Indian Conjurer's Rattle, wherewith he calls up spirits."

(*) Butler's description, in his "Hudibras," of a cunning man or fortune-teller, is fraught with a great deal of his usual pleasantry: "Quoth Ralph, not far from hence doth dwell

A cunning man, hight Sidrophel,
That deals in destiny's dark counsels,
And sage opinions of the moon sells;
To whom all people far and near
On deep importances repair;

D

When brass and pewter hap to stray,
And linen links out of the way:
When reese and pullen are sedz:'d.
And sows of sucking pigs are class'd;
When cattle feel indisposition,
And need th' opinion of physician:
When murrain reigns in hogs or sheep,
And chickens languish of the pip:
When yeast and outward means do fa 1
And have no pow'r to work on ale;
When butter does refuse to come,
And love proves cross and humoursome;
To him with questions and with urine
They for discovery flock, or curing."

Allusions to this character are not uncom-
mon in our old plays.
In "Albumazar,"
signat. C b,

a comedy, 4to. 1634,

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I rabble, he discovers anything, "tis done by the same jocuit hermetic leaming, heretofore profest by the renowned Moll Cat-Parse."

They are still called - Wise Men" in the villages of Durham and Northumberland.

The flowing was communicated to the editor of the present work by a Yorkshire gentleman, in the year 1519:

-Impostors who feed and live on the superstitions of the lower orders are still to be found in Yorkshire. These are called · Wise Men,' and are believed to possess the most extraordinary power in remedying all diseases incidental to the brate creation, as well as the human race, to discover lost or stolen property, and to foretell future events. One of these wretches was a few years ago living at Stokesley, in the North Riding of Yorkshire; his name was John Wrightson, and he called himself the seventh son of a seventh son,' and professed ostensibly the trade of a cowdoctor. To this fellow, people, whose education it might have been expected would have raised them above such weakness,

Again, in "Ram Alley, or Merry Tricks," | flocked; many to ascertain the thief, when 4to. Lond. 1636, signat. B 3,

"Fortune-teller, a pretty rogue That never saw five shillings in a heape, Will take upon him to divine men's fate, Yet never knows himselfe shall dy a beggar, Or he hang'd up for pilfering table-cloaths, Shirts, and smocks, hanged out to dry on hedges."

In "The Character of a Quack-Astrologer," 4to. Lond. 1673, signat. A 3 b, our wise man, 64 a gipsey of the upper form," is called "a three-penny prophet that undertakes the telling of other folks fortunes, meerly to supply the pinching necessities of his own."

to

Ibid. signat. B 3, our cunning man is said

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begin with theft; and to help people to what they have lost, picks their pocket afresh: not a ring or a spoon is nim'd away, but payes him twelve-pence toll, and the aledrapers' often-straying tankard yields him a constant revenue: for that purpose he maintains as strict a correspondence with gilts and lifters as a mountebank with applauding Midwives and recommending Nurses: and if at any time, to keep up his credit with the

they had lost any property; others for him to cure themselves or their cattle of some indescribable complaint. Another class visited him to know their future fortunes; and some to get him to save them from being balloted into the militia; all of which he professed himself able to accomplish. All the diseases which he was sought to remedy he invariably imputed to witchcraft, and although he gave drugs which have been known to do good, yet he always enjoined some incantation to be observed, without which he declared they could never be cured; this was sometimes an act of the most wanton barbarity, as that of roasting a game cock alive, &c. The charges of this man were always extravagant; and such was the confidence in his skill and knowledge, that he had only to name any person as a witch, and the public indignation was sure to be directed against the poor unoffending creature for the remainder of her life.

"An instance of the fatal consequences of this superstition occurred within my knowledge, about the year 1800. A farmer of the name of Hodgson had been robbed of some money. He went to a wise man'

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