Folk-lore of Shakespeare / by the Rev. T.F. Thiselton Dyer.

  • Thomas Firminger Thiselton-Dyer
Date:
[1883]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Folk-lore of Shakespeare / by the Rev. T.F. Thiselton Dyer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    48/578 (page 34)
    that he and a number of witches went to sea, “ each one in a riddle or civeT In the “ Discovery of Witchcraft,” Reginald Scot says it was believed that “ witches could sail in an egg shell, a cockle or muscle shell, through and under the tem- pestuous seas.” Thus, in “ Pericles ” (iv. 4), Gower says— “ Thus time we waste, and longest leagues make short; Sail seas in cockles, have an wish but for’t.” Their dance is thus noticed in “ Macbeth ’’ (iv. i):— “ ni charm the air to give a sound While you perform your dutie round.” Witches also were supposed to have the power of vanishing at will, a notion referred to in “ Macbeth ” (i. 3), where, in reply to Banquo’s inquiry as to whither the witches are vanished, Macbeth replies— “ Into the air ; and what seem’d corporal melted As breath into the wind.” In his letter to his wife he likewise observes—“ They made themselves air, into which they vanished.” Hecate, in the third Act (scene 5), after giving instructions to the weird host, says— “ I am for the air ; this night I’ll spend Unto a dismal and a fatal end.” To this purpose they prepared various ointments, concern- ing which Reginald Scot ^ says—“ The devil teacheth them to make ointment of the bowels and members of children, whereby they ride in the air and accomplish all their desires. After burial they steal them out of their graves and seethe them in a cauldron till the flesh be made potable, of which they make an ointment by which they ride in the air.” Lord Bacon also informs us that the “ ointment the witches use is reported to be made of the fat of children digged out of their graves, of the juices of smallage, wolf bane, and cinquefoil, mingled with the meal of fine wheat; but I suppose the sopori- ferous medicines are likest to do it, which are—henbane, hem- lock, mandrake, moonshade—or, rather, nightshade—tobacco, opium, saffron,” ^ &c. These witch recipes, which are very ^ “ Discovery of Witchcraft,” 1584, Book iii. chap, i, p. 40 ; see Spald- ing’s “ Elizabethan Demonology,” p. 103. ^ See Brand’s “ Pop. Antiq.,” iii. pp. 8-10.