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
Andrews, in his "Continuation of Henry's History of Great
Britain," 4to, p. 93, tells us, speaking of Ferdinand, Earl
of Derby, who in the reign of Queen Elizabeth died by
poison, "The credulity of the age attributed his death to
witchcraft. The disease was odd, and operated as a perpetual
emetic; and a _waxen image, with hair like that of the
unfortunate earl_, found in his chamber, reduced every
suspicion to certainty."
"The wife of Marshal d'Ancre was apprehended, imprisoned,
and beheaded for a witch, upon a surmise that she had
inchanted the queen to dote upon her husband; and they say
the young king's picture was found in her closet, in virgin
wax, with one leg melted away. When asked by her judges what
spells she had made use of to gain so powerful an ascendancy
over the queen, she replied, 'that ascendancy only which
strong minds ever gain over weak ones.'" Seward's "Anecdotes
of some Distinguished Persons," &c., vol. ii., p. 215.
Blagrave, in his "Astrological Practice of Physick," p. 89,
observes that "the way which the witches usually take for to
afflict man or beast in this kind is, as I conceive, done by
image or model, made in the likeness of that man or beast
they intend to work mischief upon, and by the subtlety of
the devil made at such hours and times when it shall work
most powerfully upon them, by thorn, pin, or needle, pricked
into that limb or member of the body afflicted."
This is farther illustrated by a passage in one of Daniel's
Sonnets:
"The slie inchanter, when to work his will
And secret wrong on some forspoken wight,
Frames waxe, in forme to represent aright
The poore unwitting wretch he meanes to kill,
And prickes the image, framed by magick's skill,
Whereby to vex the partie day and night."
_Son. 10; from Poems and Sonnets annexed to "Astrophil
and Stella_," 4to, 1591.
Again, in "Diaria, or the Excellent Conceitful Sonnets of
H.C.," (Henry Constable,) 1594:
"Witches, which some murther do intend,
Doe make a picture, and doe shoote at it;
And in that part where they the picture hit,
The parties self doth languish to his end."
_Decad. II., Son. ii._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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