In the _Midsummer-Night's Dream_ (i. 1. 27) Egeus accuses Lysander of wooing Hermia by magic arts: "This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child." In _Much Ado About Nothing_ (iii. 2. 72) Benedick, when his friends banter him for pretending to have the toothache, replies: "Yet this is no charm for the toothache." John Melton, in his _Astrologaster_ (1620), says it is vulgarly believed that "toothaches, agues, cramps, and fevers, and many other diseases may be healed by mumbling a few strange words over the head of the diseased." [Illustration: PORCH, STRATFORD CHURCH] Written charms in prose or verse--or neither, being nonsensical combinations of words, letters, or signs--were in great favor then, as before and since. The unmeaning word _abracadabra_ was much used in incantations, and worn as an amulet was supposed to cure or prevent certain ailments. It was necessary to write it in the following form, if one would secure its full potency:-- A B R A C A D A B R A A B R A C A D A B R A B R A C A D A B A B R A C A D A A B R A C A D A B R A C A A B R A C A B R A A B R A B A A manuscript in the British Museum contains this note: "Mr. Banester saith that he healed 200 in one year of an ague by hanging _abracadabra_ about their necks." Thomas Lodge, in his _Incarnate Divels_ (1596) refers to written charms thus: "Bring him but a table [tablet] of lead, with crosses (and 'Adonai' or 'Elohim' written in it), he thinks it will heal the ague." Certain trees, like the elder and the ash, were supposed to furnish valuable material for charms and amulets. A writer in 1651 says: "The common people keep as a great secret the leaves of the elder which they have gathered the last day of April; which to disappoint the charms of witches they affix to their doors and windows." An amulet against erysipelas was made of "elder on which the sun never shined," a "piece betwixt two knots" being hung about the patient's neck. In a book published in 1599 it is asserted that "if one eat three small pomegranate-flowers, they say for a whole year he shall be safe from all manner of eye sore." According to the same authority, "it hath been and yet is a thing which superstition hath believed, that the body anointed with the juice of chicory is very available to obtain the favor of great persons." Wearing a bay-leaf was a charm against lightning. Robert Greene, _Penelope's Web_ (1601), says: "He which weareth the bay leaf is privileged from the prejudice of thunder." In Webster's _White Devil_ (1612) Cornelia says:-- "Reach the bays: I'll tie a garland here about his head; 'T will keep my boy from lightning."