Discovery of Witches: The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of LancasterPotts, Thomas, active 1612-1618
History
Discovery of Witches: The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster
Potts, Thomas, active 1612-1618
Preston, Jennet, -1612; Witchcraft -- England -- Lancashire
B 2 _b_ 1. "_Gouldshey_,"] so commonly pronounced, but more properly
Goldshaw, or Goldshaw Booth.
B 2 _b_ 2. "_The spirit answered, his name was Tibb._"] Bernard, who
is learned in the nomenclature of familiar spirits, gives, in his
_Guide 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, (in
_Pitcairne'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 admirable _Declaration 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 with these
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 2 _b_ 3. "_About Day-light Gate._"] Day-light Gate, i.e. Evening,
the down gate of daylight. See _Promptuarium 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."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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